Braintree vs. Stripe: Choosing the Best Payment Processor

As a website development company, we have successfully integrated various payment processing solutions tailored to the unique requirements of businesses. A few of our highly preferred payment processors are Stripe and Braintree, a subsidiary of PayPal. We’ve discovered that Braintree and Stripe offer benefits to businesses of all sizes, from large and complex businesses to smaller ones. We’ll dive into some of the major differences between these payment processors below.

Braintree has an easy setup with a main account that can make sub-accounts for sellers on your marketplace. It also supports Maestro, a popular credit card in Europe, making it good for global businesses. However, some developers might find Braintree’s documentation and API a bit harder to use compared to Stripe. Stripe’s documentation is clear and easy to understand, which helps developers integrate payments into websites or apps more easily.

Security Measures and Customer Support:

All payment processors offer layers of security. Braintree offers several security measures, including algorithms and patterns to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in real-time which protects both business owners and customers alike. Stripe on the other hand, uses a fraud protection tool they created, called Stripe Radar, which utilizes advanced machine learning algorithms and data analysis to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions in real-time. Another difference between the two are that Braintree offers customer support Monday – Friday during business hours only while Stripe has a dedicated team to handle customer support issues 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ecommerce Integration:

Both Braintree and Stripe integrate with popular ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce. At Watermelon, our preferred website framework is WordPress, and we utilize WooCommerce as our primary plugin. Fortunately, Braintree and Stripe both offer support for these platforms, ensuring smooth payment processing for our clients.

Pricing:

1. No Setup Costs or Recurring Fees: Both Stripe and Braintree don’t require any setup costs or monthly fees for using their payment services.
2. Standard Transaction Fees: They both charge a standard fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 for most transactions involving major credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets.
3. International Transactions: For transactions with non-US currencies and credit cards from outside the US, both Stripe and Braintree add an extra 1%. However, Braintree has a slightly lower fee for ACH payments, charging 0.75% compared to Stripe’s 0.80%.
4. Disputes and Chargeback Fees: Both Stripe and Braintree charge a $15 fee per transaction for disputes and chargebacks. However, Stripe offers a more advanced anti-fraud solution, helping to reduce fraudulent payments and chargebacks.
5. Refund Fees: Neither Stripe nor Braintree charge fees for processing refunds. However, they don’t refund the original transaction fees, except for Braintree accounts created before August 2018.

Overall, there isn’t a huge difference between Braintree and Stripe. They both have extensive security measures in place and are fairly easy to implement. Stripe might have a slight advantage over Braintree for its security and developer-friendly features, however, Braintree might be the right choice if you have customers worldwide. Both payment processors are a popular choice for businesses of all sizes looking for a reliable payment processing solutions.