Chapter 08 / FAQ
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This FAQ answers the questions online merchants ask most before leaving Stripe, from fees to switching, with Avendo's multi-processor routing explained alongside the main alternatives.
The most common question is which alternative costs less. The short answer: compare your all-in effective rate, then look at options that keep processors competing for your business. Avendo leads this guide for online merchants because it routes every payment to the best available rate and bills merchants nothing directly.
An alternative to Stripe is any other way to accept online card payments: another processor, a gateway, a merchant of record, or a routing layer that sits across several processors. Avendo is the routing kind. It connects your existing checkout to multiple processors and sends each transaction to the one offering the best available rate at that moment.
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.
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.
No. Square is best known for in-person point of sale hardware and software, while Stripe is best known for online payments and developer tools. Both are single providers that set their own pricing. Avendo does not currently support Square stores or in-person payments, so it fits online merchants with a custom checkout rather than counter sales.
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.
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.
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¢.
Fees stack in layers. Card networks such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover set interchange and assessment fees, and your processor adds its own markup on top. Add-ons like international card surcharges or billing tools raise the total further. With one processor, that markup usually stays fixed until you renegotiate, which is why Avendo keeps processors competing on every transaction.
Most online small businesses pay a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction; Stripe's published US rate, for example, is 2.9% + 30¢. Your real cost is the effective rate: total fees divided by card sales. We recommend calculating it on your last 90 days of actual processing volume, including every add-on fee, before you compare any alternative.
No. Avendo never sends merchants an invoice, bill or direct charge. It earns a services fee of 10¢ per transaction that is billed to the payment processor. Merchants still pay the processor's rate, which includes interchange and assessments set by Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, but Avendo's routing is built to find the best available processor rate on each transaction.
No processor sets interchange. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover do, and those rates apply to all merchants. What differs between processors is the markup and fees they add on top. That is the part competition can affect, which is why Avendo routes each transaction to the processor offering the best available rate rather than trying to change interchange itself.
Stripe Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume on the pay-as-you-go plan, on top of standard card fees. Our analysis worked out about $2.04 in card fees per payment on a $59.99 annual plan, or $2.46 with Billing. Include add-ons like this when you calculate an effective rate.
Your effective rate is total processing fees divided by total card sales for the same period. If you paid $310 in fees on $10,000 of sales, your effective rate is 3.1%. It captures every add-on fee that a headline rate hides, so it is the fairest number for comparing Stripe with any other processor or with a routing service like Avendo.
Avendo connects your existing checkout to multiple payment processors. When a customer pays, its technology identifies the processor offering the best available rate at that moment and routes the transaction there. The next transaction is evaluated again. Nothing changes in how customers pay; what changes is how much of each sale your business keeps.
Generally no. Avendo integrates with the checkout pages you may already use and currently supports custom-cart integrations. Platforms such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento may require a compatibility review. Shopify and Wix are on a waitlist, and Avendo cannot onboard stores built on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy today.
Processor-agnostic routing means your checkout is not tied to one processor. A routing layer sits between your store and several processors and decides where each payment goes. Avendo applies this to cost: it sends each transaction to the processor offering the best available rate, helping merchants avoid long-term lock-in to a single provider's pricing.
The Avendo dashboard gives merchants one place to see all of their transaction data and reports across the processors that handle their payments. It is designed to show how processors price your transactions and where each cost comes from, in plain language, so you always understand what you are paying for.
Safety depends on a gateway's security standards rather than its brand. Look for PCI DSS compliance, the card industry's data security standard maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council, along with tokenization and fraud controls. Avendo gives merchants access to PCI DSS-compliant processors and gateways, and its compliance framework was built around PCI DSS and privacy laws including the CPRA and GDPR.
Tokenization replaces sensitive card data with a secure digital token, so the real card number is not stored in your systems. It matters even more when you work with several processors, because card data has to be handled safely across all of them. Avendo describes simplifying token management across multiple processors as part of its platform.
Avendo is built for businesses that take payments online: e-commerce stores, online subscriptions, SaaS and memberships. Its pages also name online coaching, digital businesses and recurring-service businesses. It serves merchants from small businesses to enterprise organizations, and it suits sellers with meaningful card-not-present volume who want processors competing on price.
For a small business selling online through its own checkout, Avendo is our top pick: it costs the merchant nothing directly, the application takes about 10 minutes, and several processors compete on each transaction. Small businesses that sell mainly in person, or run on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy, need a different provider for now.
Yes. Avendo serves online merchants from small businesses to enterprise organizations. Larger volumes stand to gain the most from transaction-level competition, because a small rate difference compounds across many payments. Avendo also speaks directly to CFOs, controllers and private equity professionals reviewing the payment economics of card-not-present businesses.
