Top Stripe alternatives for SaaS companies in 2026

Key takeaways

• SaaS companies are searching for lower costs, better or more personalised customer service, and more flexible and varied features than Stripe offers.

• Flexible billing models, fair pricing, great customer service, and the widest possible payment coverage matter for every SaaS.

• Airwallex offers a unique package of payment acceptance, recurring billing, international coverage, and a suite of financial infrastructure tools that help SaaS companies grow at home and abroad.

Whether you’re shopping for the lowest fees, seeking greater international coverage, or looking for a higher level of customer service, there are many reasons to consider Stripe alternatives. Whatever your reason, there are lots of providers available and you’re doing good due diligence by exploring them.

In this article, you’ll find the information you need to narrow the search and understand what’s out there. We’ll show you seven alternatives, what they can do for you, and help you create a clear plan of action for choosing the Stripe alternative for your SaaS.

Top Stripe alternatives for SaaS companies in 2026

We’ve selected these providers to give you a great cross-section of different payment processing and financial infrastructure prowess for SaaS companies. There are other options, of course, so we’ll go on to explain how to do more of your own research, too.

Airwallex

Airwallex builds the financial infrastructure that growing businesses need to take on the world. Products include business accounts, payment processing, spend management, embedded finance, and accounts receivable and payable features. You can use Airwallex as your sole platform for growth or integrate it with other systems.

Great for: Any SaaS with international customers and vendors.

Adyen

One of Europe’s biggest payment processors, Adyen is coming up to 20 years in business. Being geared towards businesses with annual payment revenues above £5 million, smaller SaaS companies might want to look elsewhere.

Great for: Large- and enterprise-scale SaaS.

Dodo Payments

Launched in 2023 in India, Dodo is a relatively new name in SaaS payments but has grown to serve over 15,000 customers. Dodo also acts as a Merchant of Record, simplifying your payments process. Billing models even include tokens for AI usage.

Great for: SaaS with a focus on AI products.

Paddle

Paddle was built as a Merchant of Record specifically for SaaS companies, with a strong focus on recurring billing and retention (through dunning and data analysis).

Great for: SaaS companies that want a plug-and-play solution.

Mollie

Mollie is more of a payments generalist – handling in-person payments, as well as checkouts, recurring billing, and invoices. They also offer access to capital, which is a Stripe feature not many on this list offer.

Great for: Businesses with a variety of products, including SaaS.

GoCardless

GoCardless is a Direct Debit specialist, taking automatic payments from customers’ bank accounts. Direct Debits are reliable and relatively low-cost, but come with limitations including geographic coverage, no capacity for usage-based billing, and a lack of payment methods.

Great for: Simple, flat-fee SaaS billing with a UK bias.

Lemon Squeezy

Lemon Squeezy is an all-in-one platform for SaaS – handling payments, marketing, and even websites. It also offers interesting extras, including license key management and secure download links. One caveat: In 2024, Lemon Squeezy was acquired by Stripe¹, so it isn’t technically outside the Stripe ecosystem.

Great for: An one-stop-shop for running and marketing your SaaS.

Comparing Stripe vs leading alternatives side-by-side

There are so many nuances to SaaS financial platforms, one table will never be enough. Instead, the comparison below uses four specific features that will help you classify these providers across important metrics.

How Airwallex compares to Stripe for SaaS payments

On the all-important cost front, Airwallex’s fees for debit card payments are 13% lower. (1.30% + 0.20 GBP vs. 1.50% + 0.20 GBP).

Sending money with Airwallex is cheaper, too. As an example, sending £1,000 to an Indian rupee account would cost £10 with Airwallex (1% FX fee and free transfer using local rails) vs. £28 with Stripe (0.50 GBP transaction fee + 0.75% cross-border fee + 2% FX fee). ⁸

Currency coverage is almost identical (137 ⁹ vs. 135 ¹⁰), but Airwallex dwarfs Stripe’s local acquiring capabilities (60+ countries vs. 46 ¹¹).

On a technical level, Airwallex is optimised to work within a modular fintech stack. Easily integrating with different platforms, there’s no vendor lock-in. We’ve built our API to be as powerful as it is flexible.

Why SaaS companies look for Stripe alternatives in 2026

We’ve looked at the alternatives to Stripe, but we haven’t discussed why SaaS companies are considering them. Stripe is a great platform, but it’s not without its issues.

Firstly, Stripe’s payment and international transfer fees are relatively high (as shown above).

Stripe is so popular that only the very largest businesses enjoy personalised service and account management. As TrustPilot’s summary of reviews notes: “Consumers frequently mention poor communication and unhelpful customer service.” ¹²

Payouts with Stripe are daily, weekly, monthly, or manual.¹³ Their typical payout speed is T+3 days.¹⁴ Instant Payouts are reserved for eligible customers. Airwallex settlement time is between T+1 and T+3, but there’s a more important point to be made here. Your funds settle directly into your business account. There’s no need for you to move your funds from a merchant account to your main business account – it’s all the same place with Airwallex. So you can spend your earnings sooner. ¹⁵

Vendor lock-in can sneak up on a business. Before you realise it, you’re trapped in an ecosystem and paying over the odds for products that aren’t quite yet. Even if relying solely on one platform is working for you, it creates a single point of failure for your SaaS. Diversification improves security.

