Top 15 Best PayPal Alternatives For Online Payments In 2024

This tutorial reviews the top Paypal Alternatives with their pricing, features, and comparison. Select the best alternative to PayPal for online fund transfer:

PayPal is a popular online payment system that serves as an alternative to the traditional cash and checks transactions. The company, started by Elon Musk, Peter Theil, and Max Levchin in 2002, facilitates the online transfer of money between two parties.

But PayPal is not available everywhere. The online payment gateway is not available in 20 countries as of 2021. Additionally, some businesses don’t like PayPal due to their hefty chargeback fees and their ability to freeze accounts based on what they deem as suspicious activities, which takes months to resolve.

PayPal Alternatives

Fortunately, there are many PayPal alternatives you can use to send and receive funds online. In this review, we have examined 15 alternatives to PayPal that offer online transfer services. You will learn all about the fees and best features of each online payment gateway. After reading this review, you will be able to pick the best software for online fund transfer.

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List of Best PayPal Alternatives

Here is a list of popular alternatives to PayPal:

1. Merchant One
2. Bill.com
3. Helcim
4. Brevo
5. Google Pay
6. TransferWise
7. Venmo
8. Skrill
9. WePay
10. Stripe
11. Square
12. Payoneer
13. 2checkout
14. Braintree
15. ProPay
16. Dwolla
17. Authorize.Net
18. Shopify Payments
19. Amazon Pay

Recommended Reading =>> 12 Best Virtual Credit Card Services In USA

Comparison of Top 5 Alternatives to PayPal

Tool Name	Best For	Category	Platform	Price	Ratings *****
Merchant One	Small and Big Merchants, eCommerce entrepreneurs	Online payment	Mobile and online	Contact for quote	4.5/5
Bill.com	Small to medium-sized businesses, Accountants, Banks, etc.	Bill payment platform.	Cloud-based platform.	Essentials: $39, Team: $49, Corporate: $69. Pricing per user/month basis.	5/5
Helcim	Mid-to-large enterprises	Online Payment	Mobile and online	Pay a mark-up above the interchange rate	4.5/5
Brevo	Small to medium businesses	Sales and online payment	Cloud-based	1% commission charged	4.5/5
Google Pay	Individuals and merchants for online payments and receipts for free.	Online payment platform	Mobile and online	Free	5/5
Transferwise	Individuals and businesses for transferring funds from one country to another.	Online payment platform.	Mobile and online	Fees for transfer in USD and some other currencies like the Peso = 1 percent. Fees for most currencies = 0.5 percent.	5/5
Venmo	Individuals for online payments and bank-to-bank transfer of funds	Peer-to-peer mobile payment.	Mobile and online	No fees for payments through debit card and bank account. Fees of 3 percent per credit card payments. Fees for transfer from a Venmo account to a debit card = 1 percent per transaction with a minimum fee of $0.1.	5/5
Skrill	Transferring money and online payments anywhere in the world.	Online payment and money transfer.	Mobile and online	Deposit fee = 1 percent Domestic fee per transaction = up to 2 percent Money transfer fee = 1.45 percent. Currency conversion fee = 3.99 percent. Withdrawal fee for bank deposit = $6.5 Withdrawal fee for deposit through credit card = 7.5 percent	4/5
WePay	Individuals and small business owners for transfer of funds online and crowdfunding.	Payment aggregator	Mobile and online	Transaction fee = 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for each transaction. Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment fee= 1 percent + $0.30.	4/5

Review of each Paypal alternative:

#1) Merchant One

Best for Small and Big Merchants, eCommerce entrepreneurs.

Merchant One offers a payment gateway service that excels with regard to the number of shopping card integrations it supports and advanced security features. The gateway allows merchants to integrate with more than 175 shopping carts. It is further supported with built-in data security fraud detection capabilities.

Merchant One also offers a virtual terminal that can be leveraged to conduct manual transactions. You are offered a proprietary gateway as well as a third-party, white label gateway.

Features:

• Supports Recurring Payment
• Advanced Payer Authentication
• Invoice generator
• QuickBooks plug in
• Advanced Fraud Detection
• Hosted Checkout
• Robust reporting

Verdict: With Merchant One, merchants get a payment service that arms them with all the features necessary to find success in business. The gateway matches PayPal in quality with regards to its ease of use and excellent in-built security features.

