European Alternatives to Unit
Looking for a European alternative to Unit? Unit Finance Inc. describes itself as a technology company that enables partner banks, Members FDIC, to offer accounts and cards, and its homepage lists ACH, wire, check and real-time payment rails for deposit accounts, wallets and lending. Those are US rails: a product that also needs IBANs, SEPA or Faster Payments needs a licensed provider on the European side as well.
The European providers below hold their own bank, e-money or payment licences and reach SEPA, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments and Bacs, from sterling bank accounts to euro IBAN programmes and wallet infrastructure.
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12 European Alternatives to Unit
Griffin
London bank with its own core system and a public platform price
Swan
Paris e-money institution selling business accounts and cards to software
Wallester
Tallinn Visa principal member issuing cards and IBAN accounts under your brand
Paynovate
Brussels e-money issuer combining IBAN programmes, card issuing and acquiring
ClearBank
UK clearing bank with a Dutch EU arm, accounts settled at central banks
Treezor
Paris e-money institution offering banking and card issuing on one platform
Modulr
UK payments platform with accounts, collections and published plan prices
Mangopay
Luxembourg wallet infrastructure for marketplaces and platforms
Weavr
UK and Malta embedded accounts and cards as a headless layer for B2B software
Vodeno
Warsaw platform with a smart-contract core and a bank licence via Aion Bank
Banking Circle
Luxembourg bank serving payment firms and banks with accounts and clearing
Solaris
Berlin bank with a full German licence for branded cards and accounts
Key takeaways
- Unit lists ACH, wire, check and real-time payments on its home page, and it does not list SEPA or Faster Payments.
- Griffin is the only provider here that publishes both a one-off platform fee from £15,000 and monthly packages of £4,000, £6,000 and £10,000.
- Of the euro-area names, Swan is the one a finance lead can budget in advance, since its site shows EUR 2,990 per month as the opening price.
- ClearBank and Banking Circle keep client funds as deposits at a bank, while Paynovate and Mangopay hold e-money and say so.
- Banking Circle accepts only regulated financial institutions, so an unlicensed software company cannot start there.
Why people leave Unit
Unit Finance Inc. is a US financial technology company. Its own privacy policy describes it as a service provider to partner banks and to the program partners those banks work with, which means the bank accounts behind a Unit programme belong to a partner bank and not to Unit.
The home page groups the platform into four jobs: hold money in deposit accounts and wallets, spend it with branded cards, move it over payment rails, and lend it through credit products.
The rails named on that page are ACH, wire, check and real-time payments, plus a new line for international payments. They are the rails of the United States. A product sold to customers in Paris, Warsaw or London needs IBANs, SEPA and Faster Payments, and none of those appears in Unit's list, so a European roll-out starts with a question about licensing before it starts with a question about features.
That gap is why buyers look elsewhere. The usual trigger is a company that already runs on Unit in the US and now signs its first customer in the euro area, or a European founder who is comparing Unit with local licence holders before choosing a stack. The twelve providers on this page answer that second case: each contracts through a European or British legal entity that holds its own authorisation.
- The listed rails are American Unit's platform pages describe accounts that carry a routing number and an account number, payments over ACH, wires and checks, and real-time payments in the US. An IBAN does not appear in that list. A European provider such as Swan, Paynovate or Banking Circle starts from SEPA and SEPA Instant, which is the scheme your euro customers actually use, and ClearBank and Griffin add the sterling schemes.
- The licence sits with a partner bank In its privacy policy Unit says it enables banks to offer banking services through digital channels. For a US programme that works as intended. For a European one, the regulatory chain has to be rebuilt, because a US partner bank cannot hold deposits under a French, Belgian or Luxembourg authorisation. The European names here are themselves the bank, e-money institution or payment institution.
- No public price to plan against The Unit address that would normally carry pricing, unit.co/pricing, returned a not-found page when we looked, and the home page sends visitors to the sales team. That is not unusual for a platform product, but it means a European buyer cannot compare a Unit quote with published numbers. Griffin, Swan and Modulr print theirs, which makes a first business case possible before any call.
