Business

The Stripe & PayPal alternative: Introducing Wise's payment gateway

Will Chadbon

13.03.26

Read time 3 minutes

You just closed your books for the quarter. Your WooCommerce store is growing, your international sales are up, and your team is firing on all cylinders. But as you look at your Stripe or PayPal dashboard, one number stands out: the fees.

If you're a UK-based e-commerce seller receiving payments from the US or Europe, you're likely paying between 2.5% and 4.98%¹ per transaction — plus additional fixed fees that vary by provider. And if your gateway automatically converts those dollars or euros back to pounds? Add another 2-3% in hidden FX markup that only appears when you dig into the detail.

For a business processing £25,000 monthly in international sales, these combined fees can easily hit £1,000+ every month. That's £12,000 a year — roughly the same as six months of serious marketing spend or meaningful inventory investment.

But that's all about to change. We're excited to announce the pilot launch of Wise's payment gateway.

Your Wise account is your payment gateway

Wise's payment gateway is a native checkout integration that allows your customers to pay by card or digital wallet directly on your site. The difference? Every payment lands directly in your Wise Business account in the currency they paid in.

Receive and hold 17+ currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, and more — all in one account.

No forced conversions; just your money, in the right place at speed.

Why switch from Stripe & PayPal?

For years, Stripe and PayPal have been the default. But for businesses that sell globally, 'default' is becoming expensive. Here's how the fees stack up:

Fee Type	Wise	Stripe	PayPal
Processing fee (domestic cards)	1%	1.5% + 20p (standard UK) 1.9% + 20p (premium UK)	2.9% + 30p
Processing fee (international cards)	2.9%	3.25% + 20p	4.89% + 30p
Payout fee	Free — your Wise account is your payout account	0% to 1% (depends on currency)	Free*
Currency conversion	Mid-market exchange rate + variable fee (0.53% average) (conversion always optional)	~2% above mid-market rate (conversion sometimes optional)²	3% above mid-market rate¹

*PayPal charges 3% to withdraw to non-UK bank accounts.

What does this actually cost you?

Example: You're a UK merchant and a US customer pays $100 to your UK store.

Provider	Processing Fee	FX Conversion*	Total Fees	vs Wise
Wise	$2.90	$1.38 (optional)**	$4.28	N/A
Stripe	$3.45	$1.90	$5.35	25% more expensive
PayPal	$5.19	$2.85	$8.04	88% more expensive

*Using mid-market USD to GBP exchange rate of 0.7425, correct as of 12:00pm 19/02/2026. **With Wise, you can hold the $100 in your USD balance and pay US suppliers directly, avoiding conversion fees entirely.

If you process $10,000 monthly in sales from US customers:

You're losing £80/month with Stripe (£960/year) vs Wise
You're losing £279/month with PayPal (£3,348/year) vs Wise

By removing Stripe or PayPal from your stack and using Wise as your primary gateway, you aren't just saving on the base fee — you're eliminating the double cost of international e-commerce: the high processing fee plus the FX markup.

The crucial multi-currency advantage

Most payment gateways treat multi-currency as an add-on service. Wise is different: your Wise Business account becomes your payment gateway. This isn't two separate systems — it's one.

Receive and hold 17+ currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, and more.

Here's what that actually means for your business:

Get paid like a local: Your customers pay in their local currency, and it lands directly in your Wise Business account in that same currency. Support 17+ currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY, and more. No intermediary, no conversion unless you want it. You hold these currencies for as long as you like or convert them at the mid-market exchange rate with low fees.
Pay suppliers directly: If you source products from China or pay for digital ads in USD, you can spend straight from your account in the relevant currency. No more converting revenue to GBP only to convert it back to USD a week later to pay your bills. The money stays where it is until you need it elsewhere.
Transparent reporting: Every transaction shows the exact mid-market rate and a single, transparent fee. Your accountant gets total clarity without reconciliation headaches across multiple platforms.

*"We built our payment gateway because our business customers told us their biggest pain point wasn't just fees — it was the lack of control over when and how their international revenue gets converted.""So many customers told us they had to convert their money twice — once to receive a payment, then again to pay out in the currency they originally received. These fees directly hit a business's bottom line and eat into delicate margins"*Cathy Chen, Product Manager at Wise Business.

When can you get started?

We're rolling out Wise's payment gateway in stages across 2026 to ensure every integration is seamless.

The bottom line

Whether you're processing £1,000 or £100,000 in monthly e-commerce volume, every percentage point matters when you're scaling internationally.

Wise's payment gateway helps you keep more of what you earn. Money that would have gone to processing fees stays in your business for inventory, marketing, or just better cashflow.

Ready to stop the forced conversions and take back control?

Join the waitlist for Wise's payment gateway

Sources:

PayPal Merchant Fees | PayPal (2.9% domestic fee + fixed fee + 1.99% international fee)
Pricing & Fees | Stripe (+ 2% if currency conversion is required on international card)

*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.