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Evaluating 3DS: Is It Worth It?

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Evervault vs Cardinal

Cardinal helped bring 3D Secure to market, but it’s a complex, legacy system that pushes implementation burden onto developers. Evervault is built from the ground up as a developer-first authentication platform that abstracts complexity instead of passing it to you.

Powering the next generation of disruptors and market leaders

Why developer experience matters to your business

Faster integrations mean quicker time-to-market. Better APIs reduce engineering costs. Seamless user flows increase conversion rates. When your developers can implement 3D Secure in hours instead of weeks, your entire payment strategy moves faster.

Reliability & latency

Cardinal's legacy architecture experiences ongoing latency and downtime problems that affect transaction success rates.

Support access

Payments are mission-critical, but with Cardinal, when issues arise, you're stuck with traditional support tickets instead of direct developer access.

Checkout flow UX

Cardinal defaults to redirects that break your checkout flow, while Evervault keeps users engaged with embedded, customizable challenge modals.

How does Evervault compare?

Integration effort

Evervault

One engineer, under an hour: Two simple steps: 1 API call (backend) + 1 SDK mount (frontend).

Cardinal

Multiple engineers, 1+ weeks: Multi-step orchestration across backend and frontend: manually wire method_url, iFrames, redirects, AReq/ARes/CReq flows.

Setup

Evervault

Intent-based: Express what you want (e.g., “request an exemption”) and Evervault handles the protocol configuration automatically.

Cardinal

Spec-first: APIs expose EMVCo acronyms directly. Developers must learn the protocol to build authentication strategies.

User experience

Evervault

Inline, embedded challenge modal on both web and mobile with fully customizable branding. Keeps users in flow, resulting in higher completion rates.

Cardinal

Challenge flows redirect to external pages, often breaking user experience and causing drop-offs.

Debugging & analytics

Evervault

Human-readable response codes with complete request timelines and pre-built performance analytics in dashboard. Debug issues in minutes, optimize continuously.

Cardinal

Raw EMVCo codes like N/A_06 require manual translation. Limited visibility into authentication timelines makes it hard to understand where an authentication request failed and why.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Drayton Williams

Director of Fraud Prevention, FlightHub

Mark Howarth

Product Manager, Duffel

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Drayton Williams

Director of Fraud Prevention, FlightHub

No one gets fired for picking Cardinal

But no one gets promoted for building on legacy tech either. Build your payment stack on infrastructure designed for the future, not the past.

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