Stripe have just (Jan 2016) lowered their standard fees and it’s caused me to go re look their pricing structure compared to my old favourite PayPal! I’d just like to clarify a few things here for people and list some sample amounts and fees as well as provide a downloadable example Microsoft Excel formula/spreadsheet.
STRIPE
The Stripe pricing structure for Ireland (Euros) per transaction is as follows:
*1.4% + 25 cents + VAT @23%
There are no other fees at all, ie – setup, monthly, validation, refund, failed transactions, etc.. Custom/personalised pricing structures are available for high volume clients.
Here’s some sample amounts (Price paid – Money in Bank – Stripe Fee):
- €1 – €0.68 – 32c
- €10 – €9.52 – 48c
- €50 – €48.83 – €1.17
- €100 – €97.97 – €2.03
- €250 – €245.39 – €4.61
- €500 – €491.08 – €8.92
- €750 – €736.78 – €13.22
- €1,000 – €982.47 – €17.53
- €10,000 – €9,827.49 – €172.51
It takes 7 – 9 days for the money to appear in your bank after the transaction and the process is automated.
PAYPAL
The PayPal pricing structure for Ireland (Euros) at the ‘Standard Rate’ per transaction is as follows:
*3.4% + 35 cents (Note that PayPal don’t charge VAT unless you tell it to or are VAT registered.)
Like Stripe, there are no other setup, monthly fees etc.. Fees are lower the more monthly income you have. The first threshold is €2,500.
Some sample amounts (Price paid – Money in Bank – PayPal Fee):
- €1 – €0.62 – 38c
- €10 – €9.31 – 69c
- €50 – €47.95 – €2.05
- €100 – €96.25 – €3.75
- €250 – €241.15 – €8.85
- €500 – €482.65 – €17.35
- €750 – €724.15 – €25.85
- €1,000 – €965.65 – €34.35
- €10,000 – €9,659.65 – €340.35
You have to manually transfer money from your PayPal account to your bank but it takes about 1 – 2 days currently for the money to arrive (Bank of Ireland).
Conclusion
Even allowing for PayPal’s no VAT, Stripe is significantly cheaper to use for the average/standard Irish/European user, especially for larger single transaction totals however PayPal is a bigger, more well known brand (for now!) and lots of people have accounts so maybe the best thing to do is give clients the option of how to pay you?
Here’s my Excel spreadsheet I took the above figures from if you want to download it and plug in your own payment amounts. The formulas are all there:
Download Sample Spreadsheet here (.XLS)
*Fees based on standard, low volume transactions. Fee structure may vary.
Leon
Reverb Studios Design 
I first heard of Stripe just last week and have already implemented it on one of my sites. I love it! Apart from the fact that it’s cheaper than PP, it integrates much nicer – no Stripe branding everywhere, no hounding into registration. This has already resulted in less abandoned carts. Very easy to set up and get verified too.
It should be noted that the figures above are based on a single transaction. For example, for €1000 – you get €970.18 but if that €1000 were made up of say, 30 transactions of €33.33, then you would get €961.50. Not a huge difference granted but worth mentioning.
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Hi Leon,
Thank you for the update.
regards
Jim
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Hi Guys, have you any update on stripe vs paypal after 10 months?
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Nothing has really changed Jim but Stripe told me last week that “faster bank transfers are in the works”. I continue to offer a choice and I’d guess slightly more people are paying via Stripe than Paypal..
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Hi Leon,
Thank you for that update. Good you had no major problems to report. i have to look at my hosting now. I’m currently on shared hosting with 1 ssl cert and isp said i need to move to a virtual server if i need more ssl certs for my sites. with PayPal i don’t need each site to have ssl cert.
Regards
Jim
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Ask your host if their Cpanel version supports SNI which means you can get SSL certs independent of a single IP address. I have multiple SSL certs on my shared hosting with it.
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Leon, thank you for that Tip on SNI, Hopefully that will work, i think a managing a virtual server is above my pay grade! (Sorry for the double post above i am new to Disqus.)
Best regards
Jim
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Hi Leon, I made a quick calculation tool that might help, see http://www.blackdog.ie/stripe/
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Seen that while I was writing this ta. I must comment on yours 😉
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no problem ! Also be aware that getting $ on Paypal that they generally give a very back exchange rate. Recently I’ve seen transfers out done under 36 hours, which is amazing.
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I was talking to stripe about their 7 day waiting and they said they were working on it. Love stripe..
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