Wisetack vs Sunbit: Customer Financing for Stone Shops Compared
Customer financing closes more kitchens than any feature in the showroom. A homeowner who is hesitating on a $9,400 quartz top will say yes to $278 a month nine times out of ten. The question for stone shops in 2026 is which financing partner to plug into the quote.
The two names that come up most are Wisetack and Sunbit. Both are point-of-sale lenders. Both pay the shop in full within a couple of days. Both run instant credit decisions for the customer with a soft pull. The differences are in the fee structure, the customer experience, and the kind of jobs each one is best at.
This is a working comparison from a stone-shop perspective. The article sits in the Stone Shop Tech Stack & Integrations cluster under the Complete Guide to Countertop Fabrication.
How Point Of Sale Financing Works For Stone Shops
Before the comparison, the working model:
- Customer is in the shop or on the phone reviewing the quote.
- Sales rep offers monthly payment options. Customer applies via a text link or QR code.
- Lender runs a soft credit check. Decision in seconds.
- Customer picks a term: usually 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, or 60 months.
- Lender pays the shop in full minus a merchant fee, usually 24 to 72 hours after install.
- Customer pays the lender. Shop has no exposure if the customer defaults.
The lender takes the credit risk. The shop takes a fee, usually somewhere between 3 and 9 percent of the financed amount depending on the promo term. The fee is the cost of closing a deal that would otherwise walk.
Wisetack At A Glance
Wisetack launched in 2018, headquartered in San Francisco. The company has carved out a niche specifically in home services and the trades. Strong adoption among HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and remodeling shops, including a growing footprint in countertop fabrication.
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- Term lengths: 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 60 months.
- Loan amounts: Up to $25,000.
- APR range: 0 percent to about 36 percent depending on customer credit and term.
- Soft pull only. Does not affect customer credit if they apply.
- Merchant fee: Typically 3 to 8 percent depending on the promotional term offered.
- Pay-the-shop timeline: Usually within 24 to 48 hours of install completion.
- No surprises clause: Customer rate cannot exceed what they agreed to at signup.
Wisetack's pitch to trades is simple: clean app, fast underwriting, no chargebacks, no recourse. The shop gets paid, the customer pays the lender, nobody calls the shop about late payments.
Sunbit At A Glance
Sunbit was founded in 2016, headquartered in Los Angeles. Strong original adoption in auto repair, dental, and optical. Has expanded into home services in recent years.
The product:
- Term lengths: 3, 6, 12 months as the core product. Some longer terms available depending on partner.
- Loan amounts: Up to $20,000 in most channels.
- APR range: 0 percent to about 35.99 percent depending on customer credit.
- Soft pull approval.
- Merchant fee: Typically 4 to 9 percent depending on promo.
- Pay-the-shop timeline: Usually within 24 to 72 hours.
- High approval rate. Sunbit publicly claims approval rates around 85 to 90 percent across its merchant base, which is high for the category.
Sunbit's pitch is broad acceptance. Customers who get declined elsewhere often get approved by Sunbit, sometimes at higher rates but with terms they can manage.
Head To Head On The Stone Shop Job
Both products work for the typical stone-shop ticket of $4,000 to $15,000. Where they differ in practice:
Loan size at the high end. Wisetack goes to $25K, Sunbit caps lower in most cases. For a $20K luxury quartzite job, Wisetack is the cleaner fit.
Approval rate on lower credit. Sunbit's approval rate is reportedly stronger on subprime applicants. For shops doing a lot of FHA-market or first-time-homeowner work, Sunbit may approve more deals.
Term length flexibility. Wisetack offers 36 and 60 month terms more readily, which keeps monthly payments low on big jobs. Sunbit core product is shorter terms.
Merchant fee. Both negotiate on volume. A shop financing $500K plus annually can often get Wisetack into the 3 to 5 percent range and Sunbit into a similar range. New shops with no volume history pay higher.
Application experience. Both run customer applications through a text link. Both decision in under a minute in the typical case. Wisetack's interface is generally considered cleaner by shop reviews on trade forums; Sunbit's interface is functional and getting better year over year.
Integration with shop software. Both integrate with the common shop platforms. Slabwise customers can run either Wisetack or Sunbit alongside the quoting workflow. The financing offer appears next to the quote total.
What The Fee Actually Costs The Shop
Real example. A $10,000 countertop job, customer takes the 24-month financed option at 0 percent customer APR.
- Wisetack merchant fee at 5.99 percent: shop nets $9,401.
- Sunbit merchant fee at 6.99 percent: shop nets $9,301.
- Cash discount the shop might have offered instead: 3 percent gets the shop $9,700.
