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Stripe’s payment services are a great fit for businesses that accept payment from or do business in a number of countries, or which generally have a strong international focus. Stripe is capable of processing payments in more than 135 global currencies and supports a number of local payment methods (like Alipay and iDEAL) so that your overseas customers can make payments through a platform they feel most comfortable with.

Stripe allows businesses in more than 25 countries to accept payments from customers all over the planet and allows clients to establish local accounts to try to reduce cross-border and conversion fees.

Beyond all the international support, Stripe has a comprehensive payment processing platform that’s highly customizable to suit your needs (especially if you have technical knowledge and are comfortable implementing code), making it a good match for developers running their own businesses. There’s a developer dashboard for monitoring API usage and support for over 450 platforms and extensions to automate almost any manual process.

Stripe offers a powerful, versatile and highly customizable payment processing platform, especially if you have the technical expertise to take advantage of it. It’s also one of the best merchant services for processing payments from overseas or to help support truly global businesses.

Value

Stripe doesn’t charge customers a monthly fee, nor does it leverage any setup fees or hidden costs. For its standard package, transactions are priced at 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful charge for domestic cards — fairly in line or slightly below similar fees at competing merchant services.

Stripe also offers a suite of affordable options for in-person payment processing. While the company does sell dedicated hardware for taking payments, like its S700 Stripe Reader for $349.00, it also offers in-person solutions that don’t require any additional hardware. You can accept tap payments on a mobile device without the need to purchase any additional devices as part of Stripe’s Terminal offerings.

Functionality

Stripe offers a tremendous amount of features and services to its customers, though some of them may require some fairly advanced technical knowledge to fully exploit. It starts with broad support for cards like Visa, Discover and Mastercard, as well as digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay so your customers can access a wide range of the most popular ways to pay online.

Beyond that, there are more niche payment options, including some that are more popular in other parts of the world, like Bancontact or Giropay, so your international customers can also access familiar payment options.

Stripe also offers great options for getting access to your money quickly and easily. The platform lets you choose a payout schedule (on a rolling basis, weekly or monthly), as well as access instant payouts for a 1% charge if you need to get your money right away.

There are also lots of great options for developers or the more technically-inclined to further wring advanced functionality out of the platform, like client libraries in nearly every language from Ruby to Go and Swift, as well as tons of extensions to automate manual processes.

Support

Stripe offers customers 24/7 customer support by way of phone, email and live chat through the official website. Furthering the perception of Stripe as the merchant services company for developers is the ability to jump on its Developer Discord server and solicit specific help from its technical team. Stripe also offers a large library of technical docs, as well as code samples in over eight languages.

Stripe offers a database of information about common support topics on its website, as well as guides designed to walk you through common e-commerce situations or issues. It also has a section dedicated to resources specific to its various products, to get you answers exclusive to the services you use the most.

Learn more: Read our full Stripe review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Square offers a wide variety of payment processing options designed to support a similarly wide variety of businesses and use cases. This means it’s a good match for many businesses, but particularly for those that are looking to mix online sales with in-person or phone sales, as Square provides systems to support processing for all of those scenarios.

Square is also a good match for companies looking to market through their payment processing company, which is a handy integration and could save your business money you would otherwise spend on external or third-party marketing solutions. Square offers email, text message and social media marketing opportunities as well as options for sending out coupons, selling gift cards or powering rewards programs.

Square is a very versatile platform that can power both online and in-person transactions (as well as things like phone or manually entered transactions) to suit a wide variety of businesses and to enable companies looking to sell across multiple channels simultaneously. It also comes with a welcome suite of extras to provide a broad commerce platform.

Value

Square offers a pair of pre-built packages for customers, as well as a custom tier that allows you to build a bespoke plan to suit your specific sales needs, though it requires you to contact ����ܲ�����’s sales team directly for pricing.

The basic plan, appropriately called Free, carries no setup fee or monthly fee outside of processing fees and gives you everything you need to get started selling online, in-person or over the phone. It’s a great value for businesses just getting off the ground with simple needs, though it lacks advanced features tailored to specific business types (like restaurants or retail businesses).

Those more-specific features are, however, included in the Plus plan, which does charge a $29 per month base fee but adds those custom tools as well as support for appointment-based businesses.

