PayPal has two main pricing tiers for online card acceptance: PayPal Standard at 2.99% + $0.49 and PayPal Checkout (the branded button) at 3.49% + $0.49. The difference matters for SaaS and subscription businesses where the fixed $0.49 fee erodes margin on smaller transactions.
When does PayPal make sense?
PayPal's main advantage is buyer trust — shoppers who see the PayPal button often complete purchases they'd otherwise abandon, especially at checkout. A Baymard Institute study found PayPal reduces guest checkout abandonment by up to 14% versus form-only checkout.
If your average order value is above $30 and you're in direct-to-consumer e-commerce, the conversion uplift can more than offset the higher fee rate compared with Stripe.
How PayPal fees compare on a $100 payment
| Processor | Fee | You receive |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| PayPal Standard | $3.48 | $96.52 |
| PayPal Checkout | $3.98 | $96.02 |
On $100 Stripe saves $0.28–$0.78 per transaction. At 1,000 transactions/month that's $280–$780/month — which compounds quickly at scale.
PayPal and subscriptions
PayPal Billing Agreements allow recurring charges without requiring the customer to approve each payment. However, subscription management (prorations, upgrades, dunning) is more limited than Stripe Billing. For pure SaaS, Stripe's developer tooling and webhook reliability are generally preferred.
PayPal's cross-border advantage
PayPal has local acquiring in 40+ countries and handles multi-currency settlement natively. If a significant portion of your customers are international, PayPal's conversion rates can be competitive with Stripe's international card fees (+1.5% for non-US cards).
Use the Payment Fee Comparison to plug in your average transaction amount and see the exact dollar difference for your situation.