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Merge.dev pros and cons

A clear comparison of Merge.dev and Unifiable.dev, highlighting the trade-offs in pricing and flexibility, and why Unifiable delivers a more cost-effective, scalable Unified API solution.

As companies scale, integrations become a critical part of their infrastructure. Accounting systems, AI tools, ecommerce platforms, storage providers, and internal services all need to communicate seamlessly. Unified APIs promise to simplify this complexity by offering a single API and a common data model across many third-party services.

This article outlines the pros and cons of Merge.dev and explains why Unifiable can be a better choice for growing and cost-conscious businesses.

What Merge Does Well

Merge is one of the most well-known Unified API providers. It offers standardized APIs across several integration categories, allowing companies to connect to multiple third-party tools without building and maintaining individual integrations.

Pros of Merge

  1. Unified API and Common Data Model: Merge provides a normalized data model across supported platforms, which reduces the engineering effort required to work with multiple vendors.

  2. Broad Coverage of Popular SaaS Tools It supports integrations across common categories such as HR, accounting, CRM, and ticketing, making it appealing for companies targeting well-established SaaS ecosystems.

  3. Developer-Friendly Documentation Merge is known for clear documentation and SDKs that help teams get started quickly.

Where Merge Falls Short

Despite its technical strengths, Merge presents several challenges that can limit its practicality for many businesses.

Cons of Merge

  1. Extremely High and Rigid Pricing Merge’s pricing scales aggressively with usage and customers. For example, companies with around 1,000 end users can see costs rise to $100,000 per year or more. For many startups and mid-market companies, this pricing is difficult to justify relative to the value delivered.

  2. Pricing Is Not Usage-Efficient Costs are not strictly tied to actual API usage. This means companies may pay large fixed fees even if their integration traffic is modest.

  3. Limited Flexibility for Custom Integrations Merge focuses on predefined integrations. If a business requires a custom connector, a niche platform, or non-standard workflows, options are limited or unavailable.

  4. Not Optimized for Cost-Sensitive Growth As your customer base grows, Merge can quickly become a bottleneck due to escalating costs rather than technical limitations.

How Unifiable.dev Takes a Better Approach

Unifiable.dev was built to deliver the same core promise of a Unified API without the financial and structural constraints imposed by traditional competitors.

Unified API Across More Categories

Unifiable offers one Unified API with a common data model across a wide range of integration categories, example categories include: • Accounting: QuickBooks, Xero, and more • AI: ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, and others • Storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, and similar platforms • Ecommerce: Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and more • ... many more

This allows companies to launch integrations faster while maintaining consistency across systems.

Why Unifiable Is the Better Choice

  1. Fair, Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

Unlike Merge’s high fixed costs, Unifiable uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on API requests. Pricing is tailored to each business and takes into account: • Business size • Number of clients • Actual API usage • Integration complexity

As a result, companies typically pay a fraction of what Merge charges, even at scale.

  1. Pricing That Grows With You, Not Against You

With Unifiable, costs scale linearly with usage. You only pay for what you use, which makes budgeting predictable and sustainable as your customer base grows.

  1. Custom Integrations Built Around Your Needs

Unifiable offers custom integrations based on client requirements. Whether you need support for a niche platform, internal system, or non-standard data model, Unifiable adapts to your business, not the other way around.

  1. Built for Startups and Enterprises Alike

Unifiable is designed to support early-stage startups, growing SaaS companies, and large enterprises without forcing them into one-size-fits-all pricing or rigid integration constraints.

Final Thoughts

Merge is a capable Unified API platform, but its pricing and lack of flexibility make it impractical for many modern businesses. High annual costs, limited customization, and rigid scaling can quickly outweigh its benefits.

Unifiable delivers the same integration power (and more) with transparent, usage-based pricing and custom integrations tailored to real business needs. For companies that want to move fast, control costs, and scale sustainably, Unifiable is the smarter choice.