PayPal
has become synonymous with online payments and this widely popular platform
lets users make monetary transactions, completely doing away with the need for
bank transfers and checks. This free payment processing service only requires
the presence of a valid PayPal account on both the receiver and the sender’s
end. The biggest upside to PayPal is its widely recognized platform and how
easily it manages to integrate with other third-party platforms and carts.
However,
PayPal is still not the perfect payment method we’ve seen so far, as it
has some serious disadvantages. Well, we know nothing is perfect, but why
should you tolerate this sort of issues if there are better options out there?
First, we will check out some noticeable cons of PayPal that you’ll be able to
justify your act of moving to a PayPal alternative.
·
Fees: Despite
the fact that fee may vary according to payment methods you use, one of the
disadvantages of PayPal is the high fee.
·
Holding Payments: More
often than not, PayPal holds your payment and puts it under review with no
proper reason.
·
Some countries are not
supported by PayPal such as Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc
·
Country-based
restrictions on use of PayPal
In
addition, there are some other disadvantages if we look into PayPal from
‘Merchant’ point of view, but as you are here, we expect you know some of them.
Now, we will move on to top ten alternatives to PayPal, either as an online
money transfer service or eCommerce payment method. Rather than merely
mentioning names of these alternative services, we will go deep into advantages
and disadvantages of each.
Google
Wallet is the new way of sending, receiving and paying money online, sometimes
with just a tap! However, it is available only in the United States as of now.
You can use Google Wallet to store debit cards, credit cards gift cards and
loyalty cards in a digital wallet and use it for sending and receiving money
from friends or family as well as a way to pay money online. You will be able
to send money online to your friends or family using their email address or as
a Gmail attachment, and you can fund the money from Google Wallet balance, bank
account, debit card and/or credit cards. Now, however, we will move on to the
pros and cons of Google Wallet. Anyway, pros come first!
Pros
·
Single card instead of
different debit and credit cards
·
It is from Google, and
that’s a big advantage, you know.
·
24*7 Fraud Monitoring and
purchase protection
·
Tight integration with
Google account
Cons
·
Less Acceptance
as compared to PayPal and availability is restricted to US
Commission
Google
Wallet is free! However, you have to pay standard transfer charges when you are
using credit card/debit card to transfer money into your Google Wallet account.
Where
does Google Wallet Work
Sadly,
Google Wallet and its features like money transfer, shopping in stores
are available only in US. However, you’ll be able to use Google Wallet over
125 countries to purchase products from Google Play Store.
When
checking cons of Google Wallet, we can say that it can become a superpower in
web-based payment sector if it expands its acceptance.
Amazon
Payments is another alternative to PayPal, and it comes from a web giant –
Amazon. Although we can take it as a single platform for processing money
transactions online, there are different classifications in Amazon Payments
that suit different users – customers, businesses and of course, developers.
Online purchases section of the service is made to simplify purchasing task, by
using payment methods you have added in your Amazon.com account. Thus, you can
skip that task of reentering payment details as well as shipping addresses. On
the other hand, WebPay from Amazon Payments lets users send and receive
money. In addition, when we look Amazon from Merchant’s point of view, Checkout
by Amazon is a feature merchants can implement in order to
simplify payment methods.
Pros
·
It’s from Amazon
·
Comparatively wide
acceptance
·
Integration with
Amazon.com
Cons
·
Amazon WebPay is not
available for non-US residents
·
High duration for money
withdrawal from Amazon WebPay to your bank
Commission
Amazon
Payments is completely free from the users’ point of view! Using Amazon WebPay,
users can send money by paying nothingas well as receiving money from others.
Yet, they will have to pay transaction fees if they withdraw amount via credit
card or debit card. However, when it comes to merchants’ viewpoint, the
commission is a bit high, as Amazon Payments charges based on a rate of
2.9%+$0.30. Nevertheless, Amazon offers volume discounts as well as non-profit
discounts.
