The Best PayPal Alternatives For Business

We’ve given Square a strong 4.7/5 rating in the Products And Services category for a reason.

Square’s appeal for small businesses is that it does nearly everything PayPal does — often for less money — while also offering services PayPal doesn’t have, like industry-specific POS systems and CBD sales. Whether you’re a mobile seller just looking to process the occasional credit card payment, a restaurant owner, or an omnichannel merchant, Square has you covered.

Another point in Square’s favor is that while PayPal is known for its extensive eCommerce capabilities, it does not offer its own eCommerce website builder. Square does offer an in-house online store, with both a free version (with a free Square domain + Square ads) and a paid version (with a custom domain, no ads, and advanced functionality) available.

• Instant Signup Available: Yes
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing w/ easy setup
  • Buy now, pay later
  • Money transfers
  • Free virtual terminal
  • QR code payments
  • Online ordering for restaurants
• Industry-specific POS/mPOS Systems:
  • Square For Restaurants
  • Square For Retail
  • Square Appointments
  • Square POS (general purpose)
• Additional Features:
  • Square Online (eCommerce store builder)
  • ACH processing
  • Square Invoices
  • Square Inventory
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Numerous integrations
  • Cash App mobile wallet

We gave Square a stellar 5-star rating in the Pricing category for its complete transparency and supreme small business-friendliness.

What makes Square such an extraordinary value is the number of features you can get for no cost whatsoever, including basic POS features, a magstripe credit card reader, and a virtual terminal (which PayPal charges $30/month for).

What’s more, most Square Online sellers will pay less for payment processing than they would with PayPal. For in-person payments, PayPal is a bit cheaper than Square, however.

• Monthly Fee: $0 for most services, advanced services start at $29/month
• Transaction Rates: 2.6% + $0.10 per in-person transaction, 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
• No setup or application fees

Square Hardware Pricing

• Square Reader for magstripe: First one is free — $10 for each subsequent device
• Square Reader for contactless and chip (pictured above): $59 for the 2nd generation reader, $49 for the 1st generation reader
• Square Terminal: $299 or $27/month for 12 months
• Square Register: $799 or $39/month for 24 months

We love the fact that, as with PayPal, Square’s services are offered on a month-to-month basis with no early termination fees or monthly minimums. However, be aware that Square (again, like PayPal) can ensure an easy signup process by aggregating accounts rather than giving every user a unique merchant account.

This means that while you’ll be approved for an account nearly instantly, you’ll also face a higher risk of a funding hold or account termination than you would with a full merchant account. Most users won’t encounter this, but you should still do what you can to avoid account holds and terminations.

Additionally, while Square’s processing rates are ideal for new and/or smaller businesses, once you’re processing upwards of $10K/month, you’re likely to save money with a merchant account provider that offers interchange-plus pricing (or discounted flat-rate pricing). Our Square vs merchant account comparison goes into further detail on this.

With countless eCommerce features, superb international sales capabilities, and an unmatched 2,000+ integrations available (more than PayPal!), Shopify is a true eCommerce juggernaut.

Shopify’s POS products are nothing to sneeze at either, and we love that Shopify doesn’t take a fixed fee from your in-person sales — just a flat percentage. This works to the benefit of sellers with small average ticket sizes.

• Instant Signup Available: Yes
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Buy now, pay later
  • Money transfers
  • Nonprofit rates
  • Advanced customization
  • Integrations with 2,000+ software platforms
  • Easy setup
• Additional Features:
  • POS/mPOS system
  • Online store with professional, customizable themes
  • Shop Pay checkout buttons/accelerated checkout flow
  • Advanced shipping tools
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Facebook store
  • Order management

Shopify Payments is Shopify’s in-house payment processor, and though you don’t have to use it with your Shopify online store, you’ll have to pay an extra 0.5-2% per transaction if you use another processor.

While you can’t use Shopify without paying a monthly fee, remember that if you go with PayPal and you want a virtual terminal — something Shopify and many other processors include for no extra charge — you’ll be paying $30/month anyway.

