“What’s the safest and most reliable payment gateway for my business?”

That statement above, is the single most repeated thought among businesses that have recently digitised themselves. It’s not an uncommon thought, but what’s the answer? Let’s dive into this article to find that out. 

Best Payment Gateways| Streamlining Businesses Digital Transactions. 

Paypal, Stripe, Braintree, Dwolla, and other payment gateways can help businesses access new markets. But does that mean any payment gateway would suffice? 

Absolutely not, because businesses don’t share similar needs, and what works for one business may not work for another. For example, consider digital products such as Ebooks, these products will require a payment gateway that supports automatic delivery. While subscription based products would prefer a payment gateway that enables recurring payments. 

Which is why understanding your business requirements is important, and once you’ve done that, you need to understand your digital payment options. That’s precisely what this article will help you with. Additionally, this article will also compare the above mentioned payment platforms to help you pick a suitable one. So let’s get started with it without further delay. 

Pros, cons, and features of Paypal, Stripe, Braintree, and Dwolla. 

Paypal

Paypal is easily the most renowned payment gateway in the world, and the following are some of its best features, along with its pros, and cons. 

Best features:

• Paypal Credit: This is a very useful feature for customers looking to buy now and pay later. This enables businesses to be more flexible and make their customers happy. 
• Analytics & reporting: Another useful feature for keeping track of sales and managing cash inflow- outflow. 
• Seller Protection: Paypal has one of the most secure seller protections against fraudulent transactions. 
• Recurring payments: Paypal is the right choice for businesses offering subscription based services due to its recurring payments feature. 

Pros: 

• Paypal lets businesses make flexible payments through PayPal credit. 
• Paypal enables businesses to track payments through professional invoices. 
• Paypal makes it easy to manage financial data in one place since it can be integrated with multiple platforms. 
• Paypal offers a fund protection service for businesses, safeguarding them from unauthorized transactions and other types of fraud. 

Cons: 

• Paypal is known for their exuberant fees and is unsuitable for businesses looking for low payment processing fees. 
• In case of a chargeback, Paypal requests a fee, which could be bad for businesses with a high number of chargebacks. 
• The biggest drawback of PayPal is its “fund withholding.” Paypal can hold back funds for as much as 21 days for “mitigating risk”. This is understandable, but it disrupts business cash flow.  

Stripe

Stripe is the main competitor of PayPal and offers somewhat similar features, but it does a few things better than PayPal, such as-

Best Features: 

• Customizable checkout: Stripe enables businesses to fully customize checkout experience to suit their brand needs. 
• Payments: Stripe supports 135 currencies, which is significantly more than PayPal. It also supports several payment methods, including Google Pay. 
• Easy integration: Stripe is easy to integrate with apps and e-commerce platforms through its developer-friendly API. 

Pros: 

• Stripe keeps on implementing new features and improvements to keep their platform up to date with industry standards.
• Stripe is available in more than 40 countries and supports 135 currencies.
• Stripe is easy to integrate with business websites and apps due to its seamless APIs and SDKs. 
• Stripe doesn’t believe in hidden fees. 
• Stripe supports a number of payment methods, including ACH transfers and localized payment methods. 

Cons: 

• Stripe’s API may appear daunting to anyone without sound technological understanding. 
• Stripe provides chat and email support, but it lacks phone support for all its users. 
• The biggest negative about Stripe is its lack of chargeback protection. Businesses will have to settle disputes and chargebacks by themselves, which can be time-consuming. 

 

Braintree

Braintree is owned by PayPal and is considered a direct rival to Stripe. Braintree is the answer to PayPal’s shortcomings and offers the following features that PayPal didn’t offer:

Best Features: 

• Customization: Braintree is significantly more customizable than Paypal and is targeted towards businesses with sophisticated payment needs. 
• Integration: While Paypal can be integrated through plugins, Braintree offers developer-friendly APIs and SDKs for advanced integration. 
• Payment options: Braintree supports PayPal and Venmo payments; this is something that Stripe doesn’t support. 

Pros: 

• Braintree supports a wide variety of payment options, including major credit cards, debit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc. 
• It’s developer-friendly; Braintree provides extensive documents and resources for developers to easily integrate and troubleshoot.
• Braintree makes the integration easy with the help of well-documented APIs and SDKs for various programming languages.
• Braintree offers clear and transparent pricing information with no hidden costs or long-term commitments. 
• Braintree allows businesses to customize their checkout page based on their branding. 
• Braintree uses AVS and CVV checks to reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions.

Cons:

• Transaction fees can be higher, especially for small-volume transactions. 
• Its integration and initial set-up process appear complex, especially for someone without technical expertise.
• Braintree offers a lot of features, and due to its poor user interface, it can be overwhelming for new users. 
• Braintree can freeze or hold funds in case of any suspected fraud or other issues, which can be bothersome for businesses.

Dwolla

Looking for instant payments? Then your business needs Dwolla. Take a look at its best features below. 

Best Features:

• Same–day ACH Transactions: Dwolla offers same-day ACH (automated clearing house) transactions. meaning your business receives payments within the same working day. 
•  Scalability: Dwolla can scale up with your business. This means it doesn’t matter how much or how little your business is generating. Dwolla will handle it without compromise. 
• ACH Payments: Dwolla, through ACH payments, enables businesses to send and receive payments directly into their bank accounts. which is significantly more cost-effective. 

