Plaid Alternatives for Payments in 2025

Please note that the information about the companies in this article was sourced from their respective websites as of 22 January 2025. This information may be subject to change.

Finding the right open banking service can feel overwhelming. Merchants face challenges like high payment fees, chargebacks, and outdated processes that frustrate customers. Choosing a provider that balances efficient payments with valuable data insights is crucial for growth.

Here we take a look at Plaid open banking alternatives: Noda, Salt Edge, and Tink, and how to choose the right one for your business. Let’s simplify the process.

What Does Plaid Offer?

Plaid is a leading open banking platform, which helps businesses access financial data and process payments. Here is what it offers in terms of payments and data-driven features for merchants:

• Open banking payments: Plaid’s Payment Initiation Service (PIS) supports one-off and recurring transactions like bank transfers, refunds, and variable recurring payments (VRPs). It works independently or alongside tools like KYC and real-time balance checks for added functionality.
• Payouts: Plaid allows businesses to process instant withdrawals and refunds.
• Open banking data: Plaid provides businesses with valuable financial insights, including real-time account balances, standardised transaction data with merchant details, and comprehensive snapshots of borrowers' assets, account history, and finances.
• Verification: Plaid’s identity verification tool helps businesses verify user identities, prevent fraud attacks, and ensure compliance with AML and PEP regulations.
• Integration options: Plaid supports integrations across 12,000+ financial institutions in the UK, EU, US, and Canada. Businesses can choose between plug-and-play solutions or fully customisable integrations, optimised for web and mobile platforms.

What Does Plaid Not Offer?

Plaid, while robust in data and open banking solutions, has notable limitations:

1. Card payments: Plaid focuses on pay-by-bank payments and open banking data, lacking support for traditional card payment processing, which remains a key requirement for many merchants.
2. Checkout page: Plaid does not provide a traditional checkout solution, meaning merchants cannot use it to create a fully integrated, end-to-end payment flow for e-commerce transactions.
3. No code payment options: Plaid does not offer traditional payment links or any other no-code payment tools.
4. Primarily data-focused: Plaid’s strength lies in financial data access and account verification. Merchants seeking a comprehensive payment gateway with diverse payment methods might need additional solutions.

Essentially, Plaid's open banking technology is designed to support and integrate with financial businesses rather than catering directly to merchants or consumers.

For example, Plaid offers access to financial data, which is often used by fintech companies, banks, and other financial institutions to build or enhance their own services. It’s not as focused on offering solutions like e-commerce checkout or payment links that directly serve non-financial businesses.

Therefore, businesses interested in those services may want to consider the following Plaid competitors.

Best Plaid Alternatives in 2025

Noda

Noda is an ideal Plaid alternative for payments. Our payment solutions range from open banking payments and payouts and cards to no-code tools. We also offer open banking data and customer insights.

Our Open Banking API ensures a seamless user experience, lowers fees, and eliminates chargebacks. With access to over 2,000 banks across 28 countries, we support multiple currencies and operate globally, extending beyond the UK and Europe.

We also provide plugins for leading e-commerce platforms such as OpenCart, WooCommerce, and Shopify, making integration effortless.

Noda boosts conversions with an AI-optimised checkout form for seamless transactions. For businesses with limited tech resources, our no-code payment links and QR codes ensure an effortless setup.

Our advanced open banking data tools, including secure bank login verification and Know Your Whales (KYW) insights, provide valuable customer behaviour predictions for smarter decision-making. With transaction-based pricing, Noda simplifies payments and drives business growth.

Salt Edge

Salt Edge is an open banking provider and an alternative to Plaid. It offers open banking payments for merchants. Salt Edge provides access to more than 2,000 banks across Europe through a single connection.

Apart from open banking payments, Salt Edge also offers account information, providing merchants with information from over 4,982 connected banks in 46 countries via a single API. Merchants can access end-users’ bank data from all accounts in a unified format.

Building on its data expertise, Salt Edge provides data enrichment services for the open banking data. Merchants can leverage transaction categorisation, merchant identification and financial insights.

In addition to open banking payments and data, Salt Edge specialises in open banking compliance. Its compliance hub includes compliance solutions for open banking providers, mobile strong customer authentication (SCA), and third-party provider (TPP) verification.

Key Takeaway

Salt Edge is a robust open banking provider but focuses more on data and compliance than payments. It lacks key payment features like a card payment gateway and no-code payment options but excels in data and compliance solutions.

Tink

Tink is another Plaid competitor. It’s a European open banking provider acquired by Visa in 2021. They offer a wide range of services, from payments and open banking data to financial management.

Under open banking payments, Tink offers a pay-by-bank online, in-app as well as via QR codes, in the UK and Europe. They also offer open banking payouts, variable recurring payments (VRPs) and a risk management tool for open banking payments.

But Tink’s true strength lies in open banking data. Their account data services include account and transaction data for both retail and business clients, as well as balance checks. They also venture into open finance, offering data on investments like pensions and loans.

Tink provides specialised data products for risk assessment, including income checks, expense checks for affordability assessments, and risk insights. Additionally, they leverage this data for financial management tools, such as money coaching for end users, data enrichment, and merchant insights.

Key Takeaway

Tink, backed by its ownership under Visa, a globally trusted name, excels in open banking data services. While its payments suite is robust, data remains its primary focus and area of expertise.

What Provider Is Best for Your Business?

Choosing the right open banking provider comes down to your business’s specific needs. Are you focused on streamlining payments or gaining deeper insights into customer finances? The answer will guide your decision.

If payment efficiency is your priority, look for a provider with robust PIS, like Noda. These are perfect for businesses aiming to reduce costs, avoid chargebacks, and deliver a smooth user experience. Noda’s payments go beyond open banking, plus the provider also offers data tools.

For businesses that need detailed financial insights, such as fintechs or lenders, providers with strong data solutions like Tink or Salt Edge are essential. Account balance checks, transaction history, and risk assessments are tools that can transform how you make decisions and serve your customers.