• Monthly Fee: Starts at $5/month ($39/month, or $29/month when billed annually, if you want a full online store)
• Transaction Rates: 2.4% to 2.7% per in-person transaction, 2.4% + $0.30 to 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
• No application or setup fees

Shopify Hardware Pricing

• Shopify Tap and Chip Card Reader: $49
• Shopify POS Go (pictured above): $299 or $74.75/month for four months
• Shopify POS Terminal: $349 or $87.25/month for four months

Like PayPal, Shopify’s services are offered on a month-to-month basis without long-term contracts or early termination fees. Also like PayPal, Shopify Payments is an account aggregator/third-party processor, not a full merchant account provider. This means that you’ll want to take precautions to minimize the chance of a funding hold or account termination, just as with PayPal/Square/Stripe.

We’ve also noted that selling with Shopify Payments means paying a monthly fee. With PayPal competitors like Square, Stripe, and Helcim, this isn’t the case.

Stripe’s feature ecosystem isn’t as extensive as PayPal’s, but it has some notable advantages. Stripe accepts many more international currencies (135+) than PayPal (25) while also supporting more local payment methods used overseas, making Stripe the superior choice for international payment processing.

Combine that with Stripe’s industry-leading developer tools, and you have quite a formidable online payment processor in Stripe — one that surpasses PayPal in some important respects.

• Instant Signup Available: Yes
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Buy now, pay later
  • Money transfers
  • Nonprofit rates
  • Advanced developer tools
  • Micropayments
• Additional Features:
  • Stripe Terminal for POS payments
  • Invoicing
  • Billing/Subscription Management
  • Dedicated support representative with a Premium support subscription

Smaller-ticket sellers will appreciate the fact that Stripe’s per-transaction fixed fee is the industry-standard 30 cents, which beats PayPal’s 49-cent fixed fee.

• Monthly Fee: None
• Transaction Rates: 2.7% + $0.05 per in-person transaction, 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
• No setup or application fees

International sellers will be happy to note that Stripe’s cross-border transaction fee (1%) beats that of PayPal (1.5%), as does Stripe’s currency conversion fee (1.5% vs. PayPal’s 3-4%).

Stripe Hardware Pricing

• Stripe Reader M2 (pictured above): $59
• BBPOS WisePOS E: $249
• Stripe Reader S700: $349 (not currently in stock)

Unlike PayPal, Stripe is a developer-focused payment processor, so you’ll likely need some tech expertise on your staff to make it work.

Also, Stripe (like PayPal and Square) is an aggregator/payment service provider and not a full merchant account provider, with all the benefits and drawbacks that entails.

Additionally, Stripe’s flat-rate pricing, while convenient for smaller businesses, gets less competitive as your sales volume rises. However, large businesses — and companies with unique business models — can get a custom pricing package that includes interchange-plus pricing and volume discounts if they contact a Stripe representative.

Far from being a bare-bones vendor of merchant accounts, Helcim’s feature lineup is quite robust and has a lot to offer, both in terms of eCommerce and in-person sales. Helcim’s international payment acceptance is particularly strong, as you will receive funds in your own currency without requiring currency conversion.

What’s more, the Helcim Card Reader is a notably versatile device that can function both as a mobile card reader and as a countertop terminal.

• Instant Signup Available: No
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Money transfers
  • International sales capabilities
  • Customized card payments with the Helcim API
  • Mobile processing with the Helcim Payments app
  • Online food ordering
• Additional Features:
  • Online store builder with hosted payment pages
  • Proprietary POS app that works from any device
  • Developer tools
  • New touchscreen terminal device that runs the POS app natively
  • A virtual terminal

Like many of our favorite merchant account providers, Helcim offers interchange-plus pricing, which tends to be the most merchant-friendly pricing system, even if it requires more explanation than flat-rate pricing.

Helcim is also one of the few merchant account providers anywhere to offer its services without any monthly fees. Put it all together, and it’s easy to see why we gave Helcim a perfect 5/5 category rating for its pricing.

