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Stripe vs TransferWise: What are the differences?

Introduction

Stripe and TransferWise are both popular financial technology companies that provide online payment processing and international money transfer services respectively. While they both offer solutions in the financial sector, there are certain key differences between the two platforms that set them apart.

  1. User Interface and Experience: Stripe primarily focuses on providing payment processing services for businesses, offering a seamless integration into websites and apps. It offers a comprehensive set of tools and features designed for developers, allowing them to easily incorporate payment functionalities into their platforms. On the other hand, TransferWise focuses on international money transfers, providing a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of sending money across borders. It offers transparent and low-cost currency conversion rates, making it a popular choice for individuals and businesses needing to transfer money internationally.

  2. Supported Payment Methods: Stripe offers a wide range of payment methods, including credit cards, digital wallets, and even cryptocurrency. It supports major credit and debit card providers, such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. In contrast, TransferWise primarily supports bank transfers and digital wallets for sending and receiving money. While it allows users to make payments using their debit or credit cards, the options are more limited compared to Stripe.

  3. Business Model: Stripe mainly operates as a payment processor, earning revenue through transaction fees and other payment-related services. It targets businesses of all sizes, ranging from small startups to large enterprises. On the other hand, TransferWise operates as a peer-to-peer money transfer service, providing users with competitive exchange rates and low fees for international transfers. TransferWise's revenue model hinges on currency conversion charges and small transfer fees.

  4. Settlement Times and Currencies: When it comes to settlement times, Stripe usually transfers funds to the connected bank account within two business days. This allows businesses to have quicker access to their funds. In contrast, TransferWise typically transfers funds within one to two business days for most currencies, but it can take even longer for certain exotic currencies. Additionally, TransferWise supports a wide range of currencies, allowing users to send and receive money in various local currencies, whereas Stripe is primarily focused on major global currencies.

  5. Integration and Customization: Stripe provides extensive API documentation and developer tools, allowing businesses to integrate its payment processing services seamlessly into their existing platforms. It provides more customization options for businesses wanting to tailor the payment experience to their specific needs. TransferWise, while offering its own API for businesses, primarily focuses on providing a simple user interface and doesn't offer as much customization.

  6. Geographical Availability: Stripe is available in over 43 countries, making it accessible to businesses worldwide. It supports localized payment methods and currencies for each country it operates in. TransferWise, on the other hand, has wider geographical reach, covering more than 70 countries and supporting numerous currencies. This makes TransferWise a more suitable choice for individuals and businesses with international money transfer needs.

In summary, Stripe primarily focuses on providing payment processing services for businesses with a developer-centric approach, while TransferWise specializes in international money transfers with a user-friendly interface. Stripe offers a wide range of payment methods and focuses on integrating with existing platforms, while TransferWise primarily supports bank transfers and offers competitive currency conversion rates. Stripe has faster settlement times for major currencies, while TransferWise has wider geographical availability.

Decisions about Stripe and TransferWise
Lucas Litton
Founder & CEO at Macombey · | 4 upvotes · 288K views

We use GoCardless to simplify the way clients and partners pay for our services. What intrigued us is the quick and easy ACH feature that gives our clients the option to log in with their bank account and shoot the funds directly to our account. The fee, compared to Stripe is less. Stripe and PayPal charge 2.9% + 30c and Stripe also forces the client to enter in all of their payment details manually and then if the payment doesn't work, the client has to try all over again. GoCardless charges 1% + 25c which is much more reasonable dealing with the large projects that we are currently working on.

We integrate GoCardless with Xero to easily send out quick invoices, receive the funds and track all revenue in one place.

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With COVID-19 looming over us, businesses are, more than ever, looking for ways to set up online payments.

And having recently gone through implementing both Stripe and GoCardless to get monthly subscriptions set up and automated on my company website, I felt there was no better time to write this blog post!

If you're currently looking at working with a Payment Gateway provider API, or you're currently working with one but are not a fan, are looking to automate things a bit more, or are just generally thinking about changing, then you should have a read of my latest blog post where I compare Stripe and GoCardless.

I compare APIs in depth, specifically the subscription checkout flow that both offer (they're very similar, with some BIG differences).

There are plenty of code examples on how to set it up in a Node.js environment and right at the end, I rate each API based on the following factors:

  • API ease of use
  • API documentation
  • Payment pages
  • Costs / fees
  • Security
  • Developer appeal
  • Customer experience
  • Free Trial

So feel free to check it out, and I hope you like it. Please leave any feedback as it is very helpful. Thanks!

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Stripe was made with developers in mind first so the extensibility of it is great! This makes it very easy for us to integrate and automate as much as we need with its APIs and SDK. It allows a lot of customization of exactly what we need to build our applications. They also manage all of our customers from a tax and accounting perspective which makes it easy from a business standpoint.

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Pros of Stripe
Pros of TransferWise
  • 302
    Easy setup
  • 292
    Developer friendly
  • 248
    Well-designed api
  • 191
    Great documentation
  • 169
    Clear pricing
  • 75
    Secure
  • 74
    Reliable
  • 63
    Full integration with webhooks
  • 43
    Amazing api
  • 38
    Great customer support
  • 11
    Easy
  • 6
    Credit cards never hit your server - no pci worries
  • 5
    Recurring billing
  • 4
    No merchant account/gateway required
  • 3
    BitCoin
  • 3
    Easy to integrate
  • 2
    Support for SCA (Strong Customer Authentication)
  • 2
    Fast UI
  • 2
    Great app
  • 1
    Beautiful
  • 1
    Payments without own backend (using Stripe Products)
  • 1
    Connect
  • 1
    Checkout.js
  • 1
    Great UI
  • 1
    So easy to use
  • 4
    Best exchange rates
  • 3
    Fast
  • 2
    API Support

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Cons of Stripe
Cons of TransferWise
  • 4
    Connect
  • 2
    CANNOT withdraw USD to a Canadian Bank Account
  • 2
    Does NOT have a currency conversion option like Paypal
  • 2
    They keep 25% of the income for 60 days
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

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    What is Stripe?

    Stripe makes it easy for developers to accept credit cards on the web.

    What is TransferWise?

    It bypasses pricey international payments entirely by using two local transfers instead of one international transaction. If you want to convert your pounds to euros, you send the money in pounds to its UK-based account.

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    What companies use Stripe?
    What companies use TransferWise?
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    What tools integrate with Stripe?
    What tools integrate with TransferWise?

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