From CaaS to BaaS: comparing digital payment card partner solutions
If you’re looking for a partner for your card-based payment product, you face a critical decision: how that partner should help you issue and operate cards, and (if necessary) provide banking services to your customers. In short: do you need a Cards-as-a-Service (CaaS) provider, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider, or a solution that offers both? This page compares the market’s leading CaaS and BaaS solutions to help you understand the trade-offs between speed to market, operational effort, and level of control – and choose the provider that best supports your strategy.
What’s out there: understanding the CaaS and BaaS market
Full product platforms
Pliant CaaS-first providers that offer both BaaS functionality (business accounts, international transfers) within a single platform.
Cards as a Service (CaaS)
Enfuce, Mynt Card-issuing infrastructure focused on schemes, processing, and compliance, with product and UX built by the partner.
Banking as a Service (BaaS)
Swan, Solaris Broader banking capabilities (such as accounts and payments) where card issuing is one component of a larger stack.
Issuing & Payments Infrastructure
Stripe, Adyen Payment and issuing primitives used to build custom card products from scratch.
Expense software
Cardlay, Inlogik Spend management tools that sit on top of existing cards but do not own card issuing or banking.
CaaS and BaaS solutions at-a-glance
| Full product platforms | CaaS providers | BaaS Providers | Issuing / Payments Infra | Expense Software | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Pliant | Enfuce, Mynt | Swan, Solaris | Stripe, Adyen | Cardlay, Inlogik |
| What you get | Card product + issuing | Card issuing infrastructure | Banking primitives incl. cards | Low-level issuing & payments | Spend management UI |
| End-user product | Included | Build yourself | Build yourself | Build yourself | (no issuing) |
| Credit support | Native | Partner-sourced | Typically none | None | Depends on bank |
| UX & workflows | Provided | Partner-owned | Partner-owned | Partner-owned | Core focus |
| Compliance ownership | Provided | Provider | Provider | Shared | Issuing bank |
| Time to launch | Weeks | Months | Months | Months | Weeks |
How Pliant compares to CaaS and BaaS providers
Pliant and Adyen both support card issuance, but serve very different use cases. Pliant combines CaaS and BaaS to deliver a complete card platform, offering card issuing alongside the required banking capabilities in a product-led platform. Adyen provides issuing and payment infrastructure, requiring partners to build, operate, and manage the end-user product, workflows, and banking setup themselves. No customization or UI/UX are offered as standard.
Cardlay is an expense management software with strong UX and white-label capabilities. The key difference from Pliant is in credit card support: with Cardlay, credit depends entirely on the issuing bank. Pliant, by contrast, offers native corporate credit cards with embedded credit lines across the EEA, managing limits, billing cycles, and repayment logic end-to-end.
Pliant and Enfuce both support card issuing, but they differ in scope. Pliant operates as a CaaS provider with BaaS capabilities, offering card issuing alongside the required banking capabilities within a single platform. Enfuce focuses on card-issuing infrastructure and is strong in processing. Product design, user experience, and workflows owned must be built by the partner, and there is no US coverage.
Inlogik is an expense management software that offers a Card Management Platform with configurable workflows. While Inlogik operates at the software layer and does not provide native credit products, Pliant is a CaaS platform (with BaaS functionality) offering corporate credit cards with embedded credit lines.
Pliant offers a product-led card platform, with providing CaaS and BaaS features: card issuing with the required banking services within a single platform. Mynt is a more classic CaaS provider. However, the key difference is geographical coverage: Mynt is extremely focused in the Nordic region (although is expanding), whereas Pliant offers more coverage in EEA, offers 11+ currencies, core credit infrastructure, and support for the UK and US regions.
Pliant and Solaris both support card programs. Pliant combines CaaS and BaaS to deliver a complete card platform, including issuing and banking capabilities. Solaris provides modular banking infrastructure. Similiar to Swan, card products are very much secondary: user experience and operational workflows are built and managed by the partner.
Pliant and Stripe both enable card issuance, but target different use cases. Pliant provides both CaaS and BaaS capabilities, offering card issuing together with banking capabilities as a product. Stripe provides low-level payments and issuing primitives, requiring significant engineering and operational effort to build a full card solution. This includes no credit, no customization, and no UI/UX as standard.
Pliant and Swan approach card products from different angles. Pliant operates as a CaaS provider with BaaS capabilities, combining card issuing with banking features in a product-led platform. Swan is a BaaS provider focused on banking primitives such as accounts and payments. Card products are very much secondary for Swan, with user workflows designed and operated by partners.
CaaS vs BaaS: What’s the difference?
CaaS and BaaS solutions both enable companies to launch financial products without building regulated infrastructure themselves. CaaS providers focus on card issuing and program operations, with some also holding EMI licences. BaaS providers center on broader banking capabilities like accounts and payments, with card issuing as one component of a larger offering.
Pliant follows a CaaS-first approach, while also providing selected BaaS capabilities, including business accounts, international transfers, and FX. As a full product platform, our partners gain access to these features without requiring a full banking stack.
Choosing the perfect partner
CaaS and BaaS solutions differ significantly in scope, responsibility, and operational effort. Our comparison focuses on the criteria that most clearly separate these models:
What you get out of the box
Credit and lending ownership
UX and workflow ownership
Compliance and licensing
Time to launch
Operational complexity
Geographic coverage
Making your choice
Choosing between CaaS and BaaS ultimately comes down to how much complexity you want to manage yourself.
While many providers offer parts of the stack, Pliant stands out by operating across both models—covering card issuing and the required banking capabilities in one platform. That means fewer integrations, clearer ownership, and a faster path from idea to live card product.
Pliant: your partner for seamless CaaS and BaaS
Click below to schedule a conversation with our Cards-as-a-Service team to discuss how Pliant’s CaaS can transform your product.
