PayPal is the most-used and most-known way to send and receive money online. It works in hundreds of countries and is safe, fast, and easy to use, according to everyone who has used it. The transaction fee is what you pay for all of these features.
Even though PayPal has great service, you may not like to use it because of the high fees you have to pay for each transaction. These fees can cost more than 3% of the money you were supposed to get. This fee does not yet include the fees for international transactions and currency conversions if you are getting money in a different currency.
We tried out the best alternatives to PayPal!
You don’t have to use PayPal if you don’t want to. There are alternatives to PayPal that you can use instead. We’ll look at the 11 best alternatives that we’ve tried ourselves. We also tried PayPal with AliExpress. Read our guide to learn more.
Skrill
People first think of gambling when they hear the name Skrill. This is because Moneybookers was the name of what is now Skrill. It wasn’t really meant to be a payment system for gambling, but Skrill was one of the first online payment systems that let its system be used in online gambling sites.
Today, Skrill is also one of the most popular ways to pay for things online. It’s a great alternative to PayPal because it has lower fees and has been around since 2001. You can use it to get paid and send payments, but you can also use it to trade currencies and stocks in different markets.
Pros:
- You can use digital currencies
- Mastercard credit cards can be linked.
- 20 different currencies
- You can get a physical Skrill card or a virtual card
Cons:
- It costs money to send money.
The good thing about Skrill is that it doesn’t cost you anything if you’re the one getting the money. The problem is that the person who sent it has to pay a fee. On average, the cost is 1.45% of the amount sent, or EUR 0.50. This fee only applies if the person sending the money is not using money from their Skrill account.
The best way to get your money out of Skrill is to transfer it to a bank account. This is a free transaction, but it could take up to three business days for the money to show up in your bank account.
You can get money from your online store using Skrill. You won’t have to pay anything to get money, but it’s likely that not many people will use this. The problem is that people don’t like being charged money when they send money.
Neteller
Neteller is like Skrill. It is one of the most-used ways to pay for online gambling. But it is also used for online sales transactions. Neteller used to compete with Skrill, but Paysafe now owns both companies.
Since 1999, Neteller has been around. It started out in Canada, but then moved to the Isle of Man. Neteller is a payment system that can be used for many different things. You can use it to send money for Forex trading, gambling, online sales, and even social networks.
Pros:
- Has a Net+Card that acts like a debit card
- As little as 1% can be charged.
- OK to use.
- Has a virtual prepaid card you can use to buy other things online.
- Transfers and withdrawals happen quickly
- There are many ways to put money in.
Cons:
- If your account isn’t being used, you’ll have to pay an admin fee.
- If you put money into your Neteller account, you’ll have to pay a fee.
You can add money to your Neteller account in more than 48 different ways. You can use Bitcoin, AstroPay, credit cards, Skrill, banks, and so much more. The deposit fee is different for each type of payment. The fees for making a deposit range from 1% to 2.5%.
Neteller can be used to accept payments if you sell things online, but you need to contact the company so they can help you set it up. You’ll use Neteller’s system to charge your customers for their purchases, but they won’t have to sign up for an account.
Every time you take money out of an ATM with a Neteller card, you will be charged a cash advance fee. If you use it in another country, you’ll have to pay a foreign exchange fee of 3.99% and a withdrawal fee of 1.75 %.
You can take money out of Neteller and put it in your bank account. Depending on where you live, you may only have to pay 1.9% of the transaction cost. But this service is only available in four countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. Peru. Mexico and Urugu. To be able to withdraw, you can only get a Net+ Card, which is powered by Mastercard.
Stripe
Stripe is PayPal’s most important rival. Almost every online store has a deal with Stripe where the merchants can use Stripe’s payment system to get money from customers who bought something.
You can use Stripe’s online payment system, or you can use its terminal to charge customers in person. It’s like having a credit card machine that can charge customers’ credit or debit cards without being connected to the internet.
Pros:
- Low fees for doing business
- Stripe doesn’t charge most of the fees that other companies do.
- Cheap, and there are no monthly payments
- Features that can be changed to fit your business
Cons:
- Even if you are not breaking the law, your account can be frozen.
- Can label your account as high-risk and freeze your money.
Like PayPal, Stripe has a standard fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for receiving money. The main difference is that PayPal charges merchants $30 per month if they accept credit card payments from buyers who don’t have a PayPal account, but Stripe is free.
Also, Stripe doesn’t charge any fees for the following:
- Cards from outside the US
- Card authorization
- Billing Over and Over
- Better protection against fraud
- Just take Apple Pay.
