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Set your volume and average ticket to see the yearly difference between Braintree and Paydude.
Both sliders matter. Volume decides which Paydude tier applies; average transaction size decides how much the fixed per-transaction fee costs you, which is where Braintree and Paydude differ most on small tickets.
Ticket size matters as much as volume: the fixed per-transaction fee is what makes small payments expensive.
Braintree, PayPal's merchant-facing platform, lists 2.59% plus 49¢ for domestic cards. The percentage is competitive, but the 49¢ fixed fee makes it expensive on low-value transactions.
| Processor | Card rate | Fixed fee |
|---|---|---|
| Braintree | 2.59% | 49¢ |
| Paydude (Starter) | 2.6% | 25¢ |
| Paydude (Growing) | 2.55% | 20¢ |
| Paydude (Scale) | 2.5% | 15¢ |
If you want your real number rather than a list-price comparison, run last month's statement through the effective rate calculator.
GOOD QUESTIONS
Not on percentage alone. Paydude's fixed per-transaction fee is lower at every tier, and the Growing and Scale tiers are lower on both components — but the Starter rate of 2.6% sits a hundredth of a point above Braintree's published 2.59%. In practice the 24¢ difference in the fixed fee more than covers that on any transaction under roughly $2,400. If you have negotiated custom pricing with Braintree, compare against that instead — run a real statement through the effective rate calculator.
Both sides are the publicly published standard rates for domestic card payments. Neither figure is a negotiated or promotional rate.
Because the fixed per-transaction fee is a flat amount regardless of the sale. On a $10 sale a 30¢ fee is another 3%; on a $200 sale it is 0.15%. The smaller your average ticket, the more the fixed fee dominates.