Unit
Embedded banking-as-a-service API enabling fintechs to offer FDIC-insured accounts, debit and credit cards, ACH, wires, and checks within their own product.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS compliant. JWT-based customer tokens enable least-privilege access for end-user operations. TLS enforced. Scoped tokens reduce blast radius for compromised credentials.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
You are building a fintech application that needs to offer your end users or businesses a full banking experience (accounts + cards + transfers) under your brand.
Avoid When
You only need payment initiation APIs without account issuance, or you need direct Federal Reserve access without a banking partner intermediary — Increase is a better fit.
Use Cases
- • Embedding FDIC-insured bank accounts inside a fintech or SaaS product
- • Issuing branded debit or charge cards for corporate spend management
- • Offering ACH and wire transfers under your own brand via Unit's infrastructure
- • Building a neobank product without becoming a bank
Not For
- • Direct payment acceptance (no merchant acquiring)
- • Companies that just need payment initiation without embedded account features
- • Simple B2B wire or ACH-only use cases without account issuance
Interface
Authentication
Org-level API keys for server-to-server calls. Customer tokens (JWT) for end-user-scoped operations with limited permissions. Scopes control access to specific resource types.
Pricing
Unit requires a partnership agreement before production access. Evaluation sandbox is available after an introductory call. Not self-serve for production.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Customer token (JWT) scoping adds complexity for agents — org-level vs customer-level permissions must be carefully managed to avoid authorization errors.
- ⚠ Card issuance flows have compliance steps (KYC/KYB) that are async and must be polled for completion before card operations are available.
- ⚠ Rate limits are undisclosed publicly — agents operating at high throughput should request documented limits during partnership onboarding.
- ⚠ Partnership requirement means no self-serve path to production; coordinate production go-live with Unit's team in advance.
Alternatives
Full Evaluation Report
Detailed scoring breakdown, competitive positioning, security analysis, and improvement recommendations for Unit.
Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.