Integration Infrastructure Comparison

Ampersand vs Nango:
A Platform vs An Auth Layer

Ampersand is the native integration infrastructure for real-time direct integrations: sync engine, writes, field mapping, custom objects, embeddable UI, observability, and sub-second webhooks. Nango gives you OAuth and a passthrough proxy — everything else is left for you to build. Here's how they compare.

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TL;DR — The Key Differences

Ampersand is the native integration infrastructure for AI agents. Agent-ready, real-time direct integrations with sub-second webhooks, an open-source AI SDK, and full read/write support out of the box. Nango gives you OAuth and a proxy—your agents still need custom code for writes, real-time sync, field mapping, and everything else that makes an integration production-ready.
Ampersand is a full integration platform. You get OAuth + the sync engine, write actions, per-customer field mappings, embeddable React components, a declarative YAML config, sub-second webhooks, and open-source connectors — on day one.
Ampersand delivers sub-second webhooks via event-driven architecture — critical for AI agents, voice products, and real-time workflows. Nango syncs on intervals you configure (minimum typically 5 minutes).
Ampersand is a complete integration platform, not just an auth layer. Nango handles OAuth flows, stores tokens, and gives you a proxy to make raw API calls. That's the beginning of an integration platform, not the end. Everything else — sync orchestration, writes, conflict resolution, field mapping, customer UI, observability — you still have to build.
Ampersand ships the full stack on day one. With Nango, the "integration" is still your problem. You write custom syncs and actions in TypeScript, design your own data models, build your own admin UI, and own the ongoing maintenance of every connector shape.

What You Still Have To Build Yourself With Nango

Nango gives you OAuth, a proxy, and a scheduled sync runner. Here's what you own on top — in your own codebase, for every integration:

✓ Custom object & custom field discovery per customer
✓ Per-customer field mapping UI and config store
✓ Write actions, conflict resolution, and idempotency
✓ Real-time webhook subscription + delivery pipeline
✓ Rate limit backoff and retry logic per provider
✓ Embeddable React UI for auth, mappings, sync settings
✓ Observability, error routing, and customer-facing status
✓ Connector maintenance as provider APIs change

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

How the two platforms stack up across the dimensions that matter most for product integrations.

Dimension	Ampersand	Nango
Category	Full integration platform Batteries included	OAuth + API proxy + sync runner Auth layer
Connectors	250+ managed, production-ready	400+ OAuth providers; pre-built syncs are thin
Custom Objects	Full native support, all tiers All plans	You build it yourself via the proxy
Per-Customer Field Mapping	Built-in with embeddable UI Included	You build the UI and store the config yourself
Writes & Actions	First-class write actions with conflict resolution	You write a custom action in TypeScript per case
Data Freshness	Sub-second webhooks (event-driven) Real-time	Scheduled polling syncs, 5-min minimum typical Not real-time
Embeddable UI	White-labeled React components out of the box Ship in minutes	Auth popup widget only; you build the rest
Credential Ownership	You own & export OAuth tokens Your keys	Self-host or cloud-hosted; cloud holds tokens
Configuration	Declarative YAML in Git + CI/CD	TypeScript sync/action files in Nango repo
AI / Agent Support	Open-source AI SDK + MCP server; Docs MCP Agentic-ready	No native agent tooling
Open Source	250+ connectors as Go libraries on GitHub	Core is open source (MIT) OSS-first
Observability	Built-in monitoring, error routing, customer status	Basic logs; you build customer-facing status yourself
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Pricing Entry	Free tier → $999/mo (usage-based)	Free self-host; Cloud from ~$250/mo
True Cost	Platform cost + usage	Platform cost + engineering headcount to build & maintain everything else Hidden cost

Where Ampersand Wins

The advantages that matter most when product teams actually calculate the total cost of ownership.

🧱

A Platform, Not A Primitive

Nango gives you OAuth and a proxy and calls itself done. Ampersand gives you OAuth + sync engine + writes + field mapping + custom objects + embeddable UI + observability + real-time webhooks + 250 managed connectors. One is a Lego brick. The other is the house.

💸

The Real Cost Isn't The License

Nango's sticker price looks cheap until you count the engineers writing sync handlers, building admin UIs, maintaining rate-limit backoff, and chasing provider API changes every quarter. Ampersand absorbs all of that. One platform fee, no integrations team to hire.

⚡

Sub-Second Real-Time Sync

Ampersand's event-driven architecture delivers webhook notifications in under one second. 11x cut their AI phone agent's CRM response time from 60 seconds to 5. Nango's default sync frequency is 5 minutes or longer — you cannot build a conversational AI product on top of it.