The financing fee is more expensive than the cash discount in raw dollars. The reason it still wins: shops with financing on the table close more deals. If financing is the difference between closing a $10K job or losing it to a competitor who offers financing, the $600 fee is the cost of doing business.
The math breaks the other direction when the customer was always going to buy from you. Offering financing as a default to every customer leaves money on the table. Offering financing as a save for the customers who are about to walk is the right move.
Where Each One Wins
Wisetack is the cleaner fit for:
- High-ticket jobs ($15K+).
- Customers with mid to high credit who want long terms and low monthly payments.
- Shops who want the cleanest customer-facing app and the strongest brand recognition.
Sunbit is the cleaner fit for:
- Mid-range jobs ($4K to $12K).
- Markets with a lot of subprime credit (some FHA-heavy or rural markets).
- Shops who want maximum approval rate even at slightly higher fees.
Many shops at scale run both. The customer is offered Wisetack first, and if declined, the rep offers Sunbit. This is the same pattern auto repair shops use.
How Financing Plugs Into The Stone Shop Workflow
The integration that works:
- Quote built in Slabwise. Job total is calculated.
- Financing offer appears next to the total: "Or $278/month for 36 months with approved credit."
- Customer text-applies. Approval lands in seconds.
- Customer signs the financing agreement and the shop's contract.
- Deposit clears from the lender. Material gets ordered, slab gets pulled.
- Install completes. Final amount disburses from lender to shop.
- Shop's QuickBooks records the merchant fee as a financing expense.
For the broader Wisetack review for stone shops, the standalone article covers the full Wisetack feature set.
Common Mistakes Shops Make With Customer Financing
Five mistakes that show up regularly:
Treating financing as a default discount. Offering financing to every customer trains them to ask for it on every job, including jobs they would have paid cash for. The financing menu should be a save tool, not the lead offer.
Hiding the merchant fee. Some shops try to bake the fee into the quote so it looks like the same price for cash or finance. This is technically against most lender agreements and not necessary. Be transparent.
Forgetting to disclose APR. Federal lending disclosure rules apply. Train the sales staff on what they can and cannot say.
Not tracking the close rate lift. Without tracking, the shop has no idea whether financing is paying for itself. Tag jobs as "financed" in Slabwise or QuickBooks and review the data quarterly.
Picking the lender on first conversation. Both companies will negotiate on volume. Get quotes from both, run both for a quarter, then concentrate volume with the winner.
The Slabwise Position On Customer Financing
Slabwise is not a lender. Slabwise is the shop platform. Customer financing is one of the integrations the platform supports because financing genuinely closes more kitchens for our shop customers.
The right pattern is to use the financing offer as a closing tool inside the quote workflow. The wrong pattern is to let financing become a margin-eroding default. Slabwise gives the shop the data to tell the difference.
Related Reading
- Wisetack Review: Financing Countertop Customers in 2026
- The Complete Stone Shop Tech Stack: From Quote to Install
- Best CRM for Countertop Shops in 2026 (7 Options Compared)
- How to Choose Software for a Countertop Shop in 2026
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Wisetack or Sunbit? Merchant fees overlap heavily. For most shops, the fee difference is within one percentage point. Sunbit tends to run slightly higher on average; Wisetack tends to negotiate down faster on volume.
Can a stone shop run both at once? Yes. Many shops do exactly this, offering one as the primary and the other as the backup for declined customers.
Does customer financing affect my QuickBooks? Yes. The financing fee is a deduction from the gross sale. Set up a "Financing Fees" expense account in QuickBooks and code the fee there so the gross margin reporting stays clean.
Do my customers' credit scores get hurt by applying? No. Both Wisetack and Sunbit run a soft pull at application. Hard pulls only happen later if and when the customer accepts the loan and reports to credit bureaus over time.
What is the typical approval rate? Sunbit publicly cites approval rates near 85 to 90 percent across its merchant network. Wisetack's approval rate varies more by customer credit profile. Both decision in under a minute.
Is there a minimum volume to qualify? Both companies onboard shops at any volume. The merchant fee tends to start higher for low-volume shops and improve at scale. Most shops can get reasonable terms once they prove out a few quarters of consistent financing volume.
Can I offer 0 percent customer APR? Yes, both lenders offer 0 percent customer-APR promos. The shop pays a higher merchant fee in exchange. The math is the same: a higher fee in exchange for an offer the customer cannot say no to.
Stone fabrication generates respirable crystalline silica dust. Shops must follow OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1153 standards, which set a permissible exposure limit of 50 μg/m³ over an 8-hour shift. Wet-cutting methods, ventilation, and respiratory protection are not optional.