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As the digital economy continues to grow, companies are scrambling to pay their growing roster of partners worldwide. Whether you hire developers, streamers, publishers, creators, teachers, artists, or any other type of freelance worker, they all expect a fast and reliable payment experience.
Luckily, there are mass payment platforms that can automate your entire partner payouts operation from onboarding through to payment reporting and reconciliation. Two of the more popular options on the market are Tipalti and Trolley.
So, which one is the best fit for your business? In this guide to Tipalti vs. Trolley, we compare the main features and capabilities of each platform and discuss which solution best suits your mass payment needs.
What Does Tipalti Do?
Tipalti handles Mass Payments workflows for high-velocity companies across the entire payment operations cycle: onboarding and managing global partners, implementing controls, executing payments worldwide, and reconciling payables data across a multi-subsidiary organization.
Tipalti Features Overview
Tipalti enables high-growth companies to scale by making payables strategic with operational, compliance, and financial controls—allowing businesses to securely pay thousands of partners within minutes.
Onboard partners through a multi-language, white-labeled self-service portal with real-time payment and banking validation powered by 26,000 global rules. The portal provides 24/7 visibility and proactive, branded Instant Payment Notifications (IPNs).
Guide partners through digital W-9 and W-8 series tax forms. Collect and validate IRS and VAT tax IDs with a KPMG-approved tax process while generating 1099/1042-S tax preparation reports that can be submitted via Tipalti’s eFiling service.
Send cross-border payments globally in multiple currencies and payment methods, while connecting affiliate and creator performance data directly to payouts and reconciliation in your ERP system.
Tipalti Pricing
Tipalti’s pricing model is designed to scale with your business through modular, subscription-based tiers. For Mass Payments, plans such as Accelerate and Plus are offered on a custom pricing basis, with costs varying based on payment volume, number of entities, and required features.
The platform includes capabilities such as global payee onboarding, tax form collection and validation (W-9/W-8), and support for 50+ payment methods across 200+ countries. Additional fees may apply to transactions, FX, and advanced modules, allowing businesses to start with core functionality and expand as their operations grow more complex.
What Does Trolley Do?
Trolley (formerly Payment Rails) is a payouts platform for the internet economy. Businesses use Trolley to automate and manage payouts, and collect recipient tax and banking information. Trolley enables mass payouts for online marketplaces, on-demand and sharing-economy platforms, ad networks, affiliate platforms, and app stores.
Trolley Features Overview
Trolley’s payouts platform integrates with a global banking network, so you can pay contractors worldwide. It manages the payments process from onboarding through to end-of-year reporting
There are four main functions of the Trolley platform:
- Pay – This feature automates payment workflows from payout creation through approvals and disbursement.
- Tax – This feature streamlines the tax process with income coding, auto-withholding, W-9/W-8 collection, 1099/1042 production, and e-filing
- Sync – Connect Trolley to your ERP and automate data flow between your systems. Trolley offers a combination of native integrations and Zapier integrations.
- Trust – secure onboarding processes, tools to collect and verify identity documents, and a dashboard to manage fraud risk.
Trolley has performance marketing platform integrations with Paladin and Refersion, as well as ERP integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Trolley Pricing
Trolley offers two plans to suit your needs. They are:
- Standard – Modular pricing that allows businesses to pick and choose Pay, Tax, Sync, and Trust products as needed. Monthly SaaS fees start at $49/month for Pay, with additional modules such as Sync (~$35/month) and Tax or Trust (~$150+/month) priced separately. Usage-based fees apply for payment transactions, tax filings, and identity verification.
- Plus – Custom, usage- and volume-based pricing designed for scaling businesses and enterprises. Includes bundled access to advanced pay, tax, sync, and trust capabilities, along with enterprise features like dedicated support, higher API limits, and volume discounts.
Why Businesses Are Leaving Trolley
77% of businesses say payment efficiency and innovation drive growth, per Forbes Insights—and Trolley’s capability gaps are driving businesses toward modern procure-to-pay solutions.