Functionality

While Square doesn’t have a lot of the in-depth, developer tools that Stripe boasts (like Stripe’s developer dashboard or huge extensions library), it does offer a robust set of core features and useful extras that will be a boon for small business owners.

����ܲ�����’s plans all offer baseline support for selling online, in person or by phone so you can take payments wherever your customers find you. Beyond that, Square offers payroll services, so you can pay your employees and manage tax files through the same platform where you process payments.

There are also the marketing tools we mentioned above for social media, email or text message — a feature set you’d normally have to pay extra for another company to furnish. Square even offers options for opening credit and savings accounts or obtaining a business loan to finance your company’s growth.

Support

Square offers a library of support topics on its website, aimed at addressing common customer issues and concerns with the platform. It includes articles on things like how to set up your Square Online Platform, how to use Square for contracts and how to manageAfterpay, the service that allows customers to pay for products in installments.

You can also reach Square customer support by phone or by live chat through the website between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PDT, Monday through Friday. Alternatively, you can send Square support an email or open a thread in the Community section of the website to discuss issues with other Square clients and staff.

Learn more: Read our full Square review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

PayPal is a trusted and widely recognizable payment and processing platform that offers a variety of merchant services for small businesses.

Beyond the standard in-person and online processing options, PayPal also offers supporting services, like its risk management analysis powered by machine learning algorithms, designed to detect fraud and help resolve (or avoid) disputes. Additional services like these make PayPal a good partner for small businesses that are looking for a single solution to a wider array of business challenges than just payment processing.

PayPal can assist with shipping, securing a loan for your business or setting you up with a credit card or debit card to fund your purchases while you’re getting established (or to provide foundational capital for growth).

PayPal is also suitable for companies that want to accept some relatively non-standard payment methods, including cryptocurrency, digital wallets or Pay Later.

PayPal is an excellent solution for several common business quandaries for companies looking to condense multiple solutions into a single platform. This means you have a single point of contact for resolving issues across a number of facets of your business, and PayPal also offers everything you need to process payments from a wide variety of sources.

Value

PayPal’s per-transaction fees can be a little high, though the company does go some way toward offsetting that cost by not charging cancellation fees or fees for things like accepting rewards cards or corporate cards. It also adds value to its platform by allowing your customers to pay with PayPal itself for free (though there is a 4.5% charge for currency conversion).

Whether PayPal represents a good value for your business will depend in large part on how many and which of its services you avail yourself of. If you’re looking for a single solution for risk assessment, financing and reporting, PayPal is a good fit.

Functionality

PayPal’s payment processing options include online checkout so that you can accept payments on your e-commerce website or online storefront as well as integration with top platforms like WooCommerce and GoDaddy.

There’s also PayPal Zettle, the company’s POS system, which lets you take payments on your phone through an app, through a physical card reader or terminal or by way of a QR code. These can be a boon to small businesses with limited space in a physical setting for accepting payments or those that sell their goods at events or other scenarios that require a mobile payment solution.

PayPal also provides options for processing invoices or manually processing payment information that comes in by phone or mail so that you can also service remote customers who prefer not to pay for things online.

Support

PayPal has a fairly sprawling help section on its website dubbed the Business Resource Center. It’s a good place to start if you want to do a deep dive on everything PayPal offers, or if you’re looking for tips on how to build out your business with the support of PayPal’s tools. There’s also a fair amount of prognostication on the future of the e-commerce sector and how best to market to different demographics.

You can contact PayPal customer service by phone any day of the week between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT. PayPal also has a resolution center for disputes, and hosts a community section where you can search for advice from others facing similar issues.

Learn more: Read our full PayPal review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Clover is primarily known for its POS hardware, which several other processing companies use to power their own POS solutions. However, Clover also offers a number of other processing options, including a no-hardware option, and also offers several additional merchant services. It’s a great option for businesses looking for a single umbrella under which to package different business needs, and Clover offers competitive processing fees and pricing, though the best rates are gated behind the more expensive subscription tiers.

Those tiers come in three varieties, including a basic package carrying no monthly fee but lacking a number of additional services beyond basic payment processing. Also, none of the subscription plans include hardware by default, so you’ll have to pay extra for any of the company’s POS terminals or accessories.

Clover offers a wide gamut of services, from payment processing to employee management and inventory tracking. The convenience of packaging a number of essential services in one place can save your business precious time and may also end up saving you money when compared against paying multiple companies for all of those services independently.

