# Finch vs PayFit

> Finch scores 71.6 (BB) to PayFit's 55.5 (C) for payroll records. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Finch scores 71.6 (BB) on agent readiness against PayFit's 55.5 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do payroll records.

- Finch: grade BB, 71.6/100, rank #121 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/finch.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/finch.json
- PayFit: grade C, 55.5/100, rank #656 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payfit.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payfit.json
- Best payroll APIs and embedded payroll for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/payroll/index.md
- All 55 payroll comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payroll/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Finch (BB)

Good for: An application that needs to read employees, pay runs and pay statements from whatever payroll or HR system an employer already uses, or to write benefit deductions back.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 84 against 79
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 78
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 51
- Security & auth, 66 against 51
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 28

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Finch cannot create, preview or approve a payroll. Writes are limited to deductions and contributions, on Pro and Premier plans

### PayFit (C)

Good for: An agent working for an employer that already runs payroll on PayFit in France, the UK or Spain and needs employees, contracts, payslips, absences or the payroll journal.

Watch for: No operation runs, previews or approves a payroll. The API reads payroll status, payslips and accounting exports


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Finch | PayFit | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 84 | 79 | Finch +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 78 | Finch +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 51 | Finch +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 51 | Finch +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 10 | Finch +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 28 | Finch +56 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 70 | Finch +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **71.6 · BB** | **55.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Finch | PayFit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Profound Platform Inc. (dba Finch) | PayFit SAS |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.tryfinch.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Finch's Master Service Agreement. The SDKs and the MCP server on GitHub are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under PayFit's general terms of service |
| Tools exposed | 2 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-07-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-07 | 2026-06-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-06-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 16k npm/wk, 26k PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Finch.** Graded on the REST API. An employer grants each connection named product permissions, and limits, error codes and a 99.9 per cent uptime SLA are published. Finch reads payroll and writes deductions but cannot run a payroll. Access tokens never expire, no idempotency keys were found, and writes and most providers need a sales-led plan.

**PayFit.** A public OpenAPI 3.0 file, llms.txt and scoped keys let a paying customer's agent read payroll outputs and write absences. The API cannot run or approve a payroll, new partner integrations are not being accepted, and no idempotency keys or SDKs were found.

## Before you call either

### Finch

1. Send `Finch-API-Version: 2020-09-17` and `Authorization: Bearer <access_token>` on every request. A request without the version header fails with 400
2. Call GET /introspect first to see the connection's products, status and whether it is automated or assisted before choosing endpoints
3. Treat a 202 response as data not ready, not as data. Retry with backoff, and expect up to 14 days for an assisted connection's first sync
4. Stay under 20 requests a minute on organisation endpoints and 12 on pay endpoints across all tokens. Batch IDs, and on 429 wait 60 seconds
5. After a deduction write, poll the job by `job_id` until it completes before enrolling individuals. Enrolment overwrites an existing enrolment
6. Start the MCP server with `--code-allow-http-gets` or a token without the benefits product when only reads are intended

### PayFit

1. Have a company admin create the key at app.payfit.com/integrations/hub/api with only the scopes the task needs. The key is shown once
2. POST the key to `https://oauth.payfit.com/introspect` to get `company_id`, then call `https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{companyId}/...`
3. Page lists with `nextPageToken` and `maxResults`, which defaults to 10 and stops at 50
4. Check before repeating a failed POST. There is no idempotency key, and `POST /absences` creates an absence that is already validated
5. A collaborator or contract created through the API stays incomplete until an HR admin finishes it in the PayFit app, and a new contract takes 2 to 5 minutes to appear

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Finch or PayFit?

Finch scores 71.6 (BB) on agent readiness against PayFit's 55.5 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Finch and PayFit need an API key?

Finch uses an OAuth sign-in. PayFit takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Finch and PayFit without installing anything?

Finch has a hosted endpoint at https://api.tryfinch.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for PayFit.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "finch", "b": "payfit"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare finch payfit`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/finch.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payfit.json

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