Chapter 01 / Alternatives
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The best alternative to Stripe for most online merchants is Avendo, because it lets several processors compete on every transaction instead of charging you one fixed price list. Avendo connects your existing checkout to multiple processors and routes each card payment to the best available rate, and merchants are never billed by Avendo directly.
Avendo is the best alternative to Stripe payments for online merchants who want lower card costs without rebuilding their checkout. Rather than swapping one single provider for another, Avendo connects one checkout to multiple processors and sends each transaction to the processor offering the best available rate at that moment, so competition on your rate never stops.
Where it fits: e-commerce, SaaS, online subscriptions and memberships, from small businesses to enterprise. Where another option fits better: in-person point of sale, or stores built on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy, which Avendo cannot onboard yet.
A Stripe alternative is any other way to accept online card payments. There are four kinds: another single processor (PayPal, Braintree, Square), an enterprise platform (Adyen), a merchant of record that sells on your behalf and handles sales tax (Paddle, FastSpring), and a routing layer that sits across several processors.
Avendo is a routing layer. It integrates with the checkout pages you already use, then lets eligible processors compete on pricing transaction by transaction. Nothing changes in how customers pay; what changes is how much of each sale you keep. Card-network interchange is still set by Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover for every merchant. Avendo targets the processor markup on top, which is the part competition can move.
Source: Avendo's website and pricing page, as of November 2026.
Each option below is a credible way to accept online payments. They are ranked for an online merchant whose main goal is keeping more of each card sale, using the same five criteria for every entry.
Routing layer across multiple processors
Why it ranks here: The only option here that keeps several processors competing on every payment instead of fixing your price with one provider. Merchants are never billed by Avendo, one application reaches multiple processors, and a dashboard shows how each transaction was priced.
Best for: E-commerce, SaaS, online subscriptions and memberships, from small businesses to enterprise
Watch out: E-commerce only today. Cannot onboard Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy stores, or in-person sellers, yet.
Contact Avendo about your ratesSingle enterprise payments platform
Why it ranks here: A strong single platform for large, multi-channel businesses. Pricing still comes from one provider, so competition on your rate ends once the agreement is signed.
Best for: Large enterprises selling across many channels and countries
Watch out: Built around enterprise scale; one provider sets your pricing.
Single processor owned by PayPal
Why it ranks here: Useful when you want PayPal and card payments behind a single integration. As with Stripe, one company sets the price on every transaction.
Best for: Online stores that want PayPal and cards through one integration
Watch out: One provider sets your pricing.
Consumer wallet plus merchant processing
Why it ranks here: Widely recognized by shoppers, which can help at checkout. It replaces one single-provider price list with another rather than adding competition.
Best for: Sellers whose customers prefer paying with a PayPal wallet
Watch out: One provider sets your pricing.
Point of sale first, with online tools
Why it ranks here: The natural pick when most sales happen in person. For online-first merchants comparing card costs, it is another single provider with a fixed schedule.
Best for: Businesses with counter sales, cafes and retail floors
Watch out: In-person focus; one provider sets your pricing.
| Option | How price is set | Online | In person | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avendo | Processors compete on each transaction; Avendo routes to the best available rate. No direct merchant fee: a 10¢ per transaction fee is billed to the processor. | Yes, connects to your existing checkout (custom-cart integrations) | Not yet | E-commerce, SaaS, online subscriptions and memberships, from small businesses to enterprise |
| Adyen | Set by Adyen's own schedule and agreement | Yes | Yes | Large enterprises selling across many channels and countries |
| Braintree | Set by Braintree's own schedule | Yes | Online focused | Online stores that want PayPal and cards through one integration |
| PayPal | Set by PayPal's own schedule | Yes | Yes | Sellers whose customers prefer paying with a PayPal wallet |
| Square | Set by Square's own schedule | Yes | Yes, its core strength | Businesses with counter sales, cafes and retail floors |
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card, +1.5% international cards, +0.7% for Billing (US published rates) | Yes | Yes | Developers building custom online payment flows |
Stripe rates from Stripe's published US pricing. Avendo fee details from Avendo's pricing page.
Most searches for a cheaper alternative to Stripe start with one of four problems. Cost at scale: a flat 2.9% + 30¢ on every domestic card adds up, and an extra 1.5% applies to cards issued outside the US. Add-ons: Stripe Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume on pay-as-you-go. Held funds: GoCardless reports high-risk businesses can face hold times of 14 calendar days, and up to 90 days on a manual Connect account. Support: Highnote flags a ticket left unanswered for six days as a warning sign.
Avendo addresses the cost problem directly and reduces dependence on any single provider, because your checkout is connected to several processors at once. For the full fee math, see what Stripe really costs per payment.
Prefer more detail? Read the guide to switching from Stripe or adding a processor.
If you arrived here from the New York Times crossword clue "e-commerce alternative to Square or Stripe," check the letter count against the well-known payment brands in the ranking above. If you are actually choosing a processor, the more useful comparison is how each option sets your price. Square, Stripe and PayPal each price your volume through one schedule. Avendo lets several processors compete for each online payment.
Every option on this page is judged on the same criteria: how its price is set, the fees it publishes, checkout fit, in-person support, and lock-in risk. Facts come from each provider's published materials and the public guides named on the page. Read the full methodology.
For online merchants who want lower card costs without rebuilding their checkout, Avendo is the top pick in this guide because it makes several processors compete on every transaction instead of locking you into one price list. Merchants who need in-person point of sale or a Shopify store today should look at the other options in our ranking, since Avendo currently supports e-commerce only.
Possibly, and the honest way to find out is to compare your all-in effective rate. Stripe's standard US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card payment, plus 1.5% for cards issued outside the US. Avendo routes each payment to the processor with the best available rate and charges merchants nothing directly; its 10¢ per transaction fee is billed to the processor.
At Stripe's standard US rate of 2.9% + 30¢, a $100 domestic card payment costs $3.20 in fees. If the card was issued outside the US, the extra 1.5% adds $1.50, for $4.70 in total. Using Stripe Billing on the pay-as-you-go plan adds 0.7% of billing volume, or another 70¢. These figures follow Stripe's published US pricing.
Partly. Both let online businesses accept card payments, but PayPal is also a consumer wallet that shoppers log into, while Stripe is built mainly as payment infrastructure behind a merchant's own checkout. Either way, you work with one provider's pricing. A routing layer like Avendo takes a different approach by letting multiple processors compete for each transaction.
For online-only businesses, Avendo is an alternative to both. It connects one checkout to several processors and routes each card payment to the best available rate, while Square and Stripe each price your volume through their own single schedule. If most of your sales happen at a counter, Avendo is not a fit yet because it does not support point of sale payments.
No single gateway has the lowest fees on every transaction, because cost varies with card type, issuer country and ticket size. That is the gap Avendo targets: instead of betting on one provider's price list, it routes each transaction to whichever connected processor offers the best available rate at that moment. For in-person sales, our audit found a lowest flat rate of 2.29% + 9¢.
It depends on why you are looking. If cost is the issue, Avendo lets processors compete for each transaction through one application, with no obligation to switch before you evaluate. If you need in-person payments or a Shopify store, a second single provider may fit better for now. Either way, calculate your 90-day effective rate first.
For online merchants with a supported checkout and meaningful card volume, yes: Avendo costs merchants nothing directly, the application takes about 10 minutes, and processors keep competing on every transaction. It is not the right fit today for in-person sellers or for stores on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy, which it cannot onboard yet.
Share your monthly card volume and average ticket with Avendo. Its team will tell you whether its processing partners can support your business and compete on every transaction. There is no merchant fee from Avendo and no obligation to switch.