Pros: 

• Dwolla offers affordable pricing plans for businesses, starting at $250 per month. 
• Dwolla has one of the best user interfaces and makes transactions smooth. 
• Dwolla allows the integration of payment platforms into user’s existing systems, facilitating seamless and smooth transactions.
• Users can utilize Dwolla’s payment solution while maintaining their branding. 
• Dwolla offers responsive and dedicated customer support that will help users with any issue they encounter. 

Cons: 

• ACH transactions can sometimes take around 3 to 4 business days to process, which is quite a long time compared to other payment applications.

• • Dwolla offers API integration, but the options are limited; it doesn’t allow integration with as many applications as other payment processing applications do. 
  • Apart from ACH transfers, Dwolla doesn’t focus on other payment features.

• Dwolla doesn’t offer a built-in invoicing feature, which might be a disadvantage for some businesses. 

• The account verification process takes too long, resulting in delays in using the application. 

The aforementioned payment gateways are some of the most renowned payment gateways used by businesses. But they aren’t the only payment gateways available; a few other payment gateways include Authorize.Net, 2Checkout, and Payline.

Comparing Paypal, Stripe, Braintree, Dwolla, and others 

Payment Platform.	Gateway Type.	Accepted payment methods.	Countries supported.	Fees.	Supported platforms.	Payouts.	Suitable for.
PayPal	Merchant account, Payment Processor.	Credit cards, Debit cards, PayPal Credit, PayPal balance	Supported in 200+ countries.	For Domestic:  2.9%+ $0.30 USD per standard transaction.  5%+$0.05 USD per microtransaction. For International:4.4%+ fixed fee based on currency used.	Ruby, Python, PHP, Node.js, Java, iOS, Android	Typically between 3 to 5 working days.  But, it can also hold for as long as 30 days.	– Subscription based businesses. -Non-Profit businesses. -Digital Service based businesses.
Stripe	Merchant account, Payment Processor.	Credit card, Debit cards, Digital Wallets, Bank transfers, direct debit (only in selected countries).	Supported in 46 countries.	For Domestic:  2.9%+ $0.30 USD per transaction.  For international:  3.6%+ fixed fee based on the currency.  For European Economic Areas:  1.6%+ Fixed fee.	Ruby, Python, PHP, Node.js, Java, iOS, Android	Typically between 1-2 Working days.	-Ecommerce businesses.  -SaaS Providers.  -Non-Profit organizations.
Braintree	Merchant account, Payment Processor.	PayPal, Venmo, Credit and Debit cards, Direct Debit, AliPay, UnionPay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay.	Supported in 45 countries.	Domestic transactions: 2.9%+$0.30 USD per transaction.  International transactions: 3.9%+ Fixed fee.	Ruby, Python, PHP, Node.js, Java, iOS, Android	Typically between 2-3 Business days.  ACH Payments take around 4-5 days to process.	-Mobile apps. -Subscription based businesses.  -Ecommerce businesses.  -International Businesses. -Online marketplaces.
Dwolla	Merchant account, Payment Processor	ACH pay, Credit and Debit cards, Wire transfers.	Supported in 180 countries	Bank Transfers: $0.25 USD per transaction.  Mass Payments: $0.50 USD per transaction	RESTful APIs, Webhooks, Android, iOS, Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce	Instantly or within 24 hours.	B2B payments.  P2P payments.  Real-time payments.
Authorize.Net	Merchant account, Payment Processor	PayPal, Applepay, Visa Checkout, Masterpass, echeck, Credit and debit cards.	Supported in 33 countries.	Monthly gateway fee: $25. Per Transaction: 2.9%+ $0.30 USD.	Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, POS systems, Mobile devices, etc.	Typically takes around 24 hours.	-Healthcare. -B2B payments.  -Ecommerce payments.  -Non-Profit organizations.
2Checkout	Merchant account, Payment Processor	PayPal, Sofort, AliPay, Apple pay, Google Pay, Credit and Debit cards.	Supported in over 200+ countries.	Domestic transactions: 2.9%+ $0.30 USD. International transactions: 1 to 2% of the transaction. Monthly fees: $25 to $35 (based on packages).	Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, OpenCart, Wix, SquareSpace, Weebly.	Takes anywhere between 1-7 working days to process payments.	-Subscription based businesses.  -Ecommerce businesses.  -SaaS Providers.  -Digital Service based business.
Payline	Merchant account, Payment Processor	Giftcards, echecks, mobile payments, ACH payments, Credit and Debit cards.	Only supported in the USA	In-person transactions: 2.6%+ $0.10 USD per transaction. Online transactions: 2.9%+$0.30 USD per transaction.	Authorize.Net, Salesforce, Volusion, OpenCart, 3dcart, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify.	It takes anywhere from 1-5 working days to process payments	-Mobile app developers.  -Subscription based businesses. -Ecommerce businesses.  -Online marketplaces.

*Note: PayPal Pro charges a monthly fee of $30 USD. 

Conclusion:

   Your business deserves the best and getting the right payment gateway can help you attract more customers on a global level. There are a lot of payment gateways available based on the type of business you’re running. This article provides detailed information on some of the most popular payment gateways, and we hope this article helped you. If Yes, let us know in the comments.