- Re-onboarding friction after banking changes
Trolley’s recent banking partner transition forced many payees to re-onboard, with some required to re-verify accounts within extremely short timeframes—sometimes as little as 24 hours. In addition, payees were asked to submit additional or non-standard information, which created confusion and delayed payouts. - Limited visibility into payments and support
A fully white-labeled model built on third-party processors limits visibility into payments and support, making it harder to track issues and know who to contact. - Fragmented payout workflows
Businesses often rely on multiple partners, including PayPal and Payoneer. PayPal accounts must be funded outside Trolley, and support is handled externally—adding complexity and operational overhead. - Lack of end-to-end procure-to-pay capabilities
Trolley focuses on payouts but lacks broader AP and procurement functionality, including invoice processing, approvals, and advanced compliance, limiting scalability for growing finance teams. - Gaps in compliance and risk controls
Compared to more advanced platforms, tax compliance and risk-detection capabilities are relatively limited.
These disruptions have frustrated both payers and payees, especially in affiliate and creator ecosystems, where many partners operate as independent or small-scale businesses.
Simplify Global Payments Without the Fragmentation
See how Tipalti unifies payouts, tax compliance, and financial workflows into a single platform—giving you full visibility and control as you scale.
Compare Features of Tipalti vs. Trolley
Although Trolley and Tipalti both help companies automate their mass payments processes, each platform offers different features and solutions. Here’s a look at some of the differences between Tipalti and Trolley.
| Functionality | Tipalti | Trolley |
|---|---|---|
| Partner Onboarding | Effortlessly onboard partners via a client-branded portal or embedded iFrame. Offer a choice of preferred payment method and currency. 26K+ rules validate payments, and every payment is screened against OFAC/SDN lists. Instant payment notifications are delivered for complete visibility. | A branded portal or embeddable white-labeled onboarding experience that includes payment validation rules. Screens against OFAC & other watchlists. Payment notifications are sent to recipients. |
| Global Payments | Pay to 200+ countries in 120 currencies with partner choice of payment methods, including: ACH, wire transfer, check, global ACH, prepaid debit, and PayPal (“Mass Transaction” model) | Comparable country reach, currencies, and payment methods. PayPal “Account Direction” model used, which has funding limits, higher FX rates, and slower remittance |
| Payment Infrastructure | Regulated money services business (MSB) with money transmission licenses (MTLs) across the US. Registered as an MSB in Canada and authorized as an e-money institution in the UK and EU. Blue-chip bank partners include Citi, JP Morgan & Wells Fargo, with built-in redundancy | State-level licenses in three states. MTL coverage in other states is provided through a banking partner. Registered as an MSB in the US and Canada, an authorized payment institution in the UK (not an e-money institution). In the EU, payment services are provided by Currency Cloud. Registered with AUSTRAC as a remittance provider. Regulated by the Department of Internal Affairs in NZ |
| US Tax Compliance | KPMG approved tax engine, collect W-9, W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, W-8EXP, W-8IMY, W-8ECI, W-4, Form 8233. Collect and validate IRS tax IDs against 1,000+ rules, 1099 & 1042 prep reports, withholding calculations and eFiling integrations & services. | Digital collection & completion of tax forms following IRS requirements, but not KPMG-approved. Supports W-9, W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E forms. Validates TINs, including SSN, EIN & foreign TIN formats. 1099 & 1042 reports, withholdings, and e-filing. |
| International Tax Compliance | Comply with the EU’s DAC7 reporting obligations for digital platforms – securely collect & validate details during onboarding & generate tax prep reports. Collect and validate local and VAT tax IDs in +50 countries with +3,000 validation rules to prevent errors & issues | Collect tax information and generate EOY reports for DAC7 compliance. No global tax ID collection and validation in +50 countries |
| Self-Billing | Easily generate self-bill invoices as required by government or tax processes and execute payments upon approval | The “Invoices” feature is available, but it does not support payer and payee approval workflows |
| FX Solutions | Advanced FX solutions, including intercompany transfers between +27 currency accounts & hedging to reduce FX volatility risk | Transfer funds between different currency balances on your account. Support for fewer currency accounts and no FX hedging |
| ERP Integrations | Native integrations to NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Xero, Acumatica, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. File-based integration with all other ERPs via pre-built connectors using a no-code approach. | Integrations with NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero are available. |
| Performance Marketing Integrations | Pre-built integrations with several performance marketing systems to directly tie performance analytics & data to partner payments | Performance marketing platform integrations with Paladin and Refersion. 3rd party connector, Zapier, used to connect Trolley with other business applications. |
| APIs | Connect seamlessly to our robust global payments network and platform capabilities via REST APIs supported by world-class documentation and a developer hub | Strong APIs and out-of-the-box developer tools to automate payout operations, build customized workflows, etc. |
| Multi – Subsidiary Payables | Multi-subsidiary capability allows for customized pay & tax workflows per brand or subsidiary | No multi-subsidiary capabilities |
| Adjacent Finance Automation | In addition to mass payments automation, Tipalti offers solutions for AP automation, procurement, corporate cards, and expense management | While you can automate invoice payments with Trolley, it does not offer formal solutions for AP, procurement, cards, or expense management |
Which Solution Works Best for Your Business (and Why)
Buying software is a commitment—especially for partner payments, where a strong partner experience directly impacts your success.
