Cash App vs PayPal: Which is better? Are they different?

If you’re looking for easy ways to make and receive electronic payments, you might be trying to decide: Cash App or PayPal? This full Cash App vs PayPal review is exactly what you need.

While many PayPal vs Cash App features are quite similar, there are differences in the exact ways you can use your accounts, and the fees you’ll pay.

This guide covers all that.

Plus, we’ll also introduce an alternative, Wise. Wise Accounts are free to open, and you may save money when sending money to friends and family in over 80 countries, including the UK.

Get a Wise Account today

Cash App vs PayPal: Comparison

We’ll run through feature by feature comparisons to see how a Cash App account measures up against a PayPal account in a moment. First, an overview to help you decide if PayPal or Cash App might suit you best.

Pros & Cons: What are the disadvantages of Cash App vs PayPal?

Pros

Cons

Fees: Which one is cheaper?

When you’re choosing the best digital wallet or online account for your needs, it’s important to check out the overall costs before you sign up.

Different account types can come with very varied fees, which are often quite different to those you encounter when using a regular bank or credit union account. Understanding the charges upfront can help avoid surprises once you start to use your account.

Cash App has a limited range of fees, and many services are available to users for free.

PayPal US customers can open accounts for free, spend online for free as long as currency conversion isn’t required, and send domestic payments funded by a linked US bank account, AMEX Send account or PayPal balance for free. Other services have fees – see an overview here:

Availability: Which is available in more countries?

Cash App users must be resident in the US or UK - that means you can’t use Cash App if you’re an American living overseas, for example. PayPal, on the other hand, is available almost across the globe, with the option to send and receive PayPal payments to a huge range of countries.

Cash App is may be limited when it comes to international services, as you can also only send money internationally between the US and UK.

Making payments to bank accounts based in other countries isn’t possible at the moment.

Exchange Rates: Which one offers better rates?

As a payment service, PayPal account holders do have a better range of options when it comes to sending international payments.

However, if you need to send or receive money from overseas with PayPal, you’ll probably find that you or the other party has hefty currency conversