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Introduction

If you have read our Token Vault introduction page, you already know that Payrails offers multiple ways to use our Token Vault, as a standalone module or within the Payment Orchestration with Payrails. In this section, we introduce the Vault module. If you are not sure how you want to use the vault, you can navigate to the next section to learn your options.

Benefits

  • Payrails Vault is a PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant vault, which you can use to minimize your PCI scope.
  • It is provider-agnostic that allows you to switch between any payment service providers at any time, without disrupting your customer experience or facing technical hurdles. Because your token vault is independent of any single payment processor, you’re not locked into any one provider — this means you can take advantage of better rates, improved service, or new features from other providers at any time.
  • Payrails Vault enables you to securely receive and send tokenized data to a variety of third-party services — not just PSPs — without exposing sensitive information to your systems. Whether it’s fraud prevention tools, online travel agencies, channel managers, property management systems, loyalty platforms, other external token vaults, or internal systems, you can configure proxy connections to route sensitive data securely and stay out of PCI scope.
  • With Vault, your returning customers can use stored payment methods for a smoother checkout experience, use tokenized payment methods, which are the best performing in subscription or recurring payment scenarios (particularly when used with network tokens), and enable users to manage their saved cards and have control over their sensitive information.
  • You can unlock more benefits with additional Vault features, such as network tokenization, card lifecycle updates and BIN lookup data. You will find more information about each feature as you navigate to the next pages of the Token Vault section.

Options to use Payrails Token Vault

There are 2 main alternatives to use Payrails Token Vault: Diagram: the merchant sends sensitive data through Payrails Vault to its integrations, and other data straight to them 1. Token Vault as a standalone module: In the case that you want to manage third-party integrations within your system, such as payment providers or your travel partners, but only use our Vault for the storage and processing of the sensitive data, you can use our Vault as a proxy which collects the sensitive data via our SDKs and pass the sensitive information to third parties without touching the sensitive data. Diagram: the merchant connects to Payrails Vault and Payrails Orchestration, which route to Payrails integrations 2. Token Vault as part of payment orchestration: In the case that you want one single API integration with Payrails payment orchestration platform, which in the background, will connect you to all the provider integrations for you in a PSP-agnostic way using our Vault.

Using Token Vault with combination of other Payrails modules

If you start using our Vault as a standalone module, you can always start using our other modules later, such as payment orchestration or analytics, at any moment in time. It is also possible to use both integration methods at the same time if your business needs require that.
Last modified on November 13, 2026