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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Infisical

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Infisical logo

Infisical

Cybersecurity

Security infrastructure for developers and AI agents

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Infisical free tier limited to 5 identities, suitable only for small teams or evaluation
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Infisical covers Secrets management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Infisical actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Infisical differ
AttributeFormanceInfisical
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIWeb, CLI, Cloud, Self-Hosted
CategoryAPIsCybersecurity

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Infisical

  • Secrets management
  • Certificate management
  • Privileged access management
  • Secret versioning
  • Dynamic secrets
  • SAML SSO
  • Open-source core
  • Secrets scanning

What people use each for

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

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Infisical
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Infisical
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Infisical
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Infisical

Infisical

  • Managing secrets across Kubernetes clustersnot Formance
  • Automating certificate lifecycle for internal PKInot Formance
  • Providing privileged database access with audit trailsnot Formance
  • Securing credentials for AI agents at runtimenot Formance

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Infisical

  • Free tier limited to 5 identities, suitable only for small teams or evaluation
  • Pricing tiers are per-identity, which scales costs with team size
  • Certificate management requires Enterprise plan for advanced features like wildcards
  • Privileged access tier is separate billing from secrets management

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Infisical

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 5 identities
    • Unlimited projects
    • 3 environments
  • Pro - Secrets$20/month
    • Per-identity pricing
    • Unlimited identities
    • SAML SSO
  • Pro - Secrets (Annual)$20/year
    • Annual discount available
    • Unlimited identities
    • SAML SSO
  • Advanced - Secrets$40/month
    • Per-identity pricing
    • Dynamic secrets
    • Gateways

Which should you pick?

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.
Formance review

Choose Infisical if

  • You need secrets management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI, Cloud, Self-Hosted.
  • You also want certificate management.
Infisical review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Infisical better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Infisical at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Infisical?
Formance starts at Free and Infisical at Free.
Does Formance or Infisical run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Infisical runs on Web, CLI, Cloud, Self-Hosted.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Infisical is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Infisical cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Infisical covers Secrets management, Certificate management, Privileged access management, Secret versioning.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Infisical: How is pricing calculated for Secrets Management?

Pricing is per-identity per month. Free tier includes 5 identities. Pro tier is $20/identity/month, Advanced is $40/identity/month. All pricing in USD.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Infisical: Can I self-host Infisical?

Yes, Infisical's core is open-source under the MIT license and can be self-hosted. The managed cloud service is also available with additional features.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Infisical: What is included in the Enterprise plan?

Enterprise plan includes SCIM, LDAP, approval workflows, external KMS/HSM support, and 99.99% SLA. Pricing is custom and determined by annual commitment.

Source
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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