Braintree vs Stripe: Choosing Your Payment Gateway

Note that the information about Braintree and Stripe found in this article was taken from their respective websites on 11 March 2024. This information is subject to change.

In 2024, companies of all sizes are turning to online payment systems more than ever. Stripe and Braintree stand out as top providers, offering a range of features to meet diverse business needs.

Stripe is a multinational payment provider founded in 2009 by American entrepreneur brothers John and Patrick Collison. Early backers of Stripe included Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Andreessen Horowitz; the latter remains a primary investor to this day. In over a decade on the market, Stripe has established itself as the leading player in payment processing.

Braintree Payments is a legacy player, too, founded in 2007 by Bryan Johnson. The company bought Venmo in 2012, and in 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree Payments. After over a decade of Paypal ownership, Braintree is a leading payment services provider.

In this comparison article, we review Stripe versus Braintree Payments, including their products, integrations, and pricing, to help you choose the provider that is best suited to your needs.

Stripe vs Braintree for Online Payments

Online Payments

Stripe Payments enable users to start accepting payments, receiving payouts, and reconciling accounts. Users can create a customised checkout experience through Stripe Elements (web and mobile) pre-built user interfaces (UIs) or leverage Stripe Checkout.

Stripe Payment Links allows users to accept payments or sell subscriptions via links. Users can share as many links as they want on social media, emails, or other channels.

Braintree Direct is the provider’s end-to-end payment solution for selling to customers on their website and mobile app. This feature allows Braintree to act as both a merchant account provider and a payment gateway.

Braintree Checkout UIs also offer pre-built user interfaces to start accepting payments with Braintree: drop-in or hosted.

In-Person Payments

Stripe Terminal allows businesses to accept in-person payments and extend Stripe payments to their Point of Sale (PoS). Note that the terminal is not a ready-to-use PoS solution.

PayPal Here on Braintree lets users add physical cards and in-person payment methods to their Braintree Vault. Users can view their PayPal Here transactions on the control panel and interact with them via the Braintree API. Braintree does not offer hardware like Stripe Terminal.

Payment Methods

Depending on geography, Braintree’s payment methods include PayPal, Venmo, ACH transfers, credit and debit cards, popular digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and various local payment methods specific to a country of the merchant’s clientele.

Stripe boasts 100+ payment methods and one-click checkouts, including cards, digital wallets, bank debits and transfers, and more. Stripe’s Payment Methods API feature allows businesses to accept a variety of payment methods through a single API.

Payment Security

Stripe Radar provides real-time fraud protection and requires no additional development time. Plus, fraud professionals can add Radar for Fraud Teams to customise protection and get deeper insights.

Meanwhile, Braintree offers two options for fraud management. Braintree’s Basic Fraud Tools is a set of instruments to protect your account from some of the most standard forms of payment fraud.

Yet for more complex fraud schemes, the provider recommends Braintree’s Premium Fraud Management Tools. It’s a suite of fraud prevention and detection checks before a request is processed.

Other Payment Features

Braintree Payouts is a new payout offering from Hyperwallet that lets marketplace businesses integrate outbound payments. The provider offers scalable payment solutions for marketplace businesses and the ability to manage payouts.

Stripe Connect enables multiparty payments and payouts. With Standard Connect, Stripe manages users’ dashboard experience entirely. Stripe will serve as the merchant’s primary point of contact for payment-related issues.

Stripe Billing lets businesses bill and manage customers through recurring billing, usage-based billing and sales-negotiated contracts. Meanwhile, Stripe Invoicing enables users to create and manage invoices for one-time payments. Other financial automation features by Stripe include tax, revenue recognition, data pipeline and custom reports.

Braintree Reporting offers automation features in terms of financial data reporting. The platform provides advanced transaction search, decline analysis, settlement batch summary and webhook notifications on events taking place in a gateway.

Braintree Payments vs Stripe: Data Features & More

Stripe Financial Connections allows users to securely share their financial data with businesses. With this feature, businesses can verify bank accounts for ACH payments, reduce underwriting risk with balances data, mitigate fraud by verifying account ownership details, and build new fintech products with transaction data.

Stripe Identity enables identity verification globally to prevent fraud, streamline risk operations, and increase trust and safety.

Braintree Extend enables secure sharing of payment data between partners to help create world-class commerce experiences.

Braintree Auth is currently in closed beta and is available only to US merchants. It enables e-commerce platforms and merchant service providers to connect with their users' Braintree merchant accounts and take authorised actions on their behalf.

Other Features

Stripe Banking as a Service (BaaS) has a suite of features to issue cards (Stripe Issuing) and embed financial services in a product (Stripe Treasury). Businesses in the US can also apply for a loan via Stripe Capital.

Stripe Climate enables clients to direct a fraction of their revenue to help advance carbon removal.

Braintree and Stripe: Integrations & Coverage

Stripe is a globally-minded provider supported in 46 countries, including Australia, the US, Europe, India, Japan, UAE, and more. Stripe enables cross-border multi-currency payments to 195+ countries.

In terms of third-party integration, Stripe’s App Marketplace connects with applications in accounting, compliance, data and analytics, and more. The company also offers their partnership ecosystem, with integration opportunities that help businesses leverage Stripe more effectively.

Meanwhile, Braintree Payments is available for merchants in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR China, Malaysia and New Zealand. The provider supports cross-border payments in 130+ currencies and multiple settlement currency options.

Braintree Payments offers third-party partner integrations, enterprise plug-ins, and more.  The platform connects with popular e-commerce platforms, shopping carts, analytics services, billing applications, and other application categories.

Stripe vs Braintree Fees

In terms of Stripe vs Braintree pricing, the providers use fairly different styles. Stripe comes with a variety of fees for different services. The fee structure is transparently shown on the provider’s website.

There are more fees for alternative currencies, dispute chargeback management, check-out domain, billing, invoicing, taxing, payment links, revenue recognition, anti-fraud measures, identity verification, card issuing and other services. It’s crucial to examine Stripe’s complete fee structure before choosing the provider.

Braintree Payments have the standard pricing of 1.9% + £0.20 per transaction. There is also a custom pricing option tailored based on volume and business model.

Alternatives to Braintree and Stripe

​​Noda is a worldwide payment and open banking provider for seamless business transactions. From payment facilitation to financial analytics, Noda has got you covered. Our platform uses cutting-edge AI and machine-learning technologies.

Operating in the EU and Canada, Noda supports a wide range of currencies for globally-minded clients. We offer scalable plans to fuel your business growth and e-commerce plugins for easy integration.