Lithic vs Paynetics Card Issuing

Lithic is an issuer processing platform for businesses building card programs, moving money, and managing program operations. It supports debit, prepaid, charge, and revolving credit programs with physical, virtual, and tokenized cards. Authorization rules can restrict spending by merchant category, amount, transaction velocity, time of day, and other criteria. Lithic connects to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express through one processing integration, and provides ACH transfers, virtual and routable accounts, Federal Reserve connectivity, and ledger-based reconciliation. Identity and fraud tools include KYC/KYB workflows, 3DS authentication, shadow mode, backtesting, and client decisioning through Authorization Stream Access. Program services can include sponsor-bank operations, network onboarding, regulatory compliance, card fulfillment, reporting, and 24/7/365 cardholder support across chat, email, phone, and IVR. The platform is available through API and web. Each account includes a free Sandbox API key for development and testing; production access requires an account enabled for that environment. Pricing is by custom quote, based on transaction volume and required features.

Paynetics Card Issuing provides configurable card programs for businesses and their partners. Its range includes physical, virtual, digitized prepaid, debit, credit, and business cards from Visa and Mastercard. Partners can customize card designs and configure rules, limits, controls, hierarchies, products, and pricing levels. Cards can be linked to dedicated IBAN accounts or integrated into an eWallet. The API platform supports digital onboarding and data exchange for compliance, risk analysis, and monitoring; its integration channel includes a REST API for accounts, issuing, transfers, and onboarding, plus a partner portal. Developer resources include APIs, SDKs, sandbox tools, and live operational status. Paynetics supports Apple Pay on iOS and an Android tokenisation solution based on Mastercard’s MDES protocol. A PCI-compliant SDK supports secure card-data display without partners storing or processing sensitive details. Physical card orders require at least 1,000 units, and manufacturing typically takes around two months. Pricing is on request.