Stripe vs PayPal vs Braintree: How Do These Payment Platforms Compare?
PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe work as a famous payment platform. These three options are highly used in incorporating any payment platform in the mobile or web application. A good decision about their selection needs to be done based on these platform’s offers and policies. Supported Payment Methods: The eCommerce websites are required to support high on the American Express, Mastercard, and Visa Card. It is the main reason that PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe are now accepting the payment methods of Diners Club, Discover, Maestro, and JCB credit cards. Apart from accepting the payment method of credit cards, the eCommerce websites are required to support different payment modes. It is, therefore, necessary to consider and understand the difference between PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. A great benefit of choosing Stripe is its close acceptance with AliPay which is a Chinese-based pay platform. The eCommerce website gets a better response from Stripe when it is targeted to the Chinese market. Unlike Braintree, Stripe is now accepting direct charges to the bank account through Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment. However, Braintree has a direct integrating platform with PayPal when it comes to offering payment through ACH payment and AliPay. The companies have an opportunity to accept Braintree payment through PayPal. It has also a direct functioning capability to accept payment through PayPal supported digital wallet of Venmo. However, PayPal has a limited payment acceptance way, such as accepting payment through debit card, credit card, and PayPal. In contrast, Stripe and Braintree are more favorable payment methods as they accept different marketplace payment methods, such as bitcoins. Fees, Chargebacks, and Refunds: It is a major consideration of how each payment platform charges fees for the rendered service. It is again important to consider different kinds of charges when accepting the payment methods of PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. Transaction Fees: The fees of PayPal are high as it charges a fee on a monthly and yearly basis. However, Braintree and Stripe have no such charges. Paypal enables free account usage with PayPal Express Checkout and Payment Standards. However, the companies cannot have a fully customized experience similar to an eCommerce store, particularly having huge merchants and buyers. Nevertheless, PayPal offers a Payment Pro Plan that enables a direct payment transfer with the buyers and merchants. It costs around $30 per month for the overall monthly transfer charges. On the contrary, there are single transaction-based fees for every transfer. For example, Stripe and Braintree charge $0.30 + 2.9% for every payment transaction. The above charges are low charge payments that are applied for all acceptable payment throughout the world, including the U.S. However, Paypal has different payment fees, such as 3.9% fees plus an international payment percentage. Paypal’s U.S. transaction fee is also different, such as 2.9% + 0.30 fees. It is pertinent to note that the above PayPal payment fees are merely related to credit card payment. The fee for the American Express credit card is different for PayPal. The other payment modes, such as AMEX transaction has a different fee for Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal. Disputes and Refunds: It is a general practice that some shoppers dispute charges. Every payment platform happily supports handling some kinds of chargeback transactions. However, it is done as per the customer’s expense. For example, PayPal charges $20 as a refund for disputed amounts while Stripe and Braintree charge $15. However, if the dispute gets a solution in the customer’s favor, then Braintree and Stripe return $15 and the entire chargeback amount. In a similar case, PayPal returns $20 but it charges a little fee of $0.30. Stripe and Braintree have a convenient refund policy as they return the transaction fees without charging any amount of fee. PayPal considers chargeback transaction as a new transaction, so it still imposes a little amount of $0.30 as the processing fee. It is pertinent to note that if the customer’s merchant account has no money to cover the charges, such as $15, then PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe charges money directly from the customer’s bank account. Other Payment Methods: As mentioned, Braintree and Stripe have a working capacity with different payment modes. For example, they highly support AMEX transactions and Bitcoin. For example, Stripe charges $5 per transaction with 0.8% fees for the payment transfer with ACH payment, direct bank charges, and Bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin payment gets a more favorable chare of payment with Braintree. For example, Braintree offers free transactions up to the first $1M worth of payment. However, there is a small Bitcoin transaction fee of 1% in Braintree. PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe have selected different methods for the AMEX payment. Stripe charges for AMEX transaction is 2.9% + $0.30 payment. Braintree charges merely $0.30 + 3.25%. PayPal has a higher charge payment system for all AMEX transactions, such as $0.30 + 3.5% fee. Comparison of Paypal, Braintree, and Stripe: There is a major comparison between PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. Each of them has distinct key features that the businesses are required to consider before affiliating their transaction services with them. At first, Stripe is a payment platform supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. It has no monthly fees. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 2% per transaction. It applies a $15 chargeback amount. Similar to Stripe, both Braintree and PayPal are payment platforms supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. Braintree has no monthly fees. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 1% per transaction. It applies a $15 chargeback amount similar to Stripe. Like Stripe and Braintree, PayPal is also a payment platform supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. PayPal has a payment fee of $30 per month as Payments Pro. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 1-4%. It applies a $20 chargeback amount. Stripe’s payment methods are ACH, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and AliPay. It accepts payment cards of AMEX, MasterCard, Visa, and other credit/debit