APIs · head to head
Prisma vs Volt
Volt
APIs
Account-to-account pay by bank across Europe, the UK, Brazil and Australia
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Prisma has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Prisma prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage; Volt account-to-account payments carry no chargeback mechanism, so consumers lose scheme dispute protection and merchants lose a familiar framework for handling claims.
- They diverge on capability: Prisma covers ORM, Volt covers Pay by bank.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Prisma and Volt actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Prisma
- ORM
- Query builder
- Auto-migrations
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- GraphQL
- REST APIs
- Node.js support
Only in Volt
- Pay by bank
- Circuit Breaker
- Virtual IBANs
- Payouts and refunds
- Verify
- Stablecoin checkout
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Prisma
- Using a type safe ORM and query layer against a Postgres databasenot Volt
- Adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing databasenot Volt
Volt
- A travel seller with high average order values paying percentage card fees it wants to replace with flat transfer feesnot Prisma
- An iGaming operator needing fast deposits and payouts where card acceptance is restrictednot Prisma
- A merchant with heavy card fraud that wants strongly authenticated irreversible paymentsnot Prisma
- A marketplace verifying seller bank accounts before paying outnot Prisma
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Prisma
- Prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage
- Starter at $10 a month includes 1M operations then charges $0.0080 per 1,000
- Storage overage runs from $2.00 per GB on Starter down to $1.00 per GB on Business, so the unit cost depends on the plan
- Accelerate charges separately per operation and per GiB of query egress beyond the first 1 KiB
- Cache tag invalidations are not included below the Pro plan and are billed per thousand above it
Volt
- Account-to-account payments carry no chargeback mechanism, so consumers lose scheme dispute protection and merchants lose a familiar framework for handling claims.
- Refunds are outbound payments rather than reversals, which changes treasury handling and means a refund can fail for reasons a card refund never would.
- Conversion is lower than a stored card because the shopper must complete a bank authentication journey, and drop-off varies significantly by bank.
- Core pay by bank pricing is per transaction but refunds, payouts, virtual IBANs, Verify and fraud tooling are billed separately, so the real cost is a stack of line items.
- Bank API availability and quality vary across markets, and an outage at a major bank removes a slice of your checkout with no fallback unless you keep cards live.
Pricing, plan by plan
Prisma
Free- FreeFree
- 1M requests/month
- 360 GB-hours memory
- 4 vCPU-hours
- Starter$10/month
- 5M requests/month
- 1M database operations ($8 per million overage)
- 10 GB storage ($2/GB overage)
- Pro$49/month
- 20M requests/month
- 10M operations ($2 per million overage)
- 50 GB storage ($1.50/GB overage)
- Business$129/month
- 100M requests/month
- 50M operations ($1 per million overage)
- 100 GB storage
Volt
On request- Volt pay by bank$undefined/year
- Per successful transaction fee, quoted by volume and market
- Separate charges for refunds, payouts, virtual IBANs and Verify
- Circuit Breaker fraud tooling priced as an add-on
Which should you pick?
Choose Prisma if
- You need orm.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Node.js, TypeScript.
- You also want query builder.
Choose Volt if
- You need pay by bank.
- You work on Web, REST API.
- You also want circuit breaker.
Questions people ask
- Is Prisma or Volt better?
- Neither clearly leads. Prisma starts at Free and Volt at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Prisma or Volt?
- Prisma has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Prisma and On request for Volt.
- Does Prisma or Volt run on more platforms?
- Prisma runs on Node.js, TypeScript. Volt runs on Web, REST API.
- Can I use Prisma for free?
- Yes. Prisma has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Volt starts at On request.
- What is Prisma best used for?
- Prisma is most often used for using a type safe orm and query layer against a postgres database, adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing database. Of those, using a type safe orm and query layer against a postgres database and adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing database are not what Volt is typically brought in for.
- What can Prisma do that Volt cannot?
- Prisma covers ORM, Query builder, Auto-migrations, Node.js. Volt covers Pay by bank, Circuit Breaker, Virtual IBANs, Payouts and refunds.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Prisma: How much does Prisma cost?
Prisma is free to start with 1M requests/month. The Starter plan costs $10/month with 5M requests, the Pro plan $49/month with 20M requests, and the Business plan $129/month with 100M requests. All plans have usage-based overages.
SourceVolt: Are there chargebacks?
No. Bank transfers are irrevocable, so disputes are handled commercially between merchant and customer, not through a card scheme.
Prisma: What is Prisma's overage pricing?
Prisma charges $1 per million requests over the included amount (Starter), $2 per million database operations overage (Pro and Starter), and $1.50-$2 per GB for storage overages depending on the plan. All plans include a hard spend limit on by default.
SourceVolt: How do refunds work?
As a separate outbound payment initiated by the merchant, which Volt charges for separately from the inbound transaction.
Prisma: Does Prisma include data transfer costs?
No, Prisma includes unlimited data transfer with no egress fees on all plans. Prisma ORM remains free across all tiers.
SourceVolt: Which markets are covered?
Europe and the UK, plus Brazil and Australia, on a single API integration.
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