GoCardless vs Stripe: Comparison for UK Businesses

If you’re looking for ways to take customer payments online or offline, by bank transfer or with a card, you may be wondering about the differences between GoCardless¹ vs Stripe². Both are reputable payment platforms in the UK, but their features and fees aren’t quite the same. This walkthrough covers all you need to know to decide if either is right for your business.

As an extra we’ll also touch on Wise Business as a smart option for UK businesses to receive international payments from PSPs like Stripe and GoCardless with low fees and the mid-market exchange rate.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

GoCardless vs Stripe - Comparison overview

GoCardless and Stripe both have some overlapping services which can help UK businesses get paid by customers conveniently and securely. However, the options, features and fees aren’t exactly the same - so to decide which is right for you, you’ll need to do a bit of homework.

We’ll kickstart our Stripe vs GoCardless review with an overview of the features of both, before we move into GoCardless vs Stripe fees, ratings, safety and more.

GoCardless reviews

GoCardless has services and products which may appeal to business owners of all sizes, from newly established organisations to large and growing companies. As the name suggests, GoCardless allows businesses to take payments without needing to process card transactions. Customers can securely share their bank information and set up one off or recurring billing, which can be easier for the customer and may also make processing cheaper, resulting in lower fees.

GoCardless can be especially suited to companies which need recurrent billing - for subscriptions for example. However, as GoCardless specialises in card-free transactions you can’t use this service to take in person payments using your smartphone or a payment terminal. If this is what you’re looking for, you may prefer Stripe, which we’ll look at later.

Here are a few of the features offered by GoCardless:

• Customers can make instant one off payments or automate recurring billing patterns
• Collect payments from 30+ countries with currency exchange which uses the mid-market rate if conversion is required
• Automatic accounting reconciliation options
• Connected to 2,300+ banks in the UK and Europe
• API to allow businesses to automatically retry failed payments at the optimal time
• Connect to 350+ other business services and platforms, such as accounting software tools

GoCardless has a 3.3 star out of 5 rating on Trustpilot³. It’s helpful to have a look through the comments left by other customers, as the rating is collated from a relatively small number of reviews - under 2k at the time of writing.

Around two thirds of reviews give a 5 star rating, which is positive, though - have a browse of the Trustpilot site to get an up to date view of what customers are saying before you sign up.

GoCardless API

GoCardless has an API which developers can use to connect with 350+ other platforms, and to cut out admin and hassle on other transactions, such as by automating workflow⁴.

One potential use case which could help protect business profits is to automatically retry failed payments. If a customer has set up a recurring payment which then fails due to a lack of funds, the API can be used to automatically retry the payment at the optimum time for that customer. This results in 70% of failed payments being recovered.

GoCardless fees⁵

GoCardless offers UK businesses 3 different plans. The Standard plan has all you need to take customer payments, while the Advanced and Pro plans offer extras, like ways to verify your customer’s bank details, automatic retry for failed payments, and extra tools to monitor and reduce fraud.

Stripe payment reviews

Stripe Payments splits its services out in part by business size, with some tools which are more aimed at startups and new businesses, through to options for SMEs and enterprise level clients. That means that Stripe may be able to offer useful services, no matter what size of business you have.

Some of the options available include:

• Ways to get paid from 47 countries, using 50+ payment methods and 135 currencies
• Stripe payment terminals for in-person card payments
• Tools to accept payments with a smartphone
• Reusable payment links for customer transactions
• Invoicing and billing tools
• Different subscriptions and payment methods including pay per usage
• Prebuilt and optimised checkout for online card payments
• Platform payments and finance automation for enterprise customers

But what about the Stripe payment reviews?

On Trustpilot, Stripe scores a poor 2.7 star rating out of 5⁶. However that’s not really the whole picture, as 47% of the reviews posted at the time of writing are 5 stars. A further 42%, though, only give Stripe 1 star, leading to the low overall rating.

If you’re considering Stripe it’s well worth looking through the Trustpilot review comments - the Stripe team reply to every one, and there are some common themes in where the platform scores well - and where the scores are lower. Frequently, for example, 1 star reviews are related to an account being closed by Stripe, which may happen for a number of reasons, such as the user not complying with Stripe policies, or not providing required verification documents.

Is Stripe payments safe?

Stripe is considered to be a safe payment platform. It’s a level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) provider⁷ and handles 250 million or more API requests a day, with a historical uptime of over 99.999%.

Stripe security measures include⁸:

• Annual onsite audits and additional quarterly checks
• Processes to spot and correct any vulnerabilities
• Industry level security to prevent malware and viruses

Stripe payment fees

Stripe offers both pay as you go plans with no ongoing subscription costs, and custom made negotiated subscription plans which may be better suited to more established businesses with more complex payment needs.

Below we’ve set out the usual Stripe UK fees for a pay as you go plan - if you negotiate a subscription you’ll be able to pick which services are included and discuss the price point with Stripe directly. Get a complete Stripe payment fee review here.

GoCardless vs Stripe fees - Head to head comparison

Let’s finish up with a reminder of the cost comparison between GoCardless vs Stripe.

Manage your international business with Wise

Keep more of your profits when trading internationally, with Wise Business.

Open a Wise Business account to hold 40+ currencies, and receive, send and spend money globally with ease. Plus you can get paid from PSPs like Stripe and GoCardless with local bank details, in 8 major global currencies apart from GBP.

Open a Wise Business account online or in the Wise app, to receive money from overseas to Wise like a local, converting to GBP - or any other currency you need - with the mid-market rate and low and transparent fees from 0.43%¹⁰. Or, just leave the money in its original currency, and use it to settle business payments abroad later. That means you’re not forced to convert funds unnecessarily between currencies, making doing business across borders smoother and cheaper, and saving you money, too.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

Whether GoCardless or Stripe is right for you will depend on the way you do business - in person, or online - and whether your customers prefer to pay by card or bank transfer. However, both options have some great features which make it possible for UK businesses to grow - use this guide to decide if either is right for you, and remember to check out Wise Business as well, for an easy to use international business account with no ongoing fees to pay.

Sources used in this article:

1. GoCardless
2. Stripe
3. Trustpilot - GoCardless
4. GoCardless API
5. GoCardless pricing
6. Trustpilot - Stripe
7. Stripe PCI compliance
8. Stripe security
9. Stripe pricing
10. Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information

Sources last checked January 19, 2024