Stripe is a payments & billing tool for Developers and Small businesses, offered as paid. Founded in United States in 2010. Popular alternatives include Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar.
About Stripe
Stripe is a payments infrastructure company founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, with headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin. Its APIs and documentation set the standard for developer experience, and it processes payments for businesses ranging from early-stage startups to some of the largest internet companies.
The platform covers online card and local payment method acceptance, prebuilt Checkout and Payment Links, Billing for subscriptions and invoices, Connect for marketplaces and platforms, Radar for fraud prevention, Tax for calculating and collecting sales tax and VAT, Terminal for in-person payments, Atlas for incorporating a US company, and treasury, card issuing and capital products. Recent moves include the acquisition of Lemon Squeezy, a merchant of record for digital products, and of Bridge for stablecoin payments. Fees are charged per transaction, with add-on products priced as a percentage of volume and custom pricing for large businesses.
Stripe is the default for online and SaaS businesses in its roughly 46 supported countries. Turkey is not among them, so companies based in Turkey use a merchant of record such as Paddle or Lemon Squeezy, local gateways such as iyzico or PayTR, or incorporate abroad, for example through Atlas. Adyen competes for enterprise volume, PayPal Braintree is common for marketplaces, and merchants of record trade higher fees for taking over tax compliance entirely.
Key features of Stripe
- Checkout, Payment Links and Elements for custom forms
- Billing: subscriptions, usage-based pricing, invoicing, dunning
- Connect for marketplaces and platforms with payouts
- Radar fraud prevention and 3DS
- Tax calculation and Terminal for in-person
- Webhooks, test mode, Sigma analytics and extensive SDKs
Pros and cons
Pros
- Best-in-class API and documentation
- Covers payments, billing, tax, fraud and marketplaces
- Reliable at scale with strong uptime
- Vast ecosystem and integrations
Cons
- Not available to sellers in all countries
- You own tax compliance unless you add Stripe Tax and filings
- Fees add up: Billing, Tax, Radar are each priced
- Account reviews and holds can disrupt new businesses
Stripe pricing
Stripe uses a paid model.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Payments (standard) | 2.9% + 30¢ / per card transaction | US domestic cards; +1.5% international, +1% currency conversion |
| Billing | 0.7% / of billing volume | Pay-as-you-go; excludes one-off invoices |
| Tax | 0.5% / per transaction | Tax Basic no-code; $0.50/txn via API; Tax Complete from $90/mo |
| Custom pricing | Custom | Large payment volume or unique business models |
Source: stripe.com · checked on Oct 20, 2026
How Stripe compares in Payments & billing
- Rank by votes
- #1 / 18
- Starting price
- —
- Free alternatives
- 2
0 votes from members
Category median is $39/mo
Free or open-source tools in Payments & billing
Stripe ranks #1 of 18 payments & billing tools by community votes and is not directly comparable on price.
Common use cases
- 1SaaS subscription billing with trials, proration and dunning
- 2Marketplace payouts to sellers with Connect
- 3E-commerce checkout with local payment methods
- 4Usage-based pricing for API products
Best for
Developers and companies in supported countries who want full control over payments and billing.
Not ideal for
Founders in unsupported countries or small sellers who prefer a merchant of record to avoid tax administration.
Integrations
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Zapier
- Slack
- Vercel
Our take
If Stripe is available to you, it is the default payments stack and the flexibility is worth the fees. If it is not, or you want to outsource tax, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy are the practical alternatives.
FAQ
- What is Stripe?
- Stripe is a Payments & billing tool: Payments infrastructure for the internet.
- How much does Stripe cost?
- Stripe uses a Paid model; see the vendor's pricing page for current plans.
- What are the best alternatives to Stripe?
- Community-listed alternatives to Stripe include Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Square.
- What does Stripe integrate with?
- Stripe integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, Xero, Salesforce, HubSpot and more.
- Which platforms does Stripe support?
- Stripe is available on web.
- Who is Stripe for?
- Developers and companies in supported countries who want full control over payments and billing.
Alternatives to Stripe
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