One may be tempted to think lower fees are better, but Stripe succeeds in offering an integrated solution, where convenience and simplicity outweigh price.
SaaS owner here (solo founder). I have been calculating this manually on a regular basis, as I've been wondering if it makes sense to migrate from Braintree to Stripe and what the cost difference would be. I finally moved, in spite of Stripe being slightly more expensive (but it's nearly a wash in my mix of currencies/accounts), mostly because of Braintree's catastrophically bad handling of 3D Secure (mandatory in the EU) and abysmally bad support.
However, people often say that Stripe's integrated solution outweighs the price (see other comments here). I disagree here. Sure, if you're just building an MVP, you want things to be up and running as quickly as possible, and you don't much care about processing fees. However, in the long term, if you run a sustainable SaaS over many years, these small amounts add up quickly. So, as an example, I do not use Stripe billing; I have my own subscription system. Because I looked at the amount I would be spending with them yearly, and realized that I prefer to have my own, building my own also gives me more control and flexibility. And independence, which matters quite a bit.
> However, in the long term, if you run a sustainable SaaS over many years, these small amounts add up quickly. So, as an example, I do not use Stripe billing; I have my own subscription system. Because I looked at the amount I would be spending with them yearly, and realized that I prefer to have my own, building my own also gives me more control and flexibility. And independence, which matters quite a bit.
Not only does the amount build up, but I guess there's some kind of vendor lock-in? 1% extra is far too much for this, but that's the strategy for Stripe Billing since that's not much different from using PayPal end-to-end.
Yes, there definitely is vendor lock-in. I've been watching Stripe billing fees being raised slowly over the years, and thinking about exactly this. It is very difficult to migrate to a different subscription system.
Adyen’s pricing model looks much more attractive on paper, but the integration complexity and minimum processing volumes usually keep early-stage startups on Stripe or Braintree despite the higher percentage fees.
Braintree has been sitting idle for years. It seems PayPal bought it and forgot about it. Everything works but nothing new is being added. It's fine for cards and PayPal, but if you need anything more complex, it's not even an option.
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However, people often say that Stripe's integrated solution outweighs the price (see other comments here). I disagree here. Sure, if you're just building an MVP, you want things to be up and running as quickly as possible, and you don't much care about processing fees. However, in the long term, if you run a sustainable SaaS over many years, these small amounts add up quickly. So, as an example, I do not use Stripe billing; I have my own subscription system. Because I looked at the amount I would be spending with them yearly, and realized that I prefer to have my own, building my own also gives me more control and flexibility. And independence, which matters quite a bit.
Not only does the amount build up, but I guess there's some kind of vendor lock-in? 1% extra is far too much for this, but that's the strategy for Stripe Billing since that's not much different from using PayPal end-to-end.
Some of the pricing tables are public, like Visa US's:
https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/support-legal/d...