10 Best Stripe Alternatives and Competitors in 2026

The best Stripe alternatives are 1. PayPal and Braintree, 2. Adyen, 3. Xflow, 4. Paddle, 5. Square, 6. Razorpay, 7. Wise Business, 8. Payoneer, 9. Dodo Payments and 10. FastSpring.

They are also the main Stripe competitors, but which one fits depends on the job Stripe is doing for you today. If you run online checkout, look at PayPal, Braintree or Adyen; if you sell in person, Square. If you sell software worldwide and want sales tax handled, look at Paddle, Dodo Payments or FastSpring. If you are an Indian business whose clients abroad pay your invoices, a receiving platform such as Xflow costs far less than any card processor.

• PayPal and Braintree - Built for online stores wanting a trusted checkout button and Stripe-like card processing.
• Adyen - Built for enterprises with high card volume across many countries.
• Xflow - Built for Indian businesses receiving international payments into an Indian bank account.
• Paddle - Built for SaaS companies that want sales tax and VAT handled worldwide.
• Square - Built for shops and service businesses taking cards in person.
• Razorpay - Built for Indian businesses taking UPI and card payments online.
• Wise Business - Built for businesses holding and converting several currencies.
• Payoneer - Built for freelancers paid through Upwork, Fiverr or Amazon.
• Dodo Payments - Built for small digital and AI product sellers wanting a merchant of record.
• FastSpring - Built for software and game sellers wanting a quoted merchant of record.

Pick by your situation:

These companies like Stripe are compared on fees from each provider's public pricing page, checked 16 October 2026. Stripe's own US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ for domestic cards.

Stripe is several products. Most businesses only need to replace one or two, so match the alternative to the part you use.

Decide the type first, because it changes who owns tax and who your customer pays.

A merchant of record costs more per sale, often 4% to 6%, because it takes on tax filing in every country.

Most switches come down to one of six problems. If none applies, Stripe may still suit you.

• Fees stack on international sales. In the US, an international card adds 1.5% to the 2.9% + 30¢ base (see our breakdown of stripe transaction fees), and currency conversion adds another 1%. On a $1,000 foreign card payment that converts, the fee is about $54, not $29.
• Funds can be held. Stripe can place a reserve on part of your balance or pause payouts after a jump in volume, a run of disputes or a review of your business. New and fast-growing accounts are flagged most often.
• It is not open in every country. Stripe lists 51 countries. India and Indonesia are Preview, with sign-up through sales, and mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey and Argentina are not listed. Businesses there use PayPal, Payoneer or a merchant of record that sells on their behalf.
• Payouts are slower than they look. A new Stripe account usually waits 7 to 14 days for its first payout. After that, US accounts settle in 2 business days, while Indian accounts wait 5 business days for international charges.
• Tax and billing add up. Stripe Tax calculates sales tax, but you remain the seller and must register and file, and Stripe Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume. A merchant of record files for you inside one fee.
• You pay for checkout you do not use. If clients pay by bank transfer against an invoice, card processing, fraud tools and dispute fees add cost without adding value.

1. PayPal and Braintree

PayPal is the biggest name you can move to. It had 439 million active accounts and processed $1.79 trillion in 2025, so many of your customers already have a login. You get two products from one company: the PayPal button, which lets shoppers pay without typing a card number, and Braintree, the developer platform that handles cards, PayPal and Venmo through one API.

How it compares with Stripe: Braintree is the closest match to Stripe's way of working, with a similar API and card rate, and it charges less on foreign cards. PayPal Checkout costs more than Stripe but can lift conversion where shoppers prefer the button.

Key features

• PayPal Checkout costs 3.49% + 49¢, standard card payments 2.99% + 49¢ and Braintree 2.89% + 29¢ in the US. Pick the product rather than the brand, because the same $1,000 sale can cost $4 to $10 more on the wrong one.
• Braintree adds 1% for cards issued outside the US and 1% for non-USD payments, against Stripe's 1.5% and 1%. If a third of your sales are international, that gap shows up on every monthly statement.
• Established businesses can ask for interchange-plus pricing on Braintree and PayPal advanced cards. You then pay the real card cost plus a fixed margin, which usually beats a flat rate once you process high volume.

Pros

• On published rates, a $1,000 foreign card sale costs about $49 on Braintree against $54 on Stripe. For a store taking $50,000 a month from abroad, that is roughly $250 a month back.
• Shoppers with a PayPal account pay without typing card details, which removes a common reason people leave a mobile checkout. Most cart plugins, including Shopify and WooCommerce, support PayPal out of the box.

