Stripe vs PayPal fees for SaaS - which is actually cheaper?

We're doing $50K/month in subscription revenue on PayPal. Considering switching to Stripe because everyone says it's better, but are the fees actually lower?

Our breakdown:

• Average transaction: $79/month subscription
• 600 active subscribers
• Low churn (~3% monthly)
• Mostly credit card, some ACH

PayPal charges us 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. I've heard Stripe is the same but heard there are hidden fees. Anyone know the real comparison?

The headline rates are identical (2.9% + $0.30), but the REAL cost comparison includes:

Stripe additional costs:

• Billing: FREE (included)
• Invoicing: FREE
• Radar (fraud): 0.05% per transaction if enabled
• Failed payment recovery: FREE
• International cards: +1%

PayPal additional costs:

• Recurring billing: FREE with basic plan
• Failed payment retries: Manual or pay for advanced features
• Disputes: $15 fee per chargeback
• Currency conversion: 3-4% markup

For your $50K/month with low churn, you're paying about $1,480/month in PayPal fees. Stripe would be roughly the same unless you enable Radar ($25 extra/month).

Use fee calculators to model your specific volume - Stripe calculator and PayPal calculator.

The real difference isn't fees, it's capabilities. Stripe's subscription management is WAY better than PayPal's:

• Smart retry logic for failed payments (recovers 30-40% automatically)
• Prorated upgrades/downgrades
• Trial periods with automatic conversion
• Usage-based billing
• Better APIs and webhooks

We switched from PayPal to Stripe and recovered an extra 2.5% in revenue just from better failed payment handling. That paid for any fee difference instantly.

@RevenueOps_Pro - 2.5% revenue recovery from failed payments? That's huge. We lose about $4K/month to failed cards that we manually chase.

If Stripe recovers even half of that automatically, it's worth way more than any fee difference.

One hidden cost people miss: reserves and holds.

PayPal is notorious for surprise reserves (10-25% of transactions held for 90+ days). Stripe does this too but tends to be more predictable.

If you're growing fast, you WILL get a reserve at some point. PayPal's can be brutal. Make sure you model the cash flow impact.

DECISION: Switching to Stripe in January. Here's why:

• Fees basically identical
• Better subscription management will recover lost revenue
• API integration with our CRM is way cleaner
• Lower risk of surprise reserves (from what I'm hearing)

Will report back in Q1 on how it goes. Thanks everyone for the insights.