Secure phone services have become increasingly popular as traditional telcos continue to suffer one breach after another. Cape and Efani have gained traction as popular secure cell service options, both aiming to achieve the same goal—providing subscribers with levels of security and privacy they don’t get with commercial carriers.
Though both companies may seem similar, Cape and Efani have drastically different approaches to security.
In this Cape vs. Efani comparison, we’ll go over both options’ features, security measures, performance, and other notable specifics to consider.
What Is Cape?
Cape is America’s privacy-first mobile carrier built for government, enterprises, high-risk individuals, and everyday people alike.
The service was launched in 2024, and includes several features from SIM swap protection, and enhanced signaling protection to encrypted voicemail and more.
Unlike most cell phone plans—including those claiming to be focused on security—Cape collects the minimum amount of data necessary to provide you with service. At sign-up, Cape doesn’t ask for any personal information—only your phone number is used to identify your account, without attaching your name, email, home address, SSN, or any other personal information. This means your data stay protected from everyone—hackers, ad networks, and even Cape.
Even though Cape was launched fairly recently, it has already gained the trust of cybersecurity leaders across companies like OpenAI and Crowdstrike.
What Is Efani?
Efani is a security-focused mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) aimed mainly at high-risk individuals like:
- Executives
- Crypto investors
- High-profile users
The service focuses on SIM swap protection through account change verification procedures that minimize the chance of unauthorized number port-outs. It was launched in 2019 after the founder, Haseeb Awan, experienced a SIM swap incident and made it his mission to protect other users from similar attacks.
So far, Efani has established a solid reputation among security-conscious users. Barring a few downsides, the service offers high-level protection you can’t get with commercial carriers.
Cape vs. Efani: Security, Features, and Pricing Comparison
To give you a complete overview of Cape and Efani, we’ve compared them across six criteria:
- Security
- Privacy
- Coverage
- Additional features
- Pricing
- Subscriber experiences
1. Security
Efani’s security measures revolve almost exclusively around SIM swap protection. This narrow focus enables a powerful protection mechanism—an 11-layer authentication protocol designed to prevent unauthorized account changes.
The process combines automated and human-led verification procedures, such as:
- Extensive identity verification processes through Efani’s secure channels
- Manual reviews by several Efani team members
- A 14-day cool-off period after the account change is approved
As of writing, Efani claims their protocol has had a 100% success rate so far. In case this doesn’t remain true, Efani offers $5 million insurance for any losses resulting from a successful attack.
Cape, on the other hand, has security baked into its foundation. For SIM Swap protections specifically, Cape uses account authentication protocols similar to those that protect crypto wallets.
During sign-up, subscribers receive a 24-word passphrase in lieu of user names and passwords. The passphrase is based on BIP-39, a widely used standard for creating and managing cryptography wallets, and acts as the human-readable representation of a cryptographic seed that is used to generate the subscriber’s private and public keys.
If a subscriber wants to access their Cape account or authenticate themselves, like when they need to replace their phone or get a new number, they must use the 24-word passphrase.
Entering the passphrase will regenerate the private-public key pair, allowing Cape’s server to automatically verify their identity. This process functions entirely with no human-in-the-loop, so there’s no way that an internal Cape employee can be compromised or mistakenly allow a SIM swap to happen. With this account authentication method, the subscriber is the only person that has the ability to port their number to a new phone.
In addition, Cape’s security measures extend far past just SIM Swap protection. Another feature unique to Cape is its cloud-based mobile core. Most MVNOs in America, including Efani, are “Light” MVNOs. A Light MVNO leases access to an MNO’s infrastructure and core, uses all the same SIM cards and security controls as the underlying MNO, and focuses purely on more customer-facing elements, like marketing, billing, and customer service.
Cape is what is called a “Heavy” MVNO. This means that while Cape also leases access to physical towers, we retain control of both the core network and SIM cards. Cape’s core network, unlike traditional MNOs, is fully cloud-based, and stripped of any vulnerable legacy infrastructure. As a result, Cape has unprecedented control over security and privacy practices, like collecting minimal information, implementing strict signaling protections, and more.
2. Privacy
Efani offers more privacy than commercial carriers, though the related policies and features may not be top-of-the-line. The service claims to only collect personal data as needed and protect it by commercially available measures, though there’s no transparency on the exact protection mechanisms.
Unless you pay in crypto, you’ll need to give Efani personal information like your name, email, address, and billing data, which is still a risk. The service does promise never to sell personal data or share it unless required by law, which is more than what you get with any traditional carrier.
Unlike Efani, Cape operates on a “Don’t trust us” policy, which means:
- Sign-up is completely anonymous
- No personal data or identifiers are collected or stored
- It only collects the bare minimum information necessary to provide service
Even the collected data (like anonymized call logs) is deleted after 60 days, leaving only a minimal footprint.
For further privacy, Cape uses Stripe’s tokenization process for payment information. Billing data is turned into a token that can’t be traced back to any personal information, so the actual identifiers or credit card data are never stored by Cape. This makes it easier for subscribers to remain anonymous even if they’re not in the crypto space.
