The Best Plaid Competitors (according to 8 clients) (2024)

Plaid is a financial technology company has become synonymous with streamlined, secure data linking of bank accounts among consumers and app developers. It provides an easy-to-use platform that allows apps to connect with users' bank accounts and access multiple banking services, including transactions, identity verification and account balance checks amongst other features.

Using data aggregation services like Plaid, fintech companies and traditional organizations alike have been able to develop innovative digital banking experiences and new financial solutions in lending, wealth management, secure money transfers and more.

While Plaid has had its share of market dominance, many competitors are rising to the challenge, offering their unique features and capabilities. Whether you're a current Plaid user or a prospective customer, it's worth exploring these alternatives to understand their merits and potential benefits for your specific needs.

Clients chime in: why picking the right data aggregation solution matters

Choosing the right financial data aggregation solution is key for businesses looking to effectively gather, store and build on top of financial data. The right solution lets the entire organization provides value-added services based on a foundation of reliable digital banking data.

Now, not all financial data aggregation solutions are the same. Some might have a very large number of institution connections, allowing consumers to link to a wide range of banks, while others might provide much higher quality and higher reliability connections to a smaller number of institutions. Others might shine in data security and privacy, offering strong consumer controls to ensure data remains safe and private. Factors like ease of integration and developer experience can be deciding factors when choosing a solution, with some solutions providing integrations in just a few lines of code. Making the right decision requires an in-depth understanding of your organization's size, operational needs, and strategic goals.

Making the wrong choice can have long-standing effects. It could result in an under-performing product or lagging business metrics due to unreliable connectivity, low connection rates and lackluster institution coverage. Making the choice that suits your organization's unique needs sets up a solid base for years to come.

The Plaid competitors most favored by clients

Let's dive into eight of the top Plaid competitors and altternatives, which include:

• MX, the leading provider for clean, enhanced data
• Finicity, the financial data aggregator owned by Mastercard
• Envestnet Yodlee, the pioneer of financial data aggregation
• Flinks with the highest number of OAuth connections in North America
• TrueLayer, the leading competitor in Europe
• GoCardless Bank Account Data, best for business accounts
• Teller with top-quality connections to U.S. banking institutions
• Akoya, renowned for their high reliability and API-based connections

For each Plaid competitor, we will delve into what makes them unique and their main differences versus Plaid. This deep-dive will include insights from current clients that use these services, voicing their real-life experiences and feedback.

Plaid competitors

1. MX: Best for Clean, Enhanced Data

First on our list is MX. With its prime focus on clean, enhanced data, MX prides itself in providing a platform that offers a visually centric experience in personal finance management.

The differences with Plaid according to this MX client

Here's a brief breakdown of the key differences with Plaid:

• Data Enhancement: MX provides detailed transactional data enhanced with proprietary categorization and contextual data. This feature enables businesses to comprehend their user's needs more effectively through insights derived from the enhanced data. On the other hand, while Plaid does offer similar functionalities, some clients have expressed that MX often provides a more clear and actionable set of information.
• User Interface: Clients have also pointed out differences in the user interface provided by MX and Plaid. MX is known for its visually appealing, clean, and straightforward UI, while Plaid has a more functional approach.
• Limited Coverage: MX is known to have include connections to fewer financial institutions than larger competitors like Plaid
• Integration: Lastly, many users have noted that integrating with MX's APIs is generally smoother, quicker and more intuitive than with Plaid.

Therefore, while Plaid remains aviable solution for many, MX indeed offers some unique advantages –especially in terms of data management, their user interface and customer support –that businesses might want to consider.

2. Finicity: A Financial Data Aggregator from Mastercard

Finicity, acquired by Mastercard in 2020, is a financial tool which provides easy access to financial data to support financial decision-making and is particularly popular among lenders for use as part of the lending process. Their service is known to focus on data privacy compliance and consumer-permissioned access.

How Finicity differs from Plaid

Based on this client's perspective, key differences with Plaid include:

• Security and Transparency: Finicity places a significant emphasis on the user's ability to grant and revoke access to data at any time, giving users a lot control over their data with the goal to protect sensitive customer data
• Frequent Connectivity Problems: While Finicity has a large network of institutions, its clients sometimes complain about unreliable, dropped or broken bank account connections
• Supported by Mastercard: Since its acquisition by MasterCard, it has the backing of a globally renowned payments giant, assuring reliability and trustworthiness.

3. Envestnet Yodlee: The Original Pioneer of Financial Data Aggregation

Envestnet Yodlee is a leading data aggregation platform and among the first to have pioneered the idea. Having been in the field for over two decades, it carries a robust platform for digital financial services, with a vast network of global financial institutions.

Key differences with Plaid according to this long-standing client

Let's see how Envestnet Yodlee stands in contrast to Plaid:

• Broad Global Coverage: Envestnet Yodlee has links with over 20,000 global financial institutions and financial service providers, providing better global reach compared to Plaid. In addition, Yodlee provides broad coverage of brokerage accounts.
• Pioneer in the Industry: With their 20 year experience in the market, Envestnet Yodlee boasts a proven track record and a deep understanding of the financial data aggregation industry.
• Dated developer experience: Given the company's reliance on older data systems, Yodlee has not gartnered a reputation for a seamlessdeveloper-friendly experience

4. Flinks: The Largest Number of API-based Connections in North America

Based in Canada, Flinks provides financial data connectivity and open banking solutions for over 250 million individuals throughout North America. The company shines with the most robust API-based connections to retail and commercial banks in Canada, in addition to providing coverage outside Canada as a full-fledged alternative to Plaid.

