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Join For FreeBraintree is one of the most important providers in the eCommerce and mobile processing worlds and has an enormous catalog of unique features and no monthly fee.
Total Rating | 4.5 |
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Fees & Rates4.4 | |
Products & Services5.0 | |
Contract5.0 | |
Sales & Advertising Transparency4.8 | |
Customer Service3.8 | |
User Reviews3.1 |
Table of Contents
Braintree (sometimes also known as Braintree Payment Solutions) is a merchant services provider that was acquired in 2013 by PayPal for $800 billion and now lists itself as “Braintree — A PayPal Service” on its website. Today, Braintree is one of the heavyweights in the payments industry, processing more than 6 billion transactions (and over $50 billion) annually.
Despite its huge size, the company is still focused almost exclusively on the eCommerce sector, with relatively little to offer for retail-only merchants. However, as payment processing systems continue to migrate to the cloud, there are more and more opportunities for merchants in any sector to take advantage of Braintree’s payment gateway.
Braintree remains an effective, developer-centric payment processing solution for eCommerce, particularly for businesses that want to utilize the PayPal ecosystem. Cost increases that have affected PayPal-proper have now bled into Braintree, however, reducing the processor’s overall value proposition. Compare Braintree to the best payment processing companies to make sure you’re getting what you need at a fair price point.
Braintree is available to merchants based in:
You also must have a bank account in one of those countries/territories. Braintree also supports over 130 currencies, putting it near the top of the list when it comes to international reach.
Products & Services5.0 |
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Software & Services 5.0 |
Hardware & Equipment 5.0 |
You can think of Braintree as something like PayPal’s “advanced feature” service, made for customers who want access to the PayPal ecosystem but also want developer-friendly features that may be lost on the very small businesses that tend to make up PayPal’s main target audience. Perhaps even more important is the fact that Braintree offers individual merchant accounts.
Here’s a quick rundown of what Braintree offers. Note that some additional features (like cryptocurrency payments and invoicing) are available through PayPal and other integrations:
Feature | Availability |
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Credit Card Processing | ✔ |
ACH Payment Processing | ✔ |
Cryptocurrency Processing | |
Currency Conversion | ✔ |
Dynamic Currency Conversion | ✔ |
PCI Compliance | ✔ |
Recurring Billing & Subscriptions | ✔ |
Invoicing | |
Native eCommerce Integrations | ✔ |
Premade Online Checkout Form | ✔ |
Native POS Integrations | |
POS Integration SDK |
As we’ve mentioned above, Braintree provides a true, full-service merchant account, complete with a unique merchant ID number for your business. This feature offers greater account stability than you see with a payment service provider (PSP), such as Stripe or Square. Braintree doesn’t have a minimum processing requirement for merchants, so even low-volume businesses can use its services. The company does, however, have an Acceptable Use Policy that makes it unusable by most high-risk merchants.
Fees & Rates4.4 |
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Pricing 3.8 |
Affordability 5.0 |
For most merchants, Braintree’s rates and fees are incredibly simple:
Braintree recently changed its flat fee from 2.9% + $0.30 per credit card transaction to 2.59% + $0.49. This effectively shifts costs from higher-priced transactions to lower-priced transactions. That means if your average transaction is $60 or less, you’ll be paying more under the new pricing. This is the same rate PayPal now charges for Advanced Credit/Debit Card Payments. Qualified nonprofits can get a reduced fee of 1.99% + $0.49.
For businesses processing over $80,000 per month, there is also the option to negotiate a custom pricing plan. While you can choose between either a flat-rate or interchange-plus pricing plan for your Braintree processing fees, the interchange-plus option will almost always be more affordable overall. It’s also the most transparent form of pricing that’s available, as you’ll always know exactly how much your processor is charging you as a markup. Flat-rate pricing is more predictable, but you’ll inevitably pay more for some types of transactions, particularly PIN debit sales.
That’s it. There are (for the most part) no surcharges or additional fees, including monthly, setup, or early termination fees. There are a few circumstantial fees you might run into, though.
A few exceptions to this rule are fees that apply when your customers make an international transaction. Any transactions presented in a non-USD currency incur a 1% fee, and an additional 1% fee applies to transactions made on payment cards issued outside of the US.
Chargebacks are one of the risks of taking credit cards. You’ll be responsible for chargebacks, which come with a reasonable $15 fee. This is industry-standard and unavoidable.
