Stripe logo

Stripe

Developer-first online payments with deep APIs, plus in-person processing through Stripe Terminal.

In-person rate
Online rate
Monthly fee
Free
Contract
No lock-in, pay as you go

Best for

Online businesses, marketplaces, and SaaS companies that want the deepest payment APIs.

Pricing breakdown

All prices in USDLast verified July 13, 2026

Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.

In-person payments

In-person terminal and tap-to-pay transactions.

Monthly fee
Free

Online payments

Online checkout and keyed-in card transactions.

Monthly fee
Free

Contract terms

Contract length
No lock-in, pay as you go

Accepted payment methods

Cards, wallets, and other methods supported by Stripe for US merchants.

Cards

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • AMEX
  • discover
  • JCB
  • UnionPay

Digital wallets

  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay

Buy now, pay later

  • Afterpay
  • Klarna
  • affirm

Other

  • ach
  • Alipay
  • WeChat Pay

Strengths and trade-offs

Pros

  • Best-in-class APIs and developer experience
  • No monthly or setup fees
  • Industry-leading subscription billing (Stripe Billing)
  • Native AI fraud protection and an official MCP server

Cons

  • In-person is secondary to the online product
  • Advanced features are priced as add-ons
  • No retail-first hardware experience

About Stripe

Stripe sets the US benchmark for online and developer-integrated payments. It is the natural fit for e-commerce, marketplaces, subscriptions, and SaaS, with the deepest APIs and the best subscription billing engine on the market. Stripe Terminal adds in-person processing for businesses that need both.

Pricing is pure pay-as-you-go with no monthly or setup fees, and Stripe Radar brings machine-learning fraud protection. The in-person experience is solid but secondary to the online product, and many advanced capabilities are priced as separate add-ons.

Stripe was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco, USA.

How Stripe compares

Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.

Assumes $15,000/mo volume, $50 average transaction, 70% in-person and 30% online.

Stripe logo

Stripe

$345/mo est.

In-person rate
Online rate
Monthly fee
Free
Terminal cost
Contract length
No lock-in, pay as you go
Settlement time
Est. monthly cost
$345/mo
PayPal logo

PayPal

$525/mo est.

In-person rate
Online rate
Monthly fee
Free
Terminal cost
Contract length
No lock-in
Settlement time
Est. monthly cost
$525/mo

Common questions about Stripe

The same questions US merchants ask before signing up.

  • Stripe Connect supports two main split approaches: destination charges (the platform collects payment and automatically routes a portion to a connected seller) and separate charges and transfers (charge the buyer directly, then transfer a share to each seller independently). Both methods let you programme your commission logic via the API and settle funds to sellers on a daily, weekly, monthly or manual schedule.

  • The standard rate on Stripe Connect is 1.7% of the transaction value plus a $0.30 fixed fee per charge. If you use Stripe to set pricing on behalf of your sellers, an additional Connect platform fee applies per payout.

  • No. The monthly platform fee is Free and there is no minimum monthly processing volume. You pay only for successful transactions.

  • Stripe offers two onboarding paths: a Stripe-hosted flow (sellers complete identity verification on a Stripe-branded page) and an embedded flow you build into your own UI using Stripe Identity. Both collect the documentation required under Australian AML/CTF rules. Stripe manages ongoing compliance monitoring for connected accounts once onboarding is complete.

  • Yes. Stripe supports delayed payouts so you can hold collected funds in a balance and release them to sellers only after a condition is met, such as order fulfilment or a dispute window closing. Manual transfers give you full control over the timing of each payout.

  • Yes. Stripe can collect payments in more than 135 presentment currencies and settle to connected accounts in more than 40 currencies. For Australian marketplaces with international sellers, Stripe handles the currency conversion automatically at the point of payout.

  • Yes. The absence of a monthly fee and minimum volume requirement means an early-stage platform pays nothing until it processes transactions. Stripe is well documented and widely used by Australian marketplaces, though at high volumes an interchange-plus provider such as Adyen may offer lower per-transaction costs.

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