The 8 best alternatives to GoCardless for French businesses in 2025

Taking payments with GoCardless, but not quite satisfied? Life is too short to settle for a subpar payment processor!

That might sound a little dramatic, but it’s certainly true that the choices are too great for you to settle for payments that don’t feel perfect.

You have dozens, probably hundreds, of options for payment processing. GoCardless does some things well, but if it’s not meeting your needs, you should look elsewhere. If that idea feels overwhelming, then this article will help. Eight alternatives, analysed and compared, with a detailed look at what each one does best. Let’s go.

What is GoCardless?

GoCardless is a B2B payment processor, specialising in bank-to-bank methods.

They use Open Banking to process payments directly between bank accounts, either as one-off transactions or on a recurring basis (e.g. for subscriptions).

Why French businesses are exploring GoCardless alternatives in 2025

GoCardless offers a valuable service: Payment processing that is low-cost and high reliability. That doesn’t mean it is faultless, though.

Desk research and review analysis reveal some common issues:

• Strict restricted activities list.

• 5000 EUR limit (per transaction).

• Limited to bank payments, no credit, debit, or charge cards.

• Collections from 30 countries, fewer than some alternatives.

• Multiple TrustPilot reviews mention unexpected account freezes or closures.

• GoCardless’ pricing is competitive (lowest price is 1% + 0,20 EUR), but it’s not strictly the cheapest.

Six key things to look for in a GoCardless alternative

For an alternative to be viable, it’s going to need to do the basics of what GoCardless does – as well as some useful extras.

Any alternative you consider should offer, at a minimum, the following:

1. SEPA and EUR support. This is simple, but can be missed. Some payment processors only handle USD or GBP, for example.

2. Limits on the value and volume of transactions.

3. Recurring billing or subscription-based capability.

4. Transparent pricing, benchmarked against GoCardless’ 1,0% + 0,20 EUR (lowest-priced plan).

5. Multi-currency support. Not every business will need this, but if you have any international customers or suppliers, this can be a great way to reduce costs.

6. Integrations with your accounting (and other) tools. Without an integration, you’ll have to manually reconcile your accounts. That can require hours of low-value work.

A quick look at the best GoCardless alternatives for French businesses

We’ve selected eight potential alternatives from across the market. This list isn’t exhaustive, but each provider has been chosen because they can be considered a realistic and valuable alternative to GoCardless.

Airwallex

The financial operating system for international businesses. Airwallex can do everything from payment processing to card issuance, global payouts (to over 200 countries), and mid-market FX.

SlimPay

Specialising in bank-to-bank payments, SlimPay can collect one-off or recurring payments via SEPA. SlimPay is one of the closest equivalents to GoCardless, given its focus on bank transfers.

Stripe

Stripe describes itself as a ‘financial infrastructure’ company, providing businesses with all the tools they need to manage and maximise their revenue.

Adyen

One of Europe’s largest payment processors, Adyen helps businesses accept payments, ‘protect revenue’, and gain more insights into their finances.

Chargebee

A billing and revenue management platform, Chargebee has a focus on subscriptions but offers a full suite of payment collection tools.

Recurly

Specialising in subscription processing and management, Recurly is focused entirely on recurring payments. As a payments orchestrator, Recurly processes payments via other payment gateways (some of whom are on this list).

Worldline

Thanks to its customer base of both merchants and financial institutions, Worldline has a range of highly technical products. That’s on top of all the usual payment processing functions you’d expect, including subscription billing.

Mollie

Mollie is focused on all things revenue, whether through payments, revenue collection, or embedding payments. They also offer loans of up to 250.000 EUR.

Comparing GoCardless and its top alternatives side-by-side

Now that we know our eight contenders to replace GoCardless, let’s look at them in a snapshot. The table below doesn’t tell you everything about these platforms, but it does provide a helpful overview of what they do and how they compare to each other.

A closer look at the top eight GoCardless alternatives in 2025

On first look, these GoCardless alternatives seem to be pretty similar. On the surface, they are. The differences only become clear when you look into the specifics of their full product range, their target markets, and how they operate.

Let’s look at each one in closer detail.

Airwallex

Airwallex should be the go-to choice if you need a full-service financial platform. In fact, even if all you need is subscription management, Airwallex should be near the top of your list. Highly competitive pricing, coupled with account management and great customer service, make it easy to get started.

Pros:

• Lowest per-transaction cost, based on available data.

• Comes with a suite of other financial tools, including multi-currency accounts, digital wallets, card issuance, and FX.