Cons

• PayPal's own conversion spread is 3%, or 4% in some cases. A sale that converts through PayPal Checkout can therefore cost more than Stripe, so check which currency your customers pay in before switching.
• Chargebacks cost $20 on PayPal card payments and $15 on Braintree, charged even when you win some disputes. A business with a high refund rate should price this in alongside the headline rate.

Best for: US and European online stores that want a known checkout button, or developers who want Stripe-like card processing at a lower cross-border cost (Braintree).

Verdict: Choose Braintree to keep a Stripe-style setup and cut cross-border fees; add PayPal Checkout if the button lifts your conversion.

2. Adyen

Adyen is the processor large brands move to when they outgrow Stripe. It handled about €1.4 trillion in 2025 and runs online, in-app and in-store payments on one platform. It connects to card networks through local processing in many regions, and banks approve local payments more often than cross-border ones.

How it compares with Stripe: Stripe charges one flat rate and lets anyone sign up in minutes. Adyen passes through the real card cost and adds a small fee of its own, which is cheaper at scale, but it sets a minimum monthly invoice and onboards through sales. Checkout.com is a similar enterprise option, also priced by quote.

Key features

• Visa and Mastercard cost a fixed 13¢ plus 0.60% plus the card's own interchange and scheme fees, itemised on each statement. You pay what the card actually costs, so cheap domestic debit cards stay cheap instead of being averaged into a flat 2.9%.
• Online, in-app and in-store payments run on one platform, with wallets, buy now pay later and vouchers through the same integration. A retailer can see every channel's sales and refunds in one report instead of reconciling two providers.

Pros

• Adyen's own fee on a $1,000 card payment is $6.13 before interchange. On a European debit card, where interchange is capped at 0.2%, the total stays around $8 to $10, far below any flat-rate processor.
• Local processing in many regions means banks see the payment as domestic and approve it more often. A few extra approved payments out of every hundred can be worth more than the fee difference itself.
• Every payment shows what the card network and the issuing bank charged. Finance teams can check costs line by line, which is impossible with a blended flat rate.

Cons

• Adyen sets a minimum monthly invoice that depends on your industry and is quoted only by sales. If your volume is below that minimum, you pay for volume you do not have, so small sellers are usually better off elsewhere.
• Monthly cost moves with your card mix, because a premium credit card costs more than a debit card. Budgeting is harder than with Stripe's single rate, so ask for a sample invoice based on your real card mix.

Best for: enterprises with high card volume in several countries, especially those selling in physical stores too.

Verdict: The strongest Stripe competitor at scale; skip it below enterprise volume.

3. Xflow

Xflow is built for a problem Stripe does not solve well: an Indian business getting paid by clients abroad. Instead of a card checkout, your client receives local account details in their own currency and pays your invoice the way they would pay a local supplier. Xflow converts at the mid-market rate and settles INR into your Indian bank account.

How it compares with Stripe: Stripe India is Preview only, settles international charges in 5 business days and adds 2% when it converts currency. Xflow is open to Indian businesses, settles on the next business day and charges a flat fee on most invoices. It does not take card payments on a website, so it replaces Stripe for invoiced income, not for checkout.

Key features

• Receiving accounts in 25+ currencies, so a US client pays by ACH or domestic wire as they would pay any local supplier. Your client avoids SWIFT charges and you avoid intermediary bank deductions that shrink the amount that arrives.
• Published fees at the mid-market rate: Starter is $12 flat up to $2,000, then 0.6%; Growth is $20 flat up to $5,000, then 0.4%. You know the cost before you invoice, with no exchange-rate markup hidden in the conversion.
• INR lands in your Indian bank account on the next business day. Compared with Stripe India's 5 business days for international charges, that is about a week of cash flow back on every payment.
• An eFIRA is issued automatically for each payment. This is the proof of foreign receipt you need for zero-rated GST on export of services and for refund claims, so there is no chasing your bank at filing time.

Pros

• On a $1,000 invoice you pay $12, against $35 to $75 through the card routes in this list. An agency billing $20,000 a month keeps roughly $500 to $1,200 more each month.
• Xflow holds final RBI Payment Aggregator Cross-Border (PA-CB) authorisation for inward and outward payments, dated February 2026. You can check it yourself on RBI's published list before you share account details with clients.

Cons

• It does not take card payments on a website. A SaaS company with self-serve card customers still needs a checkout such as Razorpay or a merchant of record, and would use Xflow for invoiced clients.
• Only businesses registered in India can sign up, because the product is built around Indian settlement and export paperwork. A company based elsewhere should look at the other options in this list.

Best for: Indian exporters, agencies, freelancers and B2B SaaS companies billing clients abroad by invoice.

