Polar
Merchant-of-record billing platform for developers, built for usage-based and AI-era pricing.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for the Pro planOpen source noStars 10.4knpm a week 382k
Stripe alternatives
15 tools you can use instead of Stripe, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Polar, RevenueCat and Lago are the most used. Stats updated 5 hours ago.
Adyen and Braintree are the closest alternatives for card processing. Adyen is aimed at large global businesses, and Braintree is PayPal's platform with a single integration for cards, PayPal and Venmo. If you want someone else to be the merchant of record, compare Paddle and Polar.
When Stripe is not a good fit
Stripe is a financial infrastructure company that provides APIs for accepting online payments, managing subscriptions and handling other money movement such as marketplace payouts and fraud prevention. Businesses can integrate it without a monthly fee, paying instead per successful transaction. Standard US card payments cost 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful transaction.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Very high-volume, low-margin businesses where the flat percentage fee adds up, unless they negotiate custom pricing
- Businesses in countries or regions Stripe doesn't support
- Teams that want a free tier to test with real, live transactions, since every successful charge is billed
The alternatives
Most used first.
View Polar
RevenueCat
Subscription infrastructure for mobile apps: a unified backend for App Store, Play Store and web billing.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from 1% of monthly tracked revenue beyond the free $2,500 thresholdOpen source nonpm a week 1.1M
Lago
Open source billing and usage-based pricing platform, deployable self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from Custom pricing (Lago Premium, contact required)Open source yesStars 10.7k
Square
Payment processing and point-of-sale platform for in-person and online businesses.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $49 a month per location for the Plus planOpen source nonpm a week 446k
Adyen
Global payments platform for large businesses, with transaction-based pricing and no monthly fees.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.13 per transaction plus a payment-method-specific fee (for example Visa: $0.13 + interchange + 0.60%)Open source nonpm a week 329k
Paddle
Merchant-of-record billing platform for SaaS and digital products, with one flat transaction fee.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 5% + 50 cents per transactionOpen source nonpm a week 255k
Braintree
PayPal-owned payment platform for cards, PayPal, Venmo and digital wallets, with a single integration.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction (standard card rate)Open source nonpm a week 231k
Lemon Squeezy
Merchant-of-record platform for selling software, handling global tax and payments for you.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 5% + 50 cents per transaction, no monthly chargeOpen source nonpm a week 148k
Chargebee
Subscription billing and revenue management platform for recurring-revenue businesses.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from 0.80% of billing volume above $20,000 a month on the Flow planOpen source no
Gumroad
Simple storefront for selling digital products, courses and memberships directly to customers.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 5% + (3.5% + $0.30) per transactionOpen source no
Mercury
Online business banking for startups, with free checking, cards, treasury and accounting tools.
Pricing FreemiumOpen source no
PayPal
Widely used online payment platform for checkout, invoicing and peer-to-peer transfers.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction (domestic PayPal Checkout)Open source no
Paystack
Stripe-owned payment platform focused on Nigeria and other African markets.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 1.5% + ₦100 per transaction (Nigeria, local cards, capped at ₦2,000)Open source no
Razorpay
Indian payment gateway and business banking platform for accepting payments and making payouts.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 2% per successful payment plus GSTOpen source no
Wise
International money transfer and multi-currency account platform with low conversion fees.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from 0.24% per transfer or conversionOpen source no
Stripe and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Pay as you go | No: pay per successful transaction, no monthly fee on the standard plan | 2.9% + 30 cents per successful US card transaction | No | 4.5k |
| Polar | Freemium | Yes: the Starter plan has no monthly fee, only per-transaction fees | $20 a month for the Pro plan | No | 10.4k |
| RevenueCat | Freemium | Yes: free up to $2,500 in monthly tracked revenue | 1% of monthly tracked revenue beyond the free $2,500 threshold | No | None |
| Lago | Freemium | Yes: the open source edition is free to self-host | Custom pricing (Lago Premium, contact required) | Yes, AGPL-3.0 (open source edition) | 10.7k |
| Square | Freemium | Yes: Square Free plan with pay-as-you-go processing rates and no monthly fee | $49 a month per location for the Plus plan | No | None |
| Adyen | Pay as you go | No free plan; there are no setup or monthly fees, only per-transaction charges | $0.13 per transaction plus a payment-method-specific fee (for example Visa: $0.13 + interchange + 0.60%) | No | None |
| Paddle | Pay as you go | No monthly fee on the standard plan; you only pay per transaction | 5% + 50 cents per transaction | No | None |
| Braintree | Pay as you go | No free tier, but no monthly or setup fees on the standard plan | 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction (standard card rate) | No | None |
| Lemon Squeezy | Pay as you go | Yes: no monthly fee, free to start with no credit card required | 5% + 50 cents per transaction, no monthly charge | No | None |
| Chargebee | Freemium | Yes: Flow plan is free up to $20,000 in monthly billing volume | 0.80% of billing volume above $20,000 a month on the Flow plan | No | None |
| Gumroad | Pay as you go | Yes, no monthly fee; you only pay per-transaction fees | 5% + (3.5% + $0.30) per transaction | No | None |
| Mercury | Freemium | Yes: checking and savings accounts have no monthly fee and no minimum balance | Not listed | No | None |
| PayPal | Pay as you go | No monthly fee for a standard business account; fees are per transaction | 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction (domestic PayPal Checkout) | No | None |
| Paystack | Pay as you go | No monthly fee; fees are charged per transaction | 1.5% + ₦100 per transaction (Nigeria, local cards, capped at ₦2,000) | No | None |
| Razorpay | Pay as you go | No monthly plan. Setup and annual fees are zero, and the pricing page advertises a free gateway for the first 90 days, with terms. | 2% per successful payment plus GST | No | None |
| Wise | Pay as you go | No monthly account fee for personal accounts; fees apply per transfer | 0.24% per transfer or conversion | No | None |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to Stripe?
By GitHub stars, Polar is the most used alternative to Stripe listed on ScratchDB, with 10.4k stars.
Which Stripe alternatives are open source?
Lago is open source.
Which Stripe alternatives have a free plan?
Polar, RevenueCat, Lago, Square, Lemon Squeezy, Chargebee, Gumroad and Mercury have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.