Selecting between PayPal and Stripe can be a game-changer for international small businesses aiming to sell online. When it comes to PayPal vs Stripe, business owners worldwide often struggle to pick the optimal payment solution. Both have their strengths, but the details matter.
Making the right choice can influence your transaction fees, customer satisfaction, and even your brand’s global reach. Before setting up your checkout page, understanding how PayPal vs Stripe stack up against each other is essential.
In this enormous digital marketplace, a flexible and affordable payment system can make a significant difference for your bottom line. Let’s explore the major features, costs, and situations where PayPal or Stripe might be a more suitable fit for your business. Along the way, we’ll point out a few key pointers, just as we do at Tresseo when helping clients set up their web hosting and e-commerce tools.
PayPal is a widely recognized digital payment platform that lets users send and receive money using email addresses instead of bank details. Since its founding in 1998, PayPal has expanded to serve over 430 million active accounts in more than 200 countries. It is closely integrated with eBay and is a familiar name for shoppers and sellers alike.
From a technical angle, PayPal provides plug-and-play solutions, including payment buttons and checkout integration for most website builders and content management systems.
Most services require minimal coding—imagine popping a pre-cut puzzle piece into your website. If your business runs on platforms such as WordPress, Shopify, or WooCommerce, PayPal is usually among the default payment options.
One of PayPal’s biggest assets is customer trust. Customers often feel safer using PayPal because it avoids sharing sensitive bank details directly with sellers. This can help reduce shopping cart abandonment.
For international small businesses, PayPal provides multi-currency support in over 25 currencies, making global transactions more accessible. You can send money to nearly any country, and the PayPal dashboard neatly organizes sales, refunds, and payment disputes. Their buyer and seller protection programs can help resolve transaction disputes, which is essential if you are serving unfamiliar markets.
Additionally, if you are just starting and need a quick solution, PayPal’s onboarding is straightforward. Accounts can often be approved within hours.
Payment links and invoices can be generated with a couple of clicks. This is handy for freelancers, early-stage startups, or anyone who prefers not to manage complex code.
PayPal does charge for convenience. On typical international sales, PayPal’s transaction fees can reach 4.4%, plus a fixed fee dependent on the country. If you need to transfer your earnings to a bank account in a different currency, additional conversion fees apply—usually 3–4% above the market rate.
Another issue is PayPal’s frequent account freezing. If their security algorithms detect what they consider suspicious activity, they may pause your account for days or even weeks. While this protects against fraud, it can block cash flow for legitimate businesses.
PayPal’s customer service receives mixed reviews, and the platform’s user interface hasn’t changed much in years. This can frustrate sellers who want more customization or easier ways to analyze their sales data.
While PayPal’s simplicity is attractive, relying only on one payment method can be risky. Tresseo always suggests offering alternatives—some customers can’t or won’t use PayPal. Expanding your toolkit keeps doors open, especially as you grow.
Stripe is a payment processor built with developers in mind. Launched in 2010, Stripe supports online and in-person payments for millions of businesses worldwide.
Stripe’s main selling point is customization. It offers powerful APIs (application programming interfaces), allowing programmers to tailor the payment experience to suit nearly any business model—from subscription services to advanced booking systems. Imagine Stripe as a box of LEGO bricks: you design and build your own checkout, loyalty program, or invoicing system, exactly how you want.
For website managers, Stripe is easy to integrate with popular web hosting platforms, like Squarespace or Wix, and content management systems through pre-built plugins. Businesses looking for detailed sales analytics, custom reporting, and invoicing love Stripe’s modern dashboard. This can reveal trends, payment failures, and customer details at a glance, helping businesses make smarter decisions.
Stripe currently supports payments in over 135 currencies, making it highly attractive for global commerce. This reduces the need for currency conversions and associated costs. On top of that, Stripe features dynamic currency conversion, so buyers see prices in their home currency. For many businesses, this reduces confusion and boosts conversions.
Stripe’s transaction fees are generally lower than PayPal’s on international payments, averaging 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for credit cards. Currency conversion typically adds another 1%, still making it competitive for businesses processing regular cross-border transactions.
Another strength is Stripe’s integration with subscription management, fraud detection, and support for payment methods beyond credit cards, like Google Pay, Apple Pay, Alipay, and even bank transfers in select regions. This flexibility is helpful if your customers use a wide variety of payment options.
Stripe’s developer-oriented features can be both a strength and a drawback. If you or your team are not comfortable with code, fully leveraging Stripe might require outside help. Some website builders make Stripe almost as easy as PayPal, but more advanced features involve technical setup.
It’s also important to note that Stripe is currently available in 46 countries. If your business—or your customers—are based in unsupported countries, you’ll need to find other solutions.
Lastly, Stripe lacks a dedicated buyer or seller protection program similar to PayPal’s. Handling disputes and chargebacks is managed through your own policies and Stripe’s built-in tools, so you must be proactive in managing customer service and refunds.
Mixing payment processors is like having extra doors into your shop—the more options, the more customers you invite. At Tresseo, we often recommend pairing Stripe with PayPal, giving buyers the greatest flexibility while reducing risk if one provider faces technical issues.
PayPal vs Stripe is one of the most common decisions faced by internationally minded small businesses. Both tools carry strong reputations and offer reliable services, but their approaches diverge: PayPal shines through convenience and trust, Stripe excels in technical flexibility and cost savings for those with regular cross-border needs.
The right solution can depend on your goals, location, coding comfort, and your customers’ preferences. Sometimes, offering both is the best route—helping you serve the widest possible audience while minimizing fees and reducing the risk of account problems. Just as at Tresseo, weighing your options and planning ahead ensures your business stays resilient, trustworthy, and open to global growth.
Payments are only the first step in building an international online business; your next challenge will be finding the right connections to turn every visitor into a loyal customer.
Copyright © 2022 - 2025. Tresseo. All rights reserved.