What to look for in a Stripe alternative

You might want to review Stripe alternatives for your SaaS that we haven’t included in this article. That’s totally fair and it’s best to do your own research. When you do, keep these criteria in mind:

• Whether they offer Merchant of Record services or you’ll need a separate merchant account.

• Compliance with PCI DSS, data privacy regulations, and other regulatory requirements.

• Multi-currency payment acceptance and settlement via local payment methods.

• Support for recurring, subscription, metered, and usage-based billing.

• Integration with your accounting, CRM, and other systems.

• How complex integration is vs. your developer resources.

• Payout speed and geographic coverage.

• FX costs and general fee transparency.

Choosing the right alternative for your SaaS model

The nature of your SaaS company and product will determine your ‘best’ alternative to Stripe. Consider these factors to narrow down your search:

Growth stage

Early-stage SaaS companies need a lightweight, modular, and low-cost option. Scale-ups need more features and flexibility. Enterprise-scale SaaS requires a bespoke service. The stage you’re in will influence your choice of platform.

Acquisition and signup

Self-serve contracts – with the freedom to join, upgrade, downgrade, and cancel at will – work for simple products, but more complex use cases tend to use a sales-led approach. If that’s your SaaS, you need a platform that can accommodate billing for demos, trials, and bespoke models for enterprise customers.

Your billing model

You need a payment processor that can handle exactly how you do business. A simple, flat-fee subscription SaaS can use a platform like GoCardless. If you need usage-based or metered billing, you’ve already outgrown that option.

Billing and settlement currencies

SaaS is a global industry. You’ll have customers from all corners of the world – and those customers will have a similarly distributed list of vendors. Billing customers in their local currency leads to higher growth rates, according to data from Paddle.¹⁶

If you’re collecting payments in foreign currencies, settling them without automatic conversions is a huge help. You won’t pay unnecessary fees or get caught by a bad day for exchange rates.

Internal platform ownership

Within your company, who will ultimately be responsible for your Stripe alternative: your devs, finance team, or someone else? This gets to the heart of what you’re using your platform for.

Led by finance, you probably need a platform that’s data-rich and is built for custom exports and reporting. From a developer perspective, you’ll want a platform with first-class API provision and documentation.

There’s a world beyond Stripe

Make no mistake: Stripe is a huge player in payments and financial infrastructure. Bigger isn’t always better, though. Stripe users have issues with customer service and have to pay higher fees than with other providers – so it’s sensible to review other options.

You’ve got lots of options, the bets of which will ultimately be decided by the specifics of your SaaS. Factors including geography (for you and your customers), billing models, and your growth stage will all influence your choice.

Airwallex is a great choice for SaaS companies needing flexibility, low-cost payment processing, and wider financial infrastructure – all with an international edge.

FAQs

What should SaaS businesses look for in a Stripe alternative?

There are lots of factors to consider, but your priorities should be: international coverage (payment methods and currencies), local currency settlement, flexible billing methods (e.g. usage-based billing), good customer service, and a payout schedule that suits your SaaS.

Is Stripe expensive for SaaS companies?

Stripe sits somewhere in the middle of the pricing range for SaaS billing. It’s far cheaper than some platforms (which can charge as much as 5%), but it’s not the cheapest on the market. The cost of processing a debit card payment with Airwallex is 13% cheaper than Stripe, for example.

Can companies other than Stripe do subscription billing?

Lots of payment processors can handle subscription billing, so Stripe is not your only option. Recurring, usage-based, and metered-usage billing are all variations of subscription payments that are useful for SaaS companies.

Is Stripe the best choice for global subscriptions?

Stripe is a good choice if you have customers around the world, but it’s not your only choice. Others provide similar coverage and some, like Airwallex, actually offer more options for currency acceptance and local acquiring.

Sources and references

1. https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/stripe-acquires-lemon-squeezy

2. https://docs.adyen.com/development-resources/currency-codes#-currency-codes-and-minor-units-

3. https://docs.dodopayments.com/features/adaptive-currency

4. https://www.paddle.com/solutions/saas-billing

5. https://docs.mollie.com/docs/multicurrency

6. https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360038395793-International-payments-with-FX-FAQs

7. https://docs.lemonsqueezy.com/help/payments/currencies

8. https://docs.stripe.com/global-payouts/pricing 

9. https://www.airwallex.com/docs/payments__supported-currencies

10. https://docs.stripe.com/currencies?locale=en-GB

11. https://stripe.com/gb/payments

12. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/stripe.com

13. https://stripe.com/gb/resources/more/payouts-explained

14. https://docs.stripe.com/payouts#standard-payout-timing

15. https://help.airwallex.com/hc/en-gb/articles/900005339146-When-will-I-receive-my-payments-from-Online-Payments-When-do-my-funds-settle

16. https://www.paddle.com/blog/how-local-currencies-and-payment-methods-impact-growth