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Technology · head to head

Alkami vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)

Alkami logo

Alkami

Technology

Digital banking platform for United States banks and credit unions

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Ona (formerly Gitpod) logo

Ona (formerly Gitpod)

Developer Tools

Cloud development environments repositioned as a control plane for software engineering agents

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Ona (formerly Gitpod) has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Alkami pricing is per registered user with contractual minimums, so institutions with many enrolled but dormant users pay for accounts that never log in.; Ona (formerly Gitpod) acquisition risk has already materialised: the company closed a sale to OpenAI on 10 August 2026 and now sits inside the Codex team, so nothing public guarantees pricing, continuity or neutrality between model vendors beyond honouring existing commitments.
  • They diverge on capability: Alkami covers Retail digital banking, Ona (formerly Gitpod) covers Ephemeral environments.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Alkami and Ona (formerly Gitpod) actually diverge.

Attributes where Alkami and Ona (formerly Gitpod) differ
AttributeAlkamiOna (formerly Gitpod)
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer month by compute unit
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows, AWS, Google Cloud Platform
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Alkami

  • Retail digital banking
  • Business banking
  • Digital account opening
  • Payments and money movement
  • Data and marketing
  • Extensibility framework
  • Card controls
  • Multi core integration

Only in Ona (formerly Gitpod)

  • Ephemeral environments
  • Agent sessions
  • Bring your own cloud
  • Devcontainer standard
  • Compute unit budgeting
  • Enterprise identity

What people use each for

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

Alkami

  • A credit union replacing the weak digital banking bundled with its core contractnot Ona (formerly Gitpod)
  • A community bank that needs commercial entitlements and approvals its core vendor does not providenot Ona (formerly Gitpod)
  • An institution wanting digital account opening and digital banking from one vendor after the MANTL acquisitionnot Ona (formerly Gitpod)
  • A bank competing for deposits online and needing an onboarding funnel that works on mobilenot Ona (formerly Gitpod)

Ona (formerly Gitpod)

  • Giving a large engineering team identical, disposable environments so onboarding is a link rather than a two day setupnot Alkami
  • Running several coding agents in parallel against real databases and services instead of on a laptopnot Alkami
  • Keeping source code off contractor and offshore laptops by moving the whole environment into a controlled accountnot Alkami
  • Reproducing a hard-to-configure toolchain for a short-lived project without polluting anyone machinenot Alkami

Where each one falls short

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

Alkami

  • Pricing is per registered user with contractual minimums, so institutions with many enrolled but dormant users pay for accounts that never log in.
  • Alkami is a channel layer, not a core, so functionality is bounded by what the core exposes, and a poor core integration produces a slow product no amount of channel work fixes.
  • Implementation typically runs six to twelve months and requires institution staff time, which small credit unions consistently underestimate.
  • The MANTL acquisition adds account opening but also another integration programme, and consolidating on one vendor removes leverage to swap a weak module for a best of breed alternative.
  • Buying digital banking separately from the core vendor means you own the integration risk between two suppliers who will each blame the other when something breaks.

Ona (formerly Gitpod)

  • Acquisition risk has already materialised: the company closed a sale to OpenAI on 10 August 2026 and now sits inside the Codex team, so nothing public guarantees pricing, continuity or neutrality between model vendors beyond honouring existing commitments.
  • Two disruptive changes of direction inside a year, from development environments to agent orchestration and then from independence to acquisition, mean the product a browser IDE buyer originally chose no longer exists in that form.
  • The Gitpod Classic sunset on 15 October 2025 required manual conversion of configuration, hand-moved secrets, self-rescued workspace data and a brand new account, which is the clearest available precedent for how the vendor handles deprecation.
  • Community self-hosting is finished: the AGPL-3.0 repository is deprecated by its own README, and self-hosted now means a vendor-operated install in your AWS or GCP account, with no Azure, no on-premises and no air-gapped path.
  • Pricing is difficult to model because it runs on a compute unit currency where subscription credits expire at the end of the month, the mapping from units to actual compute is not published on the pricing page, and Enterprise is quotation only.

