Braintree vs Stripe: Which is Better for UK Businesses?

If you’re looking for a payment platform for your UK business you may have heard of Braintree¹ - a PayPal company, and Stripe² - a global giant among PSPs. But what’s the actual difference between Braintree vs Stripe, and which is better for a UK company?

This guide walks through all information you need to compare the two options and research which may be better for you. We’ll also touch on how Wise Business can help you receive international payments from Stripe with the mid-market exchange rate and low, transparent fees every time.

💡Learn more about Wise Business

Braintree vs Stripe - Comparison overview

So what really is the difference between Stripe vs Braintree? Here’s a quick overview of feature availability as a starting point - we’ll look at each provider more carefully in a moment, including Stripe payment fees and Braintree pricing, features, target market and more.

Service	Braintree	Stripe
Pricing	Pay as you go, or custom subscription	Pay as you go, or negotiated subscription
Trustpilot rating	Braintree has not claimed a Trustpilot page	2.7 out of 5 ⭐
Invoice payments	✅	✅
Recurring payments	✅ - with API	✅
International payments	✅	✅
API integrations	✅	✅
Checkout solution	✅	✅
Payment links	Depends on package - can be created using API	✅
In-person payments	❌	✅

Braintree review

Braintree is a payment platform, powered by PayPal. Braintree specialises in online and mobile payments, with easy ways to accept customer payments through integrations and using the Braintree API.

The company has some more complex services to suit enterprise level customers, but small businesses with limited technological expertise should still find the basic Braintree solutions pretty accessible.

If you have the technical knowhow to create a custom made solution for your business, or want to get additional support from Braintree to custom make a package for your business needs, that’s also an option.

It’s worth noting that Braintree is aimed at online businesses rather than companies taking payments in person - and the fees for international transactions can end up being pretty steep when you add in extra currency conversion charges, more on that later.

Some of the features you can get with Braintree include:

• Global reach - get paid in multiple currencies
• Accept many popular payment methods including cards and mobile wallets
• Web and mobile optimised
• Seamless integration with drop in UI or custom built options
• Basic and advanced fraud detection and prevention tools depending on what your business needs
• Recurring billing options
• Third party integrations and reporting solutions

Braintree marketplace

You may be interested to learn that Braintree also has a marketplace option³ which lets Braintree merchants onboard sub merchants. Customers can then buy from any sub merchant under a single marketplace umbrella, with the key merchant setting their own transaction fees for sub merchants.

At the time of writing this option is only available if all merchants and sub merchants are US based - but if you’re interested in this model for your UK business you may want to keep an eye out for when it rolls out in the UK too.

Braintree pricing

The Braintree pricing model is pay as you go with no ongoing subscription fee unless you negotiate one as part of a custom made package. Standard fees include a charge for taking a card payment with extra costs if you’re receiving payments from overseas. Here are the most important Braintree fees to know about:

Transaction type	Braintree fees4
Local payments	1.9% + £0.20 for most UK cards 2.4% + £0.20 for American Express cards
International payments	2.9% + £0.20 for most card networks 3.4% + £0.20 for American Express cards 1.5% - 3% fee for payments settled in a foreign currency
Refund	Processing fees are not refunded
Chargeback	£20

Stripe payment reviews

Differently from Braintree, Stripe UK has payment options for businesses operating in person or online. You can add Stripe to your online or mobile store, or use your smartphone or a Stripe POS terminal to take in person payments.

Stripe has options which don’t require any coding knowledge, an easy option for smaller businesses looking to hit the ground running - as well as more complex tailor made solutions for larger and established companies.

Some of the Stripe payment features include:

• Ways to get paid from 47 countries, using 50+ payment methods and 135 currencies
• Stripe payment terminals for in-person card payments
• Tools to accept payments with a smartphone
• Reusable payment links for customer transactions
• Invoicing and billing tools
• Different subscriptions and payment methods including pay per usage
• Prebuilt and optimised checkout for online card payments
• Platform payments and finance automation for enterprise customers

You’ll find Stripe reviews on Trustpilot are a pretty mixed bag. Overall, Stripe scores a poor 2.7 star rating out of 5⁵. However that’s because while 47% of the reviews are 5 stars, 42% of reviewers only give Stripe 1 star, leading to the low overall rating.

