When making payments online, buyers and sellers have a vast list of online payment methods to use. Stripe and PayPal are the most commonly used processors in the world. As online transactions increase, more people onboard these processors.
Are these payment processors good options for micropayments made online every minute? Let’s find out.
Stripe Vs PayPal Compared
Stripe is the ultimate alternative to PayPal in payment processing. Let’s see how these two compare to each other.
| Service | Stripe | PayPal |
| Transaction Fees (US Only) | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Discounted Nonprofit Fees (US Only) | 2.2% + 35¢ inc. RADAR Fees | 2.2% + 35¢ |
| Setup Costs | – | – |
| Contracts | – | – |
| Micropayments | 5% + 10¢ inc. RADAR Fees | 5% + 0.05¢ |
| Chargeback fees | $15 | $20 |
| Refunds | No Fees Returned | No Fees Returned |
| PCI Compliance | Yes | Yes |
| Access to Funds | 2 Days | Immediate |
| Online Invoicing | Free for up to $1 Million in sales | Free |
| Availability | 40+ Countries | 200 countries |
| Recurrent Payment Support | Yes | Yes |
| Website Integration | Yes | Yes |
Payouts
Powerful tools aren’t useful unless you can get your money in good time.
For Stripe users, you will get your money directly into your bank account after 2 business days. Depending on the country you’re in and your bank, it may take longer.
PayPal offers almost real-time fund settlement. At any moment, as a PayPal user, you can access the funds in your PayPal account.
PayPal account holders can withdraw their funds anywhere that accepts MasterCard. If you send money to your bank account, Paypal will settle it within 48hrs or charge you a 1% fee for instant settlement.
Verdict:
Do you want to transact real time or send and receive money and access it immediately? Then PayPal is your payment method.
International Support
Both Stripe and PayPal have powerful presence around the globe.
Stripe supports over 130 different currencies, as well as local and universal payment methods. This payment processor also boasts of powerful APIs that assist businesses integrate their payments systems.
Stripe users can also avoid fees on currency exchange rates. The presentment option will put together each currency balance and settle you at no extra cost.
With PayPal, however, you determine what currency you want all your payments to settle with. You determine when and how you want to convert the currency.
Verdict
Here, Stripe has a slight edge because its powerful API sets it to your advantage, especially with exchange rates.
Compliance and Security
Stripe takes care of PCI compliance issues for its customers. As a merchant, you can focus on your business rather than spending time to be compliant, as Stripe will handle that for you.
For Standard PayPal plan users, your PCI compliance and security is already guaranteed. Once you upgrade to a PayPal Payments Pro Plan, responsibility for PCI complaints shifts back to you.
Now, you’ll have to ensure you update your compliance regularly.
Verdict
Updating your PCI Compliance regularly may be an inconvenience for some businesses. In which case, use Stripe.
If you are running a small business, check Stripe Vs. PayPal For Small Businesses.
What Is Stripe Good For?
Stripe is good for accepting and making frequent payments. With Stripe you have an efficient solution for sending payouts to your suppliers and managing your business online.
Besides that, Stripe also helps companies prevent and curb fraud.
Their payment systems are secure and have security features that measure risk and prevent fraudulent transactions.
Now, you can send invoices to your customers and manage business expenses without losing money to fraudsters.
Stripe is also good for people and businesses looking for financing. You can also issue virtual and physical cards via Stripe.
From small to large-scale companies, Stripe can handle complex financial processing for you.
Stripe accepts payments from all bank cards and many other payment processing systems, which saves time on transactions.
Stripe is an amazing option for digital businesses, especially in the retention of customers, suppliers and service providers.
Even with little technical expertise, you can scale your business to new heights.
A Stripe account also helps you provide your marketplace with a loyalty program. They also have tools to help you arrange for flexible payments or subscriptions. Stripe is also ideal for handling refunds to customers seamlessly.
Stripe is also perfect for users who want to pay minimal setup fees.
