12 Best PayPal Alternatives & Competitors (2026)

Stripe is a leading payment processor offering global card, ACH, and subscription billing tools used by many B2B platforms. It excels at developer-friendly APIs and high-volume transaction handling but provides no native trade credit or credit-risk assumption. Companies seeking Balance-like net terms must integrate separate financing partners, adding complexity and potential approval drop-off that Balance eliminates with its unified AI underwriting and order-to-cash automation.

Brex provides corporate cards and spend management primarily for startups and finance teams. It offers some vendor payment features but no embedded B2B BNPL or trade credit solutions for marketplaces. Users seeking Balance replacements discover Brex does not handle buyer financing approvals, collections automation, or seller risk mitigation.

Wise (formerly TransferWise) provides international transfers with mid-market exchange rates and transparent low fees. It supports bank transfers to many African countries and offers multi-currency accounts with local details in several currencies. Compared to Afriex, Wise generally has broader global reach and stronger business features but may not match Afriex's sub-20-second delivery speed for African corridors or its credit-builder tool.

Nubank Mexico provides digital checking accounts, credit cards and personal loans to individuals and small businesses. Its strength is a simple app with no-fee transfers and rewards programs. Compared with Fondeadora it offers broader consumer credit products but does not advertise the same 72-hour 10-million-peso business credit line or dedicated freelancer yield accounts; it focuses more on mass-market personal banking than specialized enterprise cash-flow tools.

Stripe is a full-stack payments platform offering cards, ACH, Bacs and international transfers alongside powerful subscription billing tools. It provides broader global card acceptance than GoCardless but typically charges higher fees for bank payments. Teams that need one dashboard for both cards and Direct Debit often run Stripe next to or instead of GoCardless.

Ramp emphasizes corporate card automation and savings through receipt matching and policy controls. Its focus remains on buyer spend rather than seller-offered net terms or marketplace financing. Compared with Balance, Ramp lacks the infrastructure for high-approval trade credit, white-label buyer experiences, and full order-to-cash reconciliation.

Nubank Mexico provides digital checking accounts, credit cards and personal loans to individuals and small businesses. Its strength is a simple app with no-fee transfers and rewards programs. Compared with Fondeadora it offers broader consumer credit products but does not advertise the same 72-hour 10-million-peso business credit line or dedicated freelancer yield accounts; it focuses more on mass-market personal banking than specialized enterprise cash-flow tools.

Stripe is a leading payment infrastructure platform used by millions of businesses for online transactions, subscriptions, and global payouts. It offers extensive APIs, fraud prevention, and billing tools with transparent pricing starting from standard rates plus optional add-ons. Compared to Payflow, Stripe provides broader developer resources and ecosystem integrations but relies more on configuration than built-in AI for flow optimization, making it ideal for high-growth companies prioritizing scalability over intelligent automation.

Stripe is a global payment infrastructure platform popular with SaaS and marketplaces. It excels at subscriptions, international cards and multi-currency payouts with strong developer APIs. Compared to Razorpay, Stripe offers weaker native UPI and Rupay coverage in India and lacks built-in payroll automation, making it less ideal for purely domestic Indian merchants but stronger for cross-border startups that need global settlement without an Indian entity.

Stripe offers global payments infrastructure with extensive APIs, billing, and radar fraud tools. Unlike Safepay's orchestration focus and Raast emphasis, Stripe pushes users toward its own rails but provides deeper international coverage and more mature subscription analytics for scaling SaaS teams.

Square focuses on in-person and online payments with easy hardware integration and basic online checkout tools. It suits small retailers better than Stripe's enterprise focus but lacks Stripe's global currency support, advanced billing, and platform embedding capabilities for high-growth tech companies.