I have been using Paypal from last 3-4 years for receiving online payments, and I love it for its easy to setup features, but the few things which I find annoying and made me find the Paypal alternatives are, its high transaction charges and conversion of money at its own fixed rate.
Another reason for finding Paypal alternatives is.. I am an Indian user, where due to RBI’s restrictions it doesn’t provide us complete features. For example we can not use it as a wallet for sending/receiving money to the Indian users like any other user in US.
Though it’s easy to use and easiest to setup with your website, it still have several drawbacks which always makes one think of finding an alternative to Paypal.
And when I started browsing for similar, trustworthy alternatives to it I ended up making a top 5 list of Paypal alternatives.
Best Paypal alternatives for Bloggers, Freelancers and even for SMBs
1). Payoneer
Payoneer has emerged as the best alternative to Paypal in the recent years. It provides you with a Payoneer prepaid Mastercard for making online payments and for withdrawing your earned and received money.
Best thing is it is now available with most of the websites which previously used to offer only Paypal as option or no option at all. For example: you can use Payoneer for receiving Amazon’s affiliate money in any country where Payoneer works.
The Good:
- Easy to setup
- Provides best and efficient conversion of money
- Supported by upwork for freelancers
- Provides an option to receive Global Payments in Local bank accounts (which is the best thing)
The bad:
- Comparatively high ATM withdrawal rates
- Customer Service not up to the mark
Signup here with Payoneer and you can get free $25 in your account.
2). Skrill
Skrill is no doubt the best alternative to not only Paypal but also to Payoneer since its transaction rates are lowest and the best in the market for receiving and sending online payments.
It is most easy to setup, in addition it is most easiest to use too.
Signing up for Skrill is free you can sign up here
3). Stripe
Stripe provides you an option to use Buy button on your website, to start receiving payments on your website just like Paypal’s buy button.
The best thing about stripe is its low transaction charges 2.9% + 30cents, which makes it one of the best paypal alternative.
The Good:
- Low transaction charges, furthermore there is no AMC.
- You can integrate it with most of the major ecommerce platforms like shopify
- You can receive payments from all over the world
The Bad:
- It is available for the merchants of US, Australia, Ireland, Canada and UK only
- Requires programming skill to integrate (needs sandbox testing)
- There’s a Waiting time after transaction for receiving funds
4). 2Checkout
2CO or 2Checkout has emerged as one of the best paypal alternative with almost comparable transaction rates worldwide.
It offers several currencies for transaction hence you can use it for receiving online payments from almost any part of the world.
Signup with 2Checkout for free
5). Razorpay
Razorpay is an alternative to Paypal which in some terms is much better than Paypal.
Here are the features of Razorpay:
- It offers Business as well as Personal Account options just like Paypal.
- Is available in almost several countries
- It is free to setup and have no AMC just like Paypal.
- More importantly, it has low transaction fees.
Signup here for free with Razorpay
Conclusion:
I personally use Payoneer wherever I can in place of Paypal, since they fill up the Paypal’s gap well.
Tell us which one do you use??
