Rapyd vs. Thunes: Comparing Features and Suitability

Rapyd vs. Thunes At a Glance

Choosing a cross-border payment partner starts with understanding each network’s core strengths. Rapyd is a directly licensed card acquirer that lets you accept, pay out, and hold funds in multiple currencies through one platform.

Thunes connects you to a payout network and mobile wallets, with a US-specific card acceptance offering layered on through its Tilia acquisition:

Boleto, 7-Eleven, Western Union

Real-Time Payments: Faster Payments, PIX, PayNow, PromptPay, FAST, NPP, SEPA Instant, RTOL, InstaPay, NAPAS, SPEI

Stablecoins: USDC

Key Features and Use Cases

This feature-by-feature analysis reveals where Rapyd and Thunes diverge most significantly and how each impacts your revenue and compliance objectives.

Rapyd

When you process payments through Rapyd, you work with a directly licensed card acquirer that holds acquiring licences across multiple jurisdictions: UK, Europe, Colombia, Israel, Hong Kong. This direct relationship translates to higher authorisation rates that capture more revenue from your existing traffic.

Onboarding Approval Rate and Speed

Rapyd’s AI-enabled onboarding process delivers fast merchant approval. Fast onboarding matters when you need to start accepting payments quickly, expand into new regions, or when you are a partner working with Rapyd to add your merchants.

With Rapyd:

• 80% of eligible merchants approved instantly at onboarding
• 97% of eligible merchants approved in under 48 hours
• Rated 9.7/10 for onboarding speed by partners

Payment Methods

Rapyd provides hundreds of payment methods through a single integration. In APAC, this includes comprehensive coverage of regional preferences:

• GrabPay
• AliPay
• WeChat Pay
• UnionPay
• JCB
• GCash
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Bank transfers and cash vouchers.

Direct card acquiring, combined with alternative payment methods, gives you the full spectrum of how customers prefer to pay across different APAC markets.

Chargeback Management

Rapyd’s automated dispute resolution tools reduce the manual work your team invests in managing chargebacks. Integrated fraud prevention protects revenue without blocking legitimate transactions through false positives that damage customer experience.

Thunes

Thunes operates as a cross-border payment infrastructure provider connecting banks, mobile wallets and payment service providers. The platform’s core business remains enabling real-time cross-border transfers rather than direct merchant payment acceptance. Although, its acquisition of Tilia added a merchant-facing card acceptance option in one specific market and vertical.¹

Onboarding Speed

Thunes primarily onboards B2B partners like banks, fintechs and payment service providers rather than individual merchants. The onboarding process focuses on integrating partners into their Direct Global Network.

Payment Methods

Thunes provides access to a large network of mobile wallets and bank transfer rails. The exact method count varies across marketing materials.⁶ ⁷ ⁸ The network connects to mobile wallets including GCash, M-Pesa, AliPay and WeChat Pay. Since completing its acquisition of Tilia (now operating as Thunes Financial Services LLC),² ³ Thunes also offers direct card acceptance — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB and UnionPay⁴ on US money-transmitter licences across 48 states⁵ and is concentrated in online gaming, virtual worlds and creator-economy use cases.¹

Chargeback Management

Chargeback management is not a core platform feature.

Technology and Ease of Build

Modern payment integration shouldn’t require managing dozens of local providers with different rules and file formats.

Rapyd

Your development team integrates with Rapyd through multiple pathways depending on your technical requirements and timeline constraints:

Integration options: REST APIs provide full control for custom implementations. Hosted checkout pages accelerate deployment when you need to launch quickly without extensive development work. Virtual terminals facilitate manual payment processing for customer service operations.

Omnichannel capabilities: Rapyd supports payment acceptance across channels, including online, mobile, in-person and pop-up locations. This unified infrastructure means you manage all payment operations through consistent APIs and reporting, regardless of how customers choose to pay.

