Do you own an online business, and you’ve been looking for the most effective way to receive payments from your clients? Or perhaps you’re looking for a trustworthy web/mobile application that you can use as your primary means of sending and receiving funds in and out of your country?
Out of an ocean of many financial services that primarily provide online payment methods, Stripe and Payoneer are two names that are steadily increasing in popularity and patronage.
Although Stripe and Payoneer share many similarities in their primary function which is to provide a safe and easy platform for its users to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online, there are still many differences between the two and the differences determine which one of them will be ideal for you.
In this article, we’d look at their key features, what makes each one stand out, their level of security as well as responsiveness and helpfulness of their customer support. At the end of this article, you would have more than enough information to choose your pick- Stripe or Payoneer.
Brief History
Stripe was founded barely over a decade ago in 2010 by Irish entrepreneur brothers John and Patrick Collison. Today, Stripe has done so well that it is known as one of the preferred methods of payment by some of the biggest companies in the world such as Amazon, Uber, Spotify, and Github amongst many others.
Stripe is not exactly like digital wallets like Paypal or even Payoneer, Stripe is an application built by developers that comes in very handy for developers and regular users as well. If you want to build a website for your business for example and you want to be able to accept payments globally then you’re looking for a service like Stripe.
Payoneer was founded in 2005 and it is a digital wallet that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and, provides customers with working capital.
Payoneer prides itself in providing a simple and transparent pricing system which we will elaborate further on in the Transfer Fees, Exchange Rates, and Transaction Time section of this article.
Interface
You can run your business from your pocket with the Stripe mobile app which is available on ios and android devices. You can keep track of your business, view your earnings, and easily compare current business performance to historical data with their mobile app,
Going through the website, once you sign up with Stripe and do the usual first steps which include verifying your email, and activating your account. You will have access to your dashboard which displays all the information that you will need such as your user profile and user statistics.
Stripe also makes use of various charts to show you an overview of your activity.
Payoneer offers a web and mobile application. When you sign up through the website, the first question you’d be asked is what you do and what you’re looking to use your Payoneer. By doing this, Payoneer offers an intuitive interface that is tailored to create an account with them that perfectly suits your needs.
After that, you’d provide other information like your contact information, security details, and a legal means of identification. Once your account is verified by Payoneer, then you’re good to go ahead and use their services.
A mobile app is also available on android and ios devices so you can make your transactions from your phone. Although you can make use of all the services conveniently with their web version, Payoneer encourages users to download the mobile app in order to have a screenshot of all your business payments right in your pocket.
Stripe Services
Stripe Products
Since Stripe is not just a digital wallet but is in fact a financial service provider, it enlists a number of items as products. Essentially these are the services that Stripe offers and the operations they involve themselves in.
These products include payments, financial services, and business operations. The payment products include Online payments, Terminal In-person payments, Connect (Payments for platforms), Billing, and Invoicing.
The financial services offered are issuing a Corporate Card for Spending money management, Providing Capital in form of loans for users Business financing, and Stripe Treasury which is a banking-as-a-service API that lets you embed financial services in your marketplace.
Finally, Stripe offers four products as part of their business operations: Stripe Radar, Stripe Sigma, Stripe Atlas, and Stripe Climate.
Each of these products is innovative and useful to you and to your business. Stripe products are intended to empower your business not merely focusing simply on sending and receiving money.
Stripe Radar helps detect and block fraud for your business using machine learning. Stripe Sigma is all about analyzing your business’s data and is mostly useful to developers and data analysts. With Stripe Atlas, you can launch your start-up from anywhere in the world and Join thousands of founders from more than 140 countries who have formed their companies using Stripe Atlas.
Want to make a contribution to creating a safer climate? Stripe Climate connects you with a growing group of ambitious businesses which you can be a part of that are on the course of carbon removal.
As great as this sounds, there is a Stripe drawback which we look into a bit further down the line.
Stripe for e-Commerce
If you’re into eCommerce and you need a convenient method for payments then this will appeal to you. Stripe provides all the tools you need to accept payments online and in-person from customers around the world making it one of the smartest choices to go with if you run an online business.
