Looking for a high-quality, reasonably priced payment processing service that handles online sales and international currencies? Both Stripe and PayPal can fit the bill. While both are excellent choices, we like Stripe for international sales and B2B businesses, while PayPal is great for small businesses, solopreneurs, and as an additional payment alternative to any store.
Stripe: Best for tech-savvy startups and growing ecommerce businesses, B2B, and international sales.
PayPal: Best for small or casual retailers and those that need an additional payment option.
Stripe vs PayPal At-a-Glance
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Best for | Businesses focused on online sales and international markets | An additional payment choice for your customers |
Monthly fee | $0 | $0 |
Processing fee | 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction | 1.9% + 30 cents to 3.5% + 30 cents |
Average payout time | 2 business days, per a schedule you set; instant payout for 1%, minimum 50 cents | Next day, or instant for 1%, maximum $10 |
Online payments | Integrate with ecommerce, mobile apps, CRM software, and more | Integrate with ecommerce, mobile apps, CRM software, and more |
POS features | Custom build or connect to existing POS | Third-party only |
POS Hardware | Offers pre-certified card readers only | Card readers, all-in-one register, accessories |
Integrations | 710 in areas of payments, operations, marketing, and finance | Over 1,000 in areas of payments, growing business, operations, ecommerce, marketplaces |
Inactivity fee | $0 | $0 |
Ease of use | Good | Very Good |
Customer service | 24/7chat and phone support, email, resource library | Phone support hours: 5 a.m.–8 p.m. M-F, 6 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat and Sun (Pacific time) 24/7 chat support, in-app troubleshooting, FAQs, resource library |
If you’re looking for a more specific solution, Stripe and PayPal both frequently make our list of:
- Best payment gateways for small businesses
- Best merchant services
- Best B2B payment solutions
- Best free merchant accounts
- Best credit card processors for nonprofits
Most Affordable: Stripe
We choose Stripe as the overall winner for affordability. Its payment processing fees are overall less expensive and easier to understand. PayPal, on the other hand, has a long list of differing payments for varying situations, plus different fees for individual countries.
Stripe vs PayPal Pricing
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Monthly POS subscription | Varies (third-party) | $0 |
Monthly ecommerce subscription | Varies (third-party) | $0, $30/month if you want to embed it into a website |
Card reader pricing | $59–$299 | $0–$99.99 |
Terminal and register pricing | Does not supply terminals | Virtual Terminal $30/month, All-in-One, call for pricing |
Card-present transaction fees | 2.7% + 5 cents, 2.9% + 30 cents for touchless | 2.7% + Flat Fee (Flat Fee varies by country, US = 30 cents) |
Ecommerce transaction fees | 2.9% + 30 cents | 2.9% + Flat Fee |
Virtual terminal transaction fees | 2.9% + 30 cents (terminal not provided) | 3.1% + Flat Fee or 3.5% for American Express |
ACH transaction fees | 0.8%, $5 cap | e-checks vary; no ACH processing |
Invoice fee | $7 per successful payment | $0, $10–$30/month for recurring billing/payments |
Chargeback fees | $15 | $20 US (varies by country) + potential dispute fees ($15 US) |
Failed transactions fees | $4 to $15, depending on the type of transaction | $0 |
Special pricing for nonprofits | Custom, discounted | 2.2% + Flat Fee |
Why Choose Stripe
Stipe has a simpler, less expensive schedule of fees, discounts for high-volume sales and nonprofits, and lower chargeback fees. If you primarily handle online sales or need a full POS system, it’s the more economical choice.
Learn more about Stripe’s pricing and features in our Stripe review.
When to Choose PayPal
For businesses with very basic POS needs, such as retailers at farmer’s markets, food trucks, or stores with limited inventories, the PayPal Here mobile app may have sufficient POS capability for free. For an advanced POS system, you’ll need to go to a third party, just like with Stripe. Learn more about PayPal’s mobile POS app in our PayPal Here review.
PayPal offers excellent rates for nonprofits and deserves consideration as well. However, the main reason to choose PayPal as a payment processor is if you want an affordable, trusted alternative for your customers. Learn more in our PayPal review.
Best for Payment Processing: Stripe
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Best for | B2B businesses, high-volume sales, international sales | Most payment processing situations, especially as an addition |
Integrations | 700+ | Thousands |
High volume discounts | Offers custom rates | None |
Payment types | Credit card, debit card, contactless payments, gift cards | Credit card, debit card, contactless payments, digital gift cards, bitcoin, Venmo |
Currencies | 135 | 26 |
Card on file | Included | Included |
PCI Compliance | Included | Included |
Fraud Protection | Chargeback protection, advanced machine-learning fraud protection | Seller protection against chargebacks, transaction monitoring |
In our many comparisons of payment processing and merchant services, both PayPal and Stripe rank high. Where PayPal beats Stripe is in its sales tools. When looking at pure payment processing, we choose Stripe for its flexibility and breadth of payment types.
Why Stripe Is Better for Payment Processing
Stripe has a broader reach in its payment processing, with over 100 currencies and the ability to process ACH payments. The ACH and custom rates for high-volume sales make it a better choice for B2B businesses. Stripe also offers advanced fraud protection, with machine-learning programs for primary protection, and even greater security for an additional fee. PayPal has some fraud protection, but not to Stripe’s level.
