Stripe

Stripe processes payments for internet businesses and also handles much of what happens around them. Merchants can accept cards, bank debits such as SEPA, and wallets online through Checkout or the API. Terminal readers cover in-person payments. On top of payments, Stripe sells modular products: Invoicing for one-off and hosted invoices, Billing for subscriptions and usage-based charges (extended by the Metronome acquisition in December 2025), Tax for calculating and collecting sales tax and VAT, Radar for fraud screening, Connect for marketplaces and platforms, and Atlas for incorporating a US company. There is no monthly fee for standard payments, so you pay per transaction. NerdWallet's March 2026 review lists US online card fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents, with 4.4% plus 30 cents for international cards. Add-ons are priced separately. Invoicing costs 0.4% per paid invoice on Starter and 0.5% on Plus. Usage-based Billing costs 0.7% of billing volume. Tax Basic costs 0.5% per transaction where you are registered to collect tax. Stripe suits SaaS companies, e-commerce sellers and platforms with developers who can work with its well-documented API, and it accepts payments in more than 135 currencies. It is not a general ledger accounting system, so most businesses pair it with accounting software for bookkeeping. Its main weakness is account risk: users on Trustpilot, BBB and G2 report automated freezes, fund holds and slow email-based support.