APIs · head to head
Liveblocks vs Salt Edge
Liveblocks
APIs
Realtime collaboration infrastructure for building multiplayer features
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Salt Edge
APIs
Independent open banking aggregator covering Europe by PSD2 API and other markets by direct connection
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Liveblocks has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Liveblocks on the Free plan, each metered feature has a hard cap and simply pauses when exceeded rather than allowing overage.; Salt Edge coverage outside regulated open banking markets is not all direct bank API, and connections that are not regulated interfaces break when a bank changes its systems, so a headline country count overstates the reliability you will actually experience.
- They diverge on capability: Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors, Salt Edge covers Account information.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Liveblocks and Salt Edge actually diverge.
| Attribute | Liveblocks | Salt Edge |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | On request |
| Pricing model | freemium | quote |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
Identical on both: platforms (web, api), 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 Liveblocks
- Realtime presence and cursors
- Comments
- Version history
- Custom notifications
- SSO and SOC 2
- Management API
Only in Salt Edge
- Account information
- Payment initiation
- Wide country coverage
- Open Banking Gateway
- Categorisation and enrichment
- Consent management
- Partner and white label
- Sandbox
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Liveblocks
- Adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editornot Salt Edge
- Building threaded comments on documents or designsnot Salt Edge
- Sending realtime notifications tied to collaborative actionsnot Salt Edge
- Restoring previous versions of collaborative contentnot Salt Edge
Salt Edge
- A lender operating across several European and non-EU markets that needs one aggregation contract rather than a different provider per countrynot Liveblocks
- A fintech that wants an aggregator not owned by a card network because its use case competes with card productsnot Liveblocks
- An accounting or treasury product that needs bank feeds in markets the large aggregators do not servenot Liveblocks
- A bank that must publish PSD2-compliant APIs and would rather buy the compliance layer than build itnot Liveblocks
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Liveblocks
- On the Free plan, each metered feature has a hard cap and simply pauses when exceeded rather than allowing overage.
- The jump from Pro ($30/month) to Team (starting at $600/month) is steep for teams that outgrow Pro but don't need full Team scale.
- Multi-region hosting and SCIM provisioning are Enterprise-only and require custom pricing.
Salt Edge
- Coverage outside regulated open banking markets is not all direct bank API, and connections that are not regulated interfaces break when a bank changes its systems, so a headline country count overstates the reliability you will actually experience.
- Pricing is not published and is usage-based, so two providers cannot be compared without running both sales processes, and cost grows with the connected user base rather than with revenue.
- Support and engineering are distributed across Eastern Europe and Canada, and buyers in other time zones report slower turnaround on connection-specific breakages than they get from a domestic provider.
- PSD2 consent rules require customers to reauthenticate periodically, and Salt Edge cannot change that, so any product depending on continuous data must design for consent expiry and the drop-off it causes.
- United States coverage is weaker than Plaid or Mastercard Open Banking, so a company with meaningful US volume ends up running two aggregators and normalising between them.
Pricing, plan by plan
Liveblocks
Free- FreeFree
- 10 projects
- 3 dashboard seats
- 10 simultaneous connections per room
- Pro$30/month
- $30 monthly credits
- Removes Liveblocks branding
- 3 dashboard seats
- Team$600/month
- SSO and SOC 2
- 10 dashboard seats
- 50 connections/room
Salt Edge
On request- Salt Edge Open Banking API$undefined/year
- Account information and payment initiation
- Coverage across 50 plus countries
- Consent management and enrichment
Which should you pick?
Choose Liveblocks if
- You need realtime presence and cursors.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, api.
- You also want comments.
Choose Salt Edge if
- You need account information.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want payment initiation.
Questions people ask
- Is Liveblocks or Salt Edge better?
- Neither clearly leads. Liveblocks starts at Free and Salt Edge at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Liveblocks or Salt Edge?
- Liveblocks has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Liveblocks and On request for Salt Edge.
- Does Liveblocks or Salt Edge run on more platforms?
- Liveblocks runs on web, api. Salt Edge runs on Web, API.
- Can I use Liveblocks for free?
- Yes. Liveblocks has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Salt Edge starts at On request.
- What is Liveblocks best used for?
- Liveblocks is most often used for adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editor, building threaded comments on documents or designs, sending realtime notifications tied to collaborative actions, restoring previous versions of collaborative content. Of those, adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editor and building threaded comments on documents or designs are not what Salt Edge is typically brought in for.
- What can Liveblocks do that Salt Edge cannot?
- Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors, Comments, Version history, Custom notifications. Salt Edge covers Account information, Payment initiation, Wide country coverage, Open Banking Gateway.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Liveblocks: What does Liveblocks cost?
Liveblocks offers a Free plan with hard usage caps, a Pro plan at $30/month ($25/month billed annually) including $30 in monthly credits, a Team plan from $600/month, and custom Enterprise pricing.
SourceSalt Edge: Who owns Salt Edge?
It is independently owned, unlike Tink (Visa), Finicity (Mastercard) or Yodlee (Envestnet), which matters if your use case competes with the owner.
Liveblocks: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?
Yes, the Free plan includes 10 projects, 3 dashboard seats, 10 simultaneous connections per room, 3,000 collaboration minutes, 200 comments, and 1GB of realtime data storage, with features pausing once a cap is hit.
SourceSalt Edge: Is all coverage direct bank API?
No. Inside PSD2 markets connections use regulated APIs; elsewhere coverage relies on direct connections whose reliability depends on the bank not changing its systems. Ask for a per-institution answer.
Liveblocks: How is usage metered?
Paid plans include monthly credits covering collaboration minutes, comments, and storage; usage beyond the credit is billed at metered rates such as $0.002 per collaboration minute and $0.01 per comment, with credits resetting each billing cycle without rollover.
SourceSalt Edge: Does it do payments as well as data?
Yes, payment initiation is supported in European markets where PSD2 applies.
Salt Edge: What does it cost?
Not published. Pricing is usage-based and quoted, though the sandbox is free.
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