🎨

Embeddable UI Out Of The Box

Ampersand ships white-labeled React components for auth, field mapping, and sync settings. Nango ships an auth popup and leaves the rest to you. If you don't want your engineers building a field-mapping UI from scratch, that difference is measured in engineering-months.

🧩

Custom Objects, No Code Required

Ampersand treats custom objects and fields as first-class across every connector, on every tier. Nango hands you a proxy and says "call the API yourself" — every custom-object feature your customer needs is code your team has to write and maintain.

🤖

Built for AI Agents

Ampersand's open-source AI SDK exposes integrations as tools that LLMs can invoke. Docs MCP lets Claude Code and Cursor generate integrations in minutes. Nango has no native agent tooling — if you want an AI agent to use your integrations, you build that layer yourself too.

Pricing at Scale

The real comparison is platform fees plus the engineering team you need to backfill what's missing.

Ampersand

$999 /month

✓ Full integration platform — batteries included
✓ Sync engine, writes, field mapping included
✓ Custom objects & fields on all tiers
✓ Embeddable React UI out of the box
✓ Sub-second webhooks included
✓ Credential ownership & export included
✓ 250+ managed connectors
✓ SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001

Nango

Free — self-host

✓ Open-source core (MIT)
✓ Cloud plans from ~$250/month
⚠ You build the sync logic per integration
⚠ You build the field-mapping UI yourself
⚠ You build the embeddable customer UI yourself
✗ No native custom-object support
✗ No sub-second webhooks (scheduled polling)
✗ No first-class agent tooling

What Customers Say

"Using Ampersand, we cut Julian's response time from 60 seconds to 5."

Muizz Matemilola, Engineering — 11x

"We chose Ampersand because we want to build an integration that we don't need to rebuild, and we want to meaningfully accelerate our upmarket journey."

Kshitij Grover, CTO — Orb

"Ampersand is the first developer platform that gets it right."

Eric Engoron, Engineering — Clay

"Ampersand is core to how we grow."

John Peña, CTO — Hatch (acq. by Yelp)

"Ampersand is helping Square connect to more upmarket Sellers, driving strong revenue growth."

Max Friz, Partnerships Lead — Square

When to Choose Each Platform

We believe in being honest. These tools solve different problems — most teams will eventually want both.

Choose Ampersand When You Need…

✓ A full integration platform, not just OAuth plumbing
✓ Deep CRM/ERP integrations with custom objects and fields
✓ Real-time, sub-second data for AI agents or voice products
✓ Per-customer field mappings with a pre-built UI
✓ Bi-directional sync with conflict resolution
✓ Credential ownership and zero vendor lock-in
✓ To ship enterprise-grade integrations without hiring an integrations team
✓ An integration you don't need to rebuild as you scale

Choose Nango When You Need…

✓ Just OAuth — a token vault and callback handler
✓ A passthrough API proxy for a handful of providers
✓ To hand-roll a small number of integrations end-to-end yourself
✓ Full self-hosting on infrastructure you control
✓ An open-source-first stack and you have engineering capacity to build the platform layer

Outgrowing Nango's Auth Layer?

Ampersand picks up where Nango leaves off. Get the full platform — sync, writes, field mapping, UI, and real-time webhooks — without spending the next six months building it yourself.

Speak with an Engineer →

Frequently Asked Questions

At its core, yes. Nango's strongest product is OAuth: it handles authorization flows, stores tokens, and exposes a proxy so you can call provider APIs with fresh credentials. It also ships a scheduled sync runner and lets you write custom sync/action handlers in TypeScript. But everything above the auth and proxy layer — sync orchestration with conflict resolution, per-customer field mapping UI, real-time webhooks, custom object abstractions, embeddable components, observability — is work your team owns. Ampersand ships all of that as product.

Ampersand's event-driven architecture delivers webhook notifications in under one second, which is the difference between an AI voice agent that feels real-time and one that pauses awkwardly while polling waits for the next sync cycle. Nango's scheduled syncs typically run every 5 minutes at minimum — fine for batch use cases, impossible for conversational AI or real-time sales tooling.

Ampersand treats custom objects and custom fields as first-class, across every connector, on every tier. With Nango, custom objects are something you hand-roll via the proxy — discovery, schema diffing, field mapping, writes, and UI are all things your team writes and maintains per integration per customer.

Nango's listed price is low because Nango only covers the auth and proxy layer. The honest cost is Nango's license plus the engineering headcount needed to build and maintain the sync engine, writes, field mapping, embeddable UI, observability, and provider API changes. For most teams shipping product integrations, that's 2–4 engineers indefinitely. Ampersand absorbs all of that for a flat platform fee.

Yes. Ampersand supports OAuth token import, so you can bring your existing customer tokens across without asking them to re-authenticate. You can move one integration at a time and gradually retire your custom sync code.

Ampersand vs Nango: A Platform vs An Auth Layer