Price: Contact for quote

#2) Bill.com

Best for small to medium-sized businesses, Accountants, Banks, etc.

Bill.com is an intelligent bill payment platform with smart AP & AR automation. It provides new bill payment capabilities to your business. It can be integrated into your accounting system.

It supports automatic sync for Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Xero, and Intuit QuickBooks. For data integration, it supports importing and exporting CSV templates of data from Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, SAP, and FreshBooks.

Features:

• Bill.com offers the features like automatic data entry.
• It can detect duplicate invoices.
• It offers more flexibility for new payments such as virtual cards, ACH, and international wire transfers.
• It is collaborated in the cloud and hence allows your team to work in real-time anywhere, anytime.

Verdict: Bil.com offers one integrated platform that will let you connect your payment accounts and accounting tools in one place and will let you automate the payments. It offers smart features that are powered by machine learning. This reduces human error and will save time.

Price: Bill.com offers the solution with four pricing plans, Essentials ($39 per user per month), Team ($49 per user per month), Corporate ($69 per user per month), and Enterprise (Get a quote).

#3) Helcim

Best for Mid-to-large enterprises.

Helcim is a platform that distinguishes itself from it contemporaries by allowing you to create hosted payment pages. The payment gateway API you get can integrate seamlessly with your existing billing system, shopping cart, website, and other third-party applications.

Once set-up, you can use the hosted payment page to add QR codes, create shopping carts, save credit cards, create recurring payments, and collect invoice payments.

Features:

• QR Code Payment
• Create shopping cart with ‘Buy Now’ button.
• Customer registration
• Invoice payments

Verdict: Highly customizable and easy to set-up, Helcim lets you add seamless payment functionality to your websites that serve a variety of purposes other than collecting payments online.

Price: Helcim adheres to an interchange-plus pricing structure. This basically means you’ll have to pay a mark-up above the interchange rate.

#4) Brevo

Best for Small to medium businesses.

Brevo’s sales platform that allows you to create payment links in just a few clicks. In fact, you can directly receive payments from your customers in Brevo itself. You are charged 1% commission on each transaction. You can set-up a custom payment link with your logo, name, services, and more.

Once created, you can share this link on multiple channels. You can also set-up automatic payment reminder or thank-you messages.

Features:

• Create custom payment links
• Share links on multiple channels
• Presents marketing data and payment history in one place
• Set-up auto messages.

Verdict: Brevo takes the hassle out of managing payments. Just a few clicks is all you’ll need to create and share custom payment links. The platform only charges 1% commission. There is no set-up or subscription fee. Just note that Brevo payments is currently only available in France.

Price: Free to create payment links. The platform charges 1% commission fee.

#5) Google Pay

Best for individuals and merchants for online payments and receipts for free.

Google Pay is a PayPal alternative that allows you to make online payments for free. The app was launched in 2015 as Android Pay and renamed to Google Pay in 2018. Users can use the mobile payment app to make payments on compatible systems using their debit, credit, or gift cards without physical possession of the cards.

Merchants can sign up for Google Pay to receive payments from online customers with no fees.

Features:

• In-store and online payments
• In-app purchases
• Transfer money
• Available in 28 countries
• Maximum transfer amount $9,999 per transaction | $50,000 in 5 days

Verdict: Google Pay is a free mobile payment app that is supported by major financial institutions all over the world. Users can add supported cards to the account. The services are offered to residents of selected regions including the EU, UK, US, Australia, Russia, North America, and Brazil.

Price: Free

Website: Google Pay

#6) TransferWise

Best for individuals and businesses for transferring funds from one country to another.

TransferWise is a UK based online payment gateway targeted that was launched in 2011. Customers can transfer money to banks in over 30 countries. The fee is charged based on the amount and the currency. Typically, the fee for the bank-to-bank transfer is much less than compared to the fees charged by traditional banks and money transfer firms.

The services are available for residents of the EU, UK, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the US except for residents of Hawaii and Nevada.

Features:

• Borderless account transfer
• Low fees on transfer
• Multi-currency transfer | Over 57 currencies supported
• No registration fees
• Maximum transfer amount $1 million | Differs for other currencies

Further Reading => Best Online Business Banks to Look For

Verdict: TransferWise is a safe and low-cost online money transfer gateway. The company is licensed in the UK, the US, and Australia as an authorized electronic money transfer firm.

