# Payment processor fees compared

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/payment-processor-fee-comparison
Type: Guide
Published: 2026-09-02 · Updated: 2026-09-02
Summary: Published rates for 17 payment processors in one table, plus the effective rate each charges at a $10, $50 and $250 average transaction.

## Summary

Published rates cluster between 2.5% and 3.5%, but effective rates range from 1.9% to over 10% depending on ticket size. The fixed per-transaction fee, not the percentage, decides which processor is cheapest below about $60. Merchant-of-record providers charge 5% because they bundle tax compliance, not just processing. Comparing headline percentages between providers is close to meaningless on its own.

Every processor advertises a percentage plus a fixed fee. Neither number tells you what you will pay, because the fixed fee's impact depends entirely on your average transaction size. This page puts the published rates side by side, then shows what each actually costs at three ticket sizes.

> **Rates as of September 2026:** These are published standard rates for domestic card payments, taken from each provider's public pricing. Rates change, negotiated pricing is not public, and none of these figures include international surcharges, currency conversion or dispute fees. Verify before relying on any of them.

## Published rates

**Standard published rates for domestic online card payments, September 2026**

| Processor | Rate | Fixed fee | Monthly | Pricing model |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Paydude | 2.6% | 25¢ | $0 | Flat rate, volume tiers |
| Stripe | 2.9% | 30¢ | $0 | Flat rate |
| Square | 2.9% | 30¢ | $0 | Flat rate |
| Shopify Payments | 2.9% | 30¢ | $0 | Flat rate, varies by plan |
| PayPal | 3.49% | 49¢ | $0 | Flat rate |
| Braintree | 2.59% | 49¢ | $0 | Flat rate |
| Authorize.net | 2.9% | 30¢ | $25 | Flat rate + monthly |
| Chase Payment Solutions | 2.9% | 25¢ | $0 | Flat rate |
| Clover | 3.5% | 10¢ | varies | Flat rate, online |
| Toast | 3.5% | 15¢ | varies | Flat rate, online ordering |
| 2Checkout | 3.5% | 35¢ | $0 | Global / merchant of record |
| Adyen | interchange + markup | 13¢ | $0 | Interchange-plus |
| Helcim | interchange + 0.4% | 8¢ | $0 | Interchange-plus |
| Stax | interchange at cost | 8¢ | $99 | Subscription |
| Lemon Squeezy | 5% | 50¢ | $0 | Merchant of record |
| Paddle | 5% | 50¢ | $0 | Merchant of record |
| Venmo for Business | 1.9% | 10¢ | $0 | Consumer app |
| Cash App for Business | 2.75% | 0¢ | $0 | Consumer app |

## What they actually cost

The same rate card produces very different costs depending on what you sell. Below is the effective rate — total fee divided by transaction value — at three ticket sizes.

**Effective rate by average transaction size**

| Processor | $10 ticket | $50 ticket | $250 ticket |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Paydude (Starter) | 5.10% | 3.10% | 2.70% |
| Stripe | 5.90% | 3.50% | 3.02% |
| Square | 5.90% | 3.50% | 3.02% |
| Shopify Payments | 5.90% | 3.50% | 3.02% |
| PayPal | 8.39% | 4.47% | 3.69% |
| Braintree | 7.49% | 3.57% | 2.79% |
| Chase Payment Solutions | 5.40% | 3.40% | 3.00% |
| Clover | 4.50% | 3.70% | 3.54% |
| Toast | 5.00% | 3.80% | 3.56% |
| 2Checkout | 7.00% | 4.20% | 3.64% |
| Adyen (estimate) | 4.20% | 3.16% | 2.95% |
| Helcim (estimate) | 3.20% | 2.56% | 2.43% |
| Lemon Squeezy | 10.00% | 6.00% | 5.20% |
| Paddle | 10.00% | 6.00% | 5.20% |
| Venmo for Business | 2.90% | 2.10% | 1.94% |
| Cash App for Business | 2.75% | 2.75% | 2.75% |

Two things stand out. **The spread at $10 is enormous** — from 2.75% to over 10%, a nearly fourfold difference on identical revenue. And **the ordering changes with ticket size**: Braintree is worse than Stripe at $10 and better at $250, purely because of the fixed fee.

> **Why Cash App is flat across all three:** It charges no fixed fee at all. Since the fixed fee is what makes small transactions expensive, removing it makes the effective rate identical at every ticket size — a genuinely unusual structure among payment providers.

## The four pricing models

Providers are not all selling the same thing, which is why some rates look wildly out of line with the rest.