• Designed for businesses working across borders, making international trade affordable and accessible.

Cons:

• Subscriptions exist, but the Billing product is under development.

• Integrations with some accounting software, but not all of the most popular choices.

• Some features are only relevant to medium to large businesses, so could be overwhelming for smaller businesses.

Ideal use case:

• Any subscription business with customers in multiple countries.

SlimPay

Slim by name, slim by nature. SlimPay has a clear plan: Delivering recurring payments and doing it well. If you need fairly simple and inelastic payments, SlimPay serves as the perfect replacement for GoCardless.

Pros:

• Simple and intuitive product.

• A sub-brand of Trustly, which has a good reputation and backing.

• Narrow focus means lots of resources are devoted to a quality product.

Cons:

• No card payments.

• Pricing isn’t listed on their website, so costs are unclear.

• Narrow focus means a lack of functionality in other areas you might need.

Ideal use case:

• A business looking for the most similar alternative to GoCardless, without any extras.

Stripe

Stripe talks about offering “a fully integrated suite of financial and payments products”, which is hard to argue with. Stripe bundles together in-person and online payments, data, tax, billing, finance, spend, and issuance. It’s a financial behemoth.

Pros:

• Monthly or pay-as-you-go pricing available.

• If your business needs to do something financial, Stripe is likely to offer it.

• One of the biggest names in payments, with a good history of performance, uptime, and customer satisfaction.

Cons:

• Costs are relatively high, especially with monthly plans.

• The scale of its features can be overwhelming for more junior users.

• Can trap you in its ecosystem, making it hard to leave without changing many parts of your financial systems.

Ideal use case:

• A business with multiple revenue lines and methods for collecting their payments.

Adyen

One of Europe’s leading payment processors, Adyen could be thought of as Europe’s Stripe. Popular in its own right, Adyen also provides the backend processing for many payment gateway products.

Pros:

• Financial products for all business types, sizes, and use cases.

• Almost 20 years of experience, with continued growth (stock price +276,29% in its seven years since IPO).

• Holds a European banking license, meaning greater security and lower risk due to regulatory requirements.

Cons:

• Can feel excessive (or underused) if you only need it for subscription management.

• Similar to Stripe, its range of products can lead to you being trapped in its ecosystem.

• Unclear whether they charge a percentage fee on subscription revenue, or just transaction fee + payment method fee.

Ideal use case:

• A business taking payments across Europe, from many customers by many methods.

Chargebee

Focused on two key areas – “Billing and monetization” – Chargebee is a popular choice for businesses focusing on recurring revenue. 

Pros:

• Clever automation and split-testing features included.

• Initial free offer is attractive, allowing you to process over 250.000 EUR for free.

• Robust financial operations and reporting tools, complementing your accounting software.

Cons:

• Higher pricing than other options (after the free trial expires).

• Free plan doesn’t offer any integrations with accounting, CRM, or tax software.

• Most features are designed for businesses with high-volume or high-value transactions.

Ideal use case:

• A business that wants to optimise its revenues, largely coming from subscriptions.

Recurly

Recurly has been slowly building a portfolio of products that put it at the forefront of subscription management. Acquiring Prive and Redfast in May 2025 has helped Recurly expand into even more areas – at scale.

Pros:

• Can help you manage and improve every stage of the subscriber lifecycle.

• Offers a range of automations and efficiencies designed to help you iterate faster.

• Deep partner network, covering everything from accounting software to shipping couriers.

Cons:

• Focused on subscriptions, leaving other revenue streams untouched.

• Poor reviews often reference a lack of product customisation and flexibility.

• Pricing is relatively expensive when your subscription revenue exceeds 40.000 USD per month.

Ideal use case:

• A business that’s quickly growing subscription revenue and wants to maximise it.

Worldline

Reportedly the fourth largest payment service provider in the world, Worldline is a well-known name in payments. With a wide and deep range of products and the experience to back it up, Worldline is well-positioned to handle complex customers.

Pros:

• Per-transaction costs are favourable.

• Experienced with high-volume and high-value businesses.

• Unique understanding of payments, as they work with both merchants and financial institutions.

Cons:

• Monthly product costs are expensive.

• With such a large provider, it’s easy to feel like you’re a small fish in a big pond.

• Worldline shares were close to record lows in early 2025, having lost >90% of their value in the last five years.

Ideal use case:

• A business with complex payment needs or system integrations.

Mollie

Pushing for innovation across multiple spaces, Mollie is prioritising online payments, subscriptions, financing, reconciliation, and fraud prevention. They’re a fast-moving and creative company 

Pros:

• No monthly account cost (just processing fees) if you process less than 50.000 EUR per month.

