Any form of e-commerce app requires a payment gateway to facilitate the transaction between the merchant and the customer.
While there are numerous amount of options in the market – we have compiled the pros and cons of 3 widely used payment gateways. Namely, Stripe, PayPal & Braintree.
1 ) Stripe
Known for its simplicity in usage and developer-first architecture, Stripe is a payment gateway that makes things simpler for merchants, customers and developers alike.
With one of the cleanest API in the game, Stripe gives developers the ability to customize the companies API to their respective business needs.
Adding to the whole simplicity aspect of Stripe – It is possible for users to perform one-click purchases, purchases from the app directly and even allow purchases directly from Twitter feeds without having to exit Twitter.
Stripe supports data portability from other payment gateways as well along with a 24/7 assistance team to support migration queries. Stripe accepts payments from over 130 currencies, all credit cards, debit cards, Apple pay and cryptocurrency as well.
Their rates are standard at 2.9% + $0.30 after $1 million and there is no contract required. This and more has made them the gateway of choice for Fitbit, Task Rabbit, and Lyft.
Pros
- Handles a wide variety of subscription structures for various industry and business niches.
- Easy connections and third-party integrations via Stripe’s open API.
- 24/7 assistance and migration support.
- Automated metered recurring billing solution.
- Atlas feature to provide cross-border payment support for global businesses
- Data portability from various payment gateways.
- Backed by Paypal Founders Peter Thiel, Elon Musk.
Cons
- No phone support, contact is mostly via email.
- Not suitable for high-risk industries.
Notable Clients – Open Table, Blue Apron, Target, Fitbit, Wish, Lyft, Postmates, Task Rabbit, InstaCart, Digital Ocean, Hubspot, Docker, Unicef, Facebook, Shopify, Salesforce, SAP
2 ) PayPal
Being one of the oldest players in the payment-gateway market, Paypal is considered as a must-have backup payment option for all businesses and used as the sole gateway to accept credit/debit cards as well.
Processing nearly 8 million payments per day, PayPal is considered to be one of the most popular payment gateways in the world. Even if businesses don’t directly use the PayPal payment gateway, they ensure they support PayPal payment purchases as well.
Using their Express API, their payment gateway can be integrated on all major platforms. However, even without it, the standard implementation redirects to their site, so the payment gateway can be used on any platform.
It allows phone-based credit card payments and provides users a handy invoicing kit to charge consumers right away. Paypal is also flexible enough to be used either by small businesses or market leaders.
Being one of the top and oldest payment gateway providers PayPal supports all major credit and debit cards as well over 26 different currencies.
PayPal’s ‘Payments Pro’ was developed for e-commerce providers, giving merchants the ability to accept credit/debit card payments and rewards from users without a PayPal account.Using an open API structure, Payment Pro has been adopted by over 184 million customers providing any form of shopping cart/marketplace solution. Additionally, it gives a variety of options for simplifying the PCI compliance and adheres to all leading encryption standards.
PayPal accounts are free, with PayPal charging 2.9% + $0.30c/transaction. Additional add-ons may require other fees.
Pros
- One of the oldest & leading payment gateways providing advanced.
- Customers need not have a PayPal account in order to make purchases.
- Services are available in over 190 different countries, 26 different currencies and 5 different card types.
- Customizable for a wide variety of requirements and can even accept cheques from a smartphone’s camera.
- Various account types come with a wide array of features for different requirements, including accepting cheques through a smartphone’s camera.
- Payments Pro works seamlessly with leading e-commerce solutions, sales management tools, CRM and best accounting systems. It connects to all major shopping carts in the market as well.It is available for use in over 200 markets.
Cons
- Has been known to freeze accounts without prior warning.
- Hefty fees for chargebacks.
- Issues with regards to contacting customer service.
Notable Clients
eBay, Woolworths, Google Play, Telstra, Dominos, Uber Eats, PUMA
3 ) Braintree
Leading the charge as one of the most progressive payment gateways on the m-commerce market, Braintree is a full-stack payment gateway platform has been gaining a lot of popularity in the market due to its wide variety of customizable and scalable payment options.
With its feature-rich service, great back-end support and availability in 40+ countries covering over 130 currencies, Braintree accepts payments from major credit/debit cards as well as Apple Pay, Android Pay, Venmo, PayPal and even coinbase for cryptocurrency as well.
Loved for its seamless checkout process, Braintree creates an overall feeling of security and confidence, inspiring users to keep using the platform for a variety of payment processes and business opportunities.
Additionally, it provides future-ready fraud tools to help identify and combat fraudsters.
To ensure every business finds what they are looking for, Braintree offers four separate modules:
- Braintree Direct for donation collectors and merchants.
- Braintree Marketplace for efficient payment processes and improved order management for businesses.
- Braintree Auth for providers looking to authorize merchants to interact with customers on their behalf.
- Contextual Commerce for businesses looking to build partnerships.
Braintree charges a 2.9%+ $0.30 transaction fee (after first $50,000), and a $15 chargeback fee.
Pros
- Easy to integrate and use SDK (software development kit), which means fewer developer charges for integration.
- Global market reach without cross-border transactional fees.
- Advanced fraud protection with every account without adding any extra charge.
- Easy to use drop-in UI that can be customized to any new form of transactional data that comes up.
- Hosted Fields, is Braintree’s unique security feature that provides users control over their web checkout while maintaining PCI compliance by creating the necessary iframes.
- Recurring billing payment options.
- The Braintree vault helps removes the hassle from the merchant side with regards to customers information, by keeping sensitive information stored securely in the vault while maintaining PCI compliance.
- No need to sign contracts with full ownership of the customer data.
Cons
- Customer Support not available during weekends.
- A small fee is charged for using Paypal to get paid with.
- Set-up time for account creation can be a bit long.
Notable Clients
Bonobos, Airbnb, Uber, Casper, Bigcommerce, Magento, Spree Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopify
Conclusion
Although we at Appscrip work with a variety of payment gateways and cryptocurrency exchange options, our personal choice for mobile payment gateway is Stripe.
Mainly for its flexibility, ease of use, great customer support, even better documentation, a large variety of currency support options and is globally reputed at the end of the day.
PayPal is widely known and is a common payment gateway provider for many brands and Braintree is known for its advance m-commerce features and security implementations, however, Stripe seems to provide a fine balance between features and ease of integration.
For more comparison information between Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal you can refer here
If you have your own take on payment gateways do comment below!