- Charge credit cards on your site.
On the other hand, PayPal has fees for all of those things.
Stripe is a very powerful platform that you can use to set up payments from your customers on a regular basis. This is a great thing for people who sell online courses or services that cost money every month. You no longer have to worry about reminding your customers to pay because Stripe remembers their payment information and charges the card automatically.
Here are some of the other things about Stripe that make it a great alternative to PayPal:
- Helps more than 135 currencies
- has ways to pay in the area
- Platform that is very safe
- Reporting in real time
- 24/7 support
- Users can be added and their roles and permissions can be managed.
- Has a way to handle disagreements
Stripe is growing quickly, so it won’t be surprising if it takes over a lot of other payment gateways. It can solve any payment problem, and its prices are much lower than those of its competitors.
Amazon Pay
Amazon is no longer just a store where you can buy books. Now, it even has its own payment system that works on both mobile devices and desktop computers. It even has a way to pay with your voice. All the customer has to do is tell Alexa to pay the merchant.
Pros:
- Has three ways to pay: on the web, on mobile, and over the phone.
- A quick and easy way to pay
- Offers a promise to your customers.
- Has a lot of different ways to pay.
Cons:
- $20 is a lot for a chargeback dispute.
- costs money for foreign exchange
At 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, Amazon Pay is the same as PayPal. It takes Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, among other major credit cards. Since it’s Amazon, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s easy to set up in many e-commerce platforms.
The platforms that are supported are:
- BigCommerce
- Magento
- Shopify
- OpenCard
- PrestaShop
- 3dcart
- Lemonstand
- Miva
- Shopsite
- xCart
Amazon Pay can be used for more than just one kind of transaction. It can also handle bills that come every month. If you are a merchant, here are the kinds of transactions you can do with Amazon Pay.
- Immediate Charge: is the easiest way for a customer to pay. They can use their card or Amazon Pay balance. It works really well if you have an online store or sell digital products.
- Deferred Payments: This is a late payment that won’t be finished until a certain milestone is met, like when the product is delivered or picked up, or when a pre-order is made and the payment won’t be charged until the product is delivered.
- Split Payment: is a type of payment in which the customer must pay in parts.
- Recurring Payments: This is a monthly payment system that works well if you need to charge your customers a subscription fee.
- One-Time Purchase With Subscription: This is a mix of recurring payments and a charge right away. For example, you could sell a single item and then charge for a refill every month.
- Refund: This is the system that lets you give a full or partial refund, and Amazon Pay will recognize that and also cancel the fees.
Overall, Amazon is a big company that will become a global payment system one day, especially for online merchants who need alternatives to PayPal to charge their customers.
These are the best alternatives to PayPal that we tried and liked.
2CheckOut
2CheckOut is a big company that doesn’t say much. You don’t hear much about this because it doesn’t show its name or brand, even though it processes online payments. Unlike PayPal, this company gives merchants everything they need to get paid.
It is one of the best payment gateways for e-commerce platforms, and the service isn’t just for one-time charges. You can set up recurring billing on this payment platform, just like you can with Amazon Pay.
Pros:
- Can be connected to a lot of different e-commerce platforms.
- Provides a variety of payment services
- Secure transactions
Cons:
- Fees that are too high for digital downloads and subscriptions
- Needs a lot of paperwork before you can get it to work.
Here are the main things this payment system can do for you:
- Global Payments: is the main way that your customers pay you by entering their credit card information.
- Digital Commerce: you can choose the look of your online shopping cart. This is best used by people who know how to code in computer languages like API.
- Subscription Commerce: lets you charge your customers on a regular basis through your website or app.
- Reporting: You will have access to a dashboard that will tell you how much you’ve sold, how your sales are doing over time, and a lot more.
- Tax Management: Because the company does business all over the world, it has a system that will help you keep track of your sales taxes, especially if you charge Value Added Tax in the European Union. All of these are done automatically, and all you have to do is click the right option for your country.
There are different price points for 2CheckOut, and the price of the service depends on which one you choose.
Here are the prices.
- Online sales –3.5% + $0.35 per transaction
- Subscription: 4.5% plus $0.45 of every sale that goes through
- Digital Goods: 6.0% plus $0.60 for every digital download sold
The best thing about 2CheckOut is that you don’t need a credit card to use it. It will only charge you for the fees if you make a sale. You don’t have to pay a $30 fee every month like you do with PayPal. You are not locked into a contract, so you will only pay a fee if you make a sale, which you can add to the price of your goods.