Thunes

Thunes provides API integration for partners joining their Direct Global Network:

Integration options: Thunes APIs connect partners to the cross-border payment network. Integration focuses on enabling network partners to offer cross-border payment capabilities to their end customers rather than providing merchant-facing tools like hosted checkout or payment links, outside of the Tilia-specific gaming use case.

Support and Reliability

Rapyd

Rapyd infrastructure is built for near-continuous availability, with service anchored by dedicated account managers:

Customer support: Dedicated account managers provide continuity and platform expertise specific to your business needs. 24/7 support handles urgent issues regardless of time zone. The developer community offers peer support for integration questions and implementation challenges.

Thunes

Thunes provides support to network partners rather than individual merchants. The platform focuses on maintaining infrastructure reliability for B2B partnerships.

Customer support: 24/7 support serves network partners including banks, payment service providers and financial institutions. Support focuses on maintaining network connectivity and resolving technical integration issues.

Rapyd vs Thunes for Highly Regulated Industries

Businesses in highly regulated sectors (iGaming, retail trading platforms, and creator economy) face unique challenges in securing reliable payment infrastructure.

Rapyd specialises in serving these industries with streamlined onboarding for complex compliance requirements. As a leading global acquirer with a primarily low-risk book of business, Rapyd delivers strong authorisation performance and the scale to support highly-regulated clients long term. The platform provides instant payouts across multiple currencies, supporting payments and payouts for iGaming, trading and paying creators.

Thunes provides card-acceptance capability for online gaming, virtual worlds and creator-economy merchants. That capability, however, is built on Tilia’s existing US money-transmitter licences,⁵ so it doesn’t extend beyond the US the way Rapyd’s directly licensed acquiring does across the UK, Europe, LATAM, Israel and Hong Kong. Outside the US, Thunes’ business remains built around cross-border payout infrastructure for financial institutions rather than direct merchant payment acceptance.

For businesses in complex verticals that need proven, multi-region payment infrastructure rather than a single-market, single-partner solution, Rapyd provides direct acquiring capabilities backed by established regulatory expertise across a broader footprint.

Choose Rapyd When

Your business needs direct card acquiring combined with a comprehensive global payment infrastructure. Rapyd makes sense when your priorities include:

• High authorisation rates.
• You need cards plus alternative payment methods.
• You need a unified infrastructure for payments and payouts.
• You need advanced wallet infrastructure to support your treasury operations: Multi-currency accounts, virtual accounts, and sub-account capabilities provide sophisticated treasury management.

Sources (Thunes data)

• Thunes — “Thunes announces agreement to acquire Tilia LLC,” Thunes Newsroom. https://www.thunes.com/news/thunes-announces-agreement-to-acquire-tilia-llc/
• Linden Lab — “Thunes Acquisition of Tilia: Frequently Asked Questions,” Linden Lab Help Center. https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000176356-thunes-acquisition-faq
• Thunes — “Tilia now part of Thunes,” Thunes.com. https://www.thunes.com/tilia/
• Fintech News Singapore — “Thunes Acquires Tilia to Offer Wider Payment Solutions in the U.S.” https://fintechnews.sg/94928/payments/thunes-acquires-tilia-to-offer-wider-payment-solutions-in-the-u-s/
• Vixio — “Thunes To Acquire Tilia, Payments Licences In 48 US States.” https://www.vixio.com/insights/pc-thunes-acquire-tilia-payments-licences-48-us-states
• Thunes — Thunes.com homepage (network reach: countries, wallets, bank accounts, cards). https://www.thunes.com/
• Thunes — “Thunes Expands Direct Global Network with Business Payments Solution,” Thunes Newsroom. https://www.thunes.com/news/thunes-expands-direct-global-network-with-business-payments-solution/
• Airwallex — “Thunes review 2026: Features, Fees, and Global Payout Network.” https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/blog/thunes-review

Retrieved 29 September 2026. URLs are shown as plain text on purpose — not hyperlinked — to avoid passing link equity to a competitor domain from this post.