Also read Stripe Vs Wave.
What Is PayPal Good For?
Paypal is for anyone and everyone who pays or wants to get paid online. They focus primarily on individuals and businesses that accept online payments.
Paypal is also ideal for making online purchases and sending payments online. It has the advantage of anonymity, as people can make payments without sharing their private financial information.
If you’re looking to make payment while on the move, then PayPal is an excellent option. With your phone or computer, you can transact online with little effort.
Merchants with large-volume clients will also find PayPal ideal for their needs. Merchants enjoy discounts on the large transactions.
Businesses looking for global growth and expansion will also find PayPal appealing. People accept PayPal as a payment method in over 200 markets around the world. It also has 390million active users and processes transactions in over 100 different currencies.
If you’re looking to lower your cost of doing business, adopt Paypal. They only charge you per transaction rather than in monthly fees.
If you’re handling micropayments, you can make lump sum transactions that avoid extra fees.
PayPal is also an ideal option for users to manage cash in a free and secure manner. Through their app, you can now transact worldwide with a safety pin to protect you from fraud.
PayPal is particularly good for eBay sellers and buyers. As both eBay and PayPal are run by the same parent company, PayPal has become the primary payment method for eBay.
At the time of this writing, eBay has plans of making PayPal their sole payment processor.
PayPal is also good for collecting donations. Read Stripe vs. PayPal for Nonprofits.
What Are Micropayments?
Micropayments are transactions that move small amounts of money from one user to another. These payments often happen in exchange for products sold online.
Micropayments are also payments with a fraction of a dollar as their value. Anyone dealing with micropayments needs a special way to handle such types of payments.
You’ll find plenty of micropayments online in forms for subscription services.
One needs to accumulate the small amounts into a single batch for easy processing.
Stripe handles micropayments exceptionally well. To avoid paying fees on each transaction, you can batch them into a single large transaction.
Stripe also allows you to save customers’ payment information for this singular purpose.
Stripe allows your customers to subscribe to your system at no cost to you. Your Stripe account will automate invoices for every small payment. Thereafter, it will settle all these invoices for each billing period.
Stripe also gives you the option to create an invoice and settle it almost instantly.
Businesses collecting revenue through micropayments will enjoy using PayPal. Merchants can sign up and enjoy the same flat rate charge for all their transactions.
However, micropayment processing is only available for users who hold business accounts. To know the fees you’ll pay on your micropayments, find more information at the bottom of any PayPal page.
What Are Other Options For Micropayments?
BrainTree
Braintree, a PayPal affiliate, offers one of the best rates on micropayments. Charities enjoy fees of 2.2%+$0.30 while still letting users access both PayPal and Venmo.
You can access integrated credit and debit cards, other eWallets, and local payments. Braintree even accepts Bitcoin. With Braintree, you can fund bank accounts directly.
One amazing benefit that Braintree offers is real-time transaction evaluation. You combat fraudulent transactions fast.
Amazon Pay
This is an Amazon owned subsidiary. Amazon pay offers ways to process transactions online.
Unlike most payment tools, Amazon Pay focuses on handling transactions for Amazon only. You need to sign up for an Amazon Pay account to use this tool.
Amazon Pay offers similar benefits as most payment tools, including an easy checkout system. It offers many secure ways of transacting as well.
It offers more than the web and mobile payment methods. You can as well make payments through Voice by integrating Alexa to your payment system.
Customers using Amazon Pay transact for free. But like PayPal, merchants pay a standard 2.9% +$0.30 fee per transaction.
Final Verdict
Although both PayPal and Stripe can handle micropayments with ease, PayPal is your best option here. You can accept or send payments at a much lower cost if you batch them. This feature is also available for Stripe, but Stripe supports payments from only 44 countries so far.
PayPal has a much wider coverage, with more active users than Stripe. It’s also much easier to use and integrate into your business. Access to your money in an instant is also desirable, especially if you’re a freelancer or a business that runs on constant cash flows.