The Best Alternatives to PayPal for Beginners
Braintree
Braintree is not just a payment system. It helps you make more money by getting more people to buy from you. Braintree can do this because it won’t be hard for a customer shopping on your site to finish the checkout process.
But there is one thing you should know: Braintree is a part of Paypal. PayPal is all about sending money from one person to another, but Braintree is all about e-commerce payment systems. Since 2007, Braintree has been in business, and in 2013, PayPal bought the company.
Pros:
- Allows you to accept payments on different e-commerce platforms
- Has a payment product that does everything.
- Can be used to give other apps permission to charge money.
- You can let the buyer pay however he or she wants.
Cons:
- Can close your account without even getting in touch with you
- Can cause problems that keep you from getting paid.
The fixed fee for Braintree is 2.9% plus $0.30. In that way, it’s like PayPal, but it gives you more for your money.
If you use Braintree as your payment processor, the following are the parts of the service:
- Account for the merchant and payment gateway
- Basic fraud tools
- The Braintree Vault is a way to encrypt data.
- Help by phone and email
- Data migration assistance
- Reporting
- Billing Over and Over
- Integrations with third parties
- New ways to catch fraud
- Integration support
- Exchange, plus options for pricing
Your customers don’t even have to sign up for an account to use Braintree. As the merchant, you can directly charge them with their credit cards, or they can use an e-wallet they already have. If a customer visits your website and pays with PayPal, for example, he can use PayPal to pay you through Braintree. No longer does he have to type in his credit card number.
Customers can use Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, or American Express to pay in your system. At checkout, all they have to do is pick how they want to pay.
With this feature, you don’t have to sign up for each of those payment systems as a merchant. You only need Braintree to charge money from different platforms, which you can do right now.
Payoneer
Since 2005, this business has been around. Its main focus is on big companies like Amazon, Fiverr, Google, and Upwork, which need to pay a lot of people at once. Today, the company has grown to help people who need to charge their customers online.
Now, you can use Payoneer to accept digital payments and even get cash to use for your business. You can get money sent to your bank account or use its prepaid Mastercard that can be reloaded.
Pros:
- Used in more than 200 countries
- Can be connected to platforms for online shopping
- Can be used to accept payments so that websites can make money.
- Has a prepaid card that makes it easy to get your money.
- Can be used to accept payments from Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, and even 2CheckOut.
Cons:
- No 24/7 support
- Card renewal costs a lot of money.
If you use Payoneer, it’s free to get money from someone else who also uses Payoneer. If you use the Receiving Accounts feature to charge, you will be charged 1%, and credit card transactions will cost you 3%.
Payoneer also lets you send and receive e-checks, which means your customers can send you electronic checks for a 1% fee.
Each time you take money out of your Payoneer Mastercard, it will cost you $3.15. If the ATM doesn’t accept your card, you’ll have to pay another $1 fee. The same is true for the inquiry about the balance. The cost of a replacement card is $12.95, and the cost of the card each year is $29.95.
As a merchant, here are some things you can do with Payoneer:
- Mobile App: It has a mobile app that lets you do business and see your account history. The app only works on Android and iOS devices.
- Multiple Currencies: You can charge in more than 20 different currencies, and your Payoneer account will keep track of these.
- Bank withdrawal: If you don’t want the card, you can transfer the money straight to your bank account. It will take up to three business days for the money to show up in your account.
Venmo
Venmo is a company that changed the way people spend money online. It makes it possible for people to pay each other without big companies like credit card companies or banks getting in the way. With Venmo, you can send and receive money. You can also use it to get money from sales. People can even split the bill at a restaurant if they ate there together.
Pros:
- From Venmo, you can move money to your bank account.
- Safe and sound
- One app that lets you track payments
- Your Facebook account can be used to sign up.
- Has a Venmo Mastercard that can be used to get cash and buy things
- Many of its services are free.
Cons:
- ATM withdrawals from banks that are not in the Venmo or Mastercard networks cost $2.50.
- Sending money to someone’s bank or Venmo account costs up to 3%.
- There aren’t many ways to connect.
Venmo was made so that friends can send and get money from each other. It has a different program called Venmo Business for businesses. If you choose this, you can use the Venmo checkout system to charge your customers. In it, the customer can pay for something on your website or app.
Since PayPal owns Venmo as well, you can only connect it to PayPal or Braintree. You need to use the PayPal Checkout system so that the customer can pay you directly through Venmo.
