Stripe review - the default card processor for online and SaaS businesses

Stripe is the processor we set up first for almost any business charging cards online, and the reason is boring in the best way: flat per-transaction pricing, no monthly fee, and a toolkit that grows with you instead of against you. You pay per charge and nothing else until you deliberately switch on a paid add-on. For an online-first business it is the shortest path from zero to taking money.

Who it is for

SaaS, subscription products, marketplaces, and any store where the checkout lives on your own site. Subscriptions and metered billing, hosted Checkout, no-code payment links, invoicing, and Connect for paying out third parties are all first-party, not bolted on. If your revenue arrives online, Stripe is the honest default.

The real pricing math

US standard pricing is 2.9% + $0.30 per online card charge, 2.7% + $0.05 in person through Stripe Terminal, and ACH direct debit at 0.8% capped at $5 - which makes bank-debit far cheaper than cards once an invoice runs into the hundreds. No setup fee, no monthly minimum, no gateway fee. Source: Stripe pricing.

The number to actually plan around is your cross-border mix. Stripe stacks 1.5% for an international card and another 1% when a currency conversion is required, so a US business charging a European customer in euros lands near 5.4% + $0.30, not 2.9%. Disputes cost $15 each, refunded only if you win.

What they don’t tell you

The instant-payout button is the fee nobody budgets for. Standard payouts land on a rolling 2-business-day schedule for free, but tap “pay me now” and Stripe takes 1.5% (minimum $0.50) of the transfer, every time, in the US. Get in the habit of instant-cashing your balance and that skim quietly outruns any rate difference you would switch processors over. Set your default to standard and reserve instant for genuine cash crunches. Source: Stripe Instant Payouts.

The other quiet cost is the add-on stack. The optional products meter separately - Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume, Tax adds 0.5% per transaction - so an “all Stripe” setup can push your real rate toward 4% before you notice, well above the 2.9% you wrote in the budget. Add only the modules you truly need, and price each one in.

And like every large processor, Stripe can reserve or freeze funds on an account it flags as high-risk. There is no account manager and no phone line - support is tickets and docs - so if you sell in a chargeback-prone category, read the terms and keep a second rail live.

Who should skip it

Counter-first businesses. If most of your sales happen face to face, Square’s free POS is a more natural home than wiring up Terminal. And if you want a hand to hold - an account manager, a phone number, a person who onboards you - Stripe is self-serve by design and will feel cold. Buy a full-service merchant account instead.

Bottom line

For online, subscription, and platform businesses, Stripe is the honest default: no monthly fee, predictable per-charge pricing, and the deepest feature set in the category. Route large invoices over ACH, leave payouts on the free standard schedule, watch the international stacking, and add paid modules only when you need them. If your sales are mostly in person, Square fits better.