TL;DR
For B2B SaaS in 2026, Stripe wins on the strength of its Billing product, recurring infrastructure, and global card coverage, especially for companies under $1M monthly card volume. It is not the cheapest: in our dataset Helcim's interchange-plus online rate costs 2.45 percent at $250K a month against 3.50 percent for Stripe, before Stripe Billing's 0.7 percent or Helcim's 0.4 percent recurring fee. Above $250K a month that gap is large enough to justify a side-by-side quote. Worldpay fits enterprise SaaS that wants a custom contract. PayPal is the weakest fit for B2B card-not-present and should not sit as a primary processor.
How we ranked
B2B SaaS payments look different from retail. Average tickets are usually larger, more buyers pay with commercial cards, and recurring billing is the whole business. We weighted six criteria.
- Effective rate at $50K and $250K monthly volume. Figures come from our effective-rate dataset, which assumes a $50 average sale and a mix of 60 percent credit and 40 percent debit. A B2B mix with more commercial cards pays higher interchange on every provider, so treat the dataset as a like-for-like comparison, not your exact bill. Provider prices were checked in Oct 2026; Stripe Billing, Level 2/3 rules and Visa rates were checked in Nov 2026.
- Recurring billing infrastructure. Native dunning, smart retry, proration, usage-based metering, account updater.
- Level 2 and Level 3 data passthrough. Commercial cards qualify for lower interchange when extra purchase data is sent. On Visa corporate and purchasing cards, the Visa schedule effective Oct 24, 2026 lists Commercial Product 3 at 1.75% + $0.10 against 2.70% + $0.10 for Commercial Card Not Present. See also Mastercard Interchange.
- ACH and wire support. Large invoices usually move to ACH for cost reasons.
- Contract length and early termination fee. Month-to-month preferred.
- Settlement speed and reserves. SaaS cash flow can survive a 2-day payout; a large reserve can break a Series A.
At a glance
| Provider | Headline pricing | Contract | Settlement | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 online; Billing 0.7% of billing volume | Pay as you go | 2 business days | Early to mid-stage SaaS | Billing fee stacks on the card rate |
| Helcim | IC + 0.50% + $0.25 online, plus 0.4% on recurring | No contract | Next business morning | $100K to $1M monthly volume | Subscription tooling is basic |
| Stax | $99 to $199+/mo by annual volume + IC + $0.15 online | No cancellation fee; length not published | Next business day | $50K+ steady volume | Costs more than Helcim at $10K a month |
| Payment Depot | Interchange-plus by quote; no prices listed | No cancellation fees; $0 setup | Not published | Buyers who will get a full written quote | Full cost not public |
| Worldpay | Custom pricing (contact sales) | Negotiated | Negotiated | Enterprise SaaS | Terms and fees not published |
| PayPal | 3.49% + $0.49 Checkout; 2.89% + $0.29 Advanced Credit and Debit | No long-term commitment published | Standard withdrawal free; instant 1.5% | Secondary checkout only | High Checkout and keyed rates |
Stripe
Stripe charges 2.9 percent plus $0.30 on standard online card payments and 2.7 percent plus $0.05 in person, per Stripe's public pricing. International cards add 1.5 percent. Currency conversion adds another 1 percent. Stripe Billing, the recurring infrastructure, costs 0.7 percent of Billing volume on pay-as-you-go, or a pay-monthly plan from $620 a month on a one-year contract, per the Billing pricing page.
At our $50 average sale, Stripe's online rate works out to 3.50 percent, or 4.20 percent with Billing. On an $850 B2B invoice the 30-cent fixed fee adds only about 0.04 percent, so the card rate is closer to 2.94 percent before Billing. Stripe's pricing page lists IC+ pricing and custom pricing for large-volume businesses, but publishes no threshold or rates for it.
The case for Stripe is the developer experience: webhooks, idempotency, test mode, prebuilt Checkout, Stripe Tax, Radar for fraud, the Customer Portal, automatic card updates, and Smart Retries. Stripe's docs say it works with the card networks to update saved cards when an issuer replaces them, which matters for B2B where card expiry is a real revenue leak; Stripe notes it may charge for each updated card.
Who it's for: any SaaS company processing under $1M monthly, especially with a global customer base. Who should avoid it: companies above $1M monthly with a commercial-card-heavy mix, where flat-rate pricing leaves the most money on the table versus interchange-plus. Stripe's Level 2 and Level 3 savings are available only on its IC+ pricing, per Stripe's docs.
Helcim
Helcim publishes interchange-plus pricing on its public pricing page. Online card-not-present pays interchange plus 0.50 percent plus $0.25; in-person pays interchange plus 0.40 percent plus $0.08. The margin compresses automatically as volume grows: from $100K to $500K monthly the online margin is 0.35 percent plus $0.20, and from $500K to $1M it is 0.25 percent plus $0.15. Recurring payments carry an extra 0.4 percent.