Pricing, plan by plan

Alkami

On request
  • Alkami Digital Banking Platform$undefined/year
    • Priced per registered user per month with multi year terms
    • Minimum user commitments typical, so enrolled inactive users are still billed
    • Implementation and core integration charged separately

Ona (formerly Gitpod)

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Up to 3 parallel environments
    • Machines up to 4 vCPU, 16 GB memory and 80 GB disk
    • Ona Cloud multi-tenant only
  • Core$20/month
    • From 20 US dollars a month, up to 100 team members
    • Includes 80 to 2,200 recurring compute units a month depending on tier
    • Additional units from 10 US dollars per 40 units
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Single-tenant deployment in your own AWS or GCP account
    • SAML and OIDC single sign-on
    • Dedicated account management and forward deployed engineers

Which should you pick?

Choose Alkami if

  • You need retail digital banking.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want business banking.
Alkami review

Choose Ona (formerly Gitpod) if

  • You need ephemeral environments.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, AWS, Google Cloud Platform.
  • You also want agent sessions.
Ona (formerly Gitpod) review

Questions people ask

Is Alkami or Ona (formerly Gitpod) better?
Neither clearly leads. Alkami starts at On request and Ona (formerly Gitpod) at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Alkami or Ona (formerly Gitpod)?
Ona (formerly Gitpod) has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Alkami and Free for Ona (formerly Gitpod).
Does Alkami or Ona (formerly Gitpod) run on more platforms?
Alkami runs on Web, iOS, Android. Ona (formerly Gitpod) runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, AWS, Google Cloud Platform.
Can I use Ona (formerly Gitpod) for free?
Yes. Ona (formerly Gitpod) has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Alkami starts at On request.
What is Alkami best used for?
Alkami is most often used for a credit union replacing the weak digital banking bundled with its core contract, a community bank that needs commercial entitlements and approvals its core vendor does not provide, an institution wanting digital account opening and digital banking from one vendor after the mantl acquisition, a bank competing for deposits online and needing an onboarding funnel that works on mobile. Of those, a credit union replacing the weak digital banking bundled with its core contract and a community bank that needs commercial entitlements and approvals its core vendor does not provide are not what Ona (formerly Gitpod) is typically brought in for.
What can Alkami do that Ona (formerly Gitpod) cannot?
Alkami covers Retail digital banking, Business banking, Digital account opening, Payments and money movement. Ona (formerly Gitpod) covers Ephemeral environments, Agent sessions, Bring your own cloud, Devcontainer standard.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Alkami: Does Alkami replace our core?

No. It is the digital channel and account opening layer on top of a core such as Fiserv, Jack Henry or FIS.

Ona (formerly Gitpod): Is Gitpod still called Gitpod?

No. It rebranded to Ona in September 2025, and gitpod.io now redirects to ona.com. The company was acquired by OpenAI in a deal that closed on 10 August 2026.

Alkami: How is it priced?

Per registered user per month on multi year contracts with minimums, so model your enrolled user count rather than your active user count.

Ona (formerly Gitpod): Can I still self-host it for free?

No. The AGPL-3.0 self-hosted project is deprecated by its own README. What is offered now is a vendor-operated single-tenant install in your AWS or GCP account on the Enterprise plan.

Alkami: What did the MANTL acquisition change?

It brought deposit account opening in house, announced February 2025 at $400 million enterprise value, so account opening and digital banking can come from one vendor.

Ona (formerly Gitpod): What happened to Gitpod Classic?

Pay-as-you-go Classic was switched off on 15 October 2025. Migration required converting gitpod.yml to devcontainer.json, moving secrets by hand, downloading workspace data before the cutoff and creating a new account.

Ona (formerly Gitpod): What does it cost?

Core starts at 20 US dollars a month and includes a monthly allowance of Ona Compute Units, with more from 10 dollars per 40 units. Subscription credits expire monthly. Enterprise is quoted.

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