Verdict: The lowest-cost route when the money arrives by bank transfer rather than card.

4. Paddle

Paddle is a merchant of record for software companies. It sells your product to the customer in its own name, so sales tax, VAT, fraud, chargebacks and payment support become Paddle's job, and you receive the balance. It covers sales tax in over 100 jurisdictions with checkout in more than 20 currencies.

How it compares with Stripe: With Stripe you are the seller, so you register and file tax yourself even with Stripe Tax, and pay extra for Billing. Paddle costs more per sale but bundles tax, billing and dunning into one fee.

Key features

• One price of 5% + 50¢ per checkout sale with no monthly fee, covering payments, sales tax, fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support. Your cost rises only when you sell, which suits early-stage SaaS with uneven revenue.
• Subscription billing with automatic dunning, which retries failed renewals and emails customers to update cards. Stripe charges 0.7% extra for Billing; here recovery tools are part of the same fee.
• Paddle helps move existing subscribers across from your current provider. That matters because forcing every customer to re-enter a card is where most migrations lose subscribers.

Pros

• You do not register for VAT or sales tax in each country you sell to, because Paddle is the seller. For a small team selling into the EU, UK and US, that removes registrations, quarterly filings and the risk of penalties for getting them wrong.
• Paddle answers customers' payment and refund questions directly. A two-person team stops spending hours a week on billing emails.

Cons

• On a $20 sale the fee is $1.50, or 7.5%, so low-priced products feel the fixed 50¢. Products under $10 need custom pricing, so apps with small monthly plans should ask for a quote first.
• Paddle's name appears on the customer's invoice and card statement because it is the seller. Some customers may not recognise the charge at first, which can raise support questions or disputes unless your emails explain it.

Best for: SaaS companies selling worldwide without an in-house tax team.

Verdict: Worth the higher fee when tax filing is the problem you are trying to solve.

5. Square

Square is the main alternative to Stripe Terminal, Stripe's in-person product. It gives shops, cafes and service businesses card readers, a point-of-sale app and online payments under one account, with no monthly fee on the Free plan. It is available in fewer countries than Stripe, mainly the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan.

How it compares with Stripe: Square's online API rate matches Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, but it is built for selling in person first, with hardware and software ready to use rather than built by developers.

Key features

• In-person card payments cost 2.6% + 15¢ on the Free plan, with no monthly fee. A cafe taking $20,000 a month in person pays about $520 plus 15¢ per sale, with readers and a point-of-sale app ready to use.
• Online API payments cost 2.9% + 30¢, the same as Stripe, while Square Online and invoices cost 3.3% + 30¢. If you sell mostly online, Square saves nothing over Stripe, so its value is in the shop.
• Keyed-in and card-on-file payments cost 3.5% + 15¢. Businesses that type in card numbers over the phone should check how often they do it, since this is the most expensive way to take a card.
• Next-business-day transfers to your bank are free. That is faster than Stripe's standard 2 business days in the US, which helps small shops paying suppliers weekly.

Pros

• You get card readers, a point-of-sale app, inventory and staff tools without building anything. A new shop can be taking payments the day the reader arrives, where Stripe Terminal needs a developer.
• Shop sales and online orders appear in one dashboard. Owners can see stock and revenue across both without exporting reports from two systems.

Cons

• Cards issued in another country cost an extra 1.5%, the same as Stripe. Tourist-heavy shops should not expect savings on foreign cards.
• Square is not available in India or most of Asia. Businesses there need a local option such as Razorpay for shop and online payments.

Best for: shops, restaurants and service businesses that take most payments in person.

Verdict: The easiest replacement for Stripe Terminal; not a fit for cross-border online businesses.

6. Razorpay

Razorpay is the usual Stripe replacement for a business selling online inside India. It offers self-serve sign-up, unlike Stripe's Preview status in India, and covers the methods Indian customers use most, starting with UPI. It also takes international cards and inward bank transfers on the same account.

How it compares with Stripe: Stripe India mainly serves cards. Razorpay covers UPI, RuPay, net banking and wallets, which together make up most online payments in India. Its international card rate is similar to Stripe India's, so it wins on reach in India, not on cross-border cost.

Key features

• A 2% platform fee on domestic cards, UPI, RuPay debit and net banking across 72+ banks, with 18% GST charged on the fee only. A ₹10,000 order costs ₹200 plus ₹36 GST, and every common Indian payment method works on one checkout.
• International cards are accepted at up to 3% on the same checkout. An Indian SaaS company can sell to Indian and overseas customers without running two payment providers.
• Inward bank transfers into multi-currency accounts cost 1% plus GST with no FX markup on the standard plan. This gives invoiced overseas clients a cheaper route than paying by card.
• Razorpay holds an RBI PA-CB licence for inward and outward cross-border payments. That covers collecting from customers abroad under Indian rules.

