Braintree vs. PayPal: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Braintree and PayPal are both good payment service providers that can make the checkout process seamless.
Meredith Wood
By Meredith Wood 
Updated
Edited by Ryan Lane

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.

Braintree and PayPal are both reliable payment service providers, also known as PSPs, that allow businesses to accept payments online via e-commerce stores. Overall, if you want the most customization possible for no additional fee, Braintree is the better option of the two.

On the other hand, PayPal (or, more specifically, PayPal Payments Standard) is likely a better option for business owners who need a simple online payments solution that’s easy to integrate into their e-commerce platform.

Here's how these options stack up.

Braintree pros and cons at a glance

Pros

Transparent, competitive pricing.

No contracts or early termination fees.

No monthly, PCI compliance or minimum transaction fees.

Accepts PayPal and Venmo in addition to credit and debit cards.

Simple checkout page that looks good on web and mobile.

Cons

Requires web development.

Not suited for brick-and-mortar stores.

PayPal pros and cons at a glance

Pros

One of the most commonly used payment processing platforms.

Easy to use and integrate with website hosts and shopping carts.

Transparent fixed fees in 25 currencies.

Cons

PayPal’s offerings are vast and can be difficult to grasp quickly.

Payment processing can be expensive for small purchases.

Not ideal for high-risk or high-volume businesses.

A payment service provider will supply your business with two necessary tools in order to accept online payments: a payment gateway and a merchant account. Essentially, a payment gateway is the software application embedded into your online store that authorizes the secure transaction of credit card payments.

Merchant accounts are the next step in the payment process: It’s a type of bank account into which payments obtained through credit card transactions (whether rendered online, over the phone, or in-person) are held before the provider handling this transaction deposits those funds, minus their fees, into your business bank account.

Ideally, a good payment service provider — Braintree and PayPal among them — makes the checkout process seamless for your customers. Importantly, too, they should make it as easy as possible for small business owners or their team of developers, to implement this technology onto their platforms.

Braintree features and pricing

Braintree was acquired by PayPal in 2013, and it's hands-down the more tech-forward PSP among the two. With its suite of developer tools, you or your engineers can customize your shopping cart and integrate it with your existing platform. It’s designed to scale along with your business, so there's less worry about outgrowing this platform.

Braintree can accept PayPal payments, Venmo in the U.S., all major credit and debit cards, digital wallets, local payment methods and ACH deposits in over 130 currencies from 44 countries. If you want to accept credit card payments in person — if you have a brick-and-mortar location in addition to your online store, or if you want to sell your goods or services on the go — you can integrate the PayPal SDK into your POS app, which will enable you to use PayPal’s physical POS card readers.

What makes Braintree especially unique is that it offers customers their own, individual merchant accounts, rather than lumping them into a single, aggregated merchant account as most third-party payment processors do.

In addition to a payment gateway and merchant account, Braintree has tools and services to help streamline internal processes, such as customizable sales reporting, recurring billing and integration with several third-party apps. Braintree also offers fraud and data security tools, and ensures PCI compliance.

Braintree can be an especially good option for marketplace businesses, because it offers a payment solution called Braintree Marketplace, which is designed particularly for those platforms’ unique needs. Merchants get the customizable, scalable payment solution of a standard Braintree account, plus an integration with Hyperwallet, which enables global outbound payouts.

Braintree pricing

  • 2.59% plus 49 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 Braintree gateway and $10 per month for merchant accounts (along with any fees charged by their merchant account provider).

  • Chargebacks are $15 each.

  • Custom flat rates and interchange-plus pricing are available for businesses that process more than $80,000 per month

You’ll also be able to contact Braintree’s customer service team via phone and email, and take advantage of their data migration assistance service.

You can request a free sandbox trial to test out how Braintree would work with your existing platform before committing to the service.

Advertisement
NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5
NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5
NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5

Payment processing fees 

0.40% + 8¢

plus interchange, in-person; 0.50% + 25¢ plus interchange, online.

Payment processing fees 

2.6% + 10¢

in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.

Payment processing fees 

2.7% + 5¢

in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.

Monthly fee 

$0

Monthly fee 

$0

Starts at $0/month for unlimited devices and locations.