• Recurring payments can be adapted to suit all kinds of subscription and X-aaS businesses.

• Comes with accounting tools, designed to make your bookkeeping streamlined in- and off-platform.

Cons:

• Its 0,35 EUR fee for SEPA payments is relatively expensive.

• Unclear if they charge a percentage fee on subscription revenue, as well as the processing fee.

• Generally targeting eCommerce businesses, which might leave B2B businesses feeling underserved.

Ideal use case:

• A business in eCommerce that processes under 50.000 EUR per month.

Choosing the right GoCardless alternative for your business model

All of these eight alternatives are worth your consideration, but some will stand out – specifically because of your business model. A catering supplier and a usage-based SaaS subscription have quite different needs.

Let’s break down the eight suggestions into closer detail, based on your business model.

How to switch from GoCardless to a new provider

If you’re feeling motivated to migrate from GoCardless to an alternatives platform, don’t rush straight into it.

Before you start, let’s make a checklist to ensure the process goes smoothly.

• Check the details, functionality, and validity of your:

  • Contracts

  • API dependencies

  • Mandate data

• Export all customer and payment information.

• Set up your account with your new provider, so you can iron out any onboarding issues in advance.

• Test some dummy SEPA direct debit flows and billing logic with your new provider before going live.

• Create (and execute) a communications plan to all customers, explaining the change and what will happen to their data.

  • Share as much information as you can, while keeping the key messages at the front and centre of all communications.

The aim with any tech migration is to minimise disruption, especially to any customer-facing elements of your business. Payments are the most vital interface you have with your customers, so you can’t afford for this to go wrong.

As a result, it’s highly likely that you’ll need to let your new provider overlap with GoCardless. This can cost some money, but it will save you incalculable amounts of stress, risk, and money compared to not doing it.

Why Airwallex is the best GoCardless alternative for French businesses

Clearly, there are a lot of great options you can choose from instead of GoCardless. We’ve presented all eight options, but now’s the time for us to explain Airwallex in a bit more detail.

As well as offering some of the lowest-cost subscription payments on this list, Airwallex can provide other products that help you make more money and keep it.

Combining subscription payments with local payment methods and a multi-currency account allows you to charge every customer the way they want. It also lets you hold their payments in their original currency. When it comes to converting your funds to EUR, you can do so with some of the lowest FX rates available.

Earn more, keep more, satisfy customers more.

Explore our subscription product or our wider payments capability.

Many options = many reasons to switch

The payments market is competitive, especially when it comes to processing subscriptions and recurring revenue.

If you aren’t happy with GoCardless, there’s no reason to stay with them. There are so many alternatives out there, at least one of them is going to offer more of what you need and less of what you don’t.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, you’ve got a better idea of the options you can choose from. If Airwallex looks like the choice for you, we’d love to have you on board.

Open an Airwallex account – with your first month free – now.

Disclaimer and references

The information in this article is based on our own online research in Q2 2025. Airwallex was not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed annually. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [[email protected]]. This information doesn’t take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs.

• https://www.slimpay.com/fr/solution-paiement-en-ligne/

• https://dev.slimpay.com/hapi/guide/checkout/setting-up-card-payments#:~:text=Card%20Payments%20%2D%20No%20Longer%20Available,our%20other%20available%20payment%20options.

• https://www.slimpay.com/fr/prelevement-sepa/

• https://stripe.com/fr/payments/payment-methods

• https://stripe.com/fr/billing

• https://stripe.com/fr/pricing#billing

• https://www.adyen.com/payment-methods?paymentMethodTypes=36srEuLv24qySybIXnSfNv

• https://www.adyen.com/industries/subscription

• https://www.adyen.com/fr_FR/tarifs

• https://www.chargebee.com/fr/recurring-payments/payment-methods/

• https://www.chargebee.com/fr/pricing/

• https://recurly.com/payment-options/

• https://recurly.com/product/recurring-billing/

• https://recurly.com/pricing/

• https://worldline.com/fr-fr/home/main-navigation/solutions/commercants/online-payments-full-service

• https://worldline.com/fr-fr/home/main-navigation/solutions/commercants/online-payments/paiements-recurrents

• https://worldline.com/fr-fr/home/main-navigation/solutions/merchants/online-payments-full-service

• https://www.mollie.com/fr/payments

• https://www.mollie.com/fr/products/recurring

• https://www.mollie.com/fr/pricing