Gateway
PayPal / Braintree
Best gateway for businesses that want to accept PayPal, Venmo, and cards through one integration.
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Transaction fee
2.59% + $0.49 (PayPal), 2.99% + $0.49 (Venmo), 2.59% + $0.49 (card)
Monthly fee
$0
Rating breakdown
Pros
- Accepts PayPal, Venmo, cards, and digital wallets in one SDK
- No monthly gateway fee
- Strong developer tools and documentation
- PayPal checkout can increase conversion for ecommerce
Cons
- Flat-rate processing gets expensive at volume
- Account holds and limitations similar to PayPal
- Support quality varies significantly
- Dispute resolution process favors buyers
Who Braintree is for
If your customers want to pay with PayPal or Venmo (and many do), Braintree is the cleanest way to offer those options alongside traditional card payments. One integration handles all payment methods. For ecommerce businesses, adding PayPal checkout can meaningfully increase conversion rates because customers don’t have to enter card details.
Where it falls short
The per-transaction fees are some of the highest on this list. At 2.59% + $0.49 for card transactions, businesses processing high volume will pay significantly more than they would with an interchange-plus processor and a standalone gateway. The $0.49 fixed fee per transaction is especially painful for businesses with low average tickets.
PayPal’s reputation for account holds and buyer-favoring dispute resolution also applies to Braintree. If you sell high-ticket or high-risk products, this is worth considering.
Bottom line
Braintree makes sense when PayPal/Venmo acceptance is a priority for your business. The no-monthly-fee structure and unified SDK are genuine advantages. But if you don’t need PayPal/Venmo specifically, the per-transaction costs make Braintree expensive compared to alternatives like Stripe (for online) or an interchange-plus processor with Authorize.net.
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