3. Coverage
Cape and Efani both offer nationwide coverage, though there are some notable differences. Efani piggybacks on AT&T and Verizon, so its coverage is roughly the same as the service area of the two providers. If you already use either carrier, you shouldn’t notice major changes in network performance.
The problem is that telcos sometimes deprioritize MVNO performance when there is congestion to ensure their direct subscribers maintain a solid connection. While this isn’t an ongoing problem, it might be worth considering if you care about reliability.
Cape, on the other hand, offers layered coverage via many national and regional carriers. This means Cape has the highest network density in the U.S., ensuring superb connectivity even in the more remote areas.
Despite this difference, you should expect a strong connection with either option. Still, Cape’s multi-network approach might be better suited for subscribers in fringe areas.
4. Additional Features
Besides its core offering, Efani offers a few useful add-ons, most notably:
- iPad and Apple Watch data
- Unlimited global calling
- Hotspot dongle
The service also caters to enterprises and organizations that need to ensure full SEC compliance. On top of the SEC-compliant security features, Efani offers services like communications archiving and compliance management.
This makes the service a solid option for organizations in heavily regulated industries, especially those that face a higher risk of SIM swaps and other security threats.
While these features are useful, they don’t significantly increase the security levels of everyday users—and this is a gap that Cape fills. It offers proactive spam filtering that uses machine learning at the network level to effectively block up to 90% of scam calls and spam texts before they reach you.
To complement strong device security, Cape also supports privacy-first Android operating systems like GrapheneOS. This lets you combine a secure cell phone with a heavily protected network to maximize your overall security.
Both Efani and Cape support eSIMs, though Efani has a slight edge in terms of flexibility because it also lets you choose a physical SIM card. Still, the provider recommends using an eSIM anyway because it’s a more secure option.
5. Pricing
Cape and Efani are comparable cost-wise. Both options have one plan at $99 per month. Cape’s plan includes all federal, state, and municipal taxes, but we couldn’t verify the same for Efani.
The value for money is roughly the same, as you can see in this feature breakdown:
Efani also offers corporate plans, but pricing isn’t readily available. You must reach out to the sales team so that they can tailor the offer to your needs.
As premium services, neither Efani nor Cape offers a free plan. You can save up a bit by committing to an annual contract with Efani, which comes at $999 per year.
You can also try Cape completely risk-free—if you cancel the plan within the first three days, you’ll get a full refund. Efani also offers a money-back guarantee that extends to 60 days, which lets you see if the service lives up to its promises.
6. Subscriber Experiences
Neither company has many reviews as relatively new, non-commercial carriers with a niche audience, but the available discussions suggest an overall positive experience.
Efani is generally well-received among privacy-conscious users. Users have highlighted the extra security they’ve gotten after signing up.
The main area where Efani seems to drop the ball is customer service. One subscriber claimed that Efani’s support was unresponsive to their requests, even after they said their phone had been hacked.
Another customer verified the claim about lackluster customer support, saying they couldn’t get help when voice and text became unavailable during international travel. Despite these mishaps, users tend to enjoy Efani’s service.
Cape also enjoys a stellar reputation in this niche—despite being a relatively new service that’s still in beta, it’s steadily earning subscribers’ trust with its unmatched privacy-first carrier ecosystem. Many top cybersecurity leaders have shared positive testimonials about its value, so the service seems like a step in the right direction if you’re moving away from Big Telco.
Another aspect that favors Cape is its extensive support resources and helpful customer service. Subscribers can access 24-hour live support and chat with real people in minutes.
The Verdict: Which Secure Phone Service Should You Use?
Since the price is largely the same (barring a few minor differences in high-speed data availability), choosing between Efani and Cape boils down to the scope of security features you’re looking for, which makes Cape a more robust option.
Cape is far more comprehensive when it comes to network security. While Efani’s SIM swap prevention is elaborate, it ultimately still requires an Efani employee to initiate the SIM transfer, inherently leaving vulnerability gaps. Cape’s SIM Swap protection is fast, efficient, and puts control entirely in the hands of the subscriber. No one has the ability to initiate a number transfer on behalf of a Cape subscriber, not even Cape.
In addition to that, Cape offers various network protection features unavailable with Efani, most notably:
- Unique SS7/Diameter threat protection
- Encrypted voicemail
- End-to-end account encryption
Cape also collects and stores far less data than Efani, which makes it much more privacy-focused. You don’t need to be a crypto enthusiast to enjoy complete anonymity.
With Cape, most data never leaves your device, so you retain full control and ownership of it. Its minimal-trust privacy features also contribute to your overall security as malicious parties cannot steal data that was never collected in the first place.
That said, if you need a compliance solution bundled with your secure phone provider, Efani can deliver an all-in-one solution. For most other users, though, Cape is the superior option.
Get Started With Cape
Comprehensive network security doesn’t need to require complex implementation or configuration—Cape gives you advanced protection out of the box. If you want to see its features in action, get started by visiting cape.co/get-cape.
Remember that no phone service can protect all of your online activity. That’s why Cape partnered with Proton to offer more comprehensive protection. Cape subscribers can get Proton Unlimited or Proton VPN Plus for only $1 for six months.