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Comparison · Finance
FastSpring vs Increase
A side-by-side editorial comparison of FastSpring and Increase — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
FastSpring vs Increase: at a glance
What is FastSpring?
FastSpring keeps adding local payment methods and merchant controls, one small release at a time.
Recent releases concentrate on payment coverage and offer controls: OVO for Indonesia, PromptPay for Thailand, and purchase limits on offers. A Steer Safe option automatically reports Google Play purchases, and monthly refinement digests continue. The tracked entries are headlines only, so scope and pricing details are not visible.
What is Increase?
Increase enriches card transactions with Spade merchant data between its quarterly letters.
A standalone update joins the quarterly newsletters: card transactions now carry a Spade enrichment record with the merchant's name, legal name, logo, website, phone number, store location and an industry category up to four levels deep. The last three quarters moved past core payment rails into managed compliance, entity onboarding sessions, 3D Secure, push provisioning and IP-restricted API keys. SDK coverage has widened to C#, PHP and Ruby, and the documentation was reworked to be readable by LLMs.
FastSpring vs Increase: editorial side-by-side
FastSpring
2.5FINANCEE-COMM
FastSpring keeps adding local payment methods and merchant controls, one small release at a time.
◆ Current state
Recent releases concentrate on payment coverage and offer controls: OVO for Indonesia, PromptPay for Thailand, and purchase limits on offers. A Steer Safe option automatically reports Google Play purchases, and monthly refinement digests continue. The tracked entries are headlines only, so scope and pricing details are not visible.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern from the older Pix, UPI and currency additions continues, now moving through Southeast Asia. Earlier-summer items such as Venmo, 1ClickPay for PayPal and self-serve payment method management show the same emphasis on checkout conversion. The Google Play reporting item is the one entry that points at mobile app sellers specifically.
◆ Prediction
Expect more regional wallets at a similar pace, with Southeast Asia the current focus. Whether Google Play reporting grows into wider app-store support is unclear from these headlines.
Increase
2.5FINANCE
Increase enriches card transactions with Spade merchant data between its quarterly letters.
◆ Current state
A standalone update joins the quarterly newsletters: card transactions now carry a Spade enrichment record with the merchant's name, legal name, logo, website, phone number, store location and an industry category up to four levels deep. The last three quarters moved past core payment rails into managed compliance, entity onboarding sessions, 3D Secure, push provisioning and IP-restricted API keys. SDK coverage has widened to C#, PHP and Ruby, and the documentation was reworked to be readable by LLMs.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from moving money to operating a bank program end to end. Early quarters added rails (FedNow, Push-to-Card, check transfers); recent ones add the compliance, onboarding and dispute machinery a customer would otherwise build or buy separately. Q2 2026 adds blockchain transfers alongside managed compliance, and flags cross-border payments and lending APIs as next.
◆ Prediction
Expect the cross-border payments and lending APIs named in the Q2 2026 letter to ship as the next quarter's headline, extending the same pattern of absorbing adjacent financial products into the core API.
Alternatives to FastSpring and Increase
Other Finance products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either FastSpring or Increase.
Adapty
Adapty closes its old paywall builder and sells the annual plan as twelve payments
Purchasely
Purchasely 6.2 lets apps send their own events and open campaigns from them
Dwolla
Dwolla is buying its way to instant payouts while its own MCP experiment gets a public post-mortem
OpenBB
OpenBB V5 swaps AGPL for Apache-2.0 and cuts sixteen provider packages.
GnuCash
GnuCash 5.17 is another bugfix list, with a real capital-gains fix tucked inside.
See all FastSpring alternatives → · See all Increase alternatives →
Recent activity from FastSpring and Increase
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 25d agoFastSpringOVO is now available to your Indonesian buyers
- 26d agoIncreaseIncrease adds real-time merchant data from Spade to card transactions
- 1mo agoFastSpringReport Google Play purchases automatically with Steer Safe
- 1mo agoFastSpringSeptember 2026 monthly refinements digest
- 1mo agoFastSpringSet purchase limits to keep your offers under control
- 1mo agoFastSpringAccept PromptPay from your Thai buyers
- 2mo agoFastSpringAugust 2026 monthly refinements digest
- 3mo agoIncreaseManaged compliance and blockchain transfers land in Q2 ⚡
- 6mo agoIncreaseEntity onboarding, 3D Secure and IP-restricted keys
- 10mo agoIncreaseFedNow, Push-to-Card and a Cards Disputes API
- 1y agoIncreaseEvent log filtering and check transfer work
- 1y agoIncreaseFile links, check deposit images, Apple Pay history
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FastSpring and Increase?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. FastSpring and Increase are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is FastSpring better than Increase?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. FastSpring and Increase are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Finance products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to FastSpring?
Top FastSpring alternatives in Finance are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FastSpring alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fastspring for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Increase?
Top Increase alternatives in Finance are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Increase alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/increase for the full list with editorial commentary on each.