TL;DR
Stripe costs less than PayPal for most online merchants between $25K and $500K monthly volume. Stripe's published 2.9 percent plus $0.30 transaction fee runs roughly 60 cents lower per $100 in revenue than PayPal's standard 3.49 percent plus $0.49 wallet checkout, before any conversion lift from offering PayPal at the cart. PayPal's Advanced Credit and Debit rate of 2.59 percent plus $0.49 closes part of the gap but loses on tickets under $100 because of the higher per-transaction fee. Above $250K monthly volume, both lose to interchange-plus pricing from Helcim or a subscription plan from Stax.
How we ranked
This is not a feature checklist. Operators care about what hits the bank account, not whether the dashboard has dark mode. We scored Stripe and PayPal against three reference profiles: a $50K monthly subscription SaaS with $40 average ticket, a $250K monthly DTC ecommerce store with $85 average ticket, and a $1M monthly B2B merchant with $1,200 average ticket. The criteria, in order of weight:
- Effective rate at each volume tier, calculated against the published fee structure.
- Settlement speed (days from authorization to bank funding).
- Contract length, early termination fee, and reserve policy.
- Chargeback fee, representment cost, and dispute SLA.
- Hardware lock-in for any in-person component.
- Public availability of pricing (no quoted-rate-only providers).
We pulled fee structures from each provider's published pricing page on the date of writing. Interchange benchmarks come from Visa's and Mastercard's posted U.S. consumer credit schedules. Volume and average-ticket context comes from the Federal Reserve Payments Studies.
At a glance
Headline pricing as published. None of these numbers include card-brand assessment fees, gateway fees, or chargeback fees, which add roughly 0.13 percent and $0.02 to $0.05 per transaction on most platforms.
| Provider | Headline pricing | Contract | Settlement | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 online; 2.7% + $0.05 in-person | None | 2 business days | Online merchants $25K to $250K monthly | No volume discount published below custom-quote tier |
| PayPal | 3.49% + $0.49 standard wallet; 2.59% + $0.49 advanced card; 2.29% + $0.09 in-person | None | 1 business day | DTC stores where the wallet drives checkout conversion | 21-day rolling reserves on flagged accounts |
| Helcim | IC + 0.50% + $0.25 online; IC + 0.40% + $0.08 in-person | None | 2 business days | $50K+ monthly with mixed card types | No native subscription billing engine |
| Stax | $99/mo + IC + $0.18 online; IC + $0.08 in-person | Month to month | 1 to 2 business days | $80K+ monthly with stable card mix | Subscription wastes money below $50K monthly |
| Square | 2.6% + $0.10 in-person; 2.9% + $0.30 online; 3.5% + $0.15 keyed | None | Next business day | Retail and food under $100K monthly | Account holds on velocity spikes |
Stripe
Stripe charges 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for online card payments and 2.7 percent plus $0.05 for in-person card-present transactions. There is no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no contract. International cards add 1.5 percent. Currency conversion adds 1 percent.
At $250K monthly volume on an $85 average ticket, you process about 2,941 transactions a month. The effective rate at the published price comes to 3.25 percent, or roughly $8,132 a month in processing cost. Chargebacks cost $15 each, refunded if you win the dispute.
Settlement runs T plus 2 business days on the default schedule. Faster payouts cost 1 percent extra on Stripe Instant Payouts. There is no reserve unless your dispute rate clears 0.75 percent or your refund rate clears 5 percent, both stated in the Stripe Services Agreement.
Stripe's pricing strength is the developer-heavy mid-market with mixed online and recurring billing. Its weakness is the lack of published volume discounts. Above $80K monthly, any reduction comes through a sales-led custom quote. Operators above $250K should request interchange-plus pricing or compare against Helcim and Stax before signing.
PayPal
PayPal posts three rates for card acceptance on its U.S. business fees page: 3.49 percent plus $0.49 for standard PayPal Checkout, Venmo, and Pay Later; 2.59 percent plus $0.49 for Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments; and 2.29 percent plus $0.09 for PayPal Zettle in-person sales. There is no monthly fee on the standard plan.
