Stripe alternatives: 7 payment providers compared

The best Stripe alternatives change something specific about how you get paid: how the price of each card sale is built, how easily you can leave, who picks up when a payout looks wrong, and whether you can see the savings before you move. Clearo Payments publishes this list, and we've ranked ourselves first against the five criteria below. The other six providers each suit a different kind of business. What we say about them, and about Stripe, comes from each company's own website, checked in October 2026.

Stripe describes itself as a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, and its products page says it serves businesses from early-stage startups to global enterprises. Its pricing page also lists a custom option that can include IC+ pricing, meant for businesses with large payments volume or unique business models. If that's you, ask Stripe about it before you go anywhere.

For Clearo's own setup, online and in person, see our page on merchant services for small businesses.

How we chose these Stripe alternatives

We ranked every provider on five points, in this order. The fifth is the checkout itself, since that's what has to keep working on the day you move.

1. Pricing you can audit: interchange-plus, so the card network's cost and the provider's margin print as separate lines on your statement.
2. A contract you can walk away from: no long-term commitment and no fee to cancel.
3. One person who knows your account: a dedicated rep for every client.
4. Numbers before you commit: a free statement review that reprices a real month of your sales on the new terms.
5. Online checkout: hosted checkout or gateway integration with fraud screening, plus payment links, invoices and recurring billing for sales outside the cart.

Behind Clearo, providers are ordered by how many of those points their own pages describe. Helcim's pages cover interchange plus pricing, no long-term contracts and a statement comparison tool. Adyen's list Interchange++ card pricing and no closure fees, PayPal Braintree's offer interchange-plus pricing to established businesses, and Square's describe no long-term contracts. Authorize.net and Shopify Payments complete the list on online checkout.

Some businesses should weigh this differently. If your developers built your product around a payments API, rebuilding that integration is real work, and staying put may be the honest answer. A store that runs on Shopify may prefer Shopify Payments, a business happy with its merchant account may only need a gateway such as Authorize.net, and anyone who also sells at a counter with POS software should read Square's entry.

Countries are listed only where each company's own pages confirm them.

1. Clearo Payments

Why Clearo ranks first as a Stripe alternative

Clearo Payments meets all five criteria. You can read every line of the pricing, leave without paying to cancel, call a rep who already knows your business, and see a month of your own sales repriced before you sign. The checkout side is covered as well: hosted checkout or gateway integration for your website, and a virtual terminal for the payments that never pass through your cart.

How interchange-plus works on online sales

Every online card sale carries card-not-present interchange, the fee the card networks set for each card type and sales channel. On our interchange-plus pricing, interchange and network fees pass through as charged, and our margin is a separate line on the statement. Visa publishes its US interchange schedule, so you can check the pass-through lines yourself and judge our margin on its own.

Based on its client records, Clearo says businesses moving from flat-rate pricing have saved 20 to 50% on processing costs. How much one business saves depends on its card mix, average order value and volume, so the statement review uses your numbers rather than an average.

What an online business gets

• Online payments with hosted checkout, where customers enter card details on a hosted page, or gateway integration if you'd rather build the checkout yourself.
• Fraud screening with AVS, CVV checks and velocity rules.
• A virtual terminal for phone and email orders, invoices, payment links and recurring billing.
• PCI compliance support, chargeback management tools, and same-day or next-day funding options.
• POS terminals and mobile payments for the days you sell in person.

Moving your payments to Clearo

Start with a free statement review. Send a recent statement and we'll price that same month on interchange-plus, fixed fees included, so you see the difference in dollars. If the numbers work, there's no long-term contract to sign and no cancellation fee later, and a dedicated rep is your contact from the first day. Clearo says setup takes under 48 hours.

If your developers have built your product around Stripe's tools, or you want POS software and payments from the same company, staying with Stripe or choosing Square may serve you better.

2. Helcim

Helcim is a payment processor serving Canada and the US, and it suits online businesses that want interchange-plus pricing without a long-term commitment. Its pricing model is interchange plus, and its pricing page lists no long-term contracts, no cancellation fees and no setup fees. For online sales it offers online payments and has a page on subscription billing and recurring payments. Its merchant statement comparison tool is there for checking what you pay now.

Best for: online businesses that want interchange-plus pricing and recurring billing with no long-term contract.

3. Adyen

Adyen is a payments company for businesses that want each card's cost broken out by payment method. Its pricing page says every transaction carries a fixed processing fee plus a fee determined by the payment method, lists Visa and Mastercard on Interchange++ in its US prices, and lists no monthly, setup, integration or closure fees. Its online payments documentation covers taking payments on websites and in mobile apps, and its Hosted Checkout sends shoppers to a payment page Adyen hosts.

Best for: businesses that want Interchange++ card pricing with the option of a hosted checkout.

4. PayPal Braintree

PayPal Braintree is the payments service PayPal offers under the Braintree name, a fit for established online businesses with enough volume to negotiate. Its US fees and pricing page starts from a standard per-transaction rate for cards and third-party digital wallets, and established businesses can get custom flat rates, interchange-plus pricing or discounted rates based on their business model and processing volume. Braintree also offers Fraud Protection Advanced, and PayPal publishes separate Braintree pricing for Canada.

Best for: established online sellers that want pricing set around their volume, interchange-plus included.