Even better, made available are the Stripe plugins which you can make use of on your website through platforms like Woocommerce, WordPress, and other publishing and eCommerce platforms.
You can easily add Stripe to your eCommerce site with just one simple integration. With Stripe you can build a checkout process on your website from the scratch, or select one of their pre-built templates.
International Transfers
Stripe is available for business in 40+ countries. To make international transactions you may make use of your Stripe card if you ordered one or you can make the transfer through your account from the web or mobile application.
Stripe charges a 1% fee for international transfers plus 30¢ for cross-border transactions, an additional 1% fee will apply if currency conversion is required for example if you’re sending money in USD to a recipient using a EUR account.
Like stated Strips is available only in 40+ countries with no African countries included. Good news is that Stripe recently acquired Paystack and are working to expand their services across Africa and the whole world.
Transfer Fees, Exchange Rates and Transaction Time
The transfer price is the same for all cards and digital wallet payments. Stripe charges a fixed fee of 2.9%, plus 30¢, per successful card charge. An extra 1% is charged for international cards, and an extra +1% if currency conversion is required.
Stripe provides various packages in form of products which include Stripe Connect, Stripe Radar, Stripe Atlas, and Stripe Climate, Stripe Terminal, and Stripe Terminal. All these services have varied plans and are priced fairly. If you’re interested you can find out more about Stripe Pricing and fees.
Customer Support
Stripe provides 24/7 phone support, email support as well as a help section and community forum for its users. Stripe may be extremely popular and may provide really efficient services but, their customer support is lacking.
There are several complaints about their poor support but, so far Stripe doesn’t seem to be making any major changes to make this better yet. Hopefully this happens soon and Stripe can be appreciated for its many many services,
Security
Stripe has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry.
Stripe ensures that all sensitive data of its users are encrypted. According to their security division; ‘All card numbers are encrypted at rest with AES-256. Decryption keys are stored on separate machines. None of Stripe’s internal servers and daemons can obtain plaintext card numbers but can request that cards are sent to a service provider on a static allowlist. Stripe’s infrastructure for storing, decrypting, and transmitting card numbers runs in a separate hosting environment, and doesn’t share any credentials with Stripe’s primary services.’
Drawback
Stripe is all too popular for being invasive and holding users’ money. In the cause of trying to prevent fraud and to keep fraudulent merchants out, Stripe takes it upon themselves to hold funds in ‘Reserve accounts’, freeze payments and leave instant payments pending for inconsistent periods of time.
Freezing of funds and similar money regulations are seen in other services like Stripe too but, parts of the things that makes it worse is the absence of helpful customer support plus the fact that multiple users have been victims of this and contribute to the massive number of bad reviews that Stripe tends to attract.
Currencies Supported by Stripe
Stripe supports 135+ currencies. You can check to see the list of all the currencies supported by Stripe.
Payoneer Services
International Transfers
Payoneer supports 200+ countries and 40+ currencies. So just like Skrill, you can send money to almost anywhere in the world but, it would have to be on one of the supported countries which we listed out in the currencies supported by Payoneer section.
A really helpful service that Payoneer offers is the Payoneer debit card (Mastercard). Depending on your location you will be able to order the card during the application process or from your online account once the application process is completed.
Transfer Fees, Exchange Rates and Transaction Time
Payoneer is very transparent with its transfer fees and exchange rates although they are influenced by a plethora of factors.
Withdrawing funds into your bank account costs a fee of about 3% in most countries while the conversion fee is usually about 2% above mid-market rates.
To make a transfer from a payoneer account to another payoneer account is free. If the recipeint doesn’t have a payoneer and you’re making payment directly to their bank account, the charges could be up to 2%.
Receiving payments in European currencies and the UK is free but, if you’re receiving in the US, you’d be charged 1% when you receive funds.
Need more information about this? Find out more on Payoneer fees page.
Online Gambling
Payoneer can be used for online gambling purposes as well.
Although it’s highly inconvenient (pretty much impossible) to use your Payoneer wallet, a recommended method is to use the Payoneer MasterCard to make a deposit to online casino sites. You can order the card through your account and it goes for only $29.99.