- Jurisdiction and contract law Unit Finance Inc. is the contracting party and a US company. A European fintech that signs it takes on US contract terms for data about its own end customers. Moving to a provider in Luxembourg, Belgium, France or Poland puts the programme under EU supervision, and the UK providers sit under the Prudential Regulation Authority and the FCA, a regime the EU treats as adequate for data transfers.
What you have to replace, not just match
Moving away from Unit means replacing a bundle, not one feature. On the Unit side that bundle is deposit accounts and wallets, branded debit, charge and revolving credit cards, payment rails and lending products, all reached through one API, a sandbox and a dashboard.
Unit also offers managed solutions that embed a ready interface with one line of code. The European market splits the same bundle across several specialists, so the first job is to write down which of the four jobs your product really uses.
If the product is mainly business accounts inside software, Swan, Griffin and Paynovate are the closest to the Unit deposit-account model. If it is cards, Wallester, Treezor and Solaris are built around issuing.
If it is marketplace wallets, Mangopay is the match for Unit's wallet products, and if it is clearing and correspondent accounts for a licensed firm, Banking Circle and ClearBank fill that slot. Lending is the part with the thinnest European coverage: Solaris lists consumer credit and Vodeno lists lending and BNPL, while Griffin states that overdrafts and structured lending are not yet live.
Data and operations come along too. Account numbers become IBANs or sort codes, ACH mandates become SEPA Direct Debit mandates, and card BINs change owner unless the new provider offers a dedicated BIN, as Wallester does. Webhooks, ledger references and reconciliation files all use Unit's object model today and will need a mapping layer to the new API.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Griffin | London, United Kingdom | Platform onboarding from £15,000 one-off, monthly packages of £4,000, £6,000 and £10,000; business accounts from £100 per month | United Kingdom (outside the EEA, covered by an EU adequacy decision) |
| #2 | Swan | Paris, France | Swan on demand from EUR 2,990 per month; Swan Enterprise is custom | EU (France) |
| #3 | Wallester | Estonia, Estonia | White-label pricing on request; business account has a free start tier | EU (Estonia) |
| #4 | Paynovate | Brussels area, Belgium | Monthly pricing for a standard business IBAN account (amounts not shown); other products custom | EU (Belgium) |
| #5 | ClearBank | London and Amsterdam, United Kingdom | No public price, quote on request | United Kingdom (outside the EEA, covered by an EU adequacy decision) |
| #6 | Treezor | Paris, France | Pricing on request | EU (France) |
| #7 | Modulr | United Kingdom, United Kingdom | Bundle plans from GBP 30 per month (Bronze), GBP 110 (Silver), GBP 500 (Platinum); platform pricing separate | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #8 | Mangopay | Luxembourg | Custom volume-based pricing; no public tiers or free plan | EU (Luxembourg) |
| #9 | Weavr | London, United Kingdom | Pricing on request | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #10 | Vodeno | Warsaw, Poland | Pricing on request | EU (Poland) |
| #11 | Banking Circle | Luxembourg | No public price, quote on request | EU (Luxembourg) |
| #12 | Solaris | Berlin, Germany | Pricing on request | EU (Germany) |
How each alternative compares to Unit
Best for: UK payment, wealth and lending apps that want a sterling bank account behind their product
Griffin Bank Ltd holds the licence, runs the core banking platform and ships the API, so a programme has one counterparty. Unit describes itself as a technology layer between your product and partner banks, which makes the chain longer. Griffin sells account models by purpose: safeguarding accounts, client money accounts and savings accounts, each opened through the API.
Griffin's pricing page shows a one-off fee from £15,000 and a go-live window of 6 to 8 weeks. The documentation carries dated API versions and a free sandbox. Everything on the pages we read is in sterling, so the comparison with Unit holds for UK customers and stops at the border of the euro area.
