- Hundreds of software integrations.
- Highly customizable.
- Tools to help win more buyers globally.
- Transparent pay-as-you-go pricing.
- Some features may be too advanced for small business user needs.
- Suspicious activity may lead to account holds.
- No free credit card processing equipment.
Stripe overview
Stripe was founded in 2010 by brothers John and Patrick Collison. It has since grown into one of the world’s top-rated online payment service providers. A privately-held company with dual headquarters in the United States and Ireland, Stripe has branded itself as the backbone of global commerce, providing businesses with countless integration and customization solutions along with the ability to process a multitude of currencies from markets across the globe.
Stripe is a small-business favorite — especially in e-commerce industries — for its quick onboarding of merchant services, advanced reporting tools, fast payouts through its Instant Payouts option and transparent pricing structure. It also offers the ability for users to seamlessly integrate it into their already-existing tech stacks, such as with their accounting, customer relationship management and fundraising solutions.
Stripe maintains an 1.04 out of five-star user score with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It also has over 11,000 reviews on Trustpilot with a 3.1 out of five-star rating. On both sites, critical reviewers cite high-risk account holds and automated customer support as frequent complaints. However, users praise the company for its ease of use, seamless integrations and quality customer support.
How much does Stripe cost?
Stripe credit card processing
Stripe makes our Best Credit Card Processors list because of the platform’s cost transparency, ease of prebuilt API integration and ability to help e-commerce businesses grow and scale through wider payment acceptance around the world.
Pricing
Stripe’s standard transaction fees are clear and competitive at 2.9% plus 30 cents per online transaction and 2.7% plus five cents per in-person transaction, with additional fees for manually entered cards, international card transactions and currency conversion set at reasonable rates. We found the lack of monthly service charges a refreshing contrast to other payment service providers charging monthly membership fees that low-volume merchants and occasional sellers may not be able to make up for.
In addition to transaction fees, you should expect to pay for hardware, such as card readers and POS systems, which start at $59. If you need free hardware, consider a competitor, such as Square. In addition, additional fees may apply to standard pricing. For example, Stripe charges 0.4% of each transaction for its chargeback protection. With this protection, Stripe offers to pay the disputed amount and waive chargeback fees. Optional advanced fraud protection also costs an extra five to seven cents per on-screen transaction.
Features
Stripe offers many of the same services as its competitors, but goes a few steps further in key areas such as offering in-house recurring billing through Stripe Billing — a service that several competitors only offer through third parties. No setup fees and quick account approval mean merchants can start taking payments immediately.
Stripe’s API integration is robust, giving businesses of all sizes a wide range of feature options based on their current placement in the small business life cycle. For example, Stripe Checkout is a low-code integration that can help small businesses and startups create simple, customizable payment pages so they can quickly collect payments on desktop and mobile devices. Further, Stripe’s no-code integrations help businesses without developers on-staff grow and scale without having to write a single line of code.
For tech-savvy brands that are already comfortable building highly customized APIs, Stripe claims it can save developers engineering time with unified payments functionality. Teams can further build custom backend integrations to cater to their unique business needs all from a single platform.
Who Stripe is best for
Based on Stripe’s pricing and features, we believe this payment service provider is great for e-commerce businesses looking to expand further into international markets, as well as cost-conscious startups seeking customizations through integrations and transparent pricing with no monthly fees.
However, Stripe is not an out-of-the-box product you can set up intuitively. You must be able to code or find integrations that do not require coding to use this product to its full potential. Brands with developers on staff will benefit the most from Stripe’s highly customizable API options, and businesses without in-house developer support will need to prepare now to pay a developer to help integrate solutions in the future should they decide to grow and scale.
Stripe customer support and experience
Stripe offers 24/7 live chat, email and phone support via the Stripe Support page, along with a large searchable library of support articles categorized by popular topics to help customers find solutions to common problems. Support is only available to current customers and requires an account sign-in to proceed.
Stripe has a 3.1 out of five-star rating on Trustpilot with over 11,000 reviews. Positive reviews cite Stripe’s ability to integrate with a variety of third-party solutions, such as websites and automated systems. Some of the most common customer complaints found on Trustpilot cite automated customer support and unhelpful replies, often in response to unexpected account holds and suspected fraudulent activity.
Stripe also has a 1.04 out of five-star user score with the Better Business Bureau. Among posted complaints, customers stated that they had received false 1099-K forms from the credit card processor. Stripe typically answers and/or resolves those complaints within one week.
Stripe vs. Square
Stripe and Square offer similar services through their pay-as-you-go transaction model with no monthly subscription fees. While Square does offer paid monthly plans with premium features, such as restaurant or retail-specific solutions, it also offers a free version much like Stripe’s free solution. Both are also known for their capacity to help small businesses and new startups set up merchant accounts and begin accepting payments quickly.
In terms of pricing, these providers’ per-transaction fees are similar. Stripe’s in-person card processing fee is 2.9% plus 30 cents while Square’s is 2.6% plus 10 cents. In addition, Square’s keyed-in card processing is 3.4% plus 30 cents per transaction while Stripe’s is 3.5% plus 15 cents. However, Stripe also has a chargeback fee of 0.40% of the transaction whereas Square boasts no chargeback fees.
Where the two brands differ the most is in the type of transaction each provider is most suited. For in-person transactions, Square provides easy-to-use software that’s perfect for small and growing businesses with simple plug-and-play point-of-sale (POS) hardware. While it offers a free version, it also offers plans equipped to meet the unique needs of brick-and-mortar retailers and restaurants. Finally, its in-person credit card processing fees are slightly lower than Stripe’s.
