Stripe Connect Alternatives: Top Competitors and Options

These days, there are plenty of viable Stripe Connect alternatives for your business, especially as the eCommerce space has grown. With estimates suggesting that annual domestic eCommerce sales now exceed upwards of $380 billion, it’s no wonder that new sales platforms, such as Stripe Connect, are taking off in various niches.^[1]EMarketer.”How marketplaces from Amazon, eBay, and Walmart compare.” Accessed December 5, 2024. To understand Stripe Connect, however, it’s essential to first understand how it is different than Stripe itself.

Stripe Connect is a payment processing platform designed for online marketplaces and businesses that need to offer embedded payment options. It enables businesses to facilitate payments, manage payouts, and onboard multiple users or sellers at once. Leveraging its Payfac (payment facilitator), it automates money transfers between buyers and sellers, thus removing the burden on merchants to develop custom payment tools. On the other hand, Stripe is a general PSP (payment service provider) for individual businesses to accept payments directly from their customers.

Of course, Stripe Connect is but one of many marketplace payment products. Plenty of viable alternatives to Stripe Connect exist for merchants to explore in-depth. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into Stripe Connect, consider whether or not it’s the right option for you, and unpack some of the alternative platforms that might be a better fit. Let’s get started!

What is Stripe Connect?

Stripe Connect is a Payfac-as-a-service resource that enables payments on marketplaces and platforms. While conventional payments often involve a direct transfer between a customer and a merchant, marketplace transactions involve a third party seller. The marketplace receives a commission for hosting and overseeing payments, even if the primary engine of the transaction is still between the buyer and the seller.

With Stripe Connect, merchants can bypass the creation of in-house payment tools by facilitating these marketplace transactions. While many think of Stripe Connect exclusively as a payment platform, the truth is that it serves various other valuable functions. Through Stripe Connect, you can onboard new buyers and sellers, set up payments, create reports, confirm a buyer or a seller’s identity, collect taxes, and ensure the acceptance of assorted payment methods. In other words, Stripe Connect is a one-stop shop for marketplace finance.

Let’s unpack Stripe Connect’s features in greater detail:

If you’re still reading this and wondering what the main difference is between Stripe and Stripe Connect, allow us to answer your question. Stripe is a financial services company that provides a wide range of payment processing services to its customer base. Stripe Connect is simply Stripe’s proprietary marketplace and platform payment solution.

Account types

Three kinds of Stripe Connect accounts exist: Standard, Express, and Custom. Let’s explore these options in more detail:

Why Explore Stripe Connect Alternative Options

With Stripe Connect offering its user base such an abundance of valuable features, you may be asking yourself: Why bother with alternatives?

It’s a valid question and one worth considering in detail. When debating what payment processing platform will best suit your needs, it’s critical to compare and contrast between prominent providers. Determining the most suitable partner for your professional needs will depend on several factors. These include payment volume, payment type, and the industry you occupy.

Below, we’ll go into why a Stripe Connect alternative might be just what you’ve been looking for:

No high-risk compatibility

Stripe is renowned for its convenient application and onboarding process. However, as a platform, it is stringent about the industry partners it chooses to work with. Merchants in the gambling, marijuana, telemedicine, or any industry labeled “high-risk” have been restricted from using Stripe’s platforms. Merchants should familiarize themselves with a list of sectors that are not permitted to use Stripe Connect’s services.

Pricing

Though a convenient marketplace tool, Stripe Connect is still renowned for its costly processing fees. Their pricing is as follows:

Features

While Stripe Connect offers plenty of features to its users, it may or may not be what your marketplace requires. Let’s explore some features the platform lacks:

Technical experience required

While setting up Standard accounts on Stripe Connect is relatively simple, the Express and Custom account options require a degree of technical experience. As platforms using Express and Custom control more of the payment stack, they must have developers capable of integrating and customizing Stripe Connect within their platform.

Stripe Connect Alternatives

Now that you understand why you may want to use an alternative to Stripe Connect, it’s time to explore which options you have at your disposal:

Stax Connect

Stax Connect is another all-in-one marketplace payment system that enables SaaS and ISVs to accept payments on their own platforms.