If a customer doesn’t have a Venmo account, he will have to make one before you can charge him for his purchase. This works well only as an alternative to PayPal for payment methods other than Venmo, and only if your customers use Venmo.
When it comes to fees, Venmo only charges for three things:
- Withdrawing money from an ATM costs $2.50 if you take it out of the network.
- Withdrawals by electronic means cost 1% or $0.25, whichever is higher.
- Sending money costs 3% of the amount being sent.
For normal bank transfers, there are no fees. Only the instant transfer counts toward the 1% electronic withdrawal. People can send you money for free, but keep in mind that your customer will be charged since he is the one sending you money.
Best PayPal Alternatives For Beginners
Square
Back in 2009, Square began. A year later, it already had an app that let its users send and receive payments online. Six years after it started, the company went public and is now one of the biggest online payment systems in the world.
More than two million businesses accept Square at the moment. The payment system works on mobile devices, tablets, desktops, laptops, and even on the merchant’s website.
Pros:
- Gives loans to businesses
- Has an app for setting up your POS
- Has a card reader, but you have to buy this hardware
- If you charge credit cards in person, there are no monthly fees or contracts.
Cons:
- The cost of the card reader is
- You can’t change what Square emails you about your transactions.
Square can also be a point-of-sale (POS) system. In this system, you have to download the app and put in the details and prices of your products. When a customer orders in your store, like a restaurant, all you have to do is tap this button, and the app will figure out the customer’s bill for you.
You can charge the customer in cash, or you can use the Square card reader and just swipe the card. The app can be used by more than one person, and you can give an employee user access so you know who was in charge of a certain transaction.
The app’s dashboard is very powerful and:
- Contains important information about your business.
- Finds out which items sell the most.
- Gives you a summary of your gross income.
Square also has a payroll system that will help you keep track of how your employees are paid. Some things that the payroll system has are:
- Pay workers and independent contractors.
- Pay both salary and hourly workers
- Help with health and other things
- Give employees accounts on the Internet
- Time-keep on your employees
- Bring in timesheets and tips
- Use our app to pay your team.
- Use our help based in the U.S.
- Send as many payrolls as you want.
- Use software to file your taxes.
Overall, Square’s payment system is complete and can be used on your website or in person. This service doesn’t cost anything per month, but Square does charge 2.75% per transaction.
Google Pay
This is huge, and since Google owns it, it works best on devices that run the Android operating system. Anyone who has ever bought something on YouTube or any other Google platform can use this payment system without having to make a new password.
This means that anyone who uses Android could buy and use this app to make payments. You can use this as a merchant in apps, websites, and even in your physical store. With the Google Pay app, people can send money and even get cash back from stores.
Pros:
- Has NFC-based payment, which means that a merchant’s card reader can talk to the customer’s phone.
- Has a system for managing loyalty cards and gift cards
- Payments can be made online and in the app.
- System of encryption that is very safe
Cons:
- Hard to put into place
- To make it work, you need a programmer who knows API.
Like Square, Google Pay has a way to keep track of loyalty rewards. You can give them the following:
- Present cards
- Unique deals
- Tickets
- Boarding passes
Google Pay is not the same as Google Play, and you shouldn’t mix the two up. Google Play is a place where you can sell apps, eBooks, and games that are all digital. This will cost you 30%. If you charge a customer’s credit card through Google Pay, the fee is only 3%.
Because billions of people already use Android, it is a better alternative to PayPal. Also, sending money to your bank account is free, and the most you can send per transaction is $9,999.
Shopify Payments
Shopify payments is the best last choice. If you sell things online, it’s likely that you already know about this. Signing up for a Shopify account is all you need to do to use its system to process payments.
You don’t have to build a Shopify store to use its payment gateway. It gives you an offline POS system that you can also connect to your social media stores.
Pros:
- Simple to set up
- Works everywhere, all the time
- Low fees to use a credit card
- System is rated Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, which means it is very safe.
Cons:
- Only iPhones can use the card reader.
- It only works in Shopify stores in some countries.
- There is no fixed fee; the costs depend on which Shopify plan you choose.
You can also use the Shopify POS system if you use this platform. Every transaction costs you an average of 2.9% plus $0.30 in fees. If you use the POS, you will have your own credit card terminal, you can offer gift cards, take payments offline, and even take partial payments.
Summary
There are other ways to pay besides PayPal. There is surely one of these PayPal alternatives that can give you what you need to make sure your customers have a smooth checkout. Also, all of these companies offer high levels of security, so the financial information of your customers is safe.