APIs · head to head
Basis Theory vs Salt Edge
Basis Theory
APIs
Developer tokenisation platform that holds card and sensitive data inside a PCI Level 1 environment you do not operate
- From
- $995/month
- Rated
- -
Salt Edge
APIs
Independent open banking aggregator covering Europe by PSD2 API and other markets by direct connection
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Basis Theory the Starter plan is 995 US dollars a month before any volume, which is a real floor for an early stage company and puts the product out of reach of teams tokenising a few thousand records.; Salt Edge coverage outside regulated open banking markets is not all direct bank API, and connections that are not regulated interfaces break when a bank changes its systems, so a headline country count overstates the reliability you will actually experience.
- They diverge on capability: Basis Theory covers Tokenisation API, Salt Edge covers Account information.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Basis Theory and Salt Edge actually diverge.
| Attribute | Basis Theory | Salt Edge |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $995/month | On request |
| Pricing model | Per month by token volume | quote |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, Linux | Web, API |
Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).
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 Basis Theory
- Tokenisation API
- Hosted elements
- Outbound proxy
- PCI attestation of compliance
- Processor portability
- Reactors
- Access controls and audit
- PII and PHI options
Only in Salt Edge
- Account information
- Payment initiation
- Wide country coverage
- Open Banking Gateway
- Categorisation and enrichment
- Consent management
- Partner and white label
- Sandbox
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Basis Theory
- A payments company that wants card on file without bringing its own infrastructure into PCI scope and paying for the assessment that followsnot Salt Edge
- A merchant locked into a processor by that processor vault that wants to hold its own tokens and route to more than one acquirernot Salt Edge
- A fintech collecting bank account and identity data that needs it isolated from its application database before an enterprise security reviewnot Salt Edge
- A team that needs to send stored card data to a third party for a one-off integration without that data traversing its own serversnot Salt Edge
Salt Edge
- A lender operating across several European and non-EU markets that needs one aggregation contract rather than a different provider per countrynot Basis Theory
- A fintech that wants an aggregator not owned by a card network because its use case competes with card productsnot Basis Theory
- An accounting or treasury product that needs bank feeds in markets the large aggregators do not servenot Basis Theory
- A bank that must publish PSD2-compliant APIs and would rather buy the compliance layer than build itnot Basis Theory
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Basis Theory
- The Starter plan is 995 US dollars a month before any volume, which is a real floor for an early stage company and puts the product out of reach of teams tokenising a few thousand records.
- Starter is limited to the US region, so a company with European data residency requirements is pushed into a quoted Scale or Enterprise agreement immediately.
- Log retention on Starter is 24 hours, which is well below what most security teams expect for a system holding cardholder data and forces an upgrade for reasons unrelated to volume.
- Migrating away means moving card data out of the vault, which requires processor and assessor involvement and is slow, so the portability argument that attracts buyers cuts against them at exit.
- An attestation of compliance covers the vendor environment, not your assessment; your assessor still decides what is in scope, and buyers occasionally discover their integration pattern pulled systems back into scope anyway.
Salt Edge
- Coverage outside regulated open banking markets is not all direct bank API, and connections that are not regulated interfaces break when a bank changes its systems, so a headline country count overstates the reliability you will actually experience.
- Pricing is not published and is usage-based, so two providers cannot be compared without running both sales processes, and cost grows with the connected user base rather than with revenue.
- Support and engineering are distributed across Eastern Europe and Canada, and buyers in other time zones report slower turnaround on connection-specific breakages than they get from a domestic provider.
- PSD2 consent rules require customers to reauthenticate periodically, and Salt Edge cannot change that, so any product depending on continuous data must design for consent expiry and the drop-off it causes.
- United States coverage is weaker than Plaid or Mastercard Open Banking, so a company with meaningful US volume ends up running two aggregators and normalising between them.
Pricing, plan by plan
Basis Theory
$995/month- Starter$995/month
- 20,000 tokens included
- Production PCI Level 1 environment
- US region only
- Scale$undefined/month
- Quoted
- Higher token volumes
- Additional regions
- Enterprise$undefined/month
- Quoted
- Additional compliance options for PII and PHI
- Responses for 95 percent of PCI SAQ D
Salt Edge
On request- Salt Edge Open Banking API$undefined/year
- Account information and payment initiation
- Coverage across 50 plus countries
- Consent management and enrichment
Which should you pick?
Choose Basis Theory if
- You need tokenisation api.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Linux.
- You also want hosted elements.
Choose Salt Edge if
- You need account information.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want payment initiation.
Questions people ask
- Is Basis Theory or Salt Edge better?
- Neither clearly leads. Basis Theory starts at $995/month and Salt Edge at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Basis Theory or Salt Edge?
- Basis Theory starts at $995/month and Salt Edge at On request.
- Does Basis Theory or Salt Edge run on more platforms?
- Basis Theory runs on Web, iOS, Android, Linux. Salt Edge runs on Web, API.
- What is Basis Theory best used for?
- Basis Theory is most often used for a payments company that wants card on file without bringing its own infrastructure into pci scope and paying for the assessment that follows, a merchant locked into a processor by that processor vault that wants to hold its own tokens and route to more than one acquirer, a fintech collecting bank account and identity data that needs it isolated from its application database before an enterprise security review, a team that needs to send stored card data to a third party for a one-off integration without that data traversing its own servers. Of those, a payments company that wants card on file without bringing its own infrastructure into pci scope and paying for the assessment that follows and a merchant locked into a processor by that processor vault that wants to hold its own tokens and route to more than one acquirer are not what Salt Edge is typically brought in for.
- What can Basis Theory do that Salt Edge cannot?
- Basis Theory covers Tokenisation API, Hosted elements, Outbound proxy, PCI attestation of compliance. Salt Edge covers Account information, Payment initiation, Wide country coverage, Open Banking Gateway.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Basis Theory: Does this make us PCI compliant?
It removes cardholder data from your systems and gives you an AOC plus documented responses for most of a SAQ D. Your assessor still determines your scope, and a careless integration can pull systems back in.
Salt Edge: Who owns Salt Edge?
It is independently owned, unlike Tink (Visa), Finicity (Mastercard) or Yodlee (Envestnet), which matters if your use case competes with the owner.
Basis Theory: What does it cost to start?
995 US dollars a month on Starter, including 20,000 tokens, a production PCI Level 1 environment and US hosting. Higher tiers are quoted.
Salt Edge: Is all coverage direct bank API?
No. Inside PSD2 markets connections use regulated APIs; elsewhere coverage relies on direct connections whose reliability depends on the bank not changing its systems. Ask for a per-institution answer.
Basis Theory: Can we switch payment processors without re-collecting cards?
Yes, that is the main non-compliance reason to buy it. You hold the tokens and detokenise into whichever processor you route to.
Salt Edge: Does it do payments as well as data?
Yes, payment initiation is supported in European markets where PSD2 applies.
Basis Theory: Is data stored outside the United States?
Not on Starter, which is US only. Other regions require a Scale or Enterprise agreement.
Salt Edge: What does it cost?
Not published. Pricing is usage-based and quoted, though the sandbox is free.
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