# Vault Providers

Juspay Hyperswitch supports external vault providers for storing sensitive payment credentials — card numbers, bank account details — independently of any payment processor. This allows you to retain ownership of tokenized data and route payments across processors without re-collecting credentials from customers.

### Hyperswitch built-in vault vs external vault providers

Hyperswitch ships with its own PCI-compliant built-in vault (`HyperswitchVault`) that handles card tokenization automatically when using the Unified Checkout SDK. External vault providers offer an alternative if you have an existing vault relationship or require vendor-specific tokenization formats.

### Supported Vault Providers

| Provider                     | Vault Type | Description                                                                                                                                       |
| ---------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Hyperswitch Vault**        | Built-in   | Hyperswitch's own PCI-compliant vault. Used automatically by the Unified Checkout SDK. No separate activation required.                           |
| **VGS (Very Good Security)** | External   | External vault with tokenization and proxy capabilities. Integrates via Hyperswitch's ExternalVault interface for insert and retrieve operations. |

### When to use an external vault provider

* You already have card data tokenized in an external vault and want to use Hyperswitch for payment orchestration without re-collecting card details
* Your compliance posture requires a specific vault vendor
* You need proxy-based tokenization (VGS transparent proxy model)

### Activating an external vault provider

External vault providers are configured as connectors in Hyperswitch.

[Steps to activate a connector on the Hyperswitch control center](/integrations/connectors-integrations/activate-connector-on-hyperswitch.md)


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