APIs · head to head
Basis Theory vs Yapily
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
- -
Yapily
APIs
Open banking API infrastructure for account data and pay-by-bank payments across Europe
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Yapily has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- 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.; Yapily production pricing itself is not published; only the resulting typical merchant transaction cost is publicly known, so the underlying platform fee still requires a sales conversation.
- They diverge on capability: Basis Theory covers Tokenisation API, Yapily covers Unified open banking API.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Basis Theory and Yapily actually diverge.
| Attribute | Basis Theory | Yapily |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $995/month | Free |
| Pricing model | Per month by token volume | Free sandbox, pay-as-you-go production |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, Linux | Web, API |
Identical on both: 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 Yapily
- Unified open banking API
- Account information access
- Payment initiation
- Free sandbox
- Multi-country bank coverage
- Webhooks and reconciliation tooling
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 Yapily
- A merchant locked into a processor by that processor vault that wants to hold its own tokens and route to more than one acquirernot Yapily
- A fintech collecting bank account and identity data that needs it isolated from its application database before an enterprise security reviewnot Yapily
- 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 Yapily
Yapily
- A merchant wanting a lower-cost payment method alongside card acceptancenot Basis Theory
- A lending or budgeting product needing bank account data for affordability checksnot Basis Theory
- A business wanting one API instead of separate integrations to each bank's own open banking standardnot Basis Theory
- A company prototyping open banking features for free in sandbox before committing budgetnot 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.
Yapily
- Production pricing itself is not published; only the resulting typical merchant transaction cost is publicly known, so the underlying platform fee still requires a sales conversation.
- Consumer adoption of pay-by-bank still lags card payments, so merchants offering it as a checkout option typically see it used as a secondary rather than primary payment method.
- Coverage depends on the banks in each country maintaining reliable open banking APIs, and inconsistent bank-side reliability across markets is a known category-wide weakness, not unique to Yapily but not solved by it either.
- As infrastructure for both account data and payments, a company only needing one of those two capabilities is still evaluating a broader platform than it may need.
- Regulatory dependence on PSD2 and UK open banking rules means the underlying legal framework, not just Yapily's product, could shift and affect what is possible on the platform.
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$undefined/month
- Quoted
- Additional compliance options for PII and PHI
- Responses for 95 percent of PCI SAQ D
Yapily
Free- SandboxFree
- Free testing environment
- UK and European bank connections for development
- Production$undefined/month
- Pay-as-you-go pricing, exact rates not published
- Typical pay-by-bank cost of 0.1 to 0.5% or a flat 5 to 30 pence per transaction
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 Yapily if
- You need unified open banking api.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want account information access.
Questions people ask
- Is Basis Theory or Yapily better?
- Neither clearly leads. Basis Theory starts at $995/month and Yapily at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Basis Theory or Yapily?
- Yapily has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $995/month for Basis Theory and Free for Yapily.
- Does Basis Theory or Yapily run on more platforms?
- Basis Theory runs on Web, iOS, Android, Linux. Yapily runs on Web, API.
- Can I use Yapily for free?
- Yes. Yapily has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Basis Theory starts at $995/month.
- 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 Yapily is typically brought in for.
- What can Basis Theory do that Yapily cannot?
- Basis Theory covers Tokenisation API, Hosted elements, Outbound proxy, PCI attestation of compliance. Yapily covers Unified open banking API, Account information access, Payment initiation, Free sandbox.
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.
Yapily: Is there a free way to try it?
Yes, sandbox access is free for development and testing.
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.
Yapily: How much cheaper is pay-by-bank than card payments?
Typically 0.1 to 0.5% of transaction value, or a flat 5 to 30 pence, against 1.5 to 3.5% for card scheme fees.
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.
Yapily: Is production pricing published?
No, production access is pay-as-you-go but exact rates require a sales conversation.
Basis Theory: Is data stored outside the United States?
Not on Starter, which is US only. Other regions require a Scale or Enterprise agreement.
Related pages
More on Basis Theory
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