Is Marqeta or Solaris better?

Neither clearly leads. Marqeta starts at On request and Solaris at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Marqeta or Solaris?

Marqeta starts at On request and Solaris at On request.

Does Marqeta or Solaris run on more platforms?

Marqeta runs on Web, REST API. Solaris runs on Web, API.

What is Marqeta best used for?

Marqeta is most often used for a delivery marketplace funding courier cards only at the moment a courier pays for the order, an expense platform issuing a virtual card per subscription with merchant locks, a lender issuing a card that draws on an approved credit line rather than a stored balance, a fintech wanting the same issuing stack across us and european programmes. Of those, a delivery marketplace funding courier cards only at the moment a courier pays for the order and an expense platform issuing a virtual card per subscription with merchant locks are not what Solaris is typically brought in for.

What can Marqeta do that Solaris cannot?

Marqeta covers Just-in-time funding, Virtual and physical issuing, Spend controls, Programme management tools. Solaris covers German banking licence, IBAN accounts, Card issuing, Lending as a service.

APIs · head to head

Marqeta vs Solaris

Marqeta

APIs

Card issuing and transaction processing APIs with just-in-time funding

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Solaris

APIs

German banking as a service with a full banking licence and a live regulatory problem

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Marqeta you still need a sponsor bank and a BIN, so the timeline and compliance burden of launching are set by a bank you must separately court and satisfy.; Solaris baFin appointed a special representative in 2022 and extended the mandate in July 2024, so a partner is joining a bank under active supervisory monitoring, with slower approvals and heavier compliance demands as a direct consequence.
They diverge on capability: Marqeta covers Just-in-time funding, Solaris covers German banking licence.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Marqeta and Solaris actually diverge.

Attributes where Marqeta and Solaris differ
Attribute	Marqeta	Solaris
Platforms	Web, REST API	Web, API

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 Marqeta

Just-in-time funding
Virtual and physical issuing
Spend controls
Programme management tools
Multi-region issuing
Webhooks and ledger data

Only in Solaris

German banking licence
IBAN accounts
Card issuing
Lending as a service
Digital assets and custody
SEPA payments
KYC and onboarding
Deposit protection

What people use each for

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

Marqeta

A delivery marketplace funding courier cards only at the moment a courier pays for the ordernot Solaris
An expense platform issuing a virtual card per subscription with merchant locksnot Solaris
A lender issuing a card that draws on an approved credit line rather than a stored balancenot Solaris
A fintech wanting the same issuing stack across US and European programmesnot Solaris

Solaris

A retailer or platform launching a German current account or card product without applying for its own licencenot Marqeta
A fintech that needs deposit taking and lending, which an e-money licence cannot providenot Marqeta
A European business needing German IBANs because customers reject foreign IBANs for salary and direct debitnot Marqeta
A company requiring German statutory deposit protection on customer balances as a product claimnot Marqeta

Where each one falls short

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

Marqeta

You still need a sponsor bank and a BIN, so the timeline and compliance burden of launching are set by a bank you must separately court and satisfy.
Pricing carries minimum monthly platform commitments, so a programme with modest card volume pays for capacity it never uses.
Programme revenue depends heavily on interchange, which means regulated debit interchange caps and European interchange caps materially change the business case by market.
Disputes, chargebacks and fraud losses sit with the programme, and teams that assumed the processor absorbed them discover a real operations headcount requirement.
Just-in-time funding makes your own authorisation endpoint a hard availability dependency; if it is slow or down, cards decline at the point of sale.

Solaris

BaFin appointed a special representative in 2022 and extended the mandate in July 2024, so a partner is joining a bank under active supervisory monitoring, with slower approvals and heavier compliance demands as a direct consequence.
BaFin fined Solaris EUR 6.5 million in March 2024 for systematically late suspicious activity reports and EUR 500,000 for breaching large exposure limits between January 2022 and March 2024, which is a track record a partner inherits reputationally.
Solaris has previously needed BaFin approval before onboarding new corporate clients, which can turn a commercial decision to launch into a regulatory timetable outside your control.
The 2024 restructuring involved job cuts and the closure of parts of a business unit, so product lines a partner depends on may not have the engineering behind them that the sales process implies.
SBI Holdings acquired majority control in 2025, so strategic direction now sits with a Japanese financial group whose priorities for the European business may differ from the roadmap you were sold.

Pricing, plan by plan

Marqeta

On request

Marqeta card issuing$undefined/year
- Minimum monthly platform fee plus per-transaction and per-active-card charges
- Interchange share negotiated between programme, processor and sponsor bank
- Sponsor bank required, with its own fees and approval process

Solaris

On request

Solaris banking as a service$undefined/year
- Quoted per partner, typically setup fee plus monthly platform fee
- Per account, per card and per transaction charges on top
- Interchange sharing arrangements negotiated per programme

Which should you pick?

Choose Marqeta if

You need just-in-time funding.
You work on Web, REST API.
You also want virtual and physical issuing.

Marqeta review

Choose Solaris if

You need german banking licence.
You work on Web, API.
You also want iban accounts.

Solaris review

Questions people ask

Is Marqeta or Solaris better?: Neither clearly leads. Marqeta starts at On request and Solaris at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Marqeta or Solaris?: Marqeta starts at On request and Solaris at On request.
Does Marqeta or Solaris run on more platforms?: Marqeta runs on Web, REST API. Solaris runs on Web, API.
What is Marqeta best used for?: Marqeta is most often used for a delivery marketplace funding courier cards only at the moment a courier pays for the order, an expense platform issuing a virtual card per subscription with merchant locks, a lender issuing a card that draws on an approved credit line rather than a stored balance, a fintech wanting the same issuing stack across us and european programmes. Of those, a delivery marketplace funding courier cards only at the moment a courier pays for the order and an expense platform issuing a virtual card per subscription with merchant locks are not what Solaris is typically brought in for.
What can Marqeta do that Solaris cannot?: Marqeta covers Just-in-time funding, Virtual and physical issuing, Spend controls, Programme management tools. Solaris covers German banking licence, IBAN accounts, Card issuing, Lending as a service.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Marqeta: Do I need a sponsor bank?

Yes. Marqeta is an issuer processor, not a bank. Card programmes run on a sponsor bank BIN, and that bank approves and supervises your programme.

Solaris: Does Solaris have a real banking licence?

Yes. Solaris SE is a German credit institution, which is why it can offer deposits and lending, unlike e-money based competitors.

Marqeta: How does the pricing really work?

A minimum monthly platform fee plus per-transaction and per-active-card charges, offset by a negotiated share of interchange. The interchange split is the substance of the deal.

Solaris: Is the BaFin action still live?

The special representative appointed in 2022 had the mandate extended in July 2024, and fines were issued in March 2024. Treat supervisory oversight as an active condition in your diligence.

Marqeta: What is just-in-time funding?

Marqeta calls your endpoint at authorisation so you decide and fund each transaction, rather than pre-loading balances onto cards.

Solaris: Who owns Solaris now?

SBI Holdings of Japan agreed in December 2024 and January 2025 to take a majority stake of over seventy per cent for around EUR 100 million.

Marqeta vs Solaris

Marqeta

Solaris

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Marqeta

Only in Solaris

What people use each for

Marqeta

Solaris

Where each one falls short

Marqeta

Solaris

Pricing, plan by plan

Marqeta

Solaris

Which should you pick?

Choose Marqeta if

Choose Solaris if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Marqeta

More on Solaris

Keep looking

Other head to heads