Monthly fee 

$0

PayPal features and pricing

PayPal offers a ton of merchant services, including the ability to accept and process payments in person (with PayPal Zettle) and through invoicing (for PayPal Business users).

PayPal offers two payment gateway services: PayPal Payments Standard and PayPal Payments Pro.

PayPal Payments Standard

This option is best if you don’t have coding experience or a developer on your team, as you just copy and paste a line of code, or integrate its plugin with your existing shopping cart. PayPal Payments Standard doesn’t allow for much customization; rather, it’ll embed a “Buy Now” button onto your website, which reroutes your customers to a PayPal-hosted checkout page.

FEATURED

 
PayPal
PayPal

PayPal

NerdWallet Rating 
5.0
Annual Fee 

$0

PayPal Payments Pro

PayPal Payments Pro offers a fully customized checkout solution that keeps customers on your own website. This plan also gives you access to a virtual terminal, which allows you to accept credit cards over the phone without needing an external card reader. However, this solution requires a developer to implement.

Both payment gateways enable you to accept payments in 25 currencies from over 200 countries, send online invoices and offer options for simplified PCI compliance. Also, both are compatible with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento).

PayPal pricing

Monthly fees

PayPal Payments Standard comes with a PayPal Business account, but PayPal Payments Pro costs $30 per month.

Payment processing fees

PayPal product

Per-transaction rate

Per-transaction fee

Notes

Digital payments (invoicing, checkout, pay with Venmo and other commercial transactions)

3.49%.

$0.49.

Send/receive money for goods and services

2.89%.

$0.49.

Standard credit/debit card payments

2.99%.

$0.49.

Donations

2.89%.

$0.49.

Charity transactions

1.99%.

$0.49.

Alternative payment methods

2.59%.

$0.49.

PayPal Here (legacy offering for in-person payments)

Card present or QR code

2.7%.

No fee.

Keyed

3.5%.

$0.15.

Zettle (for in-person payments)

Card present or QR code

2.29%.

$0.09.

Keyed

3.49%.

$0.09.

QR code transactions

Over $10

1.9%.

$0.10.

Under $10

2.4%.

$0.05.

Online card payment services

Advanced credit / debit card

2.59%.

$0.49.

Per transaction rate is 3.5% for AmEx.

Payments Advanced

2.89%.

$0.49.

$5 monthly fee.

Payments Pro

2.89%.

$0.49.

$30 monthly fee.

Virtual terminal

3.09%.

$0.49.

Per transaction rate is 3.5% for AmEx. There is also a $30 monthly fee.

Other notable fees

  • Recurring billing services: $10 per month

  • Advanced fraud protection services: $10 per month plus 5 cents per transaction.

  • No cancellation fees.

Pros

Braintree vs. PayPal: Which PSP is right for your business?

Braintree can be the best option for small businesses looking for highly customizable software at a reasonable price. It also provides dedicated merchant accounts, which can be especially useful to fast-growing businesses. However, if simple setup and integration is more important than functionality, businesses may want to go with PayPal.

A version of this article was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

logo image
Accept payments, avoid surprises
Answer a few questions to match your business with our selected payment partners.
Best Payment Processing Companies
ProductPayment processing feesMonthly feeLearn more
Helcim

Helcim

NerdWallet Rating 
5.0
Learn more

on Helcim's website

0.40% + 8¢ 

plus interchange, in-person; 0.50% + 25¢ plus interchange, online.

$0 
Learn more

on Helcim's website

Square

Square

NerdWallet Rating 
5.0
Learn more

on Square's website

2.6% + 10¢ 

in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.

$0 

Starts at $0/month for unlimited devices and locations.

Learn more

on Square's website

Stripe

Stripe Payments

NerdWallet Rating 
5.0
Learn more

on Stripe's website

2.7% + 5¢ 

in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.

$0 
Learn more

on Stripe's website

Stax by Fattmerchant

Stax by Fattmerchant

NerdWallet Rating 
4.0
Learn more

on Stax by Fattmerchant's website

0% + $0.08 

Plus interchange

$99 

and up.

Learn more

on Stax by Fattmerchant's website