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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Stripe

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Stripe logo

Stripe

E-Commerce

Financial infrastructure for the internet

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.; Stripe requires developer setup and API integration for most use cases
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Stripe covers Payment processing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Stripe actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Stripe differ
AttributeFormanceStripe
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIWeb, iOS, Android
CategoryAPIsE-Commerce
FoundedUnknown2010

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 Stripe

  • Payment processing
  • Subscription billing
  • Invoicing
  • Terminal (in-person payments)
  • Fraud prevention
  • 3D Secure
  • Global payouts
  • Financial reporting

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 Stripe
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Stripe
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Stripe
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Stripe

Stripe

  • Online paymentsnot Formance
  • Subscription managementnot Formance
  • Marketplace paymentsnot Formance
  • Global expansionnot Formance
  • Platform monetizationnot 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.

Stripe

  • Requires developer setup and API integration for most use cases
  • Dispute fee of $15 per chargeback is standard industry cost
  • Limited offline payment capabilities

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

Stripe

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Stripe review.

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 Stripe if

  • You need payment processing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want subscription billing.
Stripe review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Stripe better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Stripe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Stripe?
Formance starts at Free and Stripe at Free.
Does Formance or Stripe run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Stripe runs on Web, iOS, Android.
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 Stripe is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Stripe cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Stripe covers Payment processing, Subscription billing, Invoicing, Terminal (in-person payments).

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.

Stripe: What are Stripe's transaction fees?

Standard US rates are 2.9% plus 30 cents for online card payments, 2.7% plus 5 cents for in-person, 3.4% plus 30 cents for keyed/phone transactions, and 0.8% capped at $5 for ACH payments.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

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

Stripe: How many currencies and countries does it support?

Stripe accepts 135+ currencies and supports payment acceptance in 40+ countries through Stripe Connect, enabling sellers to onboard and receive payouts in minutes.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

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

Stripe: What payment methods are supported?

Stripe supports dozens of payment methods including credit/debit cards, ACH transfers, and local payment options, with additional support through partnerships with Meta and Google.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

Stripe: Are there monthly fees or contracts?

No. Stripe charges no monthly fees or contracts, only per-transaction fees and dispute fees, making costs fully transparent and variable.

Source
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