Looking for PayPal alternatives?
With more than 16 million merchant accounts and a staggering 65 percent market share, PayPal has long dominated the payment processing industry.
Still, there is a host of competitors worth exploring. When it comes to identifying a payment procession solution that’s right your business, consider the following:
- Fees: The amount you pay in processing fees can vary greatly depending on the payment processing service you use and the amount of payments you receive.
- Data security: Make sure you’re working with a reputable company with a long history of servicing clients. Do due diligence to research how they encrypt and protect data.
- Customer Service: Not all customer service is created equally. Make sure the company will be there when you need them by looking at their customer reviews.
Before we dive into the competitors, let’s take a closer look at PayPal itself.
The payment processing behemoth launched in 1998 in Palo Alto.
PayPal is used in more than 200 countries, and charges the industry standard processing fee of 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction. Your customers are already familiar with PayPal, and PayPal is compatible with most shopping cart systems.
Still, there might be many reasons you’re thinking of switching to an alternative payment processor, such as:
- Contacting PayPal customer service can be challenging.
- PayPal seller protection doesn’t extend to digital goods.
- Chargeback fees.
- Account suspension leading to frozen funds.
To help you figure out what’s right for you business, here are 15 solid PayPal alternatives to consider using for your ecommerce website or business.
1. Stripe
- Established: 2010
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
Stripe is a rapidly growing startup whose market share 19 percent market share is the only one that even comes close to rivaling that of PayPal.
Stripe takes care of a host of payment needs, including storing cards, handling subscriptions, and issuing direct payouts to bank accounts.
Web developers praise Stripe’s ability to integrate a payment system into a project by using Stripe’s API.
2. Square
- Established: 2009
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent fee + $0.30 per transaction
You can also use Square to handle payroll services. Via the Square Point of Sale app, employees can clock in and out of work, as well as set up direct deposit. Pricing is based on the employees or contractors you use each pay period.
In addition to its payroll capabilities, Square stands out because it grants small business loans. If granted a small business loan, the business has the option of paying back the loan using a percentage of daily sales made through Square.
3. Shopify Payments
- Established: 2013
- Processing fees start at: 2.4 percent
If you’re doing business on Shopify, you’ll definitely want to consider using their proprietary payment processing service Shopify Payments.
The major draw?
The lower processing fees.
Shopify Payments accepts Visa, Discover, Mastercard and American Express. Payment details are synced with every Shopify order, making it easy to look at data all in one place.
4. Amazon Pay
- Established: 2007
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent+ 30¢ per transaction
Amazon Pay can handle debit and credit transactions, but not ACH, PayPal, or Bitcoin transactions.
You can integrate Amazon Pay with Alexa, making it possible for customers to buy your products using voice search with their smart home system.
5. Braintree
- Established: 2007
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
Braintree specializes in mobile and web payments for ecommerce sites.
Some of the platform’s features include a payment gateway, recurring billing, credit card storage, and allowing global online and mobile businesses to accept credit card payments via a merchant account.
6. Intuit
- Established: 1983
- Processing fee: 2.4 percent + $0.25 per swiped, tapped or dipped transaction; 3.4 percent + $0.25 per keyed transaction
Intuit is almost an essential service if you’re a small business owner who needs help with your finances.
Besides being able to accept payments, both online and in-person with GoPayment, Intuit can also help you pay employees, calculate payroll taxes, and file payroll tax forms.
Intuit GoPayment can be used in conjunction with QuickBooks or as a standalone service.
7. Authorize.net
- Established: 1996
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
Authorize.Net has the distinction of being one of the few payment processing companies that are older than PayPal. It is a subsidiary of Visa, Inc.
Authorize.Net has over 430,000 merchants and has been the recipient of the Achievement in Customer Excellence (ACE) award for eleven consecutive years, due in part, no doubt, to its 24/7 customer support team.
8. WePay
- Established: 2008
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per credit card payment; 1 percent + $0.30 per bank transfer.
Besides featuring stellar customer service and fraud protection, WePay is a standout alternative because consumers can make purchases without leaving your site via a virtual terminal.
Merchants also have the option to white-label this service. WePay was acquired by JPMorgan in 2017. Notably, GoFundMe uses WePay.
9. 2CheckOut
- Established: 2000
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
By combining a merchant account with a payment gateway, 2Checkout lets users receive credit card and PayPal payments. The company also features international payments, a solid shopping cart, and recurring billing.
2Checkout is used in more than 200 markets in 15 languages and 87 currencies. More than 10,000 merchants use the service worldwide.
10. ProPay
- Established: 1997
- Processing fees start at: 2.69 percent + $0.30 per Visa, Mastercard or Discover transaction; 3.19 percent + $0.30 per transaction per American Express transaction
ProPay offers similar features to other PayPal alternatives including the ability to receive and send money anywhere in the world and even recurring billing and a built-in shopping cart.
There’s also the ProPay JAK, a mobile phone credit card reader which can process credit and debit cards in real-time on your iOS or Android phones, in case you’re doing transactions in person.
11. Click2Sell
- Established: 2007
- Processing fees start at: depending on your plan, $1.50 + 7 percent per direct sale or $1 per transaction up to $19.99; $2 per transaction up to $39.99; $3 per transaction over $40
While Click2Sell has the normal features found on any worthy PayPal replacement, it’s one of the few that will accept PayPal, Google Checkout, Skrill, and credit cards with or without a merchant account.
But, the most standout features are affiliate tracking, powerful reports, and automated sales management.
They also have the leading sales reporting tools so you can better understand your strategies and sales tactics.
12. Dwolla
- Established: 2010
- Processing fees start at: pay-as-you-go API integration in development and will be released in 2019; contact Dwolla for enterprise pricing beginning at $2,000/month
Dwolla is very similar to PayPal in that you can do everything from paying your friends back to accepting or receiving payments at your place of business.
This service specializes in bank transfers, or Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments.
Dwolla has built simple branded tools and a flexible API to access ACH quickly and do things other services cannot.
Their branded capabilities, like send, receive, and request funds, are free, while premium services, like white-label, higher limits, and next day transfer, are available to for flat-fixed monthly fees.
13. Payoneer
- Established: 2005
- Processing fees start at: 3 percent
Payoneer accepts debit card, credit card and ACH payments. When it comes to speed, Payoneer is top-shelf — payments are complete in two hours.
14. Skrill
- Established: 2001
- Processing fees start at: 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
Like most of the companies on this list, Skrill offers free account setup and industry-standard rates. International merchants can transfer their account balance onto a prepaid debit card almost instantly.
15. Klarna
- Established: 2005
- Processing fees start at: 2.95 percent
Klarna prides itself on tailoring online purchases “to meet the needs of the consumer in every situation with a smart and intuitive presentation.”
Practically, that means they offer customers the option to “pay later,” and in doing so secure sales they’ll collect on within a month. This Swedish company cleared $530 million in revenue last year.
Conclusion
With so many PayPal alternatives to choose from, there’s definitely a payment processing system that’s right for you.
Hopefully, this guide helped you narrow down your choices!