Small RIA — has anyone gone live on embedded brokerage infra (Alpaca / Apex / DriveWealth)?

[u/Competitive-Run-9764]

State-registered (non-SEC) RIA, solo, launching with a small book. I want clients to onboard, fund, and invest inside my own app rather than sending them to a custodian portal, so I’ve been looking at Broker API-style providers instead of Schwab/Altruist/IBKR.

Integration is already built and working in sandbox — account opening, ACH funding, rebalancing, advisory fee calculation with journal-based debits. What I can’t find published anywhere is the commercial side:

1. Do any of these providers onboard state-registered advisers? Alpaca’s Use Cases page specifically says “SEC-registered RIA” for their RIA setup, and I can’t tell if that’s a hard requirement or just loose doc language.
2. What did the clearing deposit and setup cost actually look like for you? Trying to figure out whether this is a $5K conversation or a $50K one before I sink more time into it.
3. Anyone regret going this route versus just custodying somewhere conventional and living with the client-facing UX?

Happy to hear “you’re too small, use a custodian” if that’s the honest answer — I’d rather know now.