What Griffin does better than Unit
- One company owns licence, core system and API
- Safeguarding and client money account types
- Price and go-live window published
- Dated API versions with release notes
Where Griffin is a step down from Unit
- No euro accounts described
- Overdrafts and lending not yet live
- Far smaller client base than Unit's stated volume
Standout against Unit. Griffin states that the licence, the core banking platform and the API belong to one company.
Best for: Software vendors in accounting, HR or treasury that want to embed euro-area business accounts and cards
Swan answers the question Unit leaves open for Europeans: where do the IBANs come from. Accounts carry local identifiers starting FR, DE, ES, NL and IT, and the same contract covers SEPA transfers and branded cards. Against Unit's hold, spend and move structure, the arrangement is similar, except that the regulated party is a French electronic money institution.
Entry pricing is listed as EUR 2,990 monthly, with revenue sharing on interchange reserved for enterprise contracts. Developers get a no-cost test environment plus a simulator for account events. The audience is businesses, so a consumer app or a programme that only needs cards sits less comfortably here than on Unit's wider menu.
What Swan does better than Unit
- Local IBANs in five countries
- Starting price printed on the site
- No-cost test environment with simulated events
- Interchange sharing offered on enterprise terms
Where Swan is a step down from Unit
- Five IBAN countries only
- No lending products described
- Monthly fee excludes very small products
Standout against Unit. Swan states the entry price in euros on its own site, which Unit does not.
Best for: Fintechs that need co-branded cards plus accounts for customers in the EEA and the UK
Wallester takes the card side of Unit's platform and puts a European sponsor behind it. Wallester AS is an Estonian payment institution and an official Visa Principal Member, so scheme rules are agreed with an Estonian company. Debit, prepaid and credit programmes are listed, and a dedicated BIN can be set up to keep programmes apart.
Accounts are in ten currencies, from EUR and GBP to PLN, SEK and USD, and a white-label app and back office come with the platform. The stated footprint is the EEA plus the UK. A product that has to serve cardholders in America therefore keeps some Unit exposure and cannot shift wholly to Wallester.
What Wallester does better than Unit
- Dedicated BIN option under a European licence
- Ten currencies on accounts and cards
- White-label app and back office included
- Business account on the same stack
Where Wallester is a step down from Unit
- White-label price not published
- No coverage outside the EEA and UK
- Credit programme details are marketing-level only
Standout against Unit. Wallester pairs a Visa principal membership with a dedicated BIN option inside the EEA.
Best for: Platforms and EMI distributors launching IBAN accounts and cards in the EEA
Paynovate SA is regulated by the National Bank of Belgium as an e-money issuer and dates its licence to 2019. Its IBAN programme keeps the customer journey in your product while Paynovate supplies SEPA transfers, SEPA Instant and Direct Debit. Where Unit organises around hold, spend, move and lend, Paynovate adds acquiring, which Unit does not list.
Its site gives indicative onboarding times of two days for low-risk, two weeks for medium-risk and one month for high-risk businesses. Paynovate says plainly that it offers no bank or deposit accounts and that its payment accounts are outside the Guarantee Fund. Amounts on its pricing page are mostly hidden.
What Paynovate does better than Unit
- SEPA Instant and Direct Debit in one programme
- BIN sponsorship on the same contract
- Onboarding times stated on the site
- Acquiring and issuing at one company
Where Paynovate is a step down from Unit
- E-money only, no deposit insurance
- Public developer documentation not found
- No lending and no sterling focus
Standout against Unit. Paynovate also runs card acquiring and terminals next to its IBAN and card programmes.
Best for: Banks, payment firms and fintechs that need UK and euro clearing from one group
ClearBank is the strongest match for the rails side of Unit. It is a direct member of Faster Payments, Bacs, CHAPS, SEPA, SEPA Instant and T2, settling at the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. Unit points to direct access to the Federal Reserve and the card networks; ClearBank offers the European and British equivalent through ClearBank Limited and ClearBank Europe N.V.
Accounts are real deposit accounts, and a parent account can hold up to 6 million virtual IBANs. Card issuing does not appear in its product list, and pricing is on request. Its embedded examples lean to UK retail products such as savings and an ISA, which matters less for a euro B2B buyer.