Price: Varies depending on the amount and currency. You will be charged 1 percent for transfers in US dollars and some other currencies like the Philippine Peso. However, the fee for most currencies is 0.5 percent.

Website: TransferWise

#7) Venmo

Best for individuals for online payments and bank-to-bank transfer of funds.

Venmo is a peer-to-peer mobile payment application that can be used to transfer money using mobile phones. The online app also lets you make payments to certain online merchants. The app owned by PayPal is currently limited to residents of the US.

Features:

• Peer-to-Peer payments
• Online purchases
• Maximum payment limits of $2000 per purchase | 30 transactions per day
• Transfer limit of $3,000 per week

Verdict: Venmo fees are lower than banks and money transfer firms. You have to pay a negligible amount even for a large transfer of funds. These services are free if you make payments through a bank account or debit card.

Price: No fees are charged for payments made through a debit card and bank account. Venmo charges a fixed fee of 3 percent per credit card payments. The fee to transfer from a Venmo account to a debit card is 1 percent per transaction with a minimum of 1 cent fee.

Website: Venmo

Further Reading => List of the BEST Buy Now Pay Later Apps

#8) Skrill

Best for transferring money and online payments anywhere in the world.

Skrill is an online money transfer service that is fast and trusted by many individuals. Established in 2001, the app allows you to make online payments to popular websites and also transfer money anywhere in the world.

Features:

• Money transfer
• Online payments
• Supports 38 currencies
• Maximum transfer limit of $10,000 in a day | Minimum transfer limit of $60

Verdict: The main benefit of using Skrill is that its services are available for residents of almost every country. However, the charges for the services are higher than their competitors. You should consider Skrill if other payment transfer services are not available in your country.

Price: Online payment to selected retailers is free. The deposit fee is 1 percent while the withdrawal fee is $6.5 for banks and 7.5 percent for credit cards. The domestic fee per transaction reaches up to 2 percent and the money transfer fee is 1.45 percent.

Currency conversion fees of 3.99 percent. You need to continue using the service otherwise you will be charged a monthly fee of about $6. There are other fees such as a chargeback fee of $29.53, and an attempted cash upload fee of $11.81. The fee for the provision of wrong information, lack of cooperation, or prohibited transaction is $177, and the reversal fee for the wrong transaction is $29.53.

Website: Skrill

#9) WePay

Best for individuals and small business owners that want to transfer funds online or use crowdfunding.

WePay is a payment aggregator that was established in 2008. Owned by JP Morgan Chase, this online payment service is not suitable for use as a merchant account due to the low weekly limit. It is more suited for bank transfers and crowdfunding uses. The online service is offered to residents of the US, the UK, and Canada.

Features:

• Basic credit, debit, and CH processing
• Apple Pay compatibility
• Transaction level reporting
• Daily transaction limit of $10,000 per week

Verdict: WePay is not suitable for online merchants or individuals who want to transfer a large amount. It is particularly suitable for crowdfunding and the transfer of small amounts.

Price: The fee for Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments is 1 percent + $0.30. Customers are charged 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for each transaction.

Website: WePay

#10) Stripe

Best for E-commerce and online businesses to handle payments and billing for online transactions.

Stripe is an American financial software company that was founded in 2010. The company mainly offers payment processing services for e-commerce companies. Its services are available in 41 countries and accept payments from customers all over the world.

Features:

• Credit card processor
• Tools to optimize checkout
• Real-time financial reporting
• Control payout timing to banks
• Machine learning fraud prevention

Verdict: Stripe is one of the best PayPal alternatives for businesses. The only downside is that the fees charged per transaction are higher than the competing products.

Price: Merchants are charged 2.9 percent + 30 cents per credit card charge. Customized packages are also available for businesses that handle larger payments.

Website: Stripe

#11) Square

Best for small business owners to process small payments from customers.

Square offers great value for small businesses. They currently offer payment processing services in only five countries –US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan. Established in 2009, it is one of the cheapest payment processing platforms with no authorization fee, business card fees, or refund fees.

Features:

• Supports magstripe cards, chip cards, and mobile payments.
• Maximum daily transaction limit of $50,000.

Verdict: Square offers good value to online businesses, but the downsides include a low maximum daily transaction limit. Moreover, the fees charged for non-credit card transactions are higher than competing products.