• Monthly Fee: None
• Transaction Rates: Interchange + 0.15% + $0.15 to interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 per online /keyed transaction, interchange + 0.15% + $0.06 to interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 per in-person transaction
• No setup or application fees

Helcim’s rates scale with your processing volume — the more you take in, the less you pay per transaction and the more you save over a processor with flat-rate pricing.

Helcim Hardware Pricing

• Helcim Card Reader: $99
• Helcim Smart Terminal (pictured above): $329 or five monthly payments of $68

Helcim’s pricing is great for a wide variety of business types, but for very new or small businesses, processors like PayPal or Square may be more cost-effective.

CDGcommerce can offer exceptional account stability (even for a full merchant account provider) due to its hybrid risk structure. Essentially, CDGcommerce can override risk decisions made by the back-end processor and assume liability for an account or transaction.

Beyond that, CDGcommerce offers an excellent payments package, particularly for small to mid-sized eCommerce businesses.

• Instant Signup Available: No
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing, including for some high-risk industries
  • Free terminal with each account (requires $79 annual maintenance fee)
  • Your choice of payment gateways — a proprietary option and several third-party choices are available
  • In-person sales through its PastePay Cloud POS system
• Additional Features:
  • A virtual terminal
  • Recurring billing
  • Additional POS options
  • A security package

With CDGcommerce, you can start out paying no monthly fee and a flat per-transaction rate. Then, once your processing volume hits $10K/month, you can switch to interchange-plus or membership pricing, which entails a monthly fee but offers lower per-transaction rates.

• Monthly Fee: $0 with flat-rate pricing, $19-49 with interchange-plus pricing, $49-199 with membership pricing
• Transaction Rates: 3.50% + $0.30/interchange + 0.30% + $0.15/interchange + $0.06-0.15 per online transaction, 2.9% + $0.30/interchange + 0.25% + $0.10/interchange + $0.06-0.15 per in-person transaction (pricing shown is the flat-rate, interchange-plus, and membership rates)
• No setup or application fees

CDGcommerce Hardware Pricing

• Walker C2X card reader: $65
• Dejavoo Z11 terminal (pictured above): Free, but you’ll pay a $79/year insurance fee
• Vital POS equipment: Exact devices and pricing not disclosed

We love that CDGcommerce’s pricing scales with your business, but when you’re starting out, CDGcommerce’s flat rates aren’t the lowest (though its online flat rates still beat those of PayPal in most instances). However, the lack of an annual fee with CDGcommerce’s flat-rate plan somewhat mitigates this.

Adyen’s features are hard to summarize as it offers different feature packages for different types of businesses. What we can say is that Adyen’s strength lies in facilitating marketplace sales, global eCommerce with an eye toward reducing fees, and omnichannel capabilities that allow you to manage your in-store, online, and in-app sales from one dashboard.

• Instant Signup Available: No
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Buy now, pay later
  • Wire transfers
  • Omnichannel payments
  • Advanced developer tools
• Additional Features:
  • POS integrations
  • Advanced chargeback/fraud prevention
  • Dynamic reporting

Adyen’s pricing models are organized by global region, country, and payment type. US merchants are offered a “blend” of interchange-plus pricing and flat rates. All told, this makes it impossible to give a succinct summary of the rates you’ll pay.

However, we can say that you won’t pay a monthly fee. However, Adyen requires businesses to have a minimum invoice of $120/month or 1,000 transactions/month to keep their accounts in good standing. This makes Adyen less than ideal for most small businesses and startups.

• Monthly Fee: None
• Transaction Rates: Blended interchange-plus and flat-rate pricing that varies by card network and payment method
• No setup or application fees

Adyen Hardware Pricing

Adyen offers a wide selection of Android-based mobile credit card readers and countertop terminals, including the Verifone M400 pictured above. However, Adyen doesn’t provide any pricing information regarding hardware.

Adyen isn’t for very small businesses, as the company requires a monthly minimum of 1,000 transactions or $120 per month in processing fees.