There are some online gambling sites that accept payments and deposits through Payoneer. However, Payoneer debit cards are only allowed to have a maximum of $2,500. Players can get access to their accounts any time of the day in the countries supported by Payoneer.
Working Capital
In 2019, Payoneer launched Capital advance services for its American sellers. Capital Advance is the ideal cash flow management solution for eCommerce sellers.
According to their website, You’ll start by receiving Capital Advance Express cash boosts and Later, you may become eligible for larger Capital Advance Grow cash injections that will enable even more business growth. All their offers include a gradual settlement and one fixed fee so there are no surprises down the line.
So if you meet the requirements and you run a business in which you sell or provide a service to your customers, setting up a Payoneer account and performing your transactions through your Payoneer account will be a move that is sure to yield your business growth.
Find out all you need to know about this helpful service right here.
Skrill does not offer working capital provision to it’s users just in case you were wondering.
Payoneer for Freelancers
Payoneer is trusted by global freelancing markets like Upwork, Fiverr, People per hour and so many others. Even freelance content creators that display their work on platforms like Getty Images, iStock, and Pond5 all make use of Payoneer as one of their payment options.
If you’re a freelancer, signing up on Payoneer and using it as your means of receiving payments from almost anywhere in the world- is a smart choice for you. It’s very straightforward and they do not charge you any fees as the recipient, unlike most digital money transfer services.
Customer Support
Payoneer easily takes the cake when it comes to customer satisfaction thanks to their remarkable customer service. You can reach them via call, instant reports, email or chat live and they respond speedily. Most importantly- they actually solve the problem.
Security
Payoneer keeps all your data and information collected privately. Including your user statistics such as payment history, when you apply for a card and, places of purchase.
Payoneer uses 2-step verification to help ensure that no malicious actors are able to break into your account. 2-step verification adds an extra step to certain account-related activities by sending a code to your mobile device or via phone call, which you’ll need to enter before you can continue navigating through your account.
They place priority over users information and privacy. For more information on this, check out their security centre.
Currencies supported by Payoneer are as follows:
Australian dollar(AUD), Euro(EUR), Bahamian dollar(BSD), Bangladeshi taka(BDT), Brazilian real(BRL), Bulgarian lev(BGN), Canadian dollar(CAD), Chinese yuan(CNY), Costa Rican colón(CRC), Croatian kuna(HRK), Czech koruna(CZK), Danish krone(DKK), Egyptian pound(EGP), Gibraltar pound(GIP), Hong Kong dollar(HKD), Hungarian forint(HUF), Icelandic króna(ISK), Indian rupee(INR), Indonesian rupiah(IDR), Israeli new shekel(ILS), Japanese yen(JPY), Kenyan shilling(KES), Swiss franc(CHF), Malaysian ringgit(MYR), Mexican peso(MXN), Moroccan dirham(MAD), New Zealand dollar(NZD), Norwegian krone(NOK), Pakistani rupee(PKR), Philippine peso(PHP), Polish zloty(PLN), Romanian leu(RON), Russian ruble(RUB), RSD – Serbian dinar(RSD), Singapore dollar(SGD), South African rand(ZAR), Sri Lankan rupee(LKR), South Korean won(KRW), Swedish krona(SEK), Thai baht(THB), Turkish lira(TRY), Ukrainian hryvnia(UAH), United Arab Emirates dirham(AED), British pound(GBP), Vietnamese dong(VND), and United States Dollar(USD).
Final Verdict
Comparing Payoneer to Stripe feels like we’re belittling Stripe a little bit. Because Stripe provides such extensive services that are more than just sending and receiving money. But if we had to pick- it’ll still be Payoneer. Why?
Because Payoneer provides excellent customer service and the chances of losing your money are low. In fact, it is uncommon when dealing with Payoneer.
If you need a service that Payoneer does not offer but, Stripe does like a plugin for your eCommerce site or contributing to better the climate with Stripe Climate, then you should definitely try Stripe.
Finally, Stripe is a packed financial service web application with significant drawbacks that hold it back while Payoneer provides simpler services and customer satisfaction.