Here are a few key scenarios we’ve established to help you decide which system works best:
When to Choose Tipalti
PayPal is a critical payment method for your partners
Tipalti uses a Mass Transaction (MT) model that can help reduce transaction costs and improve FX efficiency compared to traditional per-payment funding approaches. Customers also receive white-gloved service from Tipalti’s support team, which boasts a 98% satisfaction rate.
This can be especially important when PayPal is a critical payment method for your partners. In comparison, Trolley’s Account Direction (AD) model results in funding and payment limits while slowing payments, and it hands customer service over to PayPal, with limited visibility and support from Trolley’s side.
You need to manage multiple brands, subsidiaries, or entities
Tipalti’s multi-entity capability sets it apart from Trolley. Within a single Tipalti instance, payers can manage a large number of subsidiaries, enabling centralized controls and financial reporting.
Tipalti offers entity-specific features, including branding, payment methods, tax onboarding flows, reconciliation, reporting, and modules.
Your international payees want to be paid in USD
Tipalti offers comprehensive support for USD payouts across 165 markets, making it a strong choice for businesses whose international payees prefer USD payments.
Additionally, Tipalti is licensed and regulated across key regions, including the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU. This regulatory coverage helps support secure, compliant global payment operations.
What Our Customers Say
With Tipalti, partner interaction no longer requires any bandwidth from our team. Photographers can change bank accounts or switch payment methods between PayPal, ACH, or wire transfers—it’s all self-service.
Nicole Smith | CEO and Founder, Flytographer
Tipalti’s mass payout platform was exactly what we wanted. Our main priority was to find a technology solution that could digitize tax collection, improve reporting capabilities, and centralize multi-subsidiary payouts in one platform.
Irene Altman Becklund | VP, Controller, Hims & Hers
I think 50% of the people we’re paying are outside of the U.S. Not having to deal with any added work or stress of having to know the tax and reporting implications in those various countries is super helpful. And the 1099 process for our finance team has been simplified as well.
Greg Kampanis | SVP Operations and Business Development, Omnia Media
When to Choose Trolley
You have tax compliance needs only in the US and the EU
Trolley may be a fit for businesses with more limited tax compliance needs, particularly those focused on US IRS reporting or EU DAC7 requirements. Its Trolley Plus plan supports tax form or seller data collection, withholding, and reporting for these regions.
You are looking for a low-cost solution with limited features
Trolley Standard is an affordable solution that lets you mix and match payments, tax, sync, and trust products, each with its own monthly SaaS fees. Upgrades to Trolley Plus are required to enable features such as granular user roles, dedicated customer success manager support, NetSuite integrations, and more.
You need an ID verification service
Trolley Trust is an add-on module that allows you to collect IDs from payment recipients during onboarding and verify the IDs against official government templates and submitted live selfies to confirm identities.
Attract and Retain Partners With Frictionless Payments
A best-in-class partner experience is crucial to your success in the digital economy. With the rise in competition, businesses relying on a digital-first or marketplace model must prioritize the satisfaction of their partners, creators, publishers, or members. The tables have turned; partners are in the driver’s seat, and platforms must build a best-in-class partner experience to succeed.
According to Tipalti research, 59% of creators have ended partnerships due to negative experiences like late payments, and 74% who felt undervalued stopped working with that brand.
Whether your company supports 20, 200, or 2,000 partners, you need to ensure your operations are ready to scale quickly & are equipped to handle hyper-growth. Ensuring your partners have the best experience working with you will secure the long-term health of your company.
See How Tipalti Scales Beyond Basic Payouts
If you’ve outgrown fragmented payout tools, see how Tipalti delivers a complete, scalable solution—from onboarding and tax compliance to global payments and reconciliation.
