When should I pick PayPal over Stripe?

Pick PayPal if: Many of your buyers are consumers who expect a PayPal button at checkout.

When should I pick Stripe over PayPal?

Pick Stripe if: You sell mainly in one country or can handle sales tax yourself, and want the lowest fees.

Which is cheaper, PayPal or Stripe?

At revenue $10k, payments 400 payments: PayPal $495/mo (Standard card payments), Stripe $410/mo (Standard), at list prices.

Which do more makers use for payments?

Among makers' products we track: PayPal 94, Stripe 869.

How do PayPal and Stripe compare in cost as you grow?

At $500 a month Stripe costs less ($21 vs $25); and still does at $250k a month ($10,250 vs $12,375). Cheapest usable plan at each scale, at list prices.

Are people switching from PayPal to Stripe?

Public GitHub pull requests since 2024-10-02: 6 from PayPal to Stripe, 9 from Stripe to PayPal.

PayPal vs Stripe for payments: which fits you

Which fits you

Choose PayPal if

Many of your buyers are consumers who expect a PayPal button at checkout

Use it whenYour buyers are consumers, or in countries where PayPal is the expected way to pay online.

Trade-offYou are still the merchant of record for tax; disputes and account holds are a common complaint, and its developer tools are clunkier than Stripe's.

Choose Stripe if

You sell mainly in one country or can handle sales tax yourself, and want the lowest fees

Use it whenYou can handle sales tax yourself, or sell mainly in one country.

Trade-offYou are the merchant of record — tax registration and filings are on you.

At a glance

	PayPal	Stripe
Used by	94 makers' products · 5 open-source projects	869 makers' products · 175 open-source projects
Cost at default usagerevenue $10k, payments 400 payments	$495/mo Standard card payments	$410/mo Standard
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 2024	9 from Stripe	6 from PayPal
Downloads	719.8k/wk−29% vs npm	17.8M/wk+37% vs npm
Pricing	No monthly fee for standard transactions; percentage plus fixed fee per transaction, ~2% for payouts. · paid from 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction (US)	Per-transaction fees; no monthly fee.
Free tier	No	No
Open source	No	No

Cost as you grow

At $500 a month Stripe costs less ($21 vs $25); and still does at $250k a month ($10,250 vs $12,375).

Stripe PayPalx: revenue per month (USD), other usage scaled with it · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers

The numbers, plan by plan

Revenue per month	PayPal	Stripe
500	$25 Standard card payments	$21 Standard
1,000	$50 Standard card payments	$41 Standard
5,000	$248 Standard card payments	$205 Standard
10,000	$495 Standard card payments	$410 Standard
25,000	$1,238 Standard card payments	$1,025 Standard
50,000	$2,475 Standard card payments	$2,050 Standard
100,000	$4,950 Standard card payments	$4,100 Standard
250,000	$12,375 Standard card payments	$10,250 Standard

From each vendor's pricing page: PayPal, Stripe.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "PayPal to Stripe" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

Stripe →

PayPal9 PRs

support: drop terminated Stripe rails, move fiat support to PayPalQortiumDev/qortium-site · 2026-07-30
Add Stripe Payment Element to checkout alongside PayPalbjscha03/Final-Banner-Site · 2026-05-04
Migrate payment system from Stripe to PayPalnashmaher/aeterion-next · 2026-03-20
Migrate from Stripe to PayPal, add trial note page and 14-day free trialdanyaffa/StickAINote · 2026-03-06
Claude/stripe to paypal migration u9m jxLeffler-International-Investments/MyFamousFinds · 2026-02-12
Claude/stripe to paypal migration u9m jxLeffler-International-Investments/MyFamousFinds · 2026-02-12
Claude/stripe to paypal migration u9m jxLeffler-International-Investments/MyFamousFinds · 2026-02-11
Forfeit the balance in existing Stripe account when switching to PayPal payoutsantiwork/gumroad · 2025-09-19
changing payments from stripe to paypalaliiexe/FullFlow · 2025-06-29

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

PayPal →

Stripe6 PRs

Migrate tutoring checkout from PayPal to Stripeupandupmath/upandup-tutoring · 2026-08-31
Add Square, PayPal, and QuickBooks next to Stripeisaacgonzalez0927-commits/Scraper-V2 · 2026-08-19
Added Paypal payment integration to the existing Stripe integrationchigozieokoroafor/port-port-backend · 2026-08-12
fix(checkout/success): Accept PayPal token in addition to Stripe session_idA-Guy-educ/A-Guy · 2026-06-07
The Paypal setup is now modified to Stripefirstfruits/twist-n-grip-cms · 2026-05-12
[PM-19387] Fix PayPal to Stripe credit truncation bugbitwarden/server · 2025-03-26

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

What makers say

Makers on using it for payments, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On PayPal

Common integrations include: ● Payment: Stripe , Paypal ● Newsletter Sending: Mailgun ● CRM: Salesforce ● Analytics: Google Analytics and Tag Manager ● Videos: YouTube, Vimeo ● Lang

Tendenci, the makerApr 2022 ↗

I launched with domain and hosting from Firebase by Google used paypal smart buttons I am using Mailerlite to send emails to customers Now I am using Gumroad checkout to auto…

Blurweb App, the makerDec 2021 ↗

Invoicing: Paypal What’s nice about PayPal is not its high fees, but the ability to write an invoice and mark it as paid by Bank wire, that way I have an invoicing app without giving PayPal any fee.

Live helper chat, the makerDec 2021 ↗

7 more on the PayPal page →

On Stripe

The voice that made Jinna feel alive. We use ElevenLabs to give Jinna her natural tone — calm, human, and full of personality. The first time we heard her speak, it stopped the room

Jinna.ai, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Stripe's payment infrastructure enables seamless transactions for our users' ChatGPT apps. Their robust APIs make it simple to monetize AI applications and handle payments securely.

Noodle Seed, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Stripe makes handling payments effortless. It powers all RewriteBar subscriptions and one-time licenses — super reliable, developer-friendly, and easy to integrate across platforms.

RewriteBar, the makerSep 2026 ↗

254 more on the Stripe page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

PayPal

Most loved

Simple to add as a payment option on a basic website, and a common backup checkout next to a card processor. Starter Story Starter Story 2 HN

Watch-outs

Accounts and funds get frozen or permanently locked with vague or no explanation. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Buyers are pushed to have a PayPal account, which adds checkout friction and raises cart abandonment. HN

On Product Hunt: 4.6★, 11 reviews · mentioned most: easy to use, reliable payment system, fast transactions · complaints: high administrative fees, poor customer support

Stripe

Most loved

Subscriptions, trials, invoices, refunds and taxes are handled in one place, so founders skip building billing. PH PH 2 PH 3 PH 4
The APIs, webhooks and documentation are reliable and accurate enough to feel like a product themselves. PH PH 2 PH 3 HN
Integration takes days, and card data never touches your servers, which keeps PCI scope small. PH PH 2 PH 3 HN

Watch-outs

Sudden revenue jumps can trigger balance freezes with slow reviews and no stated reason. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Merchant fees become painful at scale, and merchant-of-record style services cost much more than plain processing. HN HN 2 HN 3

On Product Hunt: 4.9★, 515 reviews · mentioned most: easy integration, secure payment processing, reliable service · complaints: poor customer support, complex setup