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APIs · head to head

Salt Edge vs Trustly

Salt Edge logo

Salt Edge

APIs

Independent open banking aggregator covering Europe by PSD2 API and other markets by direct connection

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Trustly logo

Trustly

APIs

Pay-by-bank payments network, majority-owned by private equity firm Nordic Capital

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Trustly it is majority-owned by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, so its long-term roadmap is ultimately oriented toward an eventual sale or IPO rather than indefinite independent operation.
  • They diverge on capability: Salt Edge covers Account information, Trustly covers Pay by bank checkout.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Salt Edge and Trustly actually diverge.

Attributes where Salt Edge and Trustly differ
AttributeSalt EdgeTrustly

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), 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 Salt Edge

  • Account information
  • Payment initiation
  • Wide country coverage
  • Open Banking Gateway
  • Categorisation and enrichment
  • Consent management
  • Partner and white label
  • Sandbox

Only in Trustly

  • Pay by bank checkout
  • Instant refunds
  • Verified payouts
  • Multi-market bank connectivity
  • Merchant dashboard and reconciliation
  • Fraud and risk tooling

What people use each for

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

Salt Edge

  • A lender operating across several European and non-EU markets that needs one aggregation contract rather than a different provider per countrynot Trustly
  • A fintech that wants an aggregator not owned by a card network because its use case competes with card productsnot Trustly
  • An accounting or treasury product that needs bank feeds in markets the large aggregators do not servenot Trustly
  • A bank that must publish PSD2-compliant APIs and would rather buy the compliance layer than build itnot Trustly

Trustly

  • An e-commerce merchant wanting a lower-cost alternative or complement to card payment acceptancenot Salt Edge
  • A gaming or gambling operator needing verified, instant payouts to players' bank accountsnot Salt Edge
  • A merchant wanting instant refunds processed directly to a customer's bank account rather than card reversal delaysnot Salt Edge
  • A business in a market with strong open banking adoption wanting pay-by-bank as a checkout optionnot Salt Edge

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Trustly

  • It is majority-owned by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, so its long-term roadmap is ultimately oriented toward an eventual sale or IPO rather than indefinite independent operation.
  • Consumer familiarity with paying by bank transfer still lags card payments in most markets, so merchants typically see it used as a secondary option rather than a full card replacement.
  • The 1.15 to 3.15% merchant fee range is not a single published rate, so a merchant cannot know its actual cost without a sales negotiation.
  • As with all open banking-dependent payment methods, reliability depends on the consistency of the underlying banks' own APIs, which Trustly does not control.
  • Its verified payout functionality is heavily used in gaming and gambling, a sector with additional regulatory scrutiny, which is worth factoring in when evaluating vendor risk exposure by association.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Trustly

On request
  • Trustly$undefined/month
    • Typical merchant cost of 1.15% to 3.15% depending on volume and market
    • Exact rate negotiated per merchant, not published as a flat card

Which should you pick?

Choose Salt Edge if

  • You need account information.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want payment initiation.
Salt Edge review

Choose Trustly if

  • You need pay by bank checkout.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want instant refunds.
Trustly review

Questions people ask

Is Salt Edge or Trustly better?
Neither clearly leads. Salt Edge starts at On request and Trustly at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Salt Edge or Trustly?
Salt Edge starts at On request and Trustly at On request.
Does Salt Edge or Trustly run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, API, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Salt Edge best used for?
Salt Edge is most often used for a lender operating across several european and non-eu markets that needs one aggregation contract rather than a different provider per country, a fintech that wants an aggregator not owned by a card network because its use case competes with card products, an accounting or treasury product that needs bank feeds in markets the large aggregators do not serve, a bank that must publish psd2-compliant apis and would rather buy the compliance layer than build it. Of those, a lender operating across several european and non-eu markets that needs one aggregation contract rather than a different provider per country and a fintech that wants an aggregator not owned by a card network because its use case competes with card products are not what Trustly is typically brought in for.
What can Salt Edge do that Trustly cannot?
Salt Edge covers Account information, Payment initiation, Wide country coverage, Open Banking Gateway. Trustly covers Pay by bank checkout, Instant refunds, Verified payouts, Multi-market bank connectivity.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Salt 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.

Trustly: Who owns Trustly?

Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, holds a 51.1% majority stake; Alfven & Didrikson and BlackRock hold smaller stakes.

Salt 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.

Trustly: Is Trustly going public?

It has discussed an IPO but as of its most recent comments said one remained at least a year away.

Salt Edge: Does it do payments as well as data?

Yes, payment initiation is supported in European markets where PSD2 applies.

Trustly: What does it typically cost a merchant?

Roughly 1.15% to 3.15% of transaction value depending on volume and market, negotiated per merchant.

Salt Edge: What does it cost?

Not published. Pricing is usage-based and quoted, though the sandbox is free.

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