Value

How much value you extract from Clover’s platform will depend on how you use it and which services you’re paying for. For instance, if you don’t process a large volume of transactions per month and aren’t interested in some of the add-on services, the basic package (Payments) is a good option as there’s no set monthly fee and the higher per transaction fee won’t impact you as much.

On the other hand, if you do process a larger quantity of transactions — and if you’re also looking for peripheral features like the ability to track inventory and real-time sales or to offer promotions, a reward program or gift cards — the higher tier is probably a better value. It carries a higher monthly fee, but the per-transaction cost is lower and it bundles a large number of extra services.

Functionality

With Clover, the payment processing functions are just the tip of the iceberg. The company offers its well-known POS terminals, including touchscreen devices with card readers of both the portable and fixed variety, along with e-commerce processing solutions and a Clover Go app and card reader to take payments on your phone. The features that really set Clover apart, however, are its additional merchant support services.

There’s payroll through partner services and employee management, inventory creation and tracking, sales analytics and the gift card/promotions/loyalty programs previously mentioned. Beyond that, Clover offers text, email and social media marketing tools, an app customers can use to order and pay ahead or track reward points and other useful tools that will help you run your business and ensure its success. Packaging them all together with Clover means easier management and one source of truth for several facets of your business.

Support

Clover has a help section on its website that includes some basic information on setting up a Clover device or accessing your Clover account. Beyond that, it doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of online resources, but there is a live chat feature to contact sales or customer service.

You can also reach customer support by logging into an existing Clover account and either selecting Help from the top of the page, tapping the Help button on the home screen of a Clover device or through the Clover Go app. Current customers can also contact the support team through the direct support phone number listed on your statement.

Learn more: Read our full Clover review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Merchant One offers a comprehensive suite of payment processing options across a number of contexts, with solutions for online payments, in-person, different POS scenarios, processing on mobile phones or tablets and a key-in application when the credit card isn’t physically available.

Its fees are competitive, and it offers both traditional and interchange pricing. The company also has a speedy approval process and approves 98% of applicants, even those with poor credit, so it’s a great match for customers with a lot of debt or who may be recovering from a financial setback.

Merchant One is also generally a suitable fit for any business looking for core payment processing services, especially when you add the company’s extra services, like text message marketing and support for reward/loyalty programs. It may specifically suit your business better if you’re in certain industries, like a restaurant that needs an advanced terminal and check services or an e-commerce business that wants to offer gift cards and a loyalty program.

Merchant One offers a full toolset for businesses looking to process payments online, in-person or over the phone, and it also throws in some welcome bonus features. Its rates match up well to its competitors, and the company offers 24/7 customer support through a variety of channels.

Value

Merchant One offers both traditional, flat-rate-per-transaction pricing as well as an interchange plus alternative so customers have options where pricing is concerned. While the swiped and keyed-in rates on the company’s website are competitive (listed as 0.29% to 1.55% for swiped transactions and 0.29% to 1.99% for keyed-in), it’s important to note that these are qualified rates.

Full rates, fees and terms are only available to individual customers through their merchant processing agreement and thus may vary significantly, making it more difficult to evaluate Merchant One’s offering for total overall value.

Functionality

Merchant One’s core services include two POS options. There’s a retail terminal with a 14” touchscreen that allows customers to swipe their cards or a more complete POS system with a touchscreen and an independent card reader that allows for tapping or inserting a card which also gives retailers the option to take cash.

Offering both systems means Merchant One can accommodate a larger number of businesses at different price points, whether you want a simple solution or a more-robust, complete terminal.

There are also mobile options that allow you to take payment on a phone or tablet for even more mobility and versatility, which is great for business owners that sell at events or travel with their products. Key-in functionality is also helpful if you want to take payments over the phone or even by mail.

For e-commerce, there are over 175 shopping cart integrations and the option to add “buy now” buttons on your site. Merchant One also offers text message marketing to get the word out about your business and loyalty/reward programs, which can be a boon to small businesses because of how they incentivize return customers.

Support

Merchant One offers 24/7 customer support. You can reach Merchant One by mail at its physical address in Florida, through an email contact form on its website or by phone or direct email. The company doesn’t offer any additional informational resources or community features on its site — issues will have to be resolved with customer service directly.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.