A few months ago we outlined the differences between Realex and Paypal but since the arrival of Stripe in Ireland there is another payment system provider in the mix. So how do they stack up?

mor solutions first to use stripe payments in europe

Services comparison Paypal, Realex and Stripe

  Paypal Realex Stripe
Need for a merchant account No Yes No
Quick set-up Yes Yes* Yes
Monthly fee No Yes No
Transaction fee Yes No** Yes
Transfer of funds to bank account 3-5 days 24-48 hours 7 days***
*Once merchant account has already been set up
** Up to 350 transactions
*** Transfers happen on a 7 day rolling basis
Approximate fee comparisons per month
100 transactions of €100 Realex Paypal Stripe
Merchant Account + transaction fee changed by merchant bank €280.00* €0.00 €0.00
Monthly fee €29.00 €0.00 €0.00
Transaction fee €00.00 €325.00** €320.00***
Total €309.00 €325.00 €320.00
*Fees associated with using a merchant account typically 2-2.5% + a monthly fee of €30 **  fee calculated at 35c  + 2.9% ***fee calculated at 30c  + 2.9%
1000 transactions of €10
Realex
Paypal
Stripe
Merchant Account + transaction fee changed by merchant bank
€280.00*
€0.00
€0.00
Monthly fee
€29.00
€0.00
€0.00
Transaction fee
€78.00***
€640.00
€590.00
Total
€387.00
€640.00
€590.00

*Fees associated with using a merchant account typically 2-2.5% + a monthly fee of €30. ***Realex charge 12c when a there are more than 350 transactions per month:  650 transactions x 12c

When merchant fees, monthly fees and transaction fees are taken into account the difference in pricing is not enormous. The choice of payment system is more likely to come down to which option suits your business best.

For low volume or seasonal purchases PayPal and Stripe are the obvious choice as they don't charge monthly fees and are quicker to set up as you do not need to go through 3-4 weeks of bureaucracy with your merchant bank.

For high volume low cost transactions Realex has an edge in their pricing.

Stripe seems to be winning over the developers here in MOR. This is what Mark Reilly had to say about it:

"It's a payment service made by developers who put ease of use top their priority list, after security of course! Within minutes we got to grips with their excellent development documentation and were blown away by the simplicity of their backend management of transactions. Everything is easy to find and it's all in simple plain language, presented in a sleek modern layout. Even for the most inexperienced of users its incredibly simple to leverage what are normally considered "power user" payment features such as reoccurring payments or subscriptions with multiple price tiers, but the most exciting part for us, is that they're just getting started!!" 

Update 3rd September 2013: Stripe pricing has changed making it more competitive.