How this Canadian client compares Plaid to Flinks

Here are the main differences between Flinks and Plaid:

• Largest API-based OAuth network: Unlike Plaid, which relies on legacy scraping-based connection methods for many institutions, Flinks boasts the largest live API-based OAuth network in North America. OAuth is a modern, secure protocol for sharing data between applications using APIs, which offers stronger security and higher connection reliablity.
• Canadian market focus: While Plaid’s connections are strong in the United States, Flinks shines in Canada where it hosts robust API connections to all the major banking institutions.
• Wide account type coverage: Flinks provides connection to a wide variety of account types, such as investment, loan, and mortgage accounts, in addition to standard checking and savings accounts.
• Customer support: Users have praised Flinks for its superior customer support. While both Flinks and Plaid provide support, some clients lean towards Flinks due to their responsive and helpful customer service team.

In conclusion, if your target market is located in Canada and you are seeking more extensive coverage of account types, along with the assurance of effective customer support, Flinks could be the better option for your needs compared to Plaid.

5. TrueLayer: The Champion in Europe

TrueLayer's comprehensive API delivers unrivaled connectivity in Europe that sets it apart from Plaid. Their data API lets businesses access consumer banking data, aid payment initiation and verify account ownership instantly and is the go-to platform for businesses in Europe seeking to implement open banking initiatives.

Hear from this client who uses both TrueLayer and Plaid

Adding TrueLayer connectivity for our EU customers was a game-changer for us. We expanded our operations to European markets with confidence, knowing TrueLayer offers wide banking coverage and timely dedicated support

According to this customer, TrueLayer distinguishes itself from Plaid in these key ways:

• Wide European Coverage: TrueLayer connects with banks across several European countries, including the UK, France, and Italy, making it the primary choice for businesses targeting the European market.
• PIS (Payment Initiation Services): The service enables businesses to create a seamless payment experience, reducing the dependency on card payments and third-party payment processors.
• Data Privacy Compliance: TrueLayer is GDPR compliant, ensuring the highest level of data privacy and security for clients operating in Europe.

6. GoCardless Bank Account Data: Best for Commercial Bank Accounts

GoCardless, a pre-existing B2B financial technology company makes available its internal data aggregation product under the name "Bank Account Data". Over 900 companies user's GoCardless' Bank Account Data product, standing among alternatives to Plaid.

The differences with Plaid according to this GoCardless client

Let's delve into some of the significant disparities:

• Good coverage of business bank accounts: Unlike Plaid, GoCardless places greater emphasis on broadening their coverage of commercial and business banks, which is particularly important for B2B use cases like expense managing, accounting automation and business financial management.
• Not GoCardless' main business: GoCardless's primary business line extends beyond providing solely data aggregation services, which may limit the quality of ongoing support and feature improvements.

7. Teller: Highest Quality Connections to US Financial Institutions

Among leading alternatives to Plaid is Teller, which uses a novel approach to provide highly reliable connections to major US financial institutions without relying on traditional screen scraping.

Teller clients report finding it much more reliable than Plaid

In comparison with Plaid, Teller offers the following key distinctions:

• Data Quality: Users have reported that Teller provides consistently accurate and high-quality data, above what they have experienced with other services including Plaid.
• Limited Coverage: While Teller provides higher quality connections, it has less coverage than player like Plaid, prompting some clients to use Plaid and Teller side-by-side, preferred Teller for institutions the company does have coverage.
• Technical Approach: Teller uses a modern technical approach where it doesn’t rely on Oauth to connect with banking institutions which is a key differentiator from Plaid’s usual method.
• Simplified APIs: Teller prides itself on providing straightforward APIs, saving development time and simplifying the process.

These key differences make Teller a valuable alternative for anyone seeking a high-quality data aggregation solution, particularly for businesses operating within the United States.

8. Akoya: Best for High Reliability, API-Based Connections

The final competitor in our list is Akoya, an American financial technology company that provides a network for secure, API-based connectivity for financial data sharing.

Used by fintechs and large financial institutions alike, Akoya is jointly owned by Fidelity and 11 other banks, including Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The company provides a financial institution API connector to the banks that are part of its ownership structure as well as some outside institutions

How this CIO compares Akoya to Plaid

The key differences with Plaid include:

• High Reliability, API-based connections: Unlike Plaid that relies on screen scraping, Akoya makes use of API-based connections. This technology offers a much higher level of reliability by directly linking to financial institutions, thereby eliminating the inconsistencies and errors often associated with screen scraping solutions like Plaid.
• Limited Coverage: Since Akoya requires a deep technical integration with each financial institution on its platform, it has considerably more limited coverage than any of the other solutions in the market.
• Higher Data Security: Akoya reduces risks associated with data sharing through its secure, API-based network.
• Cumbersone onboarding process: Akoya requires extensive legal and security review, making it less suited for smaller, more nimble organizations looking to get started quickly

Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Data Aggregation Solution

In the multidimensional world of financial data aggregation, one size does not fit all. The best solution always depends on the specific requirements and circ*mstances of your business, with each platform bringing its unique capabilities and strengths to the table.

Take the time to listen to clients already using these services, as their experiences provide a mirror to gauge the potential impact on your own operations. Reliable banking data is a key part of building smart financial services and innovative financial solutions, so time spent on due diligence, asking questions and making use of trials is well spent. In this technology-driven age, the right financial data aggregation platform can set up your business for years of success.