Where
does Amazon Payments Work
Amazon
WebPay is currently available in United States. Similarly, when it comes to
Checkout by Amazon, it is more complex, because Checkout by Amazon is available
for merchants in US. These merchants should have one US-based street address,
phone number and credit card.
Altogether,
Amazon Payments is an optimum choice for both users and merchants, despite its
restricted availability. We do hope Amazon Payments will expand its
operations to other countries as well.
It is
the best choice for professionals, such as freelancers and
affiliate marketers, who want to receive money from other countries. While
companies use Payoneer as a payment method along with wire transfer and others,
users can use this platform to receive payments from any part of globe. Users
can receive funds in different ways. Payoneer offers two different ways to use
received funds. Through local bank transfer or global transfers or Payoneer
reloadable credit card. Plus, you have an option to transfer amount to another
Payoneer user.
Pros
·
Available in 200
countries
·
Process transactions in
more than 100 currencies (As of 2015)
·
Huge acceptance
Cons
·
Rent of credit card is a
bit high
Commissions
Transfer
fees of Payoneer depend upon the country you live and in which currency you
process your transactions. In addition, there will be a slight charge when you
use your Payoneer Credit Card via an ATM to use your funds.
Where
does Payoneer Work
Payoneer
works in more than 200 countries and is capable of processing transactions in
around 100 currencies. Payoneer is an excellent solution when it comes to
processing international transactions despite the fact that service is not
available in some countries such as India.
Stripe
is another simple way to accept payments from your customers. Stripe is a
viable alternative to PayPal as far as easier acceptance of payment is
concerned. Stripe accepts a variety of payment methods including cards such as
Visa, MasterCard, American Express and JCB. In addition, Stripe can process
transactions in around 100 currencies.
Your
business should be based in Canada, UK, Australia, United States, Ireland,
Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Italy and Switzerland to receive payments
from Stripe.
Commission: For
each successful transaction, Stripe will charge 2.9%+$0.30 as its commission.
Transactions of earnings are processed through a 2-day rolling basis.
Pros
·
Simple Setup
using Plugins
·
Integrated mobile
payments
·
Payment can be sent from
any country
Cons
·
Stripe supports only 19
countries as of now.
Dwolla
is yet another simple alternative for PayPal, as a payment service and a
platform to send money to anyone on internet. If normal users can use Dwolla to
make online payments and sending or receiving money, business owners can make
use of Dwolla by using the platform to receive money from their customers.
Using Dwolla, it is possible for you to send money to email addresses, LinkedIn
connections, Twitter followers, phone numbers and businesses that accept
Dwolla. Another feature of Dwolla is Dwolla MassPay, which lets you process
thousands of payments at a time. Dwolla was notable for buying and selling of
Bitcoins until it stopped dealing with Bitcoin exchanges in October 2013.
Pros
·
It’s a free service and
transaction fees are incredibly low
·
Simple User Interface and
support for Android and iOS
·
Get rid of risks of
identity theft, as you’re sharing only email address and phone number
·
Easier methods of
clearing payments
Cons
·
Of course, when compared
to PayPal, acceptance is pretty low
·
Transferring money from
Dwolla to your bank account may take up to 2 to 3 days.
·
No linking with credit
cards or debit cards
Commission
This is
where we were really impressed by Dwolla. Unlike PayPal, you’ve to pay only
$0.25 for each transaction that you make, despite the fact that transaction is
free if amount is less than $10.
Where
does Dwolla Work
Currently,
Dwolla is available only in the United States and you should have a valid US
Mailing address & SSN to use Dwolla. Moreover, only US bank accounts can be
linked to Dwolla
Despite
the fact that Dwolla is trying to launch its service in other countries,
availability only in US of the service is a noticeable problem. Except that,
Dwolla is a wonderful PayPal alternative for US based users.
2Checkout
is a partial PayPal alternative, because it does not allow transfer of
money in between users. Instead, merchants shall use 2Checkout as an
effective way to process transactions when they sell items. As of now,
2Checkout supports eight payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, JCB, PIN
Debit cards, and PayPal. In addition, 2Checkout works with 26 currencies
and you can integrate it with a wide range of shopping carts such as Shopify,
ZenCart, Ecwid and 3DCart.
