At some point, almost every SaaS product runs into a "we need to move money" problem — get paid without becoming a payments company, hold a real bank account without becoming a bank, or issue cards without spending a year on compliance. A cluster of infrastructure companies exists to hand you that as an API instead of a multi-year banking license. Here are six worth knowing, covering different pieces of that puzzle: getting paid, issuing cards, holding money, lending, settling in stablecoins, and pricing fairly across countries.
Creem — get paid globally without becoming the tax office
Creem is a Merchant-of-Record payments platform: it handles checkout, subscriptions, revenue splits, and — critically — global tax compliance, so you're not the one figuring out VAT in fourteen countries. It charges a flat 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction, all-inclusive (fraud, multi-currency, taxes), with no setup fee, no monthly fee, and no minimum volume.
Good for: indie SaaS and small teams selling internationally who don't want to deal with tax compliance themselves. Limits: that flat rate is noticeably higher than going direct to Stripe — you're paying for someone else to own the tax and compliance headache.
Highnote — launch your own card program
Highnote lets you launch your own card program — issuing, payment acquiring, even buy-now-pay-later credit — aimed at getting a new card product live in weeks instead of months. Its own comparison data lists Unit as a direct alternative alongside Stripe Issuing and Marqeta. No public pricing; it's a commercial-contact, usage/enterprise-style model.
Good for: companies specifically building a branded card product, not just accepting payments. Limits: no transparent pricing to compare, and card issuing is a heavier commitment than most of the other tools here.
Swan — a real European bank account, built into your product
Swan gives your software a real European bank account and payment cards, without you becoming a bank — popular with accounting, HR, and property-management SaaS tools that need to hold or move client money. The sandbox is free and unlimited for testing; Swan on Demand starts around €2,990/month (covering FR/DE/ES/NL/IT IBANs, SEPA transfers, and custom cards), with Swan Enterprise on a custom quote that can include a share of interchange revenue.
Good for: European SaaS products that need embedded banking, not just payment processing. Limits: €2,990/month is a serious commitment — this is built for products with real transaction volume, not side projects.
Unit — banking and lending features as an API
Unit offers banking, cards, and lending features you build directly into your app, either as a fast "managed" package or a fully custom API — for companies that want financial features without becoming a bank themselves. There's no public pricing page; you'll need a sales demo to get a quote, and you choose between the managed Ready-to-Launch path or the fully custom API.
Good for: US-focused products that want banking features (accounts, cards, lending) without picking Swan's European-first approach. Limits: opaque pricing, and the choice between managed vs. custom adds a real decision to make upfront.
PhotonPay — payments settled in stablecoins, not bank wires
PhotonPay is built on stablecoins instead of traditional bank wires, letting businesses hold multi-currency balances, accept payments, and settle instantly around the clock — no waiting on banking hours or SWIFT delays. The site advertises "transparent pricing with no markup" on currency conversion but doesn't publish an actual pricing grid; a sales contact is required.
Good for: businesses moving money across borders who are comfortable with stablecoin rails and want instant, 24/7 settlement. Limits: no public pricing, and stablecoin-based payments still carry more regulatory and trust uncertainty than traditional rails for some customers.
Paritydeals — pricing that doesn't quietly exclude most of the world
Paritydeals is a pricing widget that automatically shows a cheaper price to visitors from lower-income countries, so a $49/month tool doesn't price out most of the world by default — a smaller, cheaper problem than the banking tools above, but a real one for any SaaS selling globally. It's free up to roughly 5,000 visitors/month, then tiered plans (Starter, Builder, Scale) based on API call volume, with a 14-day free trial and 20% off annual billing on paid tiers.
Good for: SaaS products with a single global price list who are losing customers in lower-income markets. Limits: it's a pricing display layer, not a payments processor — you still need Stripe, Creem, or similar underneath it.
Side by side
| Tool | Solves | Price | Region focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creem | Global checkout + tax compliance (MoR) | 3.9% + $0.40/transaction | Global |
| Highnote | Launching a card program | Custom quote | US-centric |
| Swan | Embedded European bank account | From ~€2,990/mo | EU (FR/DE/ES/NL/IT) |
| Unit | Banking, cards & lending as an API | Custom quote | US-centric |
| PhotonPay | Stablecoin-based global settlement | Custom quote | Global |
| Paritydeals | Purchasing-power-adjusted pricing | Free tier; paid from low volume | Global |
None of these are interchangeable — match the tool to the actual problem. Just need to accept payments and stop worrying about tax? Creem covers that on its own. Need a real bank account or cards behind your product? Swan for Europe, Unit or Highnote for a US-first, card-focused build. Moving money across borders fast? PhotonPay. And if the actual issue is that your one global price is quietly too expensive for half your potential market, Paritydeals is a much smaller, cheaper fix than any of the banking infrastructure above.