Price: Merchants are charged 2.6 percent + 10 cents for each credit card transaction. The manual payment entry fee is 3.5 percent + 15 cents. Payments through Square Online Checkout, Square Online Store, and eCommerce API is 2.9 percent + 30 cents.

Website: Square

#12) Payoneer

Best for freelancers, contractors, and small businesses to receive and process payments from all over the world.

Payoneer is an online payment solution and one of the best PayPal alternatives out there. Established in 2005, the payment gateway provides digital payment services, online money transfer, and working capital loans. These services are available to small businesses and self-employed individuals in over 200 countries and territories.

Features:

• Direct payments
• Currency conversions | AUD, CAD, CNY, EUR, GBP, USD, INR, JPY
• Online and bank-to-bank transfers
• No transfer limit
• Supports Upwork, Fiverr, Airbnb, Wish, and +1000 companies

Verdict: Payoneer is a cross-border payment platform that is ideal for freelancers and online business owners. The payment gateway empowers entrepreneurs to make domestic payments and fund operational expenses through working capital.

Price: No fee is charged for receiving payments from other Payoneer customers. The fee for direct credit card payment is 3 percent and ACH bank debit is 1 percent for all currencies.

Website: Payoneer

#13) 2checkout

Best for 2checkout is an online e-payment service that is an alternative to the traditional online payment account.

The online payment platform allows e-commerce businesses to receive mobile and online payments worldwide. Established in 2006, the online payment platform supports merchants in all countries.

Features:

• Supports integration with 120+ payment carts
• Recurring bills
• Subscription management
• Access to 45+ payment methods
• Invoice management

Verdict: 2checkout is a suitable online payment processing application for online merchants and freelancers. The payment platform allows the processing of payments from almost any country in the world. But the fees charged for these services are much higher than its competitors, including PayPal.

Price: 2checkout transaction fees are the same worldwide. Customers are offered three packages including 2Sell, 2Subscribe, and a 2Monetize. The fee for the Sell package is 3.5 percent plus $0.35. Fees for 2Subscribe and 2Monetize packages are 4.5 percent plus $0.45 and 6 percent plus $0.60, respectively.

The 2Sell package contains valued features such as integration with 120+ payment carts and recurrent bills. The 2Subscribe package includes additional features like subscription management tools, renewals, and upgrades, subscription analysis. Lastly, the 2 Monetize package contains features such as invoice management, tax and regulatory compliance, access to multiple payment methods, and optimize conversion rates.

The three different packages are shown below:

Website: 2checkout

#14) Braintree

Best for online businesses that offer subscription-based services.

Braintree is an online global payment platform that supports different types of payments. Established in 2007, the software is focused on e-commerce and subscription-based customers. Owned by PayPal, it is great for businesses that deal with a lot of international payments. It is available to merchants in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Features:

• Merchant account gateway
• Data encryption
• Third-party integration
• Recurring bills
• No maximum limit

Verdict: Braintree is a PayPal alternative that is suitable for companies that offer subscription-based services. The charges for its online payments are not that different from PayPal’s services.

Price: A fee of 2.9 percent plus $0.3 is charged from customers. An additional 1% fee is charged for non-US currencies. A flat $15 is charged to customers for each chargeback.

Website: Braintree

#15) ProPay

Best for Internet service providers, direct selling companies, developers, and payment facilitators to process online customer payments.

ProPay is an online merchant account service that offers credit payment services. Customers can integrate the ProPay merchant account with their shopping cart. Established in 1997, the payment processing services are currently available in over 35 countries and 180 currencies.

Features:

• Accept payments from all major cards
• Free linked Prepaid MasterCard
• Storage of customer cards for repeat billing
• No limit to account processing

Verdict: ProPay is suitable for small business owners that want to collect customers from merchants. You can accept payments from anywhere in the world. The best part about the services is that setting up the account is a breeze, unlike other services.

Price: ProPay offers four price packages including Premium Card Reader, Premium, and Premium+Card readers. The annual costs of these packages are $69.95, $39.95, and $41.95, respectively. Here are the details of the different packages.

Website: ProPay

#16) Dwolla

Best for self-employed individuals, small and medium-sized online business owners, non-profit organizations, and government agencies for online bank transfer.

Dwolla is an online payment gateway founded in 2008. The online and mobile payment services are designed for cross-border online bank transfers and payment processing. These services are available to businesses in the US. Businesses can use these services to process payments from 180 countries and 35 currencies.

