PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe work as a famous payment platform. These three options are highly used in incorporating any payment platform in the mobile or web application. A good decision about their selection needs to be done based on these platform’s offers and policies.
Supported Payment Methods:
The eCommerce websites are required to support high on the American Express, Mastercard, and Visa Card. It is the main reason that PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe are now accepting the payment methods of Diners Club, Discover, Maestro, and JCB credit cards.
Apart from accepting the payment method of credit cards, the eCommerce websites are required to support different payment modes. It is, therefore, necessary to consider and understand the difference between PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. A great benefit of choosing Stripe is its close acceptance with AliPay which is a Chinese-based pay platform.
The eCommerce website gets a better response from Stripe when it is targeted to the Chinese market. Unlike Braintree, Stripe is now accepting direct charges to the bank account through Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment. However, Braintree has a direct integrating platform with PayPal when it comes to offering payment through ACH payment and AliPay.
The companies have an opportunity to accept Braintree payment through PayPal. It has also a direct functioning capability to accept payment through PayPal supported digital wallet of Venmo. However, PayPal has a limited payment acceptance way, such as accepting payment through debit card, credit card, and PayPal. In contrast, Stripe and Braintree are more favorable payment methods as they accept different marketplace payment methods, such as bitcoins.
Fees, Chargebacks, and Refunds:
It is a major consideration of how each payment platform charges fees for the rendered service. It is again important to consider different kinds of charges when accepting the payment methods of PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe.
Transaction Fees:
The fees of PayPal are high as it charges a fee on a monthly and yearly basis. However, Braintree and Stripe have no such charges. Paypal enables free account usage with PayPal Express Checkout and Payment Standards. However, the companies cannot have a fully customized experience similar to an eCommerce store, particularly having huge merchants and buyers.
Nevertheless, PayPal offers a Payment Pro Plan that enables a direct payment transfer with the buyers and merchants. It costs around $30 per month for the overall monthly transfer charges. On the contrary, there are single transaction-based fees for every transfer. For example, Stripe and Braintree charge $0.30 + 2.9% for every payment transaction.
The above charges are low charge payments that are applied for all acceptable payment throughout the world, including the U.S. However, Paypal has different payment fees, such as 3.9% fees plus an international payment percentage. Paypal’s U.S. transaction fee is also different, such as 2.9% + 0.30 fees.
It is pertinent to note that the above PayPal payment fees are merely related to credit card payment. The fee for the American Express credit card is different for PayPal. The other payment modes, such as AMEX transaction has a different fee for Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.
Disputes and Refunds:
It is a general practice that some shoppers dispute charges. Every payment platform happily supports handling some kinds of chargeback transactions. However, it is done as per the customer’s expense. For example, PayPal charges $20 as a refund for disputed amounts while Stripe and Braintree charge $15.
However, if the dispute gets a solution in the customer’s favor, then Braintree and Stripe return $15 and the entire chargeback amount. In a similar case, PayPal returns $20 but it charges a little fee of $0.30. Stripe and Braintree have a convenient refund policy as they return the transaction fees without charging any amount of fee.
PayPal considers chargeback transaction as a new transaction, so it still imposes a little amount of $0.30 as the processing fee. It is pertinent to note that if the customer’s merchant account has no money to cover the charges, such as $15, then PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe charges money directly from the customer’s bank account.
Other Payment Methods:
As mentioned, Braintree and Stripe have a working capacity with different payment modes. For example, they highly support AMEX transactions and Bitcoin. For example, Stripe charges $5 per transaction with 0.8% fees for the payment transfer with ACH payment, direct bank charges, and Bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin payment gets a more favorable chare of payment with Braintree. For example, Braintree offers free transactions up to the first $1M worth of payment. However, there is a small Bitcoin transaction fee of 1% in Braintree. PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe have selected different methods for the AMEX payment.
Stripe charges for AMEX transaction is 2.9% + $0.30 payment. Braintree charges merely $0.30 + 3.25%. PayPal has a higher charge payment system for all AMEX transactions, such as $0.30 + 3.5% fee.
Comparison of Paypal, Braintree, and Stripe:
There is a major comparison between PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. Each of them has distinct key features that the businesses are required to consider before affiliating their transaction services with them.
