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Accounting · head to head

Adyen vs BlackLine

Adyen logo

Adyen

Accounting

The payments platform built for growth

From
$0.13/per-transaction
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
BlackLine logo

BlackLine

Accounting

Close automation that sits on top of your ERP, covering reconciliations, journals and close task control

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Adyen there is a minimum monthly invoice, set by industry and business model and only disclosed through the sales team, so small volumes are not economic; BlackLine it sits on top of the ERP rather than replacing anything, so it is an additional annual platform cost against a general ledger you are already paying for, and the return has to come from reduced close effort and audit findings rather than from retiring another system.
  • They diverge on capability: Adyen covers Payment processing, BlackLine covers Account reconciliation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adyen and BlackLine actually diverge.

Attributes where Adyen and BlackLine differ
AttributeAdyenBlackLine
Starting price$0.13/per-transaction$29/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
PlatformsWeb, Api, PosWeb
Founded20062001

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Adyen

  • Payment processing
  • Risk management
  • Unified commerce
  • Issuing
  • Platform payments
  • SAP
  • Salesforce
  • Oracle

Only in BlackLine

  • Account reconciliation
  • Risk based certification
  • Journal entry management
  • Close task management
  • Transaction matching
  • Intercompany
  • Variance analysis
  • Evidence attachment

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Adyen

  • Card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchantsnot BlackLine
  • Accepting local payment methods across multiple countriesnot BlackLine
  • Settling in several currencies through linked bank accountsnot BlackLine
  • Unified online and in-person paymentsnot BlackLine

BlackLine

  • A listed company whose external auditors have raised findings about reconciliation evidence and reviewer sign offnot Adyen
  • A group with dozens of entities where the close depends on someone chasing spreadsheets by email every monthnot Adyen
  • A finance team matching very high volumes of bank or payment processor transactions that no longer fit in a workbooknot Adyen
  • An organisation trying to shorten a close that runs past working day ten and cannot see where the time goesnot Adyen

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Adyen

  • There is a minimum monthly invoice, set by industry and business model and only disclosed through the sales team, so small volumes are not economic
  • Published fees are indicative rather than a rate card, with real pricing negotiated
  • Interchange++ means the card cost varies per transaction rather than being a single predictable percentage
  • Alternative payment methods carry their own rates on top, such as 3.3 percent plus $0.10 for American Express in North America

BlackLine

  • It sits on top of the ERP rather than replacing anything, so it is an additional annual platform cost against a general ledger you are already paying for, and the return has to come from reduced close effort and audit findings rather than from retiring another system.
  • The capability is split across separately licensed modules, so a reconciliation deployment that later needs journal entry, transaction matching and intercompany turns into three more commercial conversations rather than a configuration change.
  • Implementation runs for months and is normally partner led, because the value depends on how the account inventory, risk ratings, matching rules and ERP data feeds are configured, and a rushed configuration produces a system that certifies bad reconciliations on schedule.
  • The ERP data feeds have to be built and then maintained, so a chart of accounts change, an entity addition or an ERP upgrade turns into remediation work in BlackLine as well, and a broken feed stops the close rather than degrading it.
  • Licensing has a per user element and the close involves preparers, reviewers, controllers and auditors, so a finance function with many occasional reviewers pays for seats belonging to people who touch the system for a few days each month.

Pricing, plan by plan

Adyen

$0.13/per-transaction
  • Transaction-Based Pricing$undefined/mo
    • Fixed $0.13 USD per transaction
    • Variable fee determined by payment method
    • No setup fees

BlackLine

$29/month
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Custom pricing
    • Account reconciliation
    • Task management

Which should you pick?

Choose Adyen if

  • You need payment processing.
  • You work on Web, Api, Pos.
  • You also want risk management.
Adyen review

Choose BlackLine if

  • You need account reconciliation.
  • You also want risk based certification.
BlackLine review

Questions people ask

Is Adyen or BlackLine better?
Neither clearly leads. Adyen starts at $0.13/per-transaction and BlackLine at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adyen or BlackLine?
Adyen starts at $0.13/per-transaction and BlackLine at $29/month.
Does Adyen or BlackLine run on more platforms?
Adyen runs on Web, Api, Pos. BlackLine runs on Web.
What is Adyen best used for?
Adyen is most often used for card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchants, accepting local payment methods across multiple countries, settling in several currencies through linked bank accounts, unified online and in-person payments. Of those, card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchants and accepting local payment methods across multiple countries are not what BlackLine is typically brought in for.
What can Adyen do that BlackLine cannot?
Adyen covers Payment processing, Risk management, Unified commerce, Issuing. BlackLine covers Account reconciliation, Risk based certification, Journal entry management, Close task management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Adyen: How much does Adyen charge per transaction?

Adyen charges a fixed $0.13 USD per transaction plus a variable fee based on the payment method used. Credit cards typically cost $0.13 + 0.60% + interchange, while digital wallets and BNPL options cost between $0.13 + 0.99% to $0.13 + 4.99%+, depending on the specific method and region.

Source
BlackLine: Does BlackLine replace our ERP or general ledger?

No. It reads from the ledger and writes approved journals back. You keep the ERP and pay for BlackLine on top of it.

Adyen: Does Adyen have monthly subscription or setup fees?

No, Adyen has no setup fees or monthly recurring charges. You pay only for each transaction processed. The transaction fee structure remains the same regardless of transaction volume or business size.

Source
BlackLine: At what size does it make sense?

The case is usually driven by control requirements and entity count rather than revenue. Companies under a control regime like Sarbanes Oxley, or groups with many entities and a long close, get the return. A single entity business with a short close will not.

Adyen: What's Adyen's Interchange++ pricing option?

Adyen offers an Interchange++ transparent pricing model that passes interchange and scheme fees directly to merchants instead of bundling them into a percentage rate. This allows visibility into exact costs for each payment method.

Source
BlackLine: How long does implementation take?

Months rather than weeks for the first module, longer for multi entity rollouts across several modules. The elapsed time is dominated by agreeing the account inventory and building the data feeds, not by installing software.

Adyen: Can I process payments in multiple currencies with Adyen?

Yes, Adyen supports 100+ payment methods across multiple currencies. You can link multiple bank accounts in different currencies to avoid currency conversion fees on international transactions.

Source
BlackLine: Will it shorten our close on its own?

No. It makes the close visible and controlled, which is what exposes where the time goes. Shortening it still requires changing the underlying processes, and companies that skip that step get better documentation of the same slow close.

BlackLine: Can our auditors use it directly?

Yes, giving auditors read access to sample reconciliations and approvals is a common deployment pattern and one of the clearer sources of saved effort during the audit.

BlackLine: What happens if our chart of accounts changes?

The account inventory, risk ratings and feed mappings need updating to match. Treat any significant ERP or chart of accounts change as a BlackLine work package in the same project plan.

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