APIs · head to head
Aiia vs Formance
Aiia
APIs
Open banking and open finance API platform, now operating as Mastercard Open Banking
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Formance
APIs
Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Formance has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Aiia it is now part of Mastercard rather than an independent company, so a business specifically wanting to avoid card network dependency in its banking infrastructure no longer gets that separation by choosing Aiia.; Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
- They diverge on capability: Aiia covers Bank account data access, Formance covers Double-entry ledger.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Aiia and Formance actually diverge.
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 Aiia
- Bank account data access
- Payment initiation
- Mastercard Open Finance integration
- Modern authentication support
- Multi-country coverage
- Developer documentation and sandbox
Only in Formance
- Double-entry ledger
- Numscript transaction DSL
- Multi-currency
- Payments connectivity
- Reconciliation
- Self-hosted deployment
- Cloud offering
- API and SDKs
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Aiia
- A lending or credit product needing affordability checks via European bank account datanot Formance
- A personal finance or accounting product needing transaction history across Nordic and European banksnot Formance
- A payments product wanting account-to-account payment initiation under open banking regulationnot Formance
- A business wanting the stability and continued investment of Mastercard ownership behind its banking connectivity providernot Formance
Formance
- A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Aiia
- A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Aiia
- A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Aiia
- A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Aiia
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Aiia
- It is now part of Mastercard rather than an independent company, so a business specifically wanting to avoid card network dependency in its banking infrastructure no longer gets that separation by choosing Aiia.
- Pricing is not published and requires engaging Mastercard's open finance sales process, which can be a heavier sales motion than dealing with a smaller independent open banking provider.
- Its strongest bank coverage remains concentrated in the Nordics and Northern Europe, so companies needing dense coverage in Southern or Eastern Europe should verify current bank connectivity before committing.
- Brand confusion is real: developer documentation, login portals and older case studies still reference "Aiia" while newer Mastercard material refers to "Mastercard Open Banking," and a company researching either name in isolation may miss half the relevant material.
- As with any open banking platform, reliability still depends on the consistency of the underlying banks' own APIs, which is a systemic industry issue rather than something Aiia specifically controls.
Formance
- Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
- Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
- Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
- Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
- The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.
Pricing, plan by plan
Aiia
On request- Aiia Enterprise (Mastercard Open Banking)$undefined/year
- Pricing not published, quote via Mastercard Open Finance sales
Formance
Free- Open SourceFree
- MIT licensed core ledger
- Numscript transaction DSL
- Multi-currency tracking
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- Managed or private deployment
- Payments connectivity and reconciliation
- Support with response commitments
Which should you pick?
Choose Aiia if
- You need bank account data access.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want payment initiation.
Choose Formance if
- You need double-entry ledger.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
- You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Questions people ask
- Is Aiia or Formance better?
- Neither clearly leads. Aiia starts at On request and Formance at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Aiia or Formance?
- Formance has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Aiia and Free for Formance.
- Does Aiia or Formance run on more platforms?
- Aiia runs on Web, API. Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
- Can I use Formance for free?
- Yes. Formance has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Aiia starts at On request.
- What is Aiia best used for?
- Aiia is most often used for a lending or credit product needing affordability checks via european bank account data, a personal finance or accounting product needing transaction history across nordic and european banks, a payments product wanting account-to-account payment initiation under open banking regulation, a business wanting the stability and continued investment of mastercard ownership behind its banking connectivity provider. Of those, a lending or credit product needing affordability checks via european bank account data and a personal finance or accounting product needing transaction history across nordic and european banks are not what Formance is typically brought in for.
- What can Aiia do that Formance cannot?
- Aiia covers Bank account data access, Payment initiation, Mastercard Open Finance integration, Modern authentication support. Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Aiia: Is Aiia still an independent company?
No, it was acquired by Mastercard in 2021 and now operates as part of Mastercard Open Finance Solutions, referenced as Aiia Enterprise.
Formance: Is Formance really open source?
Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.
Aiia: Does the Aiia brand still exist?
Yes, in developer documentation and login portals, but the company behind it is Mastercard.
Formance: Does Formance move money?
No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.
Aiia: Which banks does it cover?
Around 3,000 European banks, with strongest coverage in the Nordics and Northern Europe.
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?
Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?
Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.
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