5. Square

Square pairs payments with its own POS software and hardware, so it fits a business that sells online and at a counter and wants both on one account. Its payments page covers taking payments online, in store or on the go, and its US pricing page lists a free plan next to paid monthly plans. Its invoice pricing page says invoicing is included in any Square plan, and its Virtual Terminal page describes no long-term contracts.

Best for: businesses that want website, counter and invoice payments on one account, starting on a free plan.

6. Authorize.net

Authorize.net is a payment gateway that lets businesses accept cards online, in person and by phone through a merchant account, so it suits a business that wants to choose that account itself. Its pricing page offers an All-in-One plan that includes a merchant account or a Gateway Only plan for businesses that have one, plus Automated Recurring Billing with no separate setup or monthly fee. The account itself has to come from a provider based in the United States or Canada, according to its support article.

Best for: businesses that want a website gateway running on a merchant account they pick.

7. Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is Shopify's own payment processing for stores on its plans, and it makes the most sense when your store already runs on Shopify. On Shopify's pricing page, the third-party transaction fees that vary by plan don't apply to orders processed through Shopify Payments, and fraud analysis is built in. Shopify's help center also lists the US and Canada among the countries where Shopify Payments handles in-person processing.

Best for: merchants whose store runs on Shopify and who want payments inside their Shopify plan.

Which alternatives to Stripe work for online payments?

Any provider with a hosted checkout or a payment gateway can take over your online card payments. The bigger decision is how card details travel from your customer to the provider, because that sets how much you build and which PCI questionnaire you file. Settle it before you compare prices.

That second row is the one PCI SSC changed. As of March 31, 2025, SAQ A includes an eligibility check: you confirm your site isn't susceptible to attacks from scripts that could affect your e-commerce systems (PCI SSC). A follow-up FAQ says the check applies to pages that embed a payment form rather than redirect, and that your provider's confirmation about its embedded form can satisfy it (PCI SSC).

For most small teams the first row is the sensible default, and Clearo's online payments offer it alongside gateway integration. Our guides to the hosted payment page, payment gateways and accepting payments online go further.

How do you switch from Stripe without losing saved cards?

Ask Stripe to export your stored cards to the new processor, once the new processor confirms it can receive the file. Stripe's documentation describes the process: it prepares an encrypted export file with your customers' card details, email addresses and any attached metadata, then arranges a secure transfer to the new processor, which imports it (Stripe). The same page says the receiving processor has to be PCI DSS Level 1 compliant and show its current Attestation of Compliance or its listing on Visa's Global Registry of Service Providers.

Then plan the rest around the cards:

1. List everything tied to your current account: saved cards, subscription schedules, open invoices, payment links and your site's checkout code.
2. Recreate billing schedules on the new system and spot-check them before the first renewal date.
3. Keep the consent record behind every stored card. Visa's framework for stored credentials says you need the cardholder's agreement before keeping card details for future charges (Visa).
4. Ask how replaced cards get updated. Visa Account Updater shares new card numbers, expiration dates and closed-account notices among participating issuers, acquirers and merchants (Visa).
5. Run both accounts until the new one's first payouts land, then retire the old checkout.

Take this slowly if you bill subscriptions, because every card lost in the move becomes a failed renewal. Our guides to card on file payments and recurring billing cover the consent and retry rules.

What do Stripe payment alternatives cost?

Under any provider's price sit three layers: interchange to the bank that issued the card, network fees to the card brand, and the provider's markup. Mastercard says it "has no involvement in acquirer and merchant pricing policies or agreements" (Mastercard), so the markup is the layer each provider sets, and the one you can negotiate. Stripe payment alternatives mostly differ in how they package the layers:

Washington State's Attorney General notes that small and new businesses can now ask for interchange-plus pricing.

Online sales start from a higher floor. On Visa's US schedule effective April 18, 2026, a basic consumer credit card in its "All Other Products" group carries 1.89% plus a fixed fee online, against 1.51% plus the same fixed fee when it's dipped or tapped in person (Visa). That interchange reaches the card's issuer whoever processes the sale, so what you're comparing is everything on top of it.

Here's a made-up example. A coffee subscription company in Minneapolis takes $40,000 a month online across 1,000 orders, and its statement shows $1,380 in total fees, an effective rate of 3.45%. If every card were a basic Visa consumer credit card, interchange would come to $856: 1.89% of $40,000 is $756, plus a 10-cent fixed fee on each order. The other $524 is network fees and markup. An interchange-plus quote shows how that splits, while a flat rate shows one number. Ask each provider to price the same month and compare the totals.

Our comparison of interchange-plus vs flat rate runs the math at four ticket sizes.

Questions to ask any Stripe alternative

Get these in writing:

1. Which pricing model is this, what is the markup, and which monthly, gateway, PCI and chargeback fees apply?
2. Is the account a merchant account in my business's name, or a sub-merchant account under yours? Our guide to payment facilitators and merchant accounts explains why it matters.
3. How long is the term, does it renew on its own, and what does it cost to leave?
4. When do payouts reach my bank, and could any of my money be held in reserve?
5. Who do I call when a payout is late or a chargeback lands, and will that person know my account?

Your next step

Start with what you pay now. Send a recent statement for a free statement review, and we'll work out your effective rate, separate interchange from markup, and price the same month on interchange-plus. If staying where you are makes more sense, we'll say so. We work with online and in-person businesses across the United States and Canada. Prefer to talk first? Contact us.