In the wake of digitization, the e-Commerce has become the most prosperous sector. Online stores have flourished enormously in recent years. And, one of the main contributing factors is the ease of online payment. The owners of these businesses can easily accept payments on their website using payment gateways. But, this is also where many become confused about which payment gateway to use. 

Well, PayPal et Stripe are the two who are at the top of the game. So the question we ask ourselves is PayPal vs Stripe: Who should we choose?

What is a payment gateway?

Payment service providers such as PayPal and Stripe connect business owners with merchant accounts to accept payments from customers. These payment service providers provide payment gateways and technology that enable business owners to authorize online payments on their website.

Basically, they provide privacy and security user payment and credit card details in online transactions. They are the means by which business owners can process customer payments on the website. Hence, it enables users to make online payments conveniently.

Also find out what you need wait for payment gateways

In this article, you will learn which payment gateway is the best for you. Both provide functionality that is similar and comparable. So we have reviewed these two payment gateways considering the main factors.

Before we get into the PayPal vs Stripe comparison, let's take a quick look at a quick look at the two payment gateways.

Paypal

PayPal is one of the most popular payment gateways that many types of online business owners rely on. He offers multiple pricing plans that companies can choose according to their requirements. However, the PayPal payment standard is most well received due to its ease of use and cost. You can easily integrate it into your e-Commerce website without having a great knowledge of coding.

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See also our 10 plugins to integrate payment gateways on WordPress

Also, you don't need to pay for setup costs and monthly fees for the free version. With this, you can accept payments from Credit Cards, PayPal and PayPal Credit. However, there is a significant downside, as customers will be redirected elsewhere during checkout. You can solve this problem by getting PayPal Payments Pro. But, it costs $ 30 per month.

Stripe

Stripe is arguably the most popular payment gateway after PayPal. It allows you to process all large credit card payments on your e-commerce website. Its setup is completely free and there are no monthly fees. It also offers more customization options for companies.

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Read also : 7 WordPress plugins to manage payments via Stripe

It doesn't offer pricing plans like PayPal does, but, you can buy them. additional tools and the features it offers. With Stripe, you have the benefit of doing checkout without redirecting customers away from your website. And, there is no additional monthly charge for it.

PayPal vs Stripe: Transaction fees

PayPal and Stripe both offer the same rate transaction services, either 2,9% + 30 ¢ in the USA. Apart from that, there are variations in the fees for micropayments. These are the online payments that are less than $ 5.

PayPal fees

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  • Transaction (US.): 2,9% + 30 ¢ per transaction
  • Non-profit: 2,2% + 30 ¢ per transaction
  • Micropayments: 5% + 5 ¢ per transaction

Stripe fees

Paypal vs stripe best blogpascher 4 payment gateway
  • Transaction Fee (US): 2,9% + 30 ¢ per transaction
  • Non-profit promotion: 2,2% + 30 ¢ per transaction
  • Micropayments: 2,9% + 30 ¢ per transaction

Therefore, PayPal and Stripe have the same transaction fee rate for normal and nonprofit payments. Stripe offers the same flat rate for micropayments while PayPal offers a lower rate (5% + 5 ¢ per transaction). So it really depends on what kind of payments you accept on your website. Small businesses will benefit from the lower micro-payment fees.

PayPal vs Stripe: Payment methods

Paypal

Depending on the different pricing plans, PayPal offers various payment methods. Depending on what kind of payment method you need, you should choose a pricing plan.

  • Paypal
  • PayPal Credit 
  • Credit card
  • Debit cards
  • Pay by Phone (Virtual Terminal)

Stripe

Paypal vs stripe best blogpascher 5 payment gateway

If you want more payment methods for your website, you can definitely go for Stripe as it offers a wide array of options. With Stripe, you can accept major debit cards and credit cards. In addition, you can also accept payments through digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.

  • Credit card
  • Debit cards
  • International Cards
  • AmEx check
  • Masterpass by MasterCard
  • Visa Checkout
  • WeChat Pay
  • Alipay
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • ACH credit and debit 
  • SEPA direct debit
  • And more

PayPal vs Stripe: Refunds

Refunds are the reversal of credit card payments that is initiated by the customer's bank. It protects customers against potential fraud. But, it can be a big challenge for the online store owner. Payment gateways charge business owners a certain amount as a chargeback fee.

  • PayPal chargeback fee: $ 20
  • Stripe chargeback fee: $ 15

PayPal vs Stripe: Refund Fee

As of October 11, 2019, PayPal stopped returning the transaction fee i.e. $ 2,9 + $ 0,30. When you reimburse a client or donor on your website, you won't be charged. But, you will not receive the original processing fee for the transaction.

Likewise, the case is the same with Stripe; There is no charge for refunds, but the transaction fee is not returned.

PayPal vs Stripe: Online Billing

Online billing is available for both payment gateways. While PayPal offers this feature entirely free,you need to pay for billing transactions after you bill more than 1 million dollars with Stripe.

PayPal vs Stripe: Recurring billing

There is no recurring billing feature for PayPal Standard. Therefore, PayPal charges a monthly fee of 10$ for recurring billing. Additionally, customers in the recurring billing plan can cancel their plan without notifying you.

Also read How to accept Bitcoins payments on WordPress

So, Stripe is the best choice here because it is 100% free and customers cannot cancel their recurring billing plan without your permission.

