Is Mercury or Stigg better?

Neither clearly leads. Mercury starts at Free and Stigg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Mercury or Stigg?

Mercury starts at Free and Stigg at Free.

Does Mercury or Stigg run on more platforms?

Mercury runs on Web, Ios, Android. Stigg runs on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.

Can I use Mercury for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Mercury best used for?

Mercury is most often used for business banking and payments for startups, managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account. Of those, business banking and payments for startups and managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account are not what Stigg is typically brought in for.

What can Mercury do that Stigg cannot?

Mercury covers Business checking, Savings accounts, Virtual cards, Team management. Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement, Financial-grade credits, High-scale metering, Budget governance.

Accounting · head to head

Mercury vs Stigg

Mercury

Accounting

Banking for startups

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Stigg

Accounting

Usage runtime platform for credits and entitlements

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Mercury treasury access requires a $250,000 balance held with Mercury; Stigg free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
They diverge on capability: Mercury covers Business checking, Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mercury and Stigg actually diverge.

Attributes where Mercury and Stigg differ
Attribute	Mercury	Stigg
Pricing model	freemium	Freemium with usage-based and custom tiers
Platforms	Web, Ios, Android	Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API
Founded	2019	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

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 Mercury

Business checking
Savings accounts
Virtual cards
Team management
API access
QuickBooks
Xero
Stripe

Only in Stigg

Real-time credit enforcement
Financial-grade credits
High-scale metering
Budget governance
Flexible deployment
Billing platform integration
Data warehouse integration
CRM integration

What people use each for

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

Mercury

Business banking and payments for startupsnot Stigg
Managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one accountnot Stigg

Stigg

Managing token and credit usage for AI productsnot Mercury
Enforcing spending caps and budget controlsnot Mercury
Implementing prepaid credit systems with expirynot Mercury
Real-time entitlement verification for feature accessnot Mercury
Scaling billing infrastructure for high-volume eventsnot Mercury

Where each one falls short

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

Mercury

Treasury access requires a $250,000 balance held with Mercury
Non USD international wires carry a 1% conversion fee
Choosing OUR wire coding, which covers intermediary bank charges, costs $15 per wire
ACH invoicing is $1 per transaction on Mercury Plus and only free on the $299 a month Pro plan
Advanced and recurring invoicing require Mercury Plus at $29.90 a month

Stigg

Free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
Pro plan pricing ($399/month) may be high for early-stage companies
Scale and BYOC plans require custom contracts and sales engagement
Primarily targets AI and high-scale use cases, not all business models
Requires integration with separate billing platform (Stripe, Zuora, etc.)

Pricing, plan by plan

Mercury

Free

Mercury (Free)Free
- ACH payments
- Domestic wires
- Real-time payments
Mercury Plus$29.9/month
- Invoice ACH debits
- Recurring invoices
- Invoicing API (500/month)
Mercury Pro$299/month
- All Plus features
- Relationship manager
- Free ACH invoice debits

Stigg

Free

Build (Free Forever)Free
- 10,000 managed entities per month
- 5M usage events per month
- 1K events per second rate limit
Pro$399/month
- 10,000 entities included (graduated pricing to 100K)
- 25M usage events included (to 500M with graduated rates)
- 10K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
Scale$null/custom
- Custom entity and event volumes
- 50K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
- RBAC and SSO (SAML)
BYOC$40000/year
- Deploy in customer VPC
- Unlimited entities and events
- No event billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Mercury if

You need business checking.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Ios, Android.
You also want savings accounts.

Mercury review

Choose Stigg if

You need real-time credit enforcement.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
You also want financial-grade credits.

Stigg review

Questions people ask

Is Mercury or Stigg better?: Neither clearly leads. Mercury starts at Free and Stigg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mercury or Stigg?: Mercury starts at Free and Stigg at Free.
Does Mercury or Stigg run on more platforms?: Mercury runs on Web, Ios, Android. Stigg runs on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
Can I use Mercury for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Mercury best used for?: Mercury is most often used for business banking and payments for startups, managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account. Of those, business banking and payments for startups and managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account are not what Stigg is typically brought in for.
What can Mercury do that Stigg cannot?: Mercury covers Business checking, Savings accounts, Virtual cards, Team management. Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement, Financial-grade credits, High-scale metering, Budget governance.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Mercury: Is Mercury business banking free?

Mercury's base banking tier is free and includes ACH payments, domestic wire transfers, real-time payments, Bill Pay, and QuickBooks/Xero automations at no monthly cost.

Source

Stigg: How quickly does Stigg check entitlements?

Stigg makes entitlement checks in under 10 milliseconds, enabling real-time enforcement of spending decisions before token consumption.

Source

Mercury: What does Mercury Plus add beyond the free tier?

Mercury Plus costs $29.90 per month and adds invoice ACH debits, recurring invoice capabilities, invoicing API with 500 calls per month, unlimited 1099 filings, and access to partner benefits.

Source

Stigg: Can I use Stigg with my existing billing platform?

Yes, Stigg integrates with major billing platforms including Stripe, Zuora, Chargebee, Metronome, and Orb to manage entitlements and credits.

Source

Mercury: Does Mercury charge monthly account fees?

No, Mercury states there are no minimum account balance requirements, overdraft fees, required monthly fees, or account opening fees. The free tier includes essential business banking, with paid tiers available for additional features.

Source

Stigg: What deployment options does Stigg offer?

Stigg offers cloud API, BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) for VPC deployment, and BYODB options for customers who want to manage their own database.

Source

Mercury vs Stigg

Mercury

Stigg

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Mercury

Only in Stigg

What people use each for

Mercury

Stigg

Where each one falls short

Mercury

Stigg

Pricing, plan by plan

Mercury

Stigg

Which should you pick?

Choose Mercury if

Choose Stigg if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Mercury

More on Stigg

Keep looking

Other head to heads