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The Best Alternatives to PayPal

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedFeb 20232 min read

Whether you’re running an online business or have simply bought products or services online, chances are you’ve come across PayPal plenty of times. As one of the big players in the world of online payment processing, PayPal has been dominating the scene for decades thanks to its speed of use, convenience and the possibility for international payments.

However, PayPal doesn’t come without its limitations. For example, there is limited protection for sellers offering digital products and services, and alternatives to PayPal can offer lower fees. For this reason, small businesses should consider other payment solutions when taking online payments. Read on to find out more about some of the best alternatives to PayPal, and how GoCardless can make these processes simple.

Stripe

Stripe is an extremely popular alternative to PayPal and is particularly common for online businesses. The defining feature of Stripe is that they consider themselves a ‘developers first’ business, which means that they offer a highly customisable service for those who can code. They have an API that is easy to integrate and can be adapted to the needs of your business.

Since you can accept payments from any country in the world, Stripe is a good alternative to PayPal for international payments. However, the transaction fees are fairly similar to PayPal’s, so if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, then Stripe may not be the best option for you.

Wise

If you’re trying to find a PayPal alternative to send money internationally, then Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) is a common choice. Their main selling point is that they allow you to make and receive international transactions at a lower cost, making it a good option for businesses with a high volume of cross-border business.

Wise claims to offer the real exchange rate, allowing you to send and receive money without inflation or hidden fees. However, if you make a lot of recurring transactions, then Wise does not offer the best functionality for this.

Google Pay

Given that almost everyone has a Google account, Google Pay can be a good PayPal alternative to send money online. One of the main attractions of Google Pay is its ease of use for customers – they simply have to add their credit or debit card details to their account, and they can quickly make online payments after verifying their identity. In addition, Google Pay is largely free to use for both businesses and customers, making it a good option for businesses on a budget.

GoCardless as an alternative to PayPal

GoCardless offers one of the easiest and most efficient alternatives to PayPal for merchants. To break it down, there are two main payment mechanisms that you can use with GoCardless:

Direct Debit, which is the best option for invoicing and recurring payments. This is a great alternative to PayPal for merchants that operate on a SaaS business model.
Instant Bank Pay, which can be used for one-off amounts and speedy same-day payments. This is powered by open banking.

GoCardless is an excellent alternative to PayPal for international payments, since it operates on an international payment network. You can take payments in over 30 different currencies at the actual exchange rate of the day.

What’s more, GoCardless offers intelligent solutions for modern businesses. For example, Success+ is GoCardless’ intelligent retries tool, which automatically attempts to collect payments again if they initially fail. This tool collects an average of 76% payments that initially fail, which helps you to maintain a healthy cash flow.

You can also integrate GoCardless with over 200+ major software partners, such as accounting services like Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. This makes GoCardless work seamlessly with other areas of your business.

We can help

GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.