Not yet. Avendo currently supports e-commerce transactions only and cannot onboard card-present or point of sale businesses today, though it says it is working toward supporting them. Until then, merchants with counter sales usually keep a separate in-person provider and can use Avendo for online card payments if their checkout is supported.
Yes. Online subscriptions and memberships are among the first business types Avendo lists. Recurring payments repeat the same fee every billing cycle, so competition on each renewal adds up over time. Compare that with Stripe, where Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume on the pay-as-you-go plan on top of standard card fees.
Stripe offers hosted tools, such as payment links, that work without your own website; check Stripe's documentation for current options. Avendo is different: it works with an existing online checkout and currently supports custom-cart integrations, so it fits merchants who already run their own store or app rather than sellers without a website.
Commonly compared online options include Stripe, PayPal, Square, Adyen and Braintree. Our ranking of Stripe alternatives puts Avendo first for online merchants because it routes each payment across multiple processors instead of being one more single provider, followed by Adyen, Braintree, PayPal and Square, each with its own best-fit use.
Stripe is one of the largest. Our audit cites U.S.-focused datasets showing Stripe with approximately 45% of the domestic market, and reports that 70.2% of Stripe's business is concentrated in North America. Being widely used does not make it the cheapest option on every transaction, which is why comparing effective rates matters.
Stripe is most often compared with PayPal, Square, Adyen and Braintree, each strong in a different area: PayPal for its consumer wallet, Square for in-person sales, Adyen for large enterprises, and Braintree for PayPal-connected online checkout. Avendo competes differently, by letting multiple processors compete for each transaction instead of replacing Stripe with another single provider.
If you want to stop depending on any single provider's pricing, Avendo is an alternative to both. One application connects your online checkout to several processors that compete on every transaction, and it suits e-commerce, SaaS, subscription and membership merchants. Whether shoppers can also pay with a PayPal wallet is a separate checkout decision.
The easiest gateway is the one that fits your existing setup. Avendo is designed so nothing changes in how you accept payments: you apply once, in about 10 minutes by Avendo's estimate, and processors that approve your account compete for your transactions. For a brand-new store with no checkout yet, an all-in-one provider like Stripe or PayPal is a simple place to start.
By market share, Stripe is a leader in online processing, with up to 29% of the global online payment processing market per our audit. For a merchant, the more useful question is which option keeps the most of each sale, and that is where Avendo's per-transaction competition comes in.
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.
Have five things ready: your SSN, EIN or ITIN; a voided check or bank letter showing your account and routing numbers; three months of processing statements, or three months of bank statements if you have none; your business address and contact details; and a government-issued ID such as a driver's license or passport. Avendo estimates about 10 minutes to complete.
The application takes about 10 minutes. After you submit it, Avendo sends it to eligible processors for review, so you apply once instead of separately with each one. Once processors approve your account, you start processing through Avendo. Approval timing depends on the processors, so ask Avendo for current timelines.
No. There is no obligation to switch before you evaluate the opportunity. One application starts the review by participating processors, and you learn whether they can support your business before you change anything. Contacting Avendo is the simplest way to ask what your business could save.
Contact Avendo through its contact page and share your monthly card volume, average ticket and recent statements. Avendo will tell you whether its processing partners can support your business and compete on your transactions. Its website also offers free fee, profit and chargeback calculators that need no sign-up and no statement upload.
Avendo accepts applications from e-commerce businesses through its website. An earlier Avendo registration page described the service as not yet live while still taking applications, so ask Avendo directly about current availability for your business type and checkout platform before you plan a migration.
Held funds disrupt cash flow. Our audit reports that high-risk businesses on Stripe can face hold times of 14 calendar days, and in some cases up to 90 days for those using a manual Connect account. Spreading payments across more than one processor reduces dependence on any single provider's decisions about your account.
Slow support is a common reason merchants start comparing processors; our guide uses a support ticket left unanswered for six days as an example of a warning sign. Avendo gives merchants one team to contact about onboarding, their account, and how Avendo fits the setup they already have.
Often, yes. Stripe adds 1.5% for cards issued outside the US on top of its 2.9% + 30¢ domestic rate. We suggest checking which countries generate more than 5% of your revenue before choosing a provider. With routing, each payment can go to whichever connected processor offers the best available rate for that transaction.
Switching any processor takes work: stored card tokens, subscriptions and integrations have to move, which is why some merchants add a provider rather than replace one. Avendo softens the all-or-nothing choice by connecting your checkout to several processors at once, and it states there is no obligation to switch before you evaluate.
More than the fee. A chargeback happens when a cardholder disputes a payment with their bank, which temporarily reverses the funds while the dispute is reviewed. The true cost can include the lost sale, the goods, shipping and staff time. Avendo offers a free chargeback true-cost calculator on its website to add these up.
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.
Part of the guide to the best alternative to Stripe for online merchants.
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.
