Choosing a gift card API
Most of these platforms will issue a card in the US without much trouble. The differences show up at the edges - what happens outside the countries you started in, what the recipient is allowed to choose, and what the payout costs once it leaves the platform.
GIFQ and Tremendous, side by side
| GIFQ | Tremendous | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is strongest | Markets where card and bank rails are weak - Asia, Africa, Latin America, plus regional brands elsewhere | The US, by a distance. Deep options and a long track record there |
| Catalog | 5,000+ brands across 100+ countries, sourced from seven suppliers rather than one | 2,500+ retailers across 200+ countries |
| What the recipient can take | Gift card, prepaid card, digital product or crypto - they choose at redemption | Gift cards, prepaid, PayPal, Venmo, bank transfer. No crypto |
| Cost of the payout | A rate against face value. Nothing taken out of the recipient’s amount | Free at the platform layer; their pricing page notes PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and bank transfers may incur a 4-6% fee |
| Volume pricing | Negotiated per account, no published floor | Volume discounts documented from $200k a year |
| Where the company sits | A European company, invoicing in EUR, with GDPR as the regime it was built under | A US company, US-hosted, strongest in the US market |
| What the supplier learns about your recipient | Nothing. We buy an anonymous code - brand, value, currency, reference - and deliver it ourselves | Not published; worth asking any platform whether the card issuer receives your recipient’s email |
| Availability | No production outage to date | 99.999% published, and a SOC 2 Type II report |
When Tremendous is the better answer
If everyone you are paying sits in the United States, Tremendous is the more sensible choice and we would rather say so than waste your evaluation. Their US catalog is deeper than ours and their track record there is longer.
The same applies if your procurement needs a signed SOC 2 Type II report on day one, or if PayPal and Venmo specifically are what your recipients expect. We do not do those things better by claiming to.
When we are the better answer
When the recipients are not all in one country. A single supplier's catalog is deep where that supplier is strong and thin everywhere else, which is fine until you need to pay someone in Jakarta, Lagos or Manila and discover the brand list there is four items long.
When the payout is small. A percentage fee on a €5 reward is a visible share of it, which is why programmes paying small amounts end up with redemption thresholds their users did not ask for.
And when you are not a US company either. Most platforms in this category are American, built American-first, and everyone else adapts around them. We are a European company invoicing in euros, with GDPR as the regime we were built under rather than one retrofitted for an export market - which tends to matter to whoever signs off the contract in Europe, Latin America, Asia or the Gulf.
Questions we get asked
Check the catalog before you decide
Filter the brand list by the countries your recipients are actually in. No account needed - it answers this better than the table does.
Want us to help you earn, or keep your users engaged?
Whether you’re paying people out or giving them rewards worth staying for, GIFQ is the layer that handles it - under your brand, without the integration headache. Leave your email and we’ll take it from there.
Would rather talk it through? Talk to one of us directly.