Features:

• Supports 35 currencies
• API scalability
• SOC 2 Type II Attestation
• A maximum account of $5000 per transactions for personal accounts and $10,000 per transaction for non-personal accounts

Verdict: Dwolla is suitable for different types of businesses that don’t process large payments. The payment processing platform is also suitable for online companies that sell subscription-based services.

Price: Dwolla is offered in three packages. Customers are charged 5 percent per transaction with a minimum of 5cents and a maximum of $5 per transaction. The Pay-As-You-Go has no annual fees.

The Scale package is for subscription-based companies and costs $2,000 per month. The Enterprise package costs $10,000 per month with custom features and flat pricing.

Here are the transfer fee details of different packages:

Website: Dwolla

#17) Authorize.Net

Best for processing mobile payments and recurring bills for small business owners.

Authorize.net is one of the oldest and most reliable online payment processing company that was founded in 1996. It has a BBB rating of A+ due to excellent customer service. The credit-card only payment processing company is great for merchants that want to protect against chargebacks.

Features:

• Advanced fraud detection
• Customer information verification
• Invoicing
• Supports popular credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, PayPal, JCB, Apple Pay, E-check, and Chase Pay.

Verdict: Authorize.net is a reputable online payment processing company. It is recommended for merchants and self-employed individuals that want to offer large payment options and also minimize chargebacks.

Price: Customers are offered three packages. The All-in-One Option is great for self-employed individuals who don’t have a merchant account. The monthly fee is $25 and the transaction fee is $2.9 percent + 30 cents.

The Payment Gateway Only account is for small business owners with a merchant account. Fees include a monthly fee of $25 and 10 cents per transaction. The enterprise package costs $500,000 per year that features customized pricing, data migration assistant, non-profit (501c3 integration), and interchange options.

Website: Authorize.Net

#18) Shopify Payments

Best for online businesses to process and manage e-commerce payments.

Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company established in 2006. The company launched Shopify Payments in 2013. It is a fully-integrated credit card payment system that is offered to businesses in 16 countries including Canada, US, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Also Read =>> Shopify Alternatives

Features:

• PCI compliant payments
• Support 3D Secure checkouts
• Supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Apple Pay, and Google Pay
• No maximum limit

Verdict: Shopify Payments is a great online payment gateway for e-commerce business owners. It supports multiple payment methods. But the monthly fees charged for the services are relatively high.

Price: Customers can choose from three packages including Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. The cost of the Basic package is $29 per month with additional online credit card fees of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents. This package is suitable for new or low volume small business owners.

High volume business owners should select the Shopify and Advanced Shopify packages that cost $79 and $299 per month, respectively. The fees charged lower as compared to the basic Shopify packages. Advanced packages come with additional features such as third party shipping rates, advanced report builder, USPS priority mail Cubic pricing.

Here are the details about the costs of the three packages.

Website: Shopify Payments

#19) Amazon Pay

Best for Amazon merchants and e-commerce owners that want fast, trusted, and secure payment processing service.

Amazon Pay is another reliable online payment processing company that was launched in 2008. It helps make it easier for Amazon shoppers to make online payments. It is suitable for sites and merchants that accept Amazon Pay.

These services are available for merchants with the place of establishment in 18 countries including the US, the UK, India, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and Switzerland.

Features:

• Voice payment through Alexa
• Fraud detection and prevention
• The maximum limit differs for each customer

Verdict: Amazon Pay is tailored for small business owners, large enterprises, and nonprofit organizations.

Price: Amazon Pay is 2.9 percent plus 30 cents for US transactions. For cross-border transactions, the fee is 3.9 percent plus 39 cents. There is also an authorization fee of 30 cents per transaction. The fee for chargebacks is $20 per tax.

Website: Amazon Pay

FAQs About PayPal and its Competitors

Conclusion

PayPal alternatives that have been reviewed in this blog post are suitable for different types of businesses. If you are a small business owner, freelancer, or self-employed business, the best alternative to Paypal includes Google Pay, Dwolla, Payoneer, and 2checkout.

Businesses that process numerous transactions should consider TransferWise, Stripe, and Square. Government institutions, subscription-based companies, and non-profit businesses should consider Dwolla and 2checkout for online payment processing.

Research Process:

• Time is taken to research this article: The PayPal Alternative review research and write-up took about 8 hours.
• Total tools researched: 30
• Top tools shortlisted: 15