What ClearBank does better than Unit
- Direct scheme access in the UK and the euro area
- Deposit accounts, not e-money
- Up to 6 million virtual IBANs per parent account
- A Dutch bank as the EU entity
Where ClearBank is a step down from Unit
- No card product listed
- No public pricing
- UK retail focus in the embedded examples
Standout against Unit. ClearBank settles at both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Best for: Banks, neobanks and employee-benefit card schemes in Europe renting processing instead of building it
Treezor splits what Unit sells as one platform into four routes: banking as a service on its own e-money licence, a core banking platform, a card-only service and a ready dashboard. Under the card-only route the customer may operate on its own licence and optionally borrow Treezor as BIN sponsor, a fit for a bank that wants to keep its authorisation and outsource processing.
The site states an ACPR licence, PCI DSS and ISO 27001, and cites more than 150 clients and over 8.5 million cards across Europe, all vendor figures. Authorisation logic is configurable per transaction. Pricing is not shown, and the homepage banner about Treezor joining Shares signals a change of ownership that a buyer should read before signing.
What Treezor does better than Unit
- Cards that run on the customer's own licence
- Dynamic account selection per transaction
- Employee-benefit templates in the vendor's terms
- ACPR licence and stated ISO 27001
Where Treezor is a step down from Unit
- No public pricing
- Four-route structure is heavy for small teams
- Ownership change announced, details not on the page read
Standout against Unit. Treezor lets a card programme decide per transaction which account pays, or hands the decision to your own system.
Best for: Finance teams and platforms in Britain that automate payments to suppliers and staff
Entry pricing at Modulr comes in three bundles. Bronze costs GBP 30 a month and covers 80 payments, Silver costs GBP 110 for 500, and Platinum costs GBP 500 for 3,000. Unit sells to platforms, whereas Modulr also sells to businesses directly, so the product leans to accounts payable, payroll and spend management.
Modulr Finance Limited is an agent of Modulr FS Limited, which the FCA authorises as an electronic money institution. Everything is priced in pounds and contracted with English entities, so a euro-area programme needs a conversation about how EU cardholders are served. An own-BIN card programme is not described.
What Modulr does better than Unit
- Bundle prices printed on the site
- Accounts payable and payroll features
- API and sandbox available
- Direct sale to businesses as well as platforms
Where Modulr is a step down from Unit
- Pound pricing and UK entities only
- No own-BIN card programme described
- Platform pricing on request
Standout against Unit. Modulr publishes three bundle prices on its site, starting at GBP 30 per month.
Best for: Marketplaces and platforms collecting money from buyers and paying many sellers
Mangopay S.A. covers the part of Unit that holds funds in wallets. Each platform user can receive a wallet carrying as many IBANs and currencies as needed, and the homepage names collection, escrow, loyalty, refund and treasury wallets. Split payments keep the platform fee in one wallet and release the rest to sellers.
The EU terms page calls Mangopay an electronic money institution approved by the Luxembourg CSSF. Balances are e-money, not deposits, and the pricing FAQ says personal wallets and consumer IBANs are not offered. Pricing is custom and volume-based, and a published prohibited-businesses page excludes some industries.
What Mangopay does better than Unit
- Split payments and payouts built in
- Unlimited virtual IBANs per the pricing details
- Identity checks in more than 190 countries
- EU licence from the CSSF
Where Mangopay is a step down from Unit
- No card issuing
- No consumer accounts
- Custom pricing and an excluded-industries list
Standout against Unit. Mangopay builds multi-vendor baskets and payment splits into the wallet model itself.
Best for: Business software that wants to add cards for expenses, employee benefits or paying suppliers
Weavr organises its site by workflow: employee benefits, expenses, accounts payable, subscriptions, loyalty and travel. Unit organises by money movement, so the entry point differs. Accounts, payments and cards come as a headless layer, with the interface staying in your product, and the Embedder Portal sandbox, API reference and changelog are public.
