
You ‘ve been hearing more and more about Stripe, the hottest new requital processor on the block. But what about PayPal ? They have a trusted brand and a long history of processing payments on the network .
Let ‘s do a thorough follow-up of Stripe five PayPal. We ‘ll compare each payment processor in five key categories : Transaction and service fees, Security, API, Data Portability, Customer Service. We wo n’t declare a achiever, but we ‘ll point out some of the significant differences, which should help you make a more inform decision.
Transaction and service fees
Stripe takes a childlike access. They charge you a flat rate of 2.9 % + 30¢ per successful appoint angstrom long as you ‘re doing under $ 1 million in bulk per year. This rate varies country to area, but it ‘s constantly apartment. They do n’t disclose any special high volume rates .
PayPal recently increased their base tip from 2.9 % + 30¢ to 3.49 % + 49¢. PayPal besides throws in some extra service fees that make things a sting more complicate. Let ‘s compare Stripe and PayPal ‘s fees :
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Service | PayPal | Stripe |
---|---|---|
Transaction fees [1] | 3.49% + 49¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
Charge cards from your website | $30 / month [2] | Free |
Chargeback | $20 | $15 |
American Express | 3.5% [3] | Same flat rate |
Micropayments (less than $10) | 5% + .05¢ | Same flat rate |
Refund | Fixed fee only returned [4] | Fees not returned |
International cards | 1% [5] | Free [6] |
Authorize card | 30¢ [7] | Free |
Recurring Billing | $10 / month | Free |
Advanced Fraud Protection | $10 / month [8] | Free [9] |
Accept Apple Pay © | Not available | Free |
- United States transaction fees. Stripe and Paypal transaction fees vary by country.
- PayPal Payments Pro allows you to provide a fully customized checkout experience on your site and includes Virtual Terminal.
- American Express fee is only charged for PayPal Payments Pro, PayPal Payments Advanced, and Virtual Terminal, which is required for certain features (see note 2).
- Fixed fee portion of the original transaction fee (for example, the refund fee is $0.30 for domestic payments).
- PayPal cross border fees.
- International cards are free, but currency conversion costs 2%. Example: You connect a GBP bank account to Stripe, but charge in USD. Stripe will automatically convert your funds to GBP (for a 2% fee) and deposit them into your GBP bank account. If you instead charged in GBP (or connected a USD bank to Stripe), it would be free.
- PayPal charges 30¢ for uncaptured authorizations and card verification transactions.
- $10 monthly + $0.05 per transaction. Excludes Express Checkout transactions.
- See Stripe Radar.
You ‘ll notice that PayPal fees are army for the liberation of rwanda more complex and nuanced. For model, they entirely charge extra for American Express when you ‘re on one of the paid plans, which seems a bit counterintuitive. In about all cases, Stripe is the cheaper option because of lower overhaul fees ( unless you ‘re entirely process micropayments ) .
When do I get paid?
PayPal normally pays out within 1 occupation day. Stripe has rolling 2 day transfers in the United States and Australia, and rolling 7 day transfers in most other countries ( see the Stripe automatic remove schedules ). If fast access to your funds is important and you ‘re outside the United or Australia, keep this in mind .
Security
Both Stripe and PayPal take security badly. At the core, they ‘re both very stable and procure platforms. Let ‘s talk about how they ‘re different, and how Stripe intrinsically encourages good security .
Stripe ‘s killer feature when they first launched was Stripe.js. When you use Stripe.js on your web site, the credit card data entered into your payment phase is never sent to your server. alternatively, the data is sent immediately to Stripe. Why is this so crucial ?
- Automatically PCI compliant because you don’t handle any sensitive credit card data on your servers.
- More secure because a breach of your servers won’t result in any stolen credit card data.
- You’re not tempted to store credit card data on your servers, which you really shouldn’t be doing unless you’re a big business and want to pay for PCI compliance.
If you follow the convention flow with Stripe, you ‘ll barely mechanically store your cards in their vault. You ‘ll never touch the sensitive datum. This encourages good security.
PayPal nowadays has a room to store cards in a vault, but it is n’t quite the same as Stripe.js. The sensitive calling card data still has to go through your server first, and this puts a big security system charge ( see PCI complaisance above ) on the software developer or the customer .
In drumhead, Stripe.js encourages good developer security practices, while PayPal gives developers room to make bad decisions. They ‘ve recently taken steps to provide better options, but these options still are n’t a secure as Stripe.js .
API
When Stripe first launched to the populace, the Stripe API was a difference manufacturer. It ‘s clean, well documented, and highly easy to use. Payment processor APIs of the past were buggy, inconsistent, and ailing documented. In fact, PayPal was one of the worst offenders .
In a direction, Stripe has forced PayPal to up its game. The documentation and organization of their new RESTful PayPal API is vastly improved and modeled after Stripe ( coincidentally ). This is an example of contest benefit customers. Stripe has set a new standard for a clean and jerk and well document API, and the rest of the industry ( including PayPal ) is rushing to catch up .
Data Portability
This is an sphere where PayPal falls flat on its face. Imagine you ‘ve built a successful membership web site over the years, and you powered it with PayPal subscriptions. If you want to move to another payment processor ( like Stripe ), you ca n’t transfer that recognition tease data. PayPal plainly wo n’t give it you. All your existing customers would have to sign up again and you ‘d credibly lose some of them during the procedure .
band on the early hand values data portability. If you decide to leave Stripe they ‘ll help you migrate your credit rating card data in a secure and PCI-Compliant way. This over accommodating stance on data portability is surely worth noting. It ‘s refreshing to know you have a choice, and wo n’t be locked in constantly .
Customer Service
We have n’t used PayPal in years, so we do n’t have any holocene experience with their customer avail. Back when we did use PayPal, e-mail back was slow and treacherous, and it was closely impossible to get person on the earphone. At one charge, we had a run joke because PayPal ‘s telephone system kept hanging up on us before we could always talk to anyone. This went on for months. There are besides countless horror stories of PayPal freezing funds for no cause.
Stripe has open channels for e-mail support, and they besides have an IRC transmit ( # stripe on Freenode ) where developers can chat and get live help from real engineers. This is invaluable if you ‘re working through a tough trouble and need some alive assistant. Stripe besides recently introduced 24/7 exist old world chat and earphone hold, which should further improve the customer service know .
To be fairly, PayPal is suffering from plate, age, and bureaucracy. Stripe is modern and hustling for grocery store share. They ‘re working hard to differentiate with bang-up customer service. The real test will be over time. Stripe will find it more and more challenge to provide top notch customer service as they get larger and larger. Hopefully we ‘re silent raving about their customer service five years from now .
Competition is good
For Memberful, we chose Stripe, and we could n’t be happier with that decision. It ‘s made everything we do easier from an engineering perspective, and we ‘ve been thrilled with the avail and accompaniment. With that being said, PayPal has taken steps to respond to upstarts like Stripe, and has already improved their API significantly. It will be matter to to see how these two companies continue to evolve and compete. In the end, we ‘ll all enjoy better serve because of it .