When to Use PayPal
- If you want to accept bitcoin
- If you want to accept Venmo
- If you are a nonprofit
- If you have a payment processor and want to add additional payment options to your store or ecommerce site
- If you are not tech-savvy and want a simple plugin option
- If you want a free, basic POS system
- If you primarily do mobile sales
Best for Sales: PayPal
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Best for | B2B sales, international sales | General B2C sales, online and in-person sales |
POS Features | Custom build, unifies online and in-store payments, customer management, fleet management tools | PayPal Here: product variations, categories, add-ons, reports, taxes, tips, discounts |
Invoicing | Simple, recurring | Simple, recurring, autopay |
Virtual terminal | Same as POS | PayPal Here or PayPal Payments Pro to add it to a website ($30/month) |
Ecommerce | 355 ecommerce integrations, including crowdfunding, online stores, online sales funnels, and more | Can be added to almost any ecommerce site, social media, online stores, apps, online sales funnels, and more |
Mobile app | Back-end management, no sales processing | Accept mobile payments, send invoices, product catalog, register |
Product catalog | Custom build in POS or use third-party | Simple, pictures, variations, categories, manage through PayPal account |
Customer management | Basic customer information | Basic |
Employee management | Third-party apps | Permissioning |
Payment features | Split tender, discounts, tips, digital receipts, refunds, chargeback protection, international payments | Split bill, discounts, tips, digital receipts, refunds, chargeback protection, international payments |
Integrations | 710 in 27 categories | Thousands |
While Stripe’s features make it one of the best payment gateways, PayPal leads the way for sales on multiple fronts because of its versatility and reputation.
Why PayPal Is Better for Overall Sales
PayPal has done an amazing job at becoming the trusted standard for online payments. People can use it for sending a buddy money or paying for large purchases or subscriptions. PayPal claims to have 28 million merchant accounts and 375 million consumer accounts. Many businesses use PayPal in addition to a traditional payment processor as well.
PayPal also lets you accept mobile payments via smartphone or tablet, create a simple POS system, integrate into your website or online store, and manage subscriptions or invoices. It lets you create digital gift cards, set up store credit, and has recently introduced cryptocurrency to its accepted payment types. As a result, PayPal says that 37% of customers are more willing to buy from a store that accepts PayPal.
The mobile app, PayPal Here, includes a simple POS system in terms of inventory creation, basic register functions, and tax calculations. It allows variations, add-ons, and categories, which you can organize through your account. You can get five types of mobile card readers from simple swipe to a traditional handheld reader that accepts swipe, chip, and contactless payments. For a more robust system, it sells POS hardware and partners with Vend, Lavu, TouchPoint, Brightpearl, and Yahoo Small Business Mobile POS.
Adding PayPal to your accepted payments can help grow your customer base.
When to Use Stripe
- If you want to create a custom online checkout solution
- If you want to integrate Stripe into your existing ecommerce or billing software, including CRM software like Salesforce. This is what Stripe is designed for.
- If you primarily handle large-ticket invoices, such as wholesale or B2B sales.
Best for Integrations: Stripe
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North America, Great Britain, and Australia app integrations | 622 | Thousands (exact number not specified) |
International app integrations | 710 | Thousands (exact number not specified) |
Categories | 28 | Undefined |
Industries covered | 10 | Undefined |
API | Yes | Yes |
Developer tools | CLI, Visual Studio Code, live event monitoring, advanced SDKs | API executor, multiple languages, interactive mode, or mock mode |
Developer support | Documentation, YouTube tutorials, newsletter, live chat with developers, 24/7 support | Documentation, updates, demos, developer community, FAQ, live support via ticket |
While PayPal is integrated into just about any retail application you can think of, Stripe takes the lead for integrations because of its app marketplace and developer tools.
Why Stripe Is Best for Integrations
Stripe offers over 700 partner apps, and it’s very easy to find them on its website. You can search for apps by name, or use the menus to narrow it down by industry, need, and location. You’ll find popular apps like Salesforce, Harvest, Shopify, QuickBooks, and Eventzilla.
Can’t find the app you need? Stripe offers excellent API and SDK support with documentation, video tutorials, and live chat with developers through freenode IRC. Build, test, and manage your integration from your terminal through its CLI. Use the Visual Studio Code extension to generate sample code, view API request logs, forward events to your application, and use Stripe within your editor.
Stripe has a searchable database of over 700 partner apps.
When to Use PayPal
PayPal takes the lead for retail, with integrations in thousands of shopping and mobile applications, from eBay to Facebook. However, that’s from the consumer’s POV. Businesses will have a harder time finding integrations when looking from the PayPal page. The app center is focused on PayPal apps, with only a handful of third-party apps listed. The search bar does not pull up apps that we know work with PayPal—QuickBooks, for example. It may be easier to look at your other software and see if it has a PayPal API.
PayPal has native apps for adding pay buttons, processing subscriptions, invoicing, or accepting money casually. It also has native apps for digital advertising, messaging customers, digital gift cards, discounts, and fundraising, to name a few.
PayPal has developer programs for businesses, marketplaces, and enterprise-level businesses. It offers documentation on existing APIs, a sandbox for development and testing, and a community for support. Live tech support is by ticket only.
PayPal has a user-friendly development section on its website.
Bottom Line
In the debate of PayPal vs Stripe, there is no clear winner. However, even if you have your own payment processing service or choose to go with Stripe, PayPal makes a good addition because it’s a trusted service, expands your payment processing capabilities, and has no additional fees if it’s not used regularly.
You May Also Like …
- Learn how to accept payments online
- Read more about merchant accounts and how they work