British programmes are signed with Weavr Ltd, while EU ones go to Weavr (Europe) Ltd in Malta. In the EU case Paynetics AD supplies the account and the Mastercard product and Weavr (Europe) Ltd acts as its registered agent, which adds a link compared with a direct licence holder. No price is displayed.
What Weavr does better than Unit
- Workflow-based packaging
- Different legal entities for UK and EU programmes
- Public sandbox and changelog
- Virtual cards for travel and loyalty use cases
Where Weavr is a step down from Unit
- EU cards depend on a partner issuer
- B2B focus only, no consumer programmes
- Pricing not shown
Standout against Unit. Weavr describes each product as a workflow pattern a software vendor can embed, not as a rail or a licence.
Best for: Businesses launching banking products without holding a licence themselves
Vodeno sp. z o.o. combines its own HiLo smart-contract core banking system with access to a full banking licence through Aion Bank. Product owners define products in a no-code designer, and the service list adds European IBAN accounts, lending and BNPL, payments with live FX and Mastercard cards. That range is closer to Unit's lend-money line than most providers here.
The licence belongs to the partner and not to Vodeno, and the company's own site looks partly out of date: the footer shows 2024 and the home page carries placeholder text. The security and compliance claims, 500+ controls and ISO 27001, are vendor claims. No price is published.
What Vodeno does better than Unit
- Lending and BNPL named in the service list
- No-code product design
- Polish registry data on the privacy policy
- Cards, FX and onboarding in one stack
Where Vodeno is a step down from Unit
- Licence is a partner bank's
- Website partly stale
- No public pricing
Standout against Unit. Vodeno defines banking products as smart contracts built in a no-code designer.
Banking Circle
Luxembourg bank giving regulated firms accounts, local rails and FX in 24 currencies
Best for: Payment institutions, e-money firms and banks needing accounts and clearing access
Banking Circle S.A. is a credit institution supervised by the CSSF, with branches in Denmark and Germany. It is a bank for banks: its homepage says it works with regulated financial institutions and does not serve private individuals. Virtual accounts can be created one by one or in bulk with the client's own IBAN prefix, which resembles Unit's wallet idea one level up the chain.
Agency banking lets a regulated entity take part in SEPA and Faster Payments with its own BIC and IBANs. It lists 24 currencies and up to 14 local payment currencies, reachable by API, portal, SFTP or SWIFT. An unlicensed start-up cannot sign up, no cards appear in the service list, and no price or public documentation was found.
What Banking Circle does better than Unit
- Agency banking with the client's own BIC
- 24 currencies and up to 14 local payment currencies
- SFTP and SWIFT connections as well as an API
- CSSF-supervised credit institution
Where Banking Circle is a step down from Unit
- Regulated clients only
- No cards in the service list
- No public price or documentation
Standout against Unit. Banking Circle lets a licensed firm join SEPA and Faster Payments under its own BIC.
Best for: Travel, mobility and software brands that prefer a German bank standing behind their own cards
According to its imprint, Solaris SE is a bank in Germany under BaFin and European Central Bank supervision. Visa and Mastercard products are offered as debit, prepaid, charge or revolving credit, and a card does not need an account behind it. That is the nearest European match to Unit's debit, charge and revolving credit card line.
Offers are organised per sector (SaaS, ERP, HR tech, travel and mobility), and a KYC and KYB platform is sold next to the cards. Being a full bank, Solaris treats onboarding as a project rather than a self-serve signup. No prices are published and the pages we read do not show who owns it.
What Solaris does better than Unit
- Credit, debit and prepaid on two schemes
- Card issuing independent of an account
- Full German banking licence
- Industry packs for SaaS, HR tech and travel
Where Solaris is a step down from Unit
- Project-style onboarding, not self-serve
- Pricing not published
- Broader bank scope than a card-only buyer needs
Standout against Unit. Solaris lists charge and revolving credit cards on a German bank licence.
