Best Stripe Alternatives in 2026: 9 Payment Processors Compared

PayPal is the alternative most customers already know, and that familiarity can lift checkout completion. A shopper who already has a PayPal balance or saved cards can pay without typing card details, which removes friction on mobile in particular. The platform also covers invoicing, subscriptions and buy now, pay later options in the same account.

The trade-off is price. At 2.99% plus 49 cents per transaction, PayPal costs more than Stripe on a typical card payment, and the gap grows with volume. Businesses that mainly take cards, rather than PayPal wallet payments, should run their own numbers before switching on trust alone.

Square wins for businesses that sell face to face as well as online. Its free point of sale app, card readers and inventory tools give a small shop a complete setup without a developer. Online payments, invoices and a simple storefront sit in the same dashboard, so one provider covers both channels.

For a purely online business, Square is less distinctive. Its online rate matches Stripe, and its checkout tools are simpler but less flexible for custom builds. Choose Square when the counter matters as much as the website, not when you only need an API.

Adyen is built for companies that sell across borders and channels. It supports a long list of currencies and local payment methods, and it lets a business manage online, in-store and app payments in one place. That unified view makes reconciliation simpler when a company operates in several countries.

The catch is access. Adyen prices on an interchange-plus basis, roughly interchange plus 0.60% plus about 13 cents per transaction, and it works through a sales process rather than instant self-service signup. Small businesses will find the onboarding heavy, but larger merchants can negotiate terms that beat flat-rate pricing at scale.

Authorize.net is one of the oldest names in online payments, and it still suits merchants that already have a merchant account. As a gateway, it connects a website to the processor a business already uses, rather than replacing that relationship. Its fraud filters, recurring billing and customer profiles cover the basics well.

The $25 monthly fee plus 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction on its all-in-one plan makes it poor value at low volume. It earns its place when a business values stability, already has a processor relationship, or needs a gateway that many shopping platforms already support.

Braintree is PayPal's developer-focused processor, and it makes sense for businesses that want both card payments and PayPal in one integration. Its vault stores payment methods for subscriptions, and its marketplace features help platforms split payments between sellers. The documentation is thorough, which matters for teams building a custom checkout.

The downside is that Braintree feels like a middle ground. It lacks Square's in-person simplicity and Stripe's breadth of add-on products, and its published pricing is harder to pin down. Pick it when PayPal acceptance plus subscription billing is the core requirement.

Checkout.com focuses on online payment performance for international sellers. It offers acquiring in many markets, local payment methods and routing that can retry a failed payment through another path. For a store with customers in several countries, that can raise approval rates in a way a single-market processor cannot match.

Smaller sellers may find the sales-led onboarding slow, and pricing is quoted rather than published as a flat rate. Checkout.com is a strong shortlist pick for digital businesses with real cross-border volume, and a poor fit for a shop that only sells in one country.

Paddle is different from the rest of this list, because it is not just a processor. As merchant of record, it sells the software on the seller's behalf, collects and remits sales tax and VAT, and handles many compliance duties. For a small SaaS team, that can replace a tax adviser, a billing system and a payments integration in one move.

The 5% plus 50 cents fee looks steep next to Stripe, but it includes tax handling that would otherwise cost money elsewhere. Paddle only fits digital products, so shops selling physical goods should look elsewhere. For software, the comparison is total cost, not just the transaction rate.

Mollie is a popular choice for businesses selling into Europe. It bundles cards with local methods such as iDEAL in the Netherlands and Bancontact in Belgium, which matter a great deal to shoppers in those markets. Setup is straightforward, and the dashboard keeps payments, refunds and payouts in one place.

For a US-only business, Mollie adds little over Square or PayPal. Its strength shows when a meaningful share of orders comes from Europe, where offering the local payment method can be the difference between a completed sale and an abandoned cart.

Helcim appeals to sellers who want to see what they actually pay. Interchange-plus pricing passes the card network cost through and adds a disclosed margin, so the bill moves with the real card mix instead of a single blended rate. There is no monthly fee, and its margin shrinks as volume grows, which rewards growth without renegotiation.

The trade-off is reach. Helcim is smaller than the giants on this list, and its hardware and partner ecosystem are narrower. For an online or invoice-based business that processes steady volume and hates hidden fees, that transparency can still be worth more than brand size.