Compare · Payments
TuringDock vs Wise
Wise is genuinely good at international transfers. The question isn't whether Wise is better than a Big 5 bank wire (it is). The question is whether you'd rather have payments embedded in your manufacturing operations workflow, or as a separate product you task-switch to.
| Attribute | Wise | TuringDock |
|---|---|---|
| FX markup | Typically 0.4–0.6% above mid-market. | 0%. Interbank rate, locked at PO issuance. |
| Wire fee | Variable small fee per transfer (often a few dollars to ~$30 depending on corridor). | Near zero. |
| Settlement time | Same or next day on common corridors. | Same or next day. |
| Multi-currency accounts (USD, EUR, etc.) | Yes. Wise Business holds balances in dozens of currencies. | Available through the same payments infrastructure when needed. |
| FX rate lock | Lock at the moment of transfer. | Lock at PO issuance, often 30+ days before payment lands. |
| Embedded in PO workflow | No. Separate product. You initiate transfers in Wise and reference your PO manually. | Yes. Payment is part of the PO; status updates back into the PO record. |
| AI-driven payment timing | Not offered. You decide when to send based on your own FX read. | Premium tier. Surface FX moves against PO margin and recommend timing. |
| Built for manufacturers | No. Generic business product across industries. | Yes. Designed around POs, supplier lead times, production schedules, and Canadian trade. |
What Wise does well
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is the most mature, transparent, and low-cost international transfer product available to Canadian businesses today. The published FX markup is small and disclosed up front. The multi-currency accounts genuinely work. The API is robust, the business product is well-designed, and the company is public, profitable, and not going anywhere. For a business that needs cheap, reliable international transfers as a standalone capability, Wise is the right answer.
Why TuringDock
Wise solved the cost-of-transfer problem at the payments layer. TuringDock solves a different problem: payments belong inside the manufacturer's purchase order, not in a separate product the operator has to context-switch to. For a shop placing 10 to 40 international POs a year, the friction of "create PO in your MRP, switch to Wise, copy the supplier details, paste the PO reference, send" is real. So is the timing problem: Wise locks FX at the moment of transfer, but a manufacturer quoted in CAD weeks earlier needs the rate locked at PO issuance to protect margin.
TuringDock keeps payment initiation inside the PO, locks the FX at issuance (not at payment), and posts status back into the PO and Slack automatically. Cost on the transfer itself is 0% markup at interbank, which is below Wise's published rate. The bigger advantage isn't the cost delta though; it's the workflow.
If you only need international transfers and don't want an MRP, use Wise. If you want operations, AI, and payments in one workflow built for Canadian manufacturers, that's TuringDock.
Common questions about TuringDock vs Wise
- Is TuringDock cheaper than Wise?
- Roughly the same on the FX side: both Wise and TuringDock pass through near-interbank rates. The win for TuringDock is removing the second tool from the workflow — your supplier payment lives inside the PO record, the rate locks at issuance (Wise's rate is live-quoted at send time, which means a Friday-issued PO paid Monday eats whatever the FX moved over the weekend), and the margin reporting feeds back into your Revenue/COGS automatically. For a shop sending 10+ international POs a year, the workflow integration is worth more than the per-transfer FX rate.
- Does TuringDock have a multi-currency holding account like Wise Business?
- Not today. Wise Business gives you USD/EUR/GBP holding accounts you can receive into; TuringDock is purely an outbound supplier-payment rail at this stage. If you need to receive foreign-currency customer payments and hold them in those currencies, Wise's holding accounts are the right tool. The two products are complementary more than competitive — many TuringDock customers also have a Wise Business account.
- Why use TuringDock for supplier payments instead of Wise?
- Three reasons: rate-lock at PO issuance (Wise is real-time quote), payment lives inside the PO record (Wise needs the PO ref manually entered every time), and margin reporting feeds your books automatically (Wise is a black box for the MRP layer). On a 30-PO-a-year shop that's hours of duplicate data entry saved and a tighter handle on per-PO margin.
- Can I keep my Wise Business account if I use TuringDock?
- Yes. Many TuringDock customers use Wise Business for foreign-currency receivables (where Wise's holding accounts shine) and TuringDock for outbound supplier payments (where the MRP integration shines). They're complementary tools.
- Does TuringDock work for non-manufacturing businesses?
- No. TuringDock is a manufacturing operations tool first and a payments tool second. If you're not running an MRP-shaped business (BOMs, suppliers, production schedules, customer orders), the payments alone won't deliver enough value to justify switching from Wise. Wise is the right tool for general-purpose international business payments without the manufacturing context.
See it for yourself. The free tier is genuinely free.