What actually breaks when you switch
The first break is identifiers. Unit accounts are identified by routing and account numbers, and every counterparty, payroll file and direct debit instruction your customers hold is tied to them. A European programme issues IBANs or sort codes, so customers must update their payers and payees. Plan for a period in which both identifiers work, and ask the new provider whether virtual IBANs can be created in bulk before cutover, as ClearBank, Banking Circle and Mangopay describe.
The second break is the contract chain. Moving cards means moving the BIN, and a new sponsor will either issue under its own or set up a dedicated one.
Onboarding times differ widely: Paynovate quotes two days to a month by risk class, Griffin quotes 6 to 8 weeks for go-live, and Solaris treats new partners as a project. Add the work of re-papering KYB, transaction monitoring and complaint handling to the schedule, and keep Unit running for existing American customers until the new ledger reconciles.
Do I need a different provider for Europe if I already use Unit in the US?
In most cases yes. Unit's pages describe US deposit accounts and US rails, and an IBAN programme needs an institution authorised in Europe. The practical pattern is to keep Unit for the American customers and add a European provider for euro or sterling customers, with one internal ledger above both.
Pick the European partner by the product you sell. Business accounts for software point to Swan or Griffin, wallets for marketplaces to Mangopay, and branded cards to Wallester or Solaris. A single contract that covers both continents is not on offer from any provider on this page.
Is a bank, an e-money institution or a payment institution the safer holder of customer money?
The answer depends on what protection your customers expect. ClearBank states that its accounts are deposit accounts with FSCS cover up to £120,000 in the UK and national schemes up to €100,000 in Europe for eligible deposits. Paynovate and Mangopay state the opposite: they are e-money institutions, so balances are safeguarded e-money and not insured deposits.
Neither model is wrong. E-money institutions suit wallets and payment flows where funds pass through quickly, and banks suit products where customers leave money for months. Whichever you choose, say in your own terms which one applies, because your customers will ask.
Which one to pick
Choose by the licence your product needs. For business accounts embedded in software, Swan covers the euro area and Griffin covers sterling, and both publish prices. For cards, Wallester gives an EEA and UK sponsor with a dedicated BIN, Treezor lets you keep your own licence, and Solaris adds credit under a German bank licence. For marketplaces, Mangopay is the closest fit.
If you are a licensed firm that needs clearing, Banking Circle and ClearBank are the banks to ask, and they do not fit unlicensed start-ups in the same way. Modulr suits UK finance teams wanting a printed price, Paynovate a Belgian e-money route with acquiring, Weavr a workflow-led B2B product, and Vodeno a partner-licence route that includes lending. Stay on Unit when your customers and rails are American.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the product. For business accounts inside software, Swan in France and Griffin in the United Kingdom are the closest matches, and both publish prices. For cards, Wallester in Estonia and Solaris in Germany are built around issuing. For marketplace wallets, Mangopay in Luxembourg fits, and for licensed payment firms, Banking Circle and ClearBank offer accounts and clearing.
On the pages we read, no. The rails listed on unit.co are ACH, wire, check and real-time payments, with international payments announced as new. A SEPA or Faster Payments programme therefore needs a provider that holds the licence for those schemes, such as Swan, Paynovate, ClearBank or Modulr.
Griffin lists a one-off onboarding fee from £15,000 and monthly packages of £4,000, £6,000 and £10,000. Swan lists EUR 2,990 per month. Modulr lists bundles at GBP 30, GBP 110 and GBP 500 per month. Wallester, Treezor, Weavr, Vodeno, Mangopay, ClearBank and Banking Circle ask you to request a quote.
Most of them are built for that case, since they supply the regulated layer: Swan, Wallester, Paynovate, Mangopay, Weavr and Solaris sell to software companies. Banking Circle is the exception, because it works with regulated financial institutions only and its agency banking is limited to regulated entities.
Griffin, ClearBank, Modulr and Weavr are British companies. The United Kingdom sits outside the EU and EEA, but it holds an EU adequacy decision for personal data. ClearBank also has a Dutch bank, ClearBank Europe N.V., and Weavr has a Malta entity, so both can serve euro-area customers from inside the EU.
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