Stripe
Stripe Inc. (San Francisco/Dublin dual HQ), co-founded 2010 by Patrick and John Collison; still private, valued $159B after a February 2026 employee tender offer. Proprietary SaaS, pay-as-you-go, no monthly fee. US online cards: 2.9% + $0.30 (on a $100 sale: $3.20 fee, $96.80 net); +1.5% for internationally issued cards, +1% currency conversion; ACH Direct Debit 0.8% capped at $5; disputes cost a flat $15 regardless of outcome. API uses dated versioning — current release 2026-06-24 ("dahlia"), monthly backward-compatible updates; SDKs (stripe-node, stripe-python) are MIT-licensed on GitHub. Processed $1.9T total volume in 2025 (1.6% of global GDP); 1.5M live websites; half of Fortune 100 and 100+ customers clearing $1B+/yr. Current version/status: API 2026-06-24 "dahlia" (dated versioning, monthly backward-compatible releases). License: proprietary SaaS (open-source SDKs, e.g. stripe-node/stripe-python, MIT-licensed). Pricing: No monthly fee, pay-as-you-go: US online cards 2.9% + $0.30 (+1.5% international, +1% currency conversion), in-person Terminal 2.7% + $0.05, ACH Direct Debit 0.8% capped at $5, disputes $15 flat, Billing subscriptions 0.7% pay-as-you-go or from $620/mo on a 1-year contract. Maintained by Stripe, Inc. (private company; co-founders Patrick Collison, CEO, and John Collison, President).
Pick Stripe when you're a SaaS or marketplace that wants payments-as-a-product: Billing, Connect, and Radar ship as one API, and the dated-version upgrade model means integrations don't rot. Don't pick it at high volume (Adyen's interchange-plus beats Stripe's flat 2.9%+30c once you're past a few million/mo) or in restricted verticals — Stripe and PayPal both actively terminate high-risk merchants (CBD, gambling, adult), pushing them to PaymentCloud or eMerchantBroker instead. Stripe's own docs concede Terminal in-person coverage lags Square and Adyen for omnichannel retail. The $15 flat dispute fee hits regardless of whether you win the chargeback — that's the line most new merchants miss. Known weakness: The $15 dispute fee is charged regardless of whether the merchant wins the chargeback, and Stripe (like PayPal) will terminate accounts in high-risk verticals rather than support them.
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