Pros

• UPI, the way most Indians pay online, works from day one. Stripe India does not offer it to most merchants, so a store moving to Razorpay can accept the payment method its customers prefer.

Cons

• A $1,000 international card payment costs about $35.40 once GST is added. That is roughly three times the cost of a flat-fee invoice route, so exporters paid by bank transfer should not route those payments through cards.
• It serves only businesses registered in India. A foreign company selling to Indians needs a cross-border option instead.

Best for: Indian businesses taking payments on their website or app from Indian customers.

Verdict: The default for domestic Indian checkout; use a receiving platform for invoiced export income, or compare razorpay alternatives.

7. Wise Business

Wise Business is a multi-currency account, not a processor. It gives you account details to receive money in 22 currencies, lets you hold balances and convert at the mid-market rate, and shows the fee before every conversion.

How it compares with Stripe: Stripe collects card payments; Wise receives bank transfers. Wise replaces Stripe only if your clients pay by transfer, and then usually costs much less.

Key features

• On the US plan, receiving domestic transfers is free and a USD wire costs $6.11, after a one-time $31 set-up fee. A business receiving ten client transfers a month pays very little compared with a card processor taking 3%.
• Conversion starts from 0.23% depending on the currency, at the mid-market rate. You can hold the money in its original currency and convert later instead of being forced into an instant conversion.

Pros

• The fee is shown before you convert, so there is no hidden spread to work out from your statement. Finance teams can match every conversion to an exact cost, which makes month-end reconciliation quicker.

Cons

• It cannot take card payments on a website. If any of your customers pay by card, you still need a processor alongside it.
• For Indian businesses, the USD to INR fee varies by currency and 18% GST is added on Wise fees. Compare the final INR amount, not the headline fee, against an India-focused receiving platform.

Best for: businesses that bill clients and pay suppliers in several currencies.

Verdict: A clear multi-currency account; pair it with a processor if you also need checkout.

8. Payoneer

Payoneer is a payout network built around marketplaces. If Upwork, Fiverr or Amazon pays you, Payoneer often receives that money with no extra set-up, and it gives you receiving accounts in 70+ currencies across 190+ countries.

How it compares with Stripe: Stripe is for collecting from your own customers; Payoneer is strongest at receiving from platforms. For direct client payments it charges at both ends, on the way in and again when you withdraw, so check the total before using it as a Stripe replacement.

Key features

• Client payments cost 1% by US ACH debit or up to 3.99% + 49¢ by card. Asking clients to pay by bank debit instead of card cuts the incoming fee by roughly three-quarters.
• Batch payouts of up to 1,000 payments at once. Agencies paying many contractors abroad can send them all in one step instead of one transfer at a time.
• Payment requests and links let clients outside marketplaces pay you directly. You can use the same account for marketplace income and direct clients, but the fees differ between the two.

Pros

• Earnings from Upwork, Fiverr and Amazon arrive in one account without extra set-up. A freelancer working across several platforms sees all income in one place and withdraws once.

Cons

• Withdrawing to a bank in a different currency costs 1.2% to 4%, with a minimum of up to $20 in some countries. This second fee is easy to miss when comparing Payoneer with Stripe's single rate.
• A $1,000 card payment from a client, withdrawn as INR, can cost about $52 to $79 in total. On direct client invoices, that is more than Stripe and far more than a flat-fee receiving platform.
• A $29.95 annual fee applies if the account receives under $6,000 in any 12 months. Occasional freelancers should check whether they will cross that threshold.

Best for: freelancers and sellers whose income comes through online marketplaces.

Verdict: Convenient for marketplace income; check payoneer fees on direct invoices against a cheaper receiving route.

9. Dodo Payments

Dodo Payments is a newer merchant of record for digital products, SaaS and AI tools. It sells to customers in 220+ countries and territories on your behalf, handles VAT, GST and sales tax, and offers checkout in 80+ currencies.

How it compares with Stripe: You do not need a Stripe-supported country to use it, and tax is handled for you. The trade-off is a higher fee than Stripe and a shorter track record than Paddle.

Key features

• 4% + 40¢ on US cards and wallets, plus 1.5% for payments from outside the US and 0.5% for subscriptions and usage billing. Work out your real rate from your customer mix, because an overseas subscriber costs 6% + 40¢.
• Dodo acts as merchant of record for VAT, GST and sales tax and handles chargebacks. You sell worldwide without registering for tax in each country, much as with Paddle.
• Usage-based and credit-based billing meters tokens, API calls or credits and bills overages. AI and API products can charge by use without building or buying a separate metering tool.
• 40+ payment methods and checkout in 22 languages. Customers outside the US see familiar ways to pay in their own language, which helps more of them complete checkout.