Commission: 2Checkout
charges 2.9%+$0.30 per transaction if you are from US and 5.5%+$0.45 otherwise
Pros
·
Automatic fund release
via EFT
·
Smartphone Applications
to keep track of numbers
Cons
·
Does not allow transfer
of payment between users.
2Checkout
is the best PayPal alternative for merchants. It is available in 196 countries
through 8 payment methods, 26 currencies and 15 languages.
Implementing
WePay in your site means setting up a way for customers to pay without leaving
your site. WePay creates a virtual terminal in order to process payment. Since
it is an API-based technology, you must have technical knowledge in order
to implement WePay. Although the service keeps simplicity in all aspects, some
features of WePay are very attractive. Just as some of above mentioned
platforms, WePay, though it supports most of international cards, is available
for customers from US and have a US SSN and billing address.
WePay
payment API focuses exclusively on platform businesses such as Crowd-funding
sites, small business software and marketplaces.
Commission: While
WePay charges 2.9%+$0.30 in credit card payments, bank payments will
be charged 1%+$0.30.
Selz is
another alternative for PayPal for merchants and small businesses. It’s a great
way to accept payments from customers. Selz is a suitable choice for
freelancers as well as bloggers, who do sell something through their website.
This service is being used by a number of professional bloggers and other
web-based professionals. If you have a WordPress site/blog, you can use Selz
WordPress plugin to install it. When compared to PayPal and other prominent
payment methods, Selz suits selling digital products. You will be
able to transfer amount to your bank account or PayPal.
Commission: For
each transaction made through Selz, it will charge a commission of 5%+$0.25.
Pros
·
Easy-to-use interface
·
Support for 190
currencies
·
Suits digital
downloads
Nevertheless,
Selz is not available in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Pakistan
and Nigeria as well as the countries, which are not supported by PayPal.
Square
is a PayPal alternative with a twist. Square will provide you a card reader
that will work perfectly with your iPad, iPhone or Android Smartphone. Plus,
Square lets users create an online store, from which customers can make
purchases.Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express etc. are supported by
Square card reader.
In
November 2014, Square announced that it will start accepting payments via Apple
Pay in 2015.
Commission: Square
charges 2.75% of total amount of money that is transferred. By the way,
Square Reader is available for US and Canada only.
Bonus:
A war
for your wallet has already been raged and Mobile payments are now catching up
the pace since the introduction of Apple Pay a year ago. Quick to join it were the likes
of Google, Facebook and Samsung to have a piece of this emerging trend in
online payments. Apple Pay was introduced as a way to let you make payments
with the comforts of your phone, instead of carrying a wad of cash or plastic
cards along with you all the time. Through the use of an NFC terminal,
supported at 220,000 retailers, you can instantly make payments through simply
holding your thumb on the phone’s Touch ID sensor.
After
hiring a PayPal executive in 2014, Facebook has recently announced that
now you can send and receive payments with your friends through their Messenger
App. The feature will soon be rolling out to the US users based on Android, iOS
and desktops.
Google’s
Android Pay is a new mobile payments platform, on which Google Executive
SundarPichai shed some light upon in the Mobile World Congress 2015 in
Barcelona. This is claimed as an ‘API Layer’ platform that would let retailers
base their mobile payments upon the newly developed Android-based platform.
Another interesting aspect to it was announced as the support for NFC and Biometrics,
something similar to Apple’s Touch ID in Apple Pay.
As for
with these mobile payments, only time will tell if they manage to sustain and
become mainstream.
Commission: It is
reported that Apple Pay nets about 0.15% of the transactions made through their
platform.
Conclusion
It
should be noted that we have added these online payment services in random
order, as different people have different criteria while finding the ‘best’;
some of you might be looking for lower commissions whereas some other prefer
international availability. In other words, you can choose the most appropriate
PayPal alternative from the list according to your requirement.
So,
now, you have a list of top alternatives to PayPal, which one is your
favorite? let us know in comments.
