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Online Payment Platforms: Which is the Best For You?
If you’re one of the 2 billion people who use online payment platforms on a yearly basis, then welcome to the club. Using apps like PayPal or Stripe is a growing trend across the entire world, and year after year, more people are signing up. These days, many people find them more convenient to use and in some parts of the world, younger people are eschewing cash and credit cards and instead relying on payment apps.
It’s been abundantly clear these apps are here to stay, and that leads to an important question: which one is best for you? The largest four online payment platforms as of 2023 are PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay and Shopify Payments. It will be those four that we will focus on, comparing their pros and cons to find the best for any type of customer.
PayPal is by far the biggest payment service online, and one of the oldest. It’s a household name now and for a long time it may have seemed like PayPal was the only one of its kind. While that’s no longer the case, Paypal still manages roughly 40% of online payments.
PayPal allows account holders to make payments for online purchases through a PayPal account, credit or debit card. Users who have PayPal accounts can also send and request money between each other.
PayPal presents itself as a versatile site useful for most kinds of users, but you should know the pros and cons before signing on.
Paypal’s greatest strength is its share of the market. However, its transaction fees are higher than other similar services, and they have been known to suspend accounts without warning. This has been a more frequent occurrence, often closing accounts without explanation, and complaints and reports to the BBB have increased.
Founded in 2010, Stripe is an Irish-American online payment service that has quickly climbed up to the second largest payment service behind only PayPal.
The service offers more customization for payments, and generally presents itself as more flexible than other options. It processes funds via credit card or bank and transfers those funds to the sellers account.
Stripe is more geared toward online businesses, but you should still weigh its features and shortcomings before signing up.
Stripe is more specialized than some other payment centers, which is its greatest strength and main drawback for anyone looking to create an account. In short, Stripe is better utilized by small businesses and large corporations that do most or all their business through online transactions or do business across the world.
While not as expensive as PayPal, their rates are still high and they offer little options for people that do business in-person.
Deciding that being the largest online store in the world wasn’t quite enough, Amazon launched its own online payment system, Amazon Pay, back in 2007. Working through an established Amazon account, it allows users to make payments on third party websites and apps.
It has over 300 million accounts, and that number has been growing, with accessibility in over 175 countries.
How one feels about Amazon Pay will have a lot to do with how one feels about Amazon in general, but it has proven a reliable app for millions of users.
Overall, Amazon Pay is geared toward buyers and consumers more than people doing online business. Still, if you’re a small business owner or freelancer that already does a lot of business on Amazon, this could be a very convenient tool to use. Otherwise, if you don’t already use Amazon, there can be a lot more paperwork involved than other payment options.
Much like Amazon Pay, Shopify Payments is integrated with its parent company Shopify. As a payment system, it boasts quick payouts for those that have set up online stores and integration with other systems.
For the uninitiated, Shopify is a platform for small businesses and freelancers to create their own online stores, and introduced Shopify Pay in 2006.
Those that already use Shopify will naturally get the most out of Shopify Payments, but for the savvy shopper or small business owner, it could be to your advantage to start an account.
Much like Amazon Pay, how much you get out of Shopify Payments depends entirely on how much you use Shopify. As it is tied to a subscription plan that can be quite hefty, the standard subscription being $29 a month, this is not the system to use if you are a casual shopper or starting out in a small commercial venture. If your business is already established however, it could be to your benefit.
As commerce gets more entrenched in online spaces, more systems will pop up with new innovations. Other systems that might suit customers include:
William Fewox has worked as a freelance writer since 2017, and his work is featured in literary magazines such as The Aquarian, The Navigator and The Historian. He has also self-published a handful of novels. He has worked as a Social Studies teacher and research assistant in local Florida museums and more recently has worked as an editor for a start-up publishing company. William holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Jacksonville University.
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