The 3.49 percent number applies when a buyer pays with the PayPal wallet itself. The Advanced Credit and Debit rate of 2.59 percent applies when buyers pay by card on your hosted checkout. Most stores end up with a blended rate between the two depending on wallet share at checkout.
At $250K monthly volume on an $85 average ticket, a 50/50 wallet-to-card split produces an effective rate near 3.62 percent including the $0.49 per-transaction fee, or about $9,041 a month. That is $909 a month higher than Stripe's published rate at the same volume, roughly $10,900 a year.
PayPal's reserve policy is the operator headache. The PayPal User Agreement permits rolling reserves or minimum-balance holds based on internal risk review, with limited advance notice. Chargebacks cost $20 each.
Helcim
Helcim publishes interchange-plus pricing with no monthly fee, no contract, and automatic volume discounts that step down as monthly volume rises. The base rate is interchange plus 0.50 percent plus $0.25 for online and interchange plus 0.40 percent plus $0.08 for in-person. Above $50K monthly volume, the markup drops on a published schedule.
For a $250K monthly DTC store on consumer credit at roughly 1.80 percent average interchange, the effective Helcim rate lands near 2.60 percent, or about $6,485 a month. That is roughly 0.65 percentage points below Stripe's published flat rate at the same volume.
The trade is feature coverage. Helcim has no native subscription billing engine and a smaller plugin ecosystem than Stripe. For a single-product DTC store with simple checkout, the savings outweigh the gap. For a SaaS that needs revenue recognition exports, dunning, and metered usage, Stripe Billing still wins on tooling.
Stax
Stax sells subscription pricing on its posted plan. Merchants pay $99 a month and process at interchange plus $0.18 per online transaction or $0.08 per in-person transaction. There is no percentage markup above interchange. Plans scale up at higher volume tiers.
The math only works above roughly $80K monthly volume. At $250K monthly on an $85 average ticket and 1.80 percent average interchange, the Stax effective cost works out to about $5,422 a month including the membership and per-transaction fees, or 2.17 percent all-in. That beats Stripe by roughly $2,700 a month at that volume tier.
Below $50K monthly volume the $99 membership eats the savings. Operators at that volume tier should compare interchange-plus from Helcim instead. Stax also charges separate fees for its virtual terminal and gateway, so factor those in if you sell card-not-present.
Square
Square publishes flat rates of 2.6 percent plus $0.10 for in-person card-present, 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for online, and 3.5 percent plus $0.15 for keyed-in transactions. The free POS, online store builder, and invoicing tools come with no monthly fee.
Square is the cheapest in-person option among the five providers here. At $100K monthly card-present volume on a $20 retail ticket, Square's effective rate comes to 3.10 percent, including the per-transaction $0.10, or about $3,100 a month. PayPal Zettle at 2.29 percent plus $0.09 prices lower on percentage but has thinner POS hardware and reporting depth.
Square's risk is account holds. Square's terms allow it to suspend payouts when transaction volume or average ticket spikes outside the platform's normal pattern for that merchant category. For a stable retail or food service operator, the lock-up risk is low. For a high-velocity launch or a seasonal spike, build in a backup processor.
Verdict
For online merchants between $25K and $500K monthly, Stripe costs less than PayPal at the published rate, by roughly 0.40 to 0.80 percentage points after blending wallet and card share. The gap holds even at PayPal's Advanced Credit and Debit rate because the $0.49 per-transaction fee outweighs the percentage discount on tickets under $100.
PayPal still wins in one scenario: stores where adding the PayPal wallet at checkout lifts conversion by enough to offset the rate premium. Industry conversion-lift estimates land between 0.5 and 2 percent. Run your own A/B test before deciding.
Above $250K monthly, both flat-rate options lose to interchange-plus from Helcim or subscription pricing from Stax, typically by $1,500 to $3,000 a month at $250K volume.