Although Stripe Connect and Stax Connect may sound similar, there are stark differences between the two. With Stripe Connect, much of the development work (onboarding, fraud prevention, chargebacks, and customer support) falls onto the software/SaaS platform owners. In contrast, Stax Connect promises that no custom engineering resource requirements are needed. Stax also boasts better customer support for merchants throughout the implementation process from beginning to end. In fact, Stax provides merchants with a team of adoption experts to guide them through the payment processing pipeline—from implementation to go-to-market campaigns to 24/7 customer support. Stax Connect also claims to be more cost-effective than Stripe Connect because it has no tiered payment options and more generous revenue-sharing

BlueSnap

Like Stripe Connect, BlueSnap allows merchants to accept payments in multiple currencies and countries. However, BlueSnap has a broader reach. Stripe Connect can accept payments in 180+ countries in 130+ currencies. BlueSnap, on the other hand, accepts payments in over 200 geographies with 100+ payment types in 100+ currencies. It also offers local card acquisition in 47 countries. While both have a clear international presence, if your business has numerous customers from across the globe, BlueSnap may be worth exploring.

Also, BlueSnap offers the option of using its embedded payments solutions, BlueSnap Dash and BlueSnap Relay.^[2]BlueSnap.”Embedded Payments.” Accessed December 5, 2024. BlueSnap Dash allows your merchants to have a more direct relationship with the BlueSnap team, offering additional support and spearheading document collection during the onboarding stage. BlueSnap Relay is their white-label solution, which makes BlueSnap invisible to the merchant. Any information or data received from your merchants will then be in your control to pass it off to the BlueSnap team. Whether you want more support or less, BlueSnap gives your business the power of choice.

Amaryllis

Stripe Connect and Amaryllis share several key features but also have differences. Both platforms offer a streamlined merchant onboarding experience, risk management tools, and split fees functionality. However, unlike Stripe Connect, Amaryllis does not offer revenue shares. Amaryllis does not charge merchants transaction fees either; it charges one flat monthly SaaS fee. In contrast, Stripe Connect charges fees per transaction and additional fees for more advanced features, such as international payments and chargebacks. 

Something else to consider before choosing a platform is looking at both programs’ customization abilities. Stripe Connect is customizable through APIs, making the payment integration process fairly easy to implement. However, Amaryllis offers a more customizable platform allowing merchants to create their own branded payment solutions. Ultimately, Stripe Connect works best for merchants in the sharing economy (Uber, Lyft), subscription-based models, and SaaS platforms. Basically, this solution is great for any business that wants to build platforms to split payments between users and direct payouts between multiple accounts. Amaryllis, however, provides white-label solutions offering businesses payment services under their brand. If you want more control over your payment processing and merchant management, Amaryllis may be a better bet.

Infinicept

Like Stripe Connect, Infinicept’s PayOps platform allows merchants to make additional revenue from what they previously paid to third parties. However, Infinicept promises businesses that they will keep even more of said revenue. According to Infinicept’s website, their platform provides customers with a more customizable payment experience by managing fees, funding schedules, and onboarding decisions. Another benefit is that businesses can design and build an onboarding and verification process that instantly approves merchant partners without waiting for Infinicept to verify their accounts. With Infinicept’s Launchpay solution, you also have total visibility into your merchants’ payment experience. You can give them complete white-glove support while having full ownership of their data. From there, it is very feasible to scale your business without the inconvenience of re-contracting your merchants.^[3]Infinicept.”Launchpay.” Accessed December 5, 2024.

Infinicept also claims to offer a more flexible pricing structure, which can lead to stronger merchant relationships since the pricing can be determined from merchant to merchant. Ultimately, Infinicept can be worthwhile for businesses seeking more control over their payment management systems than the other alternatives.

Exact Payments

In comparison to Stripe Connect, Exact Payments offers more customer support and custom pricing (based on features used and transaction volume). Another benefit is its guaranteed 99.9% uptime, allowing your platform to be operational as often as possible. Exact Payments also has low-code integrations, and its automated underwriting capabilities can onboard merchants in minutes, making this a streamlined and easy platform to use.

One clear con is that it has a smaller user base than its competitors. However, customizable payment pages and checkout flows, subscription billing tools, and real-time analytics may more than compensate for this.

