Understand the difference

Lithic vs Stripe

Stripe will get a program up and running quickly, but its rigid capabilities and limited issuing expertise hamper maturing customers when their programs become more complex. Lithic's platform scales with you as your program evolves and expands.

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Businesses that partnered with Lithic over Galileo.

Compare key capabilities

The capabilities that inform your reliability, control, and reconciliation speed.

Credit Programs
Revolving and charge credit with automated statements and compliance built in.
Charge cards only. Limitations on revolving credit. No automated statement calculations.
Program Support at Scale
Dedicated Slack connection to technical experts. Issues resolved in minutes or hours, not weeks.
Support response times stretch to weeks. No clear escalation path as volumes grow.
Graduation Path
Clear Graduation Path to self-manage programs, with 25+ sponsor bank integrations. No platform migration required.
Programs are locked into a Program Management model. Clients pursuing direct bank relationships face resistance.
Authorization Intelligence
25+ rule attributes with shadow mode, API backtesting, and challenges beyond 3DS.
Dashboard-only rules. No shadow mode or programmatic backtesting.

Why clients choose Lithic over

Stripe

Three places where the difference between Lithic and Stripe shows up directly in operational excellence, transparency, and specific product limitations.

01

If you need operational experts at your disposal

Stripe is the market leader in payment acquiring that added issuing processing capabilities to their platform. Businesses with complex requirements or plans to take on more program management responsibilities often find themselves without the guidance they need. Clients come to Lithic for swift, expert-level advisory on program design and regulatory compliance.

02

If full functionality with price transparency is a priority

Stripe’s low initial pricing provides limited features that require costly add-ons for production requirements like custom card art and quality. Lithic provides comprehensive functionality with clear pricing from day one and a customer support team that directly integrates with your Slack, so you can move fast without hitting walls.

03

If your program requires a flexible credit offerings

Stripe has historically only supported charge card models, inhibiting fintech from creating true revolving credit products. Lithic supports revolving credit for both commercial and consumer programs.
Why our clients love Lithic. From lean startup teams to mature enterprises, businesses choose Lithic for best-in-class payments infrastructure.
Mercury

“

Card programs look simple on the surface, but there's a lot of complexity underneath. What stood out with Lithic was the depth of their card expertise. They understand the edge cases, the tradeoffs, and the downstream impact of decisions, which makes it much easier for us to move quickly and build with confidence.”

John Mason
Senior Product Manager
Atlas

“

From day one, the Lithic team felt like an extension of ours. Their platform handled the complexity, so we could focus on designing the best possible card experience. It's been a true partnership built on reliability and trust."

Zane Salim
Co-Founder and CEO
Order.co

“

Lithic has been a huge part of what makes the Order.co platform work as smoothly as it does. We're issuing hundreds of thousands of single and multi-use virtual cards annually via the Lithic API.”

Zane Salim
Co-Founder and CEO

Still deciding between Lithic and

Stripe

?

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