As we’ve mentioned, Braintree’s payment gateway is also available independent of its processing services at a cost. The gateway is compatible with most US merchant accounts, and you can even connect multiple accounts. Here’s what you’ll pay:
As a global payment processing service, Braintree’s supported payment methods vary by region. Braintree also supports settlement in over 130 currencies.
Available payment methods vary by market:
Sales & Advertising Transparency4.8 |
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Sales Practices 5.0 |
Web Presence 4.6 |
With such a simple pricing structure, Braintree has an easy job when it comes to transparency. It discloses all rates, fees, and important contractual stipulations in plain sight, with absolutely no surprises.
The more difficult task here is properly explaining all of Braintree’s many features and customization options. Fortunately, it has some great resources: developer docs, support articles (which serve as your knowledgebase), and FAQs. You’ll also find an active blog with some good information for merchants. Want more details? Braintree also has a resource center to help businesses stay up to date on trends in the payments industry.
All salespeople are in-house, and they have a thorough knowledge of Braintree’s products.
Contract5.0 |
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Commitment 5.0 |
ETF & Other Fees 5.0 |
You’ll have absolutely no merchant account early termination fee with Braintree. You can see the standard Braintree Merchant Agreement on the company’s website if you’re interested. It’s pretty standard fare as far as merchant agreements go and nothing that should worry you. As we’ve already said, there are no extra costs or hidden fees, so you don’t have to worry about early termination fees or monthly minimums. Please make sure you check the list of acceptable business types before you sign up, too!
Another plus: If you choose to leave Braintree, you get to take all of your customer data with you. That’s a really good deal. You’ll just want to make sure the new system is PCI compliant.
Customer Service3.8 |
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Personal Support 3.0 |
Self-Service 4.6 |
Braintree makes its customer service and technical support readily available. Although there is no live chat option, you get email and phone support at no charge and with no limits. In fact, Braintree likes to bill itself as offering “white-glove support.” We’ll explore whether Braintree lives up to that claim in the Braintree Payments Reviews, Complaints, & Problems section below.
Braintree Payment Solutions Customer Service | Availability |
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Phone Support | |
Email Support | |
Support Tickets | |
Live Chat | |
Dedicated Support Representative | |
Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
Videos & Tutorials | |
Company Blog | |
Social Media |
If it’s an emergency, you can get service 24/7/365 via email from on-call reps and engineers, and that’s pretty awesome. We’ve already mentioned the website resources that you’ll have access to as well in the Sales & Advertising Transparency section. In all, I find them to be quite comprehensive and easy to navigate, which is always nice.
It’s worth noting that Braintree’s social media and blog presence haven’t been maintained to the degree they used to be. Whether this is due to Braintree becoming increasingly integrated into PayPal or something else isn’t yet clear.
User Reviews3.1 |
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Customer Feedback 3.0 |
Review Site Aggregate 3.1 |
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) now rolls Braintree into its PayPal profile. PayPal currently has an A rating. As Braintree is no longer disambiguated from PayPal, that makes it difficult to zero in on Braintree-specific issues. Needless to say, PayPal has over 29,000 complaints closed in the last three years and a customer review score of 1.14 out of 5 stars.
Some issues that come up in Braintree Payments reviews:
Braintree’s client list speaks for itself: Uber, GitHub, and Dropbox, just to name a few. But if you really want something remarkable…
Braintree actually bothers to put in the effort to create case studies and shows how its solutions can be used to tackle different problems. Not many companies invest in doing this, but it’s always nice to see. You’ll see the case studies come from smaller-name businesses, too, and not just the giants of the industry.
That’s not the only source of good reviews. There are positive Braintree reviews from actual users on other sites around the web mixed in with the negative reviews. As I dug through them, I found that people like the following:
Developers, in particular, note that the API is solid. They also like the extensive support for various programming languages.
Braintree remains a pretty good choice for online businesses, particularly those who want the simplicity of all-inclusive flat-rate pricing with no month-to-month contracts. However, the recent change in pricing does reduce Braintree’s value proposition for merchants doing less than $60 per transaction. Bigger ticket merchants may actually wind up saving some money, but many of them will probably be better off with interchange-plus pricing anyway. Additionally, I have some concerns about Braintree’s reduced public presence that may indicate the brand is being wound down and dissolved into the great PayPal blob.
Still, most of what previously made Braintree one of our favorite processors is still here: the excellent developer support, access to the PayPal ecosystem, and strong international support. You’ll just need to do some napkin math beforehand.
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
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With Helcim, you get everything you need to accept credit card payments online or in-person with a free account, plus high-quality support from real humans. Start For Free.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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