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Want to Do Your Own Comparison of Stripe vs Square Fees? Learn How to Compare Payment Gateway Fees

Want to Do Your Own Comparison of Stripe vs Square Fees? Learn How to Compare Payment Gateway Fees

by Mike Ricotta - June 5, 2020

Many merchants wonder how to compare Stripe vs Square fees and other Payment Gateway Fees. While helping many businesses with creating online and in-person payment solutions, we have been asked why we prefer Stripe’s solution over others. While there are many factors to consider when making this decision, Fees are usually one of the first to come to people’s minds.

All payment gateway or merchant services providers charge both monthly fees (sometimes annually) and per-transaction fees. They change from provider to provider and depending on what type of transaction you are conducting. These fees are only part of the overall costs of taking credit card transactions.

The Three Fees (Applicable to Stripe vs Square fees and more)

There are generally three types of fees you will pay for using a payment gateway solution; Transaction fees, Flat fees, Incidental fees. 

Transaction fees are typically a percentage of the bill and a fixed amount. Most providers charge an online transaction fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. Others will give you a discounted rate for in-person transactions, like Stripe Terminals fees of 2.7% + 5¢ fee per transaction.

Flat fees are paid to the gateway or merchant provider. You can think of Flat fees as your subscription to use the payment solution software, costing anywhere from $25 to $50 a month. 

Incidental fees are charged in the event of a problem with a transaction. Chargeback or non-sufficient funds are the most common here.

As Transaction Fees have the biggest impact on a business, we are only going to focus on these in our calculations. 

Use Your Business’s Transaction Numbers

We have created a calculator where you can enter your business’s daily/yearly transaction numbers and the average price to help determine which payment gateway or merchant services provider fees work best. Click on the link below to use the Google Sheet Fee Calculator to Compare Payment Gateway Fees:

Gateway Fees Per Provider Calculator

Simply enter your business’s; Average # of transactions per day or year, average cost of each transaction, and % of in-person sales. The calculator will show you how much you will pay in fees for each provider. You can see in the tables the yearly amount of fees for both online and in-person.

We have also created a table showing the fees from the different providers for both online and in-person transactions if they charge for different rates. Providers like Stripe and Square charge a different rate for in-person transactions.

Switching Payment Gateway Providers

Did you just find out that you are interested in switching to Stripe or adding Stripe Terminal? We can help you with that! Arcane has been working with Stripe for several years and has recently created a plugin that connects Stripe Terminal and WooCommerce. Creating a single point of customer data and inventory while providing an in-person POS solution. You can learn more about our plugin here.

Contact Arcane Strategies today if you would like to learn more about how changing your Payment Gateway provider can save you thousands in transaction fees.

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About The Author:
Mike Ricotta

Mike is a veteran of Madison Avenue digital media, with over a decade of professional experience. As an expert in digital media, Mike has been a partner in founding several web and apps products, has built 3 international development teams through acquisition, and appeared on media networks and publications such as CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, Business Insider, and CIO Magazine, among others. More information on Mike may be found on his personal website: https://www.michaelricotta.com/