PayPal vs. Stripe: Checkout

PayPal Standard

If you choose the free PayPal option, you will face a big problem. During the checkout process, customers are redirected to the PayPal account page from your website. This increases the chances of customer abandonment of payment. But, there is a way to complete the payment without redirecting customers away from your website. You must upgrade to PayPal Payments Pro.

PayPal Payments Pro

With the pro version, you don't have to worry about the PayPal Standard checkout problem. But, keep in mind that with this you have to pay the monthly fee of $ 30.

Stripe

With Stripe, your customers can easily make credit card payments without having to leave your website. Payment is made on the website making payment convenient and effortless. 

Also, there is no additional charge or monthly fee for this. Stripe offers these features for free.

PayPal vs Stripe: Supported Countries and Currencies

Another factor in determining which payment gateway to choose for your website is the overall reach and the currencies supported. To expand your business, you must choose a payment solution that is available in countries around the world.

Well, the payment gateway which is available in over 200 countries is PayPal. Which is great if you have customers in different countries. But, if you want to accept all currencies on your e-commerce website, PayPal may not be the best choice. PayPal only supports about 25 currencies.

Stripe certainly has the upper hand in what it supports over 135 different currencies. Thus, this gives a great opportunity to business owners to expand their sales across the world. But, keep in mind Stripe is only available for 25 countries.

PayPal vs Stripe: PCI Compliance

The conformity of the payment card industry (PCI) is the technical and operational set of standards that companies must follow to ensure that the data provided by customers is secure.

If you don't want to deal with PCI compliance on your website then you can choose either PayPal Standard ou Stripe. They both ensure PCI compliance. However, PayPal Payments Pro does not support it. So business owners have to do it themselves.

PayPal vs Stripe: Customer support

Customer support is another important factor to consider when choosing a payment gateway for your website. PayPal and Stripe both have various mediums through which they provide support to their customers.

Paypal

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  • PayPal offers a knowledge base that answers frequently asked questions about payments, refunds, PayPal Mobile App, Products and Services, and many more questions related to PayPal.
  • Other than that, there is also the PayPal Community Forum where you can post if you're having trouble with PayPal.
  • In addition, PayPal offers the e-mail support et live chat to contact PayPal directly and ask any questions.
  • You can also get support by phone, but, it is not always consistent.
  • And, you can use social media for PayPal if you want to resolve your issues or contact them publicly @AskPayPal on Twitter

Stripe

Paypal vs stripe best blogpascher 7 payment gateway

  • Stripe also offers a knowledge base that answers questions you have about your account and other questions. You can search for articles related to your issues.
  • As Stripe is extremely developer friendly, it offers a documentation  comprehensive for developers that focuses more on functionality.
  • He offers the possibility its users to get in touch with the developers for technical questions.
  • There is also the Support by Live Chat that users can use through their Stripe account. The Support  by Email is also there for not-so-urgent questions and requests.
  • Stripe also offers telephone support. The user must request to get a call from Stripe.
  • And, you can use social media for Stripe if you want to fix your issues or contact them publicly @Stripe on Twitter.

Which one to choose ?

Depending on the number of transactions and sales of your business, you can choose either of the payment gateways. Small businesses that don't have developer access can simply choose PayPal. PayPal is better for businesses that accept more de micro transactions as well. For large companies who want to promote their brand and want more personalization, Stripe is the best option.

The truth is, you can use both. If you are a business that has a wide range of customers all over the world, you can integrate both PayPal and Stripe on your website. There are a lot of companies that use both payment gateways. However, you can choose either one according to your requirements.

You can easily integrate both gateways into WordPress. There are many WordPress plugins available to help accept payments on your website with PayPal and Stripe..

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins  

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.

We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.

1. Custom JavaScript & CSS in Pages!

Thanks to this WordPress Plugin, you can add CSS styles and custom JavaScript on specific pages. It also allows you to define rules for multiple pages. This way, you can have predefined or unique styles for specific sections.

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Like any other feature offered by this WordPress Plugin, you can easily include different scripts on different pages of your website.

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2. Facebook Recent Comments Widget 

This widget allows you to display a list of the latest Facebook comments from your WordPress blog on the first page, or anywhere there is a widget used by the website.

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As features you will have among others: the display of all the latest comments of your website or WordPress blog, theAutomatic or manual approval of comments to be displayed on the widget,sending an email notification when a person comments through the Facebook comments plugin, good SEO, compatibility with any WordPress theme, ooptions to customize the widget and much more.

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3. Easy Custom JS and CSS 

Ce WordPress Plugin premium is a powerful CSS and JavaScript code editor that allows you to add them to any section of your website. It allows you to keep your customizations even after a major update of your WordPress theme. Easy custom js and css extra customization wordpress plugin

You have the option of limiting the field of use of your personalized code. For example, you can use your code only for an article in the video format.

See our articles on How to require acceptance of the terms of use on WordPress

Or you can limit your code to a WordPress theme specific; Which is handy if you frequently change themes for your WordPress blog.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

Recommended Resources

Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.

Conclusion

Here ! That's it for this guide, now you know which is the best payment gateway for your online store. Do not hesitate to share with your friends on your favorite social networks

However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.

If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments.

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