With advanced integrations and APIs to take a plethora of payment methods and seamlessly work with your current tech stack, Stripe’s developer-friendly platform may be best for global companies and those more established companies, including those with in-house developer support. Its ability to accept currencies from all over the world also lends to this use case.
Learn more in our full Square credit card processing review.
Stripe vs. Clover
Both Stripe and Clover offer similar transaction fees. However, a big difference between the two providers’ prices comes in their monthly fees. While Stripe offers a free plan to all merchants (per-transaction fees apply), only select merchants can enjoy a free version from Clover. Most merchants must pay a minimum of $14.95 per month, plus transaction fees, and some must pay as much as $115 per month, plus transaction fees.
However, each provider is suitable for different types of businesses. Despite the pricing structure differences, companies are better off looking at each plan’s features to decide whether Clover or Stripe are a better fit for their business needs.
For example, Stripe can help e-commerce brands with global ambitions scale their customer base through countless integrations and accepted forms of payment. Its currency conversion capabilities, volume discounts, automation integrations, country-specific rates and favorable foreign-transactions policies make it a great fit for growing global businesses.
Clover, in contrast, takes an industry-specific approach to everything it offers. Its plans cater to the full-service dining, quick-service dining, retail shop, professional services, personal services and home and field-services industries, including catered plans, features and hardware suitable for each.
Is Stripe right for your business?
Stripe offers powerful integration tools with no monthly fees and transparent pricing. It accepts a multitude of currencies from across the globe and offers quick onboarding, advanced reporting and countless business-software integrations. For brands going sans-developer, there are low- to no-code integrations that can help them support new markets to reach more customers while providing preferred payment options on their terms.
Stripe is an excellent choice for e-commerce brands that want to scale and grow their businesses to reach more customers around the world. The developer-friendly platform is perfect for businesses looking to expand into international markets and that have the ability to take full advantage of robust API integrations. Still, for users wanting a free, straightforward credit card processing solution with little setup, another provider may be a better fit.
For example, for brick-and-mortar businesses needing a POS system that is catered to their industries, such as the restaurant industry, Clover may be the right choice. In addition, for low transaction fees, free in-person card processing hardware and an intuitive user experience, consider Square.
Methodology: Why you can trust us
We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.
We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the Best credit card processing of 2023.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
To set up Stripe, follow these steps:
- Visit the Stripe website and click “Create Account” on the home page.
- Input your email address, name, country and chosen password.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to verify your email address.
- Once you’ve verified your email address, you will be prompted to fill out a survey to provide your business, personal and customer support details.
- During the survey, you will also be prompted to link your bank account using your routing and account numbers.
- Set up two-factor authentication as prompted.
- Once you’ve completed the survey, click “Authorize access to this account.”
- Wait for an email from Stripe approving your account or asking for more details. This should arrive in your inbox within a few minutes of account creation. Provide any requested details.
Once you’ve created a business account, you may need to contact your developer to begin setting up payment methods using Stripe’s API and integration options.
Stripe offers pay-as-you-go pricing with no monthly fees and a cancel-anytime policy. However, you must pay for hardware with no free trial. By contrast, some providers with more advanced features suited for certain use cases, such as restaurants, offer premium plans with free trials. For example, Clover offers a 90-day free trial when applying for a Clover account with no hardware, after which the cost for its virtual terminal is $14.95 per month.
Stripe doesn’t require a contract, and merchants can cancel services at anytime. It charges on a per-transaction basis with in-person credit card processing starting at 2.7% plus 30 cents per transaction. However, accounts with negative balances cannot be canceled until any refunds, payment issues or disputes are fully resolved.
Stripe Terminal offers two card readers at prices similar to its competitors, with the Stripe Reader M2 offered at $59 and the BBPOS WisePOS E at $249. Stripe Terminal hardware does require coding to integrate with your custom POS software. You must choose a Stripe partner’s solutions to accept payments without coding. Intuiface, for example, offers a no-code integration with Stripe POS for easy payment processing on self-service kiosks.
Stripe Radar helps protect businesses from fraud using machine learning and advanced fraud protection tools that feed off billions of data points across the Stripe network. Device fingerprinting and proxy detection help reduce fake account transactions, bots, fraudulent users and duplicate accounts. Radar further uses Dynamic 3D Secure to help distinguish between legitimate customers and problematic fraudsters.
Stripe’s fraud-protection service is included in its standard pricing, or five cents per transaction for custom payment plans. Radar for Fraud Teams offers more advanced fraud protection tools and is two cents per screened transaction for standard-pricing plans or seven cents per transaction for custom plan transactions. Radar is built into Stripe and comes fully integrated with other products on the platform, such as Checkout.
Stripe offers a free mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. While mobile app users can see and create payments, customers, payouts and partial refunds, there are limitations to the app, including the inability to use test mode or view test data.
As of this writing, the mobile Dashboard app is only available in English.
One of Stripe’s biggest strengths is its ability to integrate with the tools you need to run your business. Merchants can quickly and easily browse the Stripe App marketplace to find categorized integrations ranging from accounting and billing software to analytics, financial services software, marketing platforms and more. Stripe is also incredibly developer-friendly and supports custom API integrations, providing flexibility for merchants with developer support.
Stripe offers several add-on services with transparent pricing. Such services include a custom domain for a seamless end-to-end experience; billing and invoicing services; tax calculating, collecting and reporting; Data Pipeline; Sigma (advanced reporting); and more. Many of these additional services are either priced per transaction or charged at a percentage of each transaction. Many also require you to contact Stripe’s sales team for custom pricing.