Finix

Finix is another effective alternative to Stripe Connect, but it does have potential drawbacks. A pro is that it offers great flexibility by allowing users to create API building blocks that they can mix and match. Although this is a significant customizable feature, if you’re a smaller operation lacking extensive knowledge of the payment industry and development time, this may be too complex. 

Finix prides itself on being able to serve companies of all sizes. However, to take on more responsibility regarding risk, underwriting, and compliance, Finix recommends an annual transaction volume of $50 million. If you are a smaller business just starting out, this suggestion is something to consider.

Payrix

Some features of Payrix include open API for seamless integration, a pre-built white-label portal to create branded payment pages, automated onboarding, and KYC integrations, to name a few. Like its competitors, it is PCI DSS compliant, making this software a secure option for merchants as well. 

However, there are reports that Payrix is primarily tailored toward smaller and medium-sized ISVs and is not as experienced with larger or enterprise-level clients. It is also known to be less customizable than similar Payfac options. In an oversaturated market, it is important to consider the needs of your individual business before determining if Payrix is right for you.

Tilled

There are many reasons to consider Tilled as an option for your users. You can customize merchant pricing, allowing you to stand out amongst the competition while maximizing your revenue. Your business can utilize Tilled’s white-label features to ensure seamless integration with your brand. You can also use its multi-account feature to toggle between accounts, so you don’t have to maintain multiple usernames and passwords simultaneously. Even more interesting, Tilled makes it easy to migrate your data from Stripe if that is something your business is considering (at no extra charge).

According to Tilled, they offer more transparent and affordable fee structures than Stripe Connect and provide healthier revenue shares. To further incentivize users, Tilled additionally provides abundant marketing, technical, and customer support resources to merchants transitioning from Stripe. Much of their marketing strategy involves Stripe migration, demonstrating that they believe they are the better software option. Ultimately, you must evaluate your users’ needs before determining if this is a change your company wants to make.

PayEngine

PayEngine is a software that boasts a flexible platform that can solve complex and split payouts, provide white-glove onboarding tools, and offer payment links and invoicing. It also offers a tap-to-pay mobile solution that allows consumers to pay with just their phones (with no other required hardware). It additionally allows you to do your own vaulting, so you can store CC and PCI/PII data directly, allowing you to change processors or bill terms with ease.

Like Tilled, PayEngine can also move merchants away from Stripe through gateway-only modes and API emulation. If you already use Stripe Connect but want another option, you can join PayEngine without losing any important data.

WePay

In comparison to Stripe, WePay has its fair share of differences. First, WePay, acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2017, gives same-day payouts to accounts held at Chase itself. WePay also has three solutions: Link (an entry-level option linked to Chase Integrated Payments), Clear (a white-label option), and Core (designed for large businesses with high volume). 

WePay also offers a free trial on its website and never charges monthly fees for its services. However, WePay lacks robust customer service since no phone support is available. The company does offer a ticket support system, though, and assures a one-business-day turnaround. Ultimately, WePay can be worthwhile if you already use Chase and are interested in their subscription-based models. If you are not a Chase customer already, other options may be worth pursuing.

In Conclusion

Regarding offering a dynamic platform for transaction processing, there is no doubt that Stripe Connect is an advantageous option. Still, it pays to have a backup plan in today’s financial marketplace. After all, markets are forecasted to capture up to 61% share of total B2C sales, thereby making them a dominant force in the online commerce world.^[4]E-Tailize. “13 marketplace trends to watch out for in 2023.” Accessed December 5, 2024. Regarding building and maintaining a digital marketplace and transferring funds between buyers and sellers, Stripe Connect is very functional.

Nonetheless, Stripe Connect may or may not be what your business needs, particularly if you operate in the high-risk sector. After all, you wouldn’t want to use Stripe Connect and have payment accounts frozen or shut down without warning. While the platform offers plenty of bang for its buck, costs also add up. Stripe Connect does not come cheap at $2 a month per active user, which doesn’t even account for supplementary fees. In other words, consider your alternatives carefully when debating whether Stripe Connect is best suited for your business purposes.

Merchants operating in high-risk verticals must protect themselves against fraud, excessive chargebacks, and more. That’s why we recommend partnering with an eCommerce merchant services provider who has your needs in mind.  No matter how much or who you’re processing for, an experienced provider will help you handle secure payments and remain PCI compliant. Don’t wait any longer—start your eCommerce journey today.

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