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APIs · head to head

Dwolla vs Increase

Dwolla logo

Dwolla

APIs

Account to account payment API for ACH, RTP and FedNow with pay by bank and instant payment routing

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Increase logo

Increase

APIs

Direct banking API for ACH, wires, real-time payments, accounts and cards

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dwolla nothing is published: there are no per-transaction rates, no platform fee and no minimum on the pricing page, so every buyer negotiates blind and small platforms have no way to sanity check what they are quoted.; Increase the published per transaction rates exclude a monthly platform fee that Increase states varies by use case, so the transparent price page cannot produce a total cost and the material part of the deal is still negotiated privately.
  • They diverge on capability: Dwolla covers ACH transfers, Increase covers ACH origination and receipt.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dwolla and Increase actually diverge.

Attributes where Dwolla and Increase differ
AttributeDwollaIncrease
PlatformsWebAPI, Web

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Dwolla

  • ACH transfers
  • Instant payments
  • Rail orchestration
  • Bank account verification
  • Dwolla Balance
  • Webhooks and reconciliation
  • Pay by bank
  • White label flows

Only in Increase

  • ACH origination and receipt
  • Domestic wires
  • Real-time payments
  • Bank accounts
  • Cards
  • Cheques
  • Sandbox and simulations
  • Audit and reconciliation data

What people use each for

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

Dwolla

  • An insurance or lending platform disbursing funds to customer bank accounts where card payout fees would destroy the marginnot Increase
  • A B2B marketplace collecting large invoice payments by bank transfer rather than paying interchange on cardsnot Increase
  • A payroll or gig platform that needs to pay workers instantly and wants the rail chosen automatically by receiving bank capabilitynot Increase
  • A property management system collecting rent by ACH with verified bank accounts and reliable return handlingnot Increase

Increase

  • A payroll or treasury product that needs to originate same-day ACH and wires under its own control rather than through a payment processornot Dwolla
  • A marketplace that must hold seller balances in ledgered accounts with real account and routing numbersnot Dwolla
  • A fintech that wants FedNow and RTP payouts so recipients are paid outside banking hoursnot Dwolla
  • An engineering team that needs the underlying return codes and settlement timing visible in order to build correct reconciliation and retry logicnot Dwolla

Where each one falls short

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

Dwolla

  • Nothing is published: there are no per-transaction rates, no platform fee and no minimum on the pricing page, so every buyer negotiates blind and small platforms have no way to sanity check what they are quoted.
  • It is payments only, with no deposit accounts, card issuing or general ledger, so companies embedding financial products need at least one further vendor and the reconciliation between them.
  • Instant payment reach depends on the receiving institution supporting RTP or FedNow, so a meaningful share of payouts still fall back to ACH timing regardless of what the API can do.
  • ACH returns and administrative returns remain your operational problem, and platforms new to bank rails routinely underestimate the customer support load that failed debits generate.
  • Access to instant rails runs through Dwolla banking partner, which reintroduces a bank dependency into a product that otherwise avoids sponsor bank programme risk.

Increase

  • The published per transaction rates exclude a monthly platform fee that Increase states varies by use case, so the transparent price page cannot produce a total cost and the material part of the deal is still negotiated privately.
  • Free allowances are deliberately small at ten account numbers and five physical cards, so any programme issuing accounts or cards at volume moves to quoted pricing almost immediately.
  • Banking is provided through partner banks, so programme approval, compliance obligations and the ability to launch at all depend on a bank relationship you do not control, and post-Synapse bank risk appetite has tightened considerably.
  • The API deliberately exposes payment rail mechanics rather than smoothing them, which is correct engineering but means a team without payments expertise will build reconciliation and return handling wrongly and only discover it when funds go astray.
  • Coverage is United States only, so a company with international payout needs runs a second provider and reconciles two ledgers, and the single API argument disappears at the first cross border customer.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dwolla

On request
  • Dwolla Payment API$undefined/year
    • Custom pricing built around transaction volume, rails used and integration needs
    • No published per-transaction rates or platform fees
    • Volume based plans for platforms and enterprises

Increase

On request
  • Increase Platform$undefined/month
    • Monthly fee quoted by use case and not published
    • Next-day ACH origination listed at 0.50 US dollars per transaction
    • Same-day ACH origination listed at 2.00 per transaction

Which should you pick?

Choose Dwolla if

  • You need ach transfers.
  • You also want instant payments.
Dwolla review

Choose Increase if

  • You need ach origination and receipt.
  • You work on API, Web.
  • You also want domestic wires.
Increase review

Questions people ask

Is Dwolla or Increase better?
Neither clearly leads. Dwolla starts at On request and Increase at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dwolla or Increase?
Dwolla starts at On request and Increase at On request.
Does Dwolla or Increase run on more platforms?
Dwolla runs on Web. Increase runs on API, Web.
What is Dwolla best used for?
Dwolla is most often used for an insurance or lending platform disbursing funds to customer bank accounts where card payout fees would destroy the margin, a b2b marketplace collecting large invoice payments by bank transfer rather than paying interchange on cards, a payroll or gig platform that needs to pay workers instantly and wants the rail chosen automatically by receiving bank capability, a property management system collecting rent by ach with verified bank accounts and reliable return handling. Of those, an insurance or lending platform disbursing funds to customer bank accounts where card payout fees would destroy the margin and a b2b marketplace collecting large invoice payments by bank transfer rather than paying interchange on cards are not what Increase is typically brought in for.
What can Dwolla do that Increase cannot?
Dwolla covers ACH transfers, Instant payments, Rail orchestration, Bank account verification. Increase covers ACH origination and receipt, Domestic wires, Real-time payments, Bank accounts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dwolla: What does Dwolla cost?

It does not publish anything. Pricing is custom and built around volume, rails and integration. Establish the monthly platform fee and any minimum before negotiating per-transaction rates.

Increase: Does Increase publish its pricing?

Partly. Per transaction fees for ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow and cards are listed publicly. The monthly platform fee is not, and it is described only as varying by use case.

Dwolla: Does it support instant payments?

Yes, through both the RTP network and the FedNow Service, with automatic selection based on the receiving bank. Where neither is supported, payments fall back to ACH.

Increase: Who holds the deposits?

Partner banks, not Increase itself. That relationship determines your programme approval, your compliance obligations and your risk if the bank changes appetite.

Dwolla: Is Dwolla a bank?

No. It is a payments platform that works through banking partners. It does not offer deposit accounts or card issuing.

Increase: Is it international?

No. Increase covers United States rails only, so cross border payouts require a second provider.

Dwolla: How does bank account verification work?

Either instantly through open banking connections or by micro-deposit verification, which takes a day or two but works where instant linking fails.

Increase: How is it different from a middleware BaaS platform?

It exposes the rails rather than abstracting them, showing real return codes and settlement timing. That suits teams who understand payments and punishes teams who do not.

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