Dharma’s reputation for transparency and ethics is quite an asset in itself, but its feature lineup is nothing to sneeze at, either. With full merchant accounts and an all-in-one online account access and reporting system (MX Merchant) with numerous free and paid services, Dharma has a lot to offer any business looking for a PayPal competitor, not just nonprofit businesses.

• Instant Signup Available: No
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Nonprofit rates and services
  • Hosted donation pages
  • Buy now, pay later
  • ACH & wire transfers
  • Discounted B2B rates
• Additional Features:
  • “Donate Now” buttons
  • POS and mPOS integrations
  • A virtual terminal
  • Merchant financing

• Monthly Fee: $15/month ($12/month for nonprofits)
• Transaction Rates: Interchange + 0.15% + $0.08 per in-person transaction, int. + 0.20% + $0.11 per online transaction
• Nonprofit Rates: Interchange + 0.10% + $0.08 per in-person transaction, int. + 0.10% + $0.11 per online transaction
• No setup or application fees

Dharma Hardware Pricing

• Dejavoo Z11 (pictured above): $295 (or $480 with PIN pad) (Exclusively for surcharging)
• Ingenico Desk/3500: $295 (or $480 with PIN pad)
• Ingenico Desk/5000: $369 (Exclusively for business-to-business (B2B) payments)
• First Data FD-150: $295 (or $480 with PIN pad)
• Verifone Engage V200c: $295 (or $480 with PIN pad)

Just like PayPal, Dharma offers month-to-month billing. However, while there is no early termination fee, Dharma does charge an “account closure fee” of $49. That’s not too bad, considering that actual ETFs are typically between $295-$495 (the merchant account industry retains some rather unsavory practices).

PaymentCloud offers many of the same merchant services offered by competing merchant account vendors, but where PaymentCloud truly stands out is its advocacy for high-risk merchants during the application process and the personal guidance it offers merchants after they have an account. Few providers offer such treatment to high-risk businesses. Low-risk merchants will be well-served by PaymentCloud as well.

• Instant Signup Available: No
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • High-risk processing
• POS integrations
• Online store integrations
• Mobile payments
• Business loans

Unfortunately, PaymentCloud doesn’t disclose any pricing information for high-risk businesses. However, this is standard practice for high-risk specialists, as these companies work with multiple back-end processors by necessity — your rates will ultimately depend on which merchant account (or accounts) you get matched with.

PaymentCloud Hardware Pricing

PaymentCloud offers a wide variety of card readers, terminals, and full POS systems. The options are far too numerous to list here, but Verifone, Ingenico, Dejavoo, Poynt, PAX, and Clover devices are on offer.

Some of these devices are offered for “free”, but you’ll have to immediately ship your equipment back to PaymentCloud if you close your account. Otherwise, you’ll be charged the full cost of the machine.

Low-risk merchants should be able to get a month-to-month arrangement with no early termination fee. On the other hand, high-risk merchants will likely have to accept a two-year contract with an ETF. However, there’s still a chance you could get a month-to-month deal, so ask to see if this is possible, and if not, see if you can get your ETF waived.

The unfortunate truth is that high-risk merchants nearly always face more onerous merchant account terms than low-risk merchants. Thankfully, PaymentCloud is the rare high-risk specialist that doesn’t take advantage of its clients.

Amazon Pay is a great way to ease the checkout process for your Amazon customers around the world — having fewer steps for your customers to go through in the checkout process is something that will absolutely reduce your abandoned cart rate.

Sadly, Amazon Pay offers no support for in-person sales.

• Instant Signup Available: Yes
• Supports The Following:
  • Payment processing
  • Nonprofit rates
  • Easy setup
  • Online store integrations

Amazon Pay’s pricing couldn’t be simpler.

• Monthly Fee: None
• Transaction Rates: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (in the US)
• No setup or application fees

Amazon Pay does not sell processing hardware, as it does not support card-present sales.

As your processing volume rises, Amazon Pay’s processing rates will likely be higher than what you can find elsewhere.