At first, Stripe is a payment platform supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. It has no monthly fees. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 2% per transaction. It applies a $15 chargeback amount.
Similar to Stripe, both Braintree and PayPal are payment platforms supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. Braintree has no monthly fees. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 1% per transaction. It applies a $15 chargeback amount similar to Stripe.
Like Stripe and Braintree, PayPal is also a payment platform supporting processor, gateway, and merchant account. PayPal has a payment fee of $30 per month as Payments Pro. Its per-transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30. It has a currency conversion rate of 1-4%. It applies a $20 chargeback amount.
Stripe’s payment methods are ACH, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and AliPay. It accepts payment cards of AMEX, MasterCard, Visa, and other credit/debit cards. It is available in 25 countries. It returns the transaction fee when the dispute is resolved.
Braintree’s payment methods are Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. It has the same payment card acceptance as Stripe. It is available in 46 countries. It returns the transaction fee similar to Stripe.
However, PayPal’s payment method is only an exclusive PayPal system. It has the same payment card acceptance as Braintree and Stripe. It is available in 202+ countries. It returns partial transaction fees upon resolution of the dispute.
Each of the payment platforms gives its payout within 02 days. Both Stripe and PayPal offer discounts for large volume clients. Braintree offers an exclusive service with no fees for the first $50,000 amounts of transactions. All three payment platforms are PCI Compliant, following rules with the PCI system for all the clients.
All the payment platforms have a unique supported platform system. These include iOS, Android, Go, Node.js, Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby. However, Braintree and PayPal do not support the Go payment support platform. They all have a strong fraud protection policy with support for recurring bills while having no monthly fee for this service.
Online Marketplace for PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe:
Every marketplace needs a specialized method to manage payments. Both the sellers and marketplace owners receive parts of what the buyers pay for the items. This issue is greatly resolved by Braintree and Stripe through its split payment system. It divides payment in two ways.
In general, the marketplace’s owners get a proportionally low amount of the fee. It is the payment that the sellers have initially agreed while paying for the marketplace transaction. However, the sellers get the rest of the amount that has been made from the transaction.
Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal have their unique way of resolving the problem concerning the split payment. For example, PayPal has an Adaptive Payment system, Braintree provides a Marketplace system, and Stripe offers a Connect payment system. However, it is important to note that only select partners are eligible to receive Adaptive Payments from PayPal.
However, PayPal strongly recommends Braintree when it comes to receiving payment for marketplace projects. It is the main reason that PayPal had bought Braintree as its first choice. Braintree helps PayPal in getting modern solutions for the marketplace.
In short, consumers should try using the Adaptive Payment system when there is a need to buy newly introduced marketplace products. It appears that the consumers are more likely to consider Braintree for the marketplace product and its related transactions.
Apart from splitting the payment system, Both Stripe and Braintree consider their Connect and Marketplace to establish a merchant’s account for the marketplace’s seller. It is a great feature because it helps in saving money when it comes to creating a transaction. Their price factor for Connect and Marketplace is also the same, leaving no chance for comparison in general.
Platforms That Support Braintree, Stripe, and PayPal:
Consumers can establish marketplace or storefront applications. It can be done using fewer backend programmes and respective languages. However, there is a need of providing an Application Programming Interface (API) to support the entire payment platform.
An API can further be used in working with the backend language for different websites. It can also support communication throughout the payment platforms of PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. A great benefit of this entire system is the provision of different APIs that are supported in terms of transactions and payouts.
Conclusion:
There is not any straightforward answer as to which payment platforms need to be chosen for the business transaction purpose or payout need. However, Braintree and Stripe have great features and free services that encouraged Lyft to choose them as its first preference.
Every payment platform should be chosen based on the respective business needs or you can consult with an expert so they define which platform can fulfill your business requirements. You can also review the aforesaid comparison between PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe before making selection about the payment preference.
The customers should further review the available services that may be aligning with their marketplace needs. There also comes a factor of considering the different kinds of applications and languages that are supported by these payment methods. The companies should finally review their business investment and their size before making any decision about their choice with PayPal, Braintree, or Stripe.