battles / Payments
EBANX vs Primer
EBANX ($2,500/mo/mo, vibe code 3/10) vs Primer ($1,500/mo/mo, vibe code 3/10). Primer is the easier one to rebuild yourself — here is what you lose either way.
Payments
$2,500/mo/mo
- MVP
- 2 weeks
- Full replacement
- 5-10 years, requiring local banking licenses, corporate entities in 18+ countries, and direct acquirer connections
Payments
$1,500/mo/mo
- MVP
- 2-3 weeks
- Full replacement
- 12-24 months, due to PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance requirements, universal card vaulting, and maintaining dozens of PSP integrations.
easier to rebuild
get the build prompt →price gap / year
$12,000/mo
running both / year
$48,000/mo
our call
Start with Primer — highest vibe code, weakest moat.
EBANX
EBANX is not a software wrapper; it is a financial, legal, and regulatory network across Latin America. Building a payment gateway UI or API bridge takes days, but acquiring local banking licenses, Central Bank compliance, and local currency settlement across 18 countries cannot be coded by an LLM.
you can rebuild
- Localized payment method selection UI at checkout
- Unified API schema abstraction across multiple payment gateways
- Transaction event logging and payment status webhook handlers
- Basic merchant reporting and transaction history dashboard
- Fallback retry logic for failed payment authorization attempts
what you lose
- Cross-border FX conversion and USD/EUR currency repatriation
- Direct connections to local LatAm payment rails like Pix, Boleto, SPEI, and OXXO
- Higher local card authorization rates through regional acquiring networks
- Merchant of Record (MoR) coverage handling local tax withholding and compliance
- Proprietary regional risk and fraud scoring engines built for emerging markets
real moats
- Local banking licenses and direct clearinghouse memberships across 18+ emerging countries
- Regulatory compliance and reporting infrastructure with central banks like BACEN and Banxico
- Cross-border treasury management and institutional FX liquidity facilities
open source escape hatches
- Hyperswitch Apache-2.0
- Kill Bill Apache-2.0
- Apache Fineract Apache-2.0
Primer
Building basic logic to failover between Stripe and Adyen in Node.js takes a few days. However, Primer provides PCI-DSS Level 1 card vaulting, 3DS2 orchestration, unified tokenization, and dozens of pre-built payment connectors. Replacing Primer with custom code creates massive regulatory and engineering overhead.
you can rebuild
- Basic conditional payment routing (if Gateway A fails, try Gateway B)
- Rule-based PSP selection by buyer currency or country
- Basic payment transaction logging and status dashboard
- Dynamic surcharge calculations based on payment method
- Centralized webhook aggregation for payment status events
what you lose
- PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant card tokenization vault
- Pre-built integrations for 100+ PSPs, BNPLs, and alternative payment methods
- Native 3DS2 (Strong Customer Authentication) flow orchestration across gateways
- No-code visual drag-and-drop payment workflow automation editor
- Unified financial reconciliation and automated payout matching across processors
real moats
- PCI-DSS Level 1 security architecture and ongoing audit compliance
- Universal card vaulting and token format translation between legacy gateways
- Battle-tested maintenance of dozens of volatile payment processor APIs
open source escape hatches
- Hyperswitch Apache-2.0
- Kill Bill Apache-2.0
- Active Merchant MIT
Questions people ask
Which is easier to rebuild with AI, EBANX or Primer?
Primer. It scores 3/10 on vibe code with a moat of 6/10, so an AI-assisted MVP takes about 2-3 weeks and a full replacement about 12-24 months, due to PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance requirements, universal card vaulting, and maintaining dozens of PSP integrations..
Which one costs less, EBANX or Primer?
Primer at $1,500/mo/mo for a typical mid-market store. The gap between the two is about $12,000/mo a year.
What do I lose if I replace EBANX?
Cross-border FX conversion and USD/EUR currency repatriation Direct connections to local LatAm payment rails like Pix, Boleto, SPEI, and OXXO Higher local card authorization rates through regional acquiring networks
What do I lose if I replace Primer?
PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant card tokenization vault Pre-built integrations for 100+ PSPs, BNPLs, and alternative payment methods Native 3DS2 (Strong Customer Authentication) flow orchestration across gateways
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