PayPal Enterprise Payments, formerly known as PayPal Braintree, focuses on online payments. This makes it a good fit for e-commerce businesses, which will appreciate the company’s transparent pricing and range of payment options. Traditional brick-and-mortar retail operations will likely want to explore a different payment processing company, though.
What is PayPal Enterprise Payments?
PayPal Enterprise Payments is a payment processor that allows online businesses to accept payments via app or website. It also provides merchant accounts and payment gateways. PayPal owns the product, and a PayPal Business account is required. Fees are 2.59% plus 49 cents per transaction for credit, debit and digital wallets.
PayPal Enterprise Payments is available for merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR China, Malaysia and New Zealand.
PayPal Enterprise Payments features
PayPal Enterprise Payments allows businesses to accept payments online and on mobile.
It focuses on e-commerce, but the service does support in-person payments for merchants that have PayPal POS card readers.
Starting Small: A newsletter to get your business off the ground
Subscribe for grant opportunities, product recommendations and no-nonsense advice from the Nerds.
Deciding factors
| Payments accepted | Businesses can accept the following payment methods with PayPal Enterprise Payments:
|
| PCI compliance | Yes; no extra charge. |
| Cryptocurrency processing | No. |
| Multi-currency support | Yes. |
| Invoicing | No. |
| Recurring billing and subscriptions | Yes. |
| Transaction reports | Yes. |
| Notable integrations | Shift4Shop, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento), NetSuite, Oracle, Salesforce, Bolt. |
| Support | No phone support, but online help tickets are available. |
PayPal Enterprise Payments pricing
PayPal Enterprise Payments charges a flat rate depending on the payment type. Businesses that process more than $80,000 in sales per month may qualify for discounted rates.
- 2.89% plus 29 cents per transaction for credit cards, debit cards and digital wallets.
- 3.49% plus 49 cents for Venmo (U.S. only).
- 0.75% for ACH (maximum fee of $5). Discounts available for enterprise businesses.
- $0 monthly fees for payment processing, but $49 per month plus 10 cents per transaction for a gateway and $10 per month for third-party merchant accounts (along with any fees charged by their merchant account provider).
- Merchants with their own American Express accounts pay 15 cents plus Amex’s network fee.
- Custom flat rates and interchange-plus pricing are available for businesses that process more than $80,000 per month.
- Chargebacks are $15 each.
- PayPal transaction rates are based on the terms of your PayPal account.
PayPal Enterprise Payments pros
Transparent, competitive pricing
PayPal Enterprise Payments' rates are refreshingly straightforward when compared with other merchant service providers. The company charges a flat rate for most businesses and publishes those prices on its website. And its rates are competitive considering the company doesn't lump additional monthly fees on top of its per-transaction rate (more on that below). However, brick-and-mortar shops simply looking for a gateway will likely find better deals.
No contract, minimal fees
PayPal Enterprise Payments customers sign up on a month-to-month basis, so there's no lengthy contract or pricey early termination fees. There are few fees to speak of beyond the flat-rate, per-transaction fee for payments processed. PayPal Enterprise Payments doesn't charge additional monthly fees, PCI compliance fees or minimum transaction fees. The only fees customers can expect are a chargeback fee of $15 per incident and a 1% fee for converting transactions paid in foreign currency to U.S. dollars.
PayPal Enterprise Payments cons
Customer service
PayPal Enterprise Payments has a rating of just 1.2 stars on TrustPilot, a consumer review website, primarily due to poor reviews related to customer service. Complaints claim support service is unresponsive, with many waiting several weeks for issues to be resolved.
Not suited for brick-and-mortar retail
While PayPal Enterprise Payments offers the option to take in-person payments with a PayPal Here reader, the service is not set up to support traditional brick-and-mortar operations. As a result, retail stores, restaurants and other businesses that primarily accept in-person payments should explore other options.
Braintree alternatives
Square
Pricing:
- 2.6% plus 15 cents for in-person transactions with Free plan.
- 3.3% plus 30 cents for online transactions with Free plan.
- 2.5% plus 15 cents for in-person transactions with Plus plan.
- 2.4% plus 15 cents for in-person transaction with Premium plan.
- 2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions with Plus and Premium plans.
- 3.5% plus 15 cents for manually keyed transactions.
Overview: Square and PayPal Enterprise Payments offer many of the same benefits: transparent pricing, no monthly fees or PCI compliance fees, and no long-term contracts. However, Square offers payment processing solutions for brick-and-mortar retailers and restaurants (PayPal Enterprise Payments caters to e-commerce businesses). Other benefits include:
- Easy setup.
- Competitive transaction rates.
- No processing fees on customer refunds.
- Free point-of-sale software and mobile card reader.
Dharma
Pricing:
- Interchange plus 0.15% + 8 cents for in-person transactions.
- Interchange plus 0.20% + 11 cents for online transactions.
- Interchange plus 0.25% + 8 cents for in-person AmEx transactions.
- Interchange plus 0.30% + 11 cents for online AmEx transactions.
Overview: Dharma Merchant Services is another top option for e-commerce businesses, with transparent rates and low transaction fees for online payments. Dharma uses an interchange-plus pricing model and offers reduced rates for businesses processing over $100,000 per month.
Other benefits include:
- Compatible with a variety of point-of-sale systems.
- No PCI compliance fees.
- No minimum transaction fees.