Helcim says its Level 2/3 interchange optimization retrieves the needed data automatically from your invoices, with no extra setup, and keeps 30 percent of the savings it produces. Visa merchants can face a 30 to 90 day verification period before Level 3 rates apply. On Visa corporate and purchasing cards, Product 3 interchange is 0.95 percentage points below the standard card-not-present rate, per Visa's schedule.
ACH is 0.5 percent plus $0.25, capped at $6 per transaction, with an extra 0.05 percent on amounts over $25,000. There is no monthly fee, no PCI fee, no statement fee, and no contract, termination fee, or cancellation fee.
Who it's for: B2B SaaS between $100K and $1M monthly card volume, with a meaningful commercial card mix. Who should avoid it: companies that need native usage-based metering, complex proration, or a deep revenue recognition export. Helcim's recurring billing is functional but thin compared with Stripe Billing or Chargebee.
Stax
Stax (formerly Fattmerchant) charges a subscription of $99 a month up to $150,000 a year in volume, $139 from $150,000 to $250,000 and $199 or more above that, and passes interchange straight through, adding $0.08 per in-person transaction and $0.15 per online transaction, per its public pricing page.
The subscription needs volume to pay off. In our dataset at $50K a month, Stax costs $1,200 online against $1,750 for Stripe, a saving of $550 a month. At $10K a month Stax costs $299 online, cheaper than Stripe's $350 but more than Helcim's $270. At $250K a month Stax is the cheapest provider in our dataset online, at $5,200 against $6,125 for Helcim and $8,750 for Stripe.
Stax's developer docs say most accounts can be configured for Level 2 processing, with the data sent through its API on Visa and Mastercard business cards; the doc does not cover Level 3. Ask whether recurring billing tools carry any extra fee.
Who it's for: steady SaaS card volume of $50K a month and up, especially with a high average ticket. Who should avoid it: companies around $10K monthly, where Helcim costs less, and seasonal businesses where the subscription runs in slow months too.
Payment Depot
Payment Depot sells interchange-plus pricing by quote. The Payment Depot pricing page (archived Oct 2025) lists no monthly or per-transaction price, only $0 setup and no cancellation fees, so the full cost cannot be worked out from public information.
Without published prices we cannot compare its effective rate with Stax, Helcim, or Stripe. Ask for the complete schedule in writing, including any monthly fee, per-transaction fee, gateway fee, and recurring billing fee, and price it against your own volume.
Payment Depot is not a billing platform. Its pricing page lists recurring and scheduled payments and automatic updates for stored cards, but SaaS companies with usage tiers or proration usually pair a processor like this with a separate billing platform like Chargebee or Maxio. Confirm the gateway, card vault, and recurring billing options before you sign.
Who it's for: B2B SaaS with steady monthly card volume and an existing or planned billing platform. Who should avoid it: teams that want billing and payments in a single stack.
Worldpay
Worldpay is the enterprise option, and it has been part of Global Payments since January 2026. There is no public flat-rate card on the Worldpay site. Pricing is quoted per merchant, negotiated against monthly volume, average ticket, vertical, and card mix. We could not find published markups, so treat any benchmark you hear as a starting point for negotiation.
The strengths are settlement infrastructure, dispute handling, dedicated account management, and international acquiring. Ask in writing about Level 2 and Level 3 data support, ACH and wire processing, and funding times, since none are published with prices.
Who it's for: large SaaS companies with multi-region settlement needs. Who should avoid it: anyone under $1M monthly, where the price advantage is unlikely to offset the contract risk and the sales process.
PayPal
PayPal's posted business rates: 3.49 percent plus $0.49 on PayPal Checkout, 2.89 percent plus $0.29 on Advanced Credit and Debit card processing (subject to PayPal's approval), and 2.29 percent plus $0.09 in person, per PayPal's published fee schedule. International sales add 1.5 percent.
For B2B SaaS, PayPal Checkout's math is bad. At our $50 average sale it works out to 4.47 percent, against 3.50 percent for Stripe and 2.45 percent for Helcim at $250K a month. PayPal does support Level 2 and Level 3 data for U.S. corporate and purchase cards through its Orders API, but its developer docs say IC++ merchants are the ones who benefit from the reduced interchange; on flat rates the saving is not passed to you.
PayPal still has a place as a secondary checkout option for international consumer-facing or prosumer SaaS where buyer trust is the conversion lever. It does not belong as a primary B2B processor.
Verdict
For most B2B SaaS in 2026, Stripe is the default choice up to $1M monthly card volume, on the strength of Billing, Smart Retries, automatic card updates, global card support, and developer tooling. Know what it costs: at $250K a month, Stripe plus Billing comes to $10,500 in our dataset against $7,125 for Helcim with its recurring fee. Above $250K monthly, especially with a commercial-card-heavy mix, run a side-by-side quote against Helcim and Stax. For a custom enterprise contract, request a Worldpay quote and have legal review it before signing. Skip PayPal as a primary processor, skip Stax at low volume where Helcim costs less, and skip Payment Depot unless you get the full fee schedule in writing.