If you’re considering Stripe it’s worth looking through the Trustpilot review comments to see if any of the common themes - positive or negative - resonate with you or the types of transactions you need to make.

Learn more about Stripe in this full Stripe Payments UK review

Is Stripe payments safe?

Yes. Stripe Payments is considered safe to use in the UK

It’s a level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)⁶ provider and handles 250 million or more API requests a day, with a historical uptime of over 99.999%.

Stripe security measures include⁷:

• Annual onsite audits and additional quarterly checks
• Processes to spot and correct any vulnerabilities
• Industry level security to prevent malware and viruses

Learn more in our full guide: Is Stripe legit and safe to use in the UK?

Stripe payment fees

With Stripe you’ve got a couple of options when it comes to fees. You can get a pay as you go model which is low commitment and has no ongoing charges - or you can negotiate a subscription if you’d rather pay a monthly fee to access more services or support.

Negotiated subscriptions are tailored to the business needs - here we’ve set out the standard fees for a pay as you go customer, to give a flavour. Get a complete Stripe payment fee review here.

Service	Stripe UK fee8
Accept payments from local credit or debit cards	1.5% + £0.20 for standard UK cards 1.9% + £0.20 for premium UK cards
Accept payments from international credit or debit cards	2.5% + £0.20 for cards issued in the EEA 3.25% + £0.20 for cards issued anywhere else 2% fee applies if currency conversion is needed
Accept payments with link (Stripe one click checkout)	1.2% + £0.20 for UK cards International card fees apply for cards issued elsewhere
Settle and pay out in additional currencies	1%
Refund	Processing fees are not refunded - other charges may also apply depending on payment type
Chargebacks (disputes)	£20 per dispute
Recurring billing	0.5% value of bill paid
Invoicing	0.4% value of paid invoice
Instant pay out from Stripe	1% (standard payout is free, but takes longer)

Braintree vs Stripe fees - Head to head comparison

Let’s finish up with a head to head comparison of Braintree vs Stripe fees as a reminder and to help you assess if either is the right fit for your business.

Transaction type	Stripe fee	Braintree fee
Local payments	1.5% + £0.20 for standard UK cards 1.9% + £0.20 for premium UK cards	1.9% + £0.20 for most UK cards 2.4% + £0.20 for American Express
International payments	2.5% + £0.20 for cards issued in the EEA 3.25% + £0.20 for cards issued anywhere else 2% fee applies if currency conversion is needed	2.9% + £0.20 for most card networks 3.4% + £0.20 for American Express 1.5% - 3% fee for payments settled in a foreign currency
Refund	Variable - Processing fees are not refunded	Processing fees are not refunded
Chargeback	£20	£20

Manage your international business with Wise

If you’re taking payments internationally with PSPs like Stripe, you could boost your profits and pay less in currency conversion fees with Wise Business.

UK business owners or directors can open a Wise Business account online or in the Wise app, to receive money from overseas with local bank details in 8 major currencies apart from GBP.

Once you have a balance you can convert to GBP - or any other currency you need - with the mid-market rate and low and transparent fees from 0.43%⁹.

Or, just leave the money in its original currency, and use it to settle business payments abroad later. That means you’re not forced to convert funds unnecessarily between currencies, making doing business across borders smoother and cheaper, and saving you money, too.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

Both Braintree and Stripe have great features which make them well suited to different UK business types. However, which is right for you will depend on how you do business and the type of transactions you make frequently. Do some research to choose which will give your business a boost - and don’t forget to take a look at Wise Business also, as a perfect partner for any UK company with international customers, clients or suppliers.

Sources used in this article:

1. Stripe
2. Braintree
3. Braintree marketplace - overview
4. Braintree pricing
5. Trustpilot - Stripe
6. Stripe PCI compliance
7. Stripe security
8. Stripe pricing
9. Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information

Sources last checked January 15, 2024