- **Flat rate.** One advertised percentage plus a fixed fee, regardless of which card the customer uses. Predictable and simple, and slightly more expensive on average because the provider absorbs the variation. Stripe, Square, PayPal and Paydude work this way.
- **Interchange-plus.** You pay the actual interchange set by the card networks, plus a disclosed markup. Cheaper at volume and on debit-heavy card mixes, but your rate varies with every transaction. Adyen and Helcim work this way.
- **Subscription.** A monthly membership fee, then interchange at cost with little or no percentage markup. Compelling above a volume threshold and expensive below it. Stax works this way.
- **Merchant of record.** The provider legally sells to your customer, taking on global sales tax and VAT registration, remittance and fraud liability. The 5% rate bundles a compliance service, not just processing. Paddle and Lemon Squeezy work this way.

## How to compare properly

1. **Find your real average ticket** — Total volume divided by transaction count, taken from a statement — not your list price. Refunds, proration and annual plans all pull the real average away from it.
2. **Compare effective rates at that ticket size** — Use the table above, or the [payment fee impact calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/payment-fee-impact-calculator). Comparing headline percentages alone will mislead you.
3. **Add the surcharges that apply to you** — International cards typically add 1–1.5%, and currency conversion another 1–2%. If a meaningful share of your customers are overseas, this changes the ranking.
4. **Add monthly and gateway fees, then divide by volume** — A $25 monthly fee is 1.25% on $2,000 of processing and 0.025% on $100,000. Fixed costs only look small at scale.
5. **Check what a merchant of record would save you** — If you would otherwise register for VAT across several jurisdictions, 5% may genuinely be the cheaper option once compliance work is priced in.

If you already process payments, skip all of this and run one month of statements through the [effective rate calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/effective-rate-calculator). Your own number beats any published figure.

## Individual calculators

Each provider has its own calculator with the arithmetic shown: [Stripe](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/stripe-fee-calculator), [PayPal](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/paypal-fee-calculator), [Square](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/square-fee-calculator), [Shopify Payments](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/shopify-payments-fee-calculator), [Braintree](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/braintree-fee-calculator), [Adyen](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/adyen-fee-calculator), [Helcim](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/helcim-fee-calculator), [Authorize.net](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/authorize-net-fee-calculator), [Chase](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/chase-payment-solutions-fee-calculator), [Clover](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/clover-fee-calculator), [Toast](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/toast-fee-calculator), [Stax](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/stax-fee-calculator), [2Checkout](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/2checkout-fee-calculator), [Lemon Squeezy](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/lemon-squeezy-fee-calculator), [Paddle](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/paddle-fee-calculator), [Venmo](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/venmo-business-fee-calculator) and [Cash App](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/cash-app-business-fee-calculator).

**Paydude publishes its full rate card** Every tier and every situational fee, with no sales call and no negotiated pricing. — [See the rates](https://www.paydude.io/pricing)

## Frequently asked questions

### Which payment processor has the lowest fees?

It depends entirely on your average transaction size. On a $10 ticket, Cash App for Business (2.75%, no fixed fee) is cheapest among flat-rate options because it has no per-transaction fee. On a $250 ticket, interchange-plus providers like Helcim generally win. Among mainstream flat-rate processors with full platform capability, published rates cluster between 2.5% and 2.9% plus 10¢ to 49¢.

### Why do processors with the same percentage cost different amounts?

The fixed per-transaction fee. Stripe and Braintree differ by only 0.31 percentage points, but Braintree's 49¢ fixed fee versus Stripe's 30¢ means Braintree costs more on any transaction below about $60 and less above it.

### Is interchange-plus cheaper than flat-rate pricing?

Usually at volume, and usually on debit-heavy card mixes. Interchange-plus passes the actual network cost through with a disclosed markup, so you benefit when customers use cheap cards and pay more when they use premium rewards cards. Flat-rate pricing averages that risk for you, which costs more on average but is predictable.

### Why are Paddle and Lemon Squeezy so much more expensive?

They are not pure processors. Both act as merchant of record, meaning they sell to your customer on your behalf and take on global sales tax and VAT registration, remittance, invoicing and fraud liability. The right comparison is their rate against a processor plus a tax compliance service plus the engineering to connect them.

### How current are these rates?

Published standard rates as of September 2026, taken from each provider's public pricing page. Rates change and negotiated pricing is not public, so verify the current rate card before making a decision. If you already process payments, your own statement is a more reliable source than any published figure.