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- PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, which one should I use for third-party payment for cross-border e-commerce cash flow?
In Taiwan, cross-border e-commerce business is definitely the biggest trouble for e-commerce website cash flow, and PayPal or Stripe and Braintree are the most commonly used third-party payment service providers in the world for cash flow integration. These cash flow services greatly simplify the payment process on the website, allowing consumers to check out by simply filling in their email, credit card number, and CVC credit card verification code.
Without hesitation, I will first give you a comparison table of the three cash flow service providers, and then explain them to each one.
Table of contents
Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal fee and service support comparison table
| Stripe | Braintree | PayPal | |
| Charges | US 2.9% + $0.3USD Hong Kong 3.4% + $2.35HKD | US 2.9% + $0.3USD Hong Kong 3.4% + $2.35HKD Multi-currency conversion will be subject to an additional 1% charge. (No transaction fee within 5 million US dollars) | US 2.9% + $0.3USD Taiwan 3.9% + $10TWD |
| Support the country (Merchants need to have a bank account in the country) | 25 countries, excluding Taiwan, but supporting Hong Kong and Singapore | 46 countries, excluding Taiwan, but supporting Hong Kong and Singapore | 202 countries, including Taiwan (Taiwan is limited to cross-border use and cannot be transferred within Taiwan) |
| Supported currencies | 139 currencies, including Taiwan dollars | 130 currencies, including Taiwan dollars | 26 currencies, including Taiwan dollars |
| Monthly fee | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Supported payment methods | Credit cards, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Alipay, American Express Checkout, Bitcoin | Credit cards, Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal, Bitcoin, venmo | It is a third-party payment method, Braintree and Stripe are integrated payment services, and PayPal also supports credit cards |
| Credit card chargeback fee （Chargeback Fee） | $15 USD | $15 USD | $10 USD |
| Refund handling fee （Refund Fee） | 0 | 0 | $0.30 USD |
| Support checkout on the e-commerce website | Yes | Yes | No Unless using PayPal Pro ($30 per month) |
| Support recurring payments （Recurring Payments） | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| credit card payment crediting time | 2-7 working days | 2-5 working days | It will be credited to your PayPal account within one day after confirming the transaction |
| Customer support | email, website (slow reply, poor reviews) | email, phone (excellent evaluation of customer service and technical support) | email, phone (slow reply, poor reviews) |
Stripe
Stripe is a startup of online cash flow integration services, focusing on simple charging methods at a glance (PayPal has a relatively complex fee structure), as well as payment methods that are simple, easy to use, and can be paid on the website (whether on the website or app) (when using PayPal to checkout, you need to jump to the PayPal page, merchants have less control). What is more special is that Stripe’s payment method supports Alipay, which can be considered for e-commerce companies doing business in China.
Stripe has partnered with well-known manufacturers including Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Shopify, Lyft, adidas, Pinterest, etc., spanning e-commerce platforms, service apps, software, and vertical e-commerce. (Stripe has also launched another popular service, Stripe Atlas, which helps foreign companies open a company, bank account, tax ID, etc. in Delaware, USA for only 500USD, Stripe helps you provide one-stop service to solve the problems that manufacturers may face, but the disadvantage is that you have to queue up to apply.) ）
The picture below shows the Stripe checkout interface that appears when paying with a mobile phone and the interface of the Stripe backend. Like Braintree, Stripe allows consumers to enter their email and credit card accounts for the first time and then fill in their information, significantly reducing the probability of consumers abandoning their shopping carts.
Stripe currently only supports 25 countries, so if you want to use it for merchants in Taiwan, you must have a Hong Kong bank account to apply, or you have read the Payoneer payment service that TransBiz wrote before to apply for Payoneer’s US credit card and bank account, you can also apply for registration, but be aware that the handling fee for remittance back to Taiwan will add up a lot.
Mark the words BETA or PRIVATE BETA next to the country, indicating that the functions are relatively limited and still in the testing stage.
Braintree
Braintree is a company that provides integrated payment for website and mobile devices, and PayPal acquired Braintree in 2013, so Braintree has deep integration with PayPal for seamless support, if you have a PayPal Business Account, you can directly use this account to log in to Braintree. Similar to Stripe, Braintree allows merchants to checkout on the site without having to jump to the payment provider’s page, and currently supports 46 countries around the world, with five countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Hong Kong, but still does not include Taiwan. For details, please refer to the Braintree application website.
The following picture is a customizable interface for the mobile version of Braintree, which can support credit cards, PayPal payments, or venmo, a popular payment method among young people in the United States.
Braintree also cooperates with many well-known manufacturers, such as UBER, Airbnb, GitHub, Skyscanner, etc., and also provides convenient and simple payment services such as e-commerce platforms, websites, and software application apps.
PayPal
As an established third-party transaction payment platform, PayPal supports the largest number of countries, also supports Taiwan and has a Chinese version of the website, and at the same time cooperates with E.SUN Bank to withdraw funds, which should be the easiest for Taiwanese merchants to register and apply for and use for cross-border e-commerce, the problem is that PayPal’s handling fees are significantly higher than other manufacturers, and there are various complex additional fees; In addition, due to regulatory restrictions, Taiwanese manufacturers cannot use PayPal for transactions in Taiwan, but can only use PayPal for cross-border transactions.
For Taiwanese manufacturers, it is indeed more difficult to collect payments on their own e-commerce websites without overseas branches or accounts such as Hong Kong or the United States, because most overseas cash flow services will not support Taiwan, and the above-mentioned mainstream Stripe and Braintree are the same. It will be easier to apply for the cash flow integration service providers introduced in this article (in fact, except for PayPal, these cash flow payment providers have just arrived in Asia, and there are not many merchants who have actually applied for issuance, at least there are very few online sharing).
Assuming that your account application can be approved, which manufacturer should you choose?
Stripe is currently very popular with online merchants in the United States because of its minimalist design, easy operation (whether it is a website or mobile device), and easy to connect, because it also supports Alipay payment, which is very attractive to merchants doing business in China. Braintree is known for its high-quality customer service and technical support, with high reliability, compared to PayPal and Stripe’s customer service, which have encountered a large number of negative reviews on the Internet (such as terminating accounts for no reason but having no way to ask for help), Braintree’s evaluation is actually relatively high.