For very long time I have everytime seen Stripe and PayPal mentioned when someone is looking for "good" payment processing.
My question is, does the entire world is using Stripe and PayPal or are there any good alternatives to them for mainstream business. Business that is accepted by Stripe and PayPal can be placed everywhere I would say!
Short answer YES.
However, it really depends on an infinite number of different factors and personal preferences.
Stripe probably has the easiest onboarding when it comes to PSPs, plus depending on the country "you're operating from" you have a lot of different payment options right from the start. (Not just CC but also local options mostly)
The fast onboarding is also the biggest problem imo, if you scale quickly, for example, you can be pretty sure that Stripe will set your account for "reviews" and might even decide to close it without you being able to do much about it.
Stripe is also not the best partner when it comes to issues, the support feels like "Indian call centre" and in the end it is your money that is on hold and they seem not care about it too much.
Depending on what kind of business model you have, which markets you operate in, where you run your business from, which payment options you need and which "system" your business runs on, there are certainly better alternatives imo.
Stripe is a relatively simple "plug and play" solution and you have many options to get started, but I think there are better alternatives, especially if you want to "run" more volume or are certain which markets work best for you.
Personally, I used to work a lot in D2C with Mollie (GER,AT, CH), they were stricter and sometimes quite meticulous in onboarding, but cheaper in fees and more "reliable" if there were problems, for example. (2021)
PS: You can't really get rid of PayPal if u need it for your business model, "PayPal is just different" depending on which jurisdiction the account is located. (E.G You can have PayPal integrated via Mollie but it doesn't really change something, while the jurisdiction where the PayPal Account is located can)
