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APIs · head to head

Highnote vs Increase

Highnote logo

Highnote

APIs

Card issuing, acquiring and ledger on one platform for embedded payments

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: Highnote card issuing requires a sponsor bank, and that bank sets programme approval, compliance obligations and often minimum volumes, so a small programme can be rejected regardless of technical fit.; 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: Highnote covers Card issuing, Increase covers ACH origination and receipt.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Highnote and Increase actually diverge.

Attributes where Highnote and Increase differ
AttributeHighnoteIncrease
PlatformsWeb, APIAPI, 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 Highnote

  • Card issuing
  • Merchant acquiring
  • Unified ledger
  • Spend controls
  • GraphQL API
  • Programme management
  • Dispute handling
  • Real time authorisation webhooks

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.

Highnote

  • A marketplace that both pays out to sellers and issues them spend cards, wanting one settlement ledgernot Increase
  • A vertical software company embedding card acceptance and card issuing for the same customer basenot Increase
  • A fintech launching a commercial charge card programme with custom authorisation logicnot Increase
  • A platform replacing separate issuing and acquiring vendors to remove cross system reconciliationnot 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 Highnote
  • A marketplace that must hold seller balances in ledgered accounts with real account and routing numbersnot Highnote
  • A fintech that wants FedNow and RTP payouts so recipients are paid outside banking hoursnot Highnote
  • An engineering team that needs the underlying return codes and settlement timing visible in order to build correct reconciliation and retry logicnot Highnote

Where each one falls short

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

Highnote

  • Card issuing requires a sponsor bank, and that bank sets programme approval, compliance obligations and often minimum volumes, so a small programme can be rejected regardless of technical fit.
  • Pricing is entirely quoted, including platform fees, per active card charges and monthly minimums that do not appear on the website, so the true cost per card is only visible late in a sales process.
  • Interchange sharing is the real revenue model for most customers, and the split is negotiated, capped for regulated debit under the Durbin amendment and sensitive to your spend mix, so revenue projections built on headline interchange rates overstate income.
  • Running issuing and acquiring with one provider concentrates risk: an outage or a compliance action affects both money in and money out at the same time.
  • Highnote is a younger company than the established issuer processors, so long term programme continuity, network certifications in new geographies and international coverage are thinner than the incumbent alternatives.

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

Highnote

On request
  • Highnote platform$undefined/year
    • Quoted per programme with no public rate card
    • Requires a sponsor bank relationship for card issuing
    • Interchange sharing terms negotiated per programme

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 Highnote if

  • You need card issuing.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want merchant acquiring.
Highnote 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 Highnote or Increase better?
Neither clearly leads. Highnote 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, Highnote or Increase?
Highnote starts at On request and Increase at On request.
Does Highnote or Increase run on more platforms?
Highnote runs on Web, API. Increase runs on API, Web.
What is Highnote best used for?
Highnote is most often used for a marketplace that both pays out to sellers and issues them spend cards, wanting one settlement ledger, a vertical software company embedding card acceptance and card issuing for the same customer base, a fintech launching a commercial charge card programme with custom authorisation logic, a platform replacing separate issuing and acquiring vendors to remove cross system reconciliation. Of those, a marketplace that both pays out to sellers and issues them spend cards, wanting one settlement ledger and a vertical software company embedding card acceptance and card issuing for the same customer base are not what Increase is typically brought in for.
What can Highnote do that Increase cannot?
Highnote covers Card issuing, Merchant acquiring, Unified ledger, Spend controls. Increase covers ACH origination and receipt, Domestic wires, Real-time payments, Bank accounts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Highnote: Do I need a sponsor bank?

Yes for card issuing in the United States. Highnote is a processor and programme platform, not a bank, and the sponsor bank sets approval and compliance terms.

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.

Highnote: How do customers make money on a card programme?

Mostly interchange sharing. Negotiate the split explicitly and model it against your actual spend mix, since regulated debit interchange is capped.

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.

Highnote: Can Highnote handle both accepting and issuing payments?

Yes since its 2025 acquiring launch, on the same ledger, which is its main structural differentiator.

Increase: Is it international?

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

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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