Pros

• A lower base rate than Paddle, with no monthly or set-up fee. On a $100 US sale, Dodo takes $4.40 against Paddle's $5.50.
• Founders in India can use it to sell globally by card without a Stripe account. This solves the Stripe India Preview problem for digital products.

Cons

• An international subscription payment reaches 6% + 40¢ once both surcharges apply, above Paddle's 5% + 50¢ on larger sales. If most customers are overseas subscribers, Paddle can work out cheaper.
• Its pricing page lists payouts as free, but its FAQ mentions $5 on payouts under $1,000 and $25 for SWIFT payouts. Ask for the payout fee in writing before you sign.

Best for: solo founders and small teams selling digital or AI products worldwide.

Verdict: A low-setup merchant of record for small sellers; check payout fees in writing.

10. FastSpring

FastSpring is a merchant of record for software and video game companies and has sold for them since 2005. Like Paddle, it sells to your customer, handles tax and payments, and keeps one fee from each sale. Unlike Paddle, it does not publish that fee and quotes each business by volume.

How it compares with Stripe: It takes tax and billing off your team, as Paddle does, but you need a quote to know whether it costs more or less than Stripe plus your own tax work.

Key features

• Revenue-share pricing based on your transaction type and volume, withheld from each payout, with no minimum volume. You never receive a separate fee invoice, but you also cannot see your rate until sales quotes it.
• Lower rates for ACH and wire payments than for cards. Business customers buying annual licences can be steered to bank payment to cut your cost.

Pros

• There is no minimum volume, so a small software seller can apply and grow into better rates. Rates are also negotiable as volume rises, which a fixed published price like Paddle's does not offer.

Cons

• There is no public price. Independent reviews estimate around 5.9% + 95¢, which would be above Paddle, so get a written quote before comparing.
• Ask how refunds are charged, because keeping the original fee on refunded sales raises your real cost. A product with a 5% refund rate can pay noticeably more than the headline suggests.

Best for: software and game companies that want a merchant of record and can negotiate on volume.

Verdict: Get quotes from FastSpring and Paddle side by side before choosing.

Here is the fee on the same $1,000 payment from a customer abroad, using each provider's published US or India rates.

A card processor charges for card risk and conversion. If your client can pay by bank transfer, a receiving platform keeps about $25 to $60 more on every $1,000.

Stripe lists India as Preview, so most Indian businesses cannot sign up on their own. The best Stripe alternative for cross-border payments into India depends on how your customer pays you.

Documents to expect: for export of services you need proof the money came from abroad (an eFIRA or fira) to claim zero-rated GST and file refunds. Check that your provider issues it for every payment without a separate request,, and that it shows the sender, amount, date and purpose of the payment.

Licence check: any provider collecting cross-border payments for Indian businesses should hold RBI payment aggregator cross-border (PA-CB) authorisation. RBI publishes the list of authorised entities on its website.

Follow this order so payments keep flowing.

• 1. Open and verify the new account first. Finish business verification before you change anything, as this can take days for processors and merchants of record.
• 2. Export your data. Download customers, products, prices, invoices and payout reports from the Stripe Dashboard.
• 3. Request a card data export. Contact Stripe support with the name of your new provider. Stripe sends saved cards, emails and metadata as an encrypted file, but only to a PCI DSS Level 1 processor, and cards saved through Link are excluded.
• 4. Rebuild subscriptions. Stripe does not export subscriptions or payment history, so pull them through the API or Dashboard and recreate plans with the same billing dates so customers are not charged twice or skipped.
• 5. Update webhooks and integrations. List every system that listens to Stripe events, such as accounting, CRM and email, and point it to the new provider.
• 6. Run both in parallel. Send new customers to the new provider while Stripe handles existing renewals for one or two billing cycles.
• 7. Update invoices and payment details. Send clients new payment instructions and update invoice templates.
• 8. Close Stripe last. Keep the account open, without processing, until refund and dispute windows on past payments have passed; closing it removes your Dashboard and API access to old data.

Any provider can hold funds. These steps lower the risk.

• Describe your business, products and refund policy fully during sign-up, so the risk team does not query it later.
• Warn the provider before a launch or sale that will spike volume.
• Keep refund and dispute rates low by using clear product descriptions and a recognisable statement name.
• Keep a second way to get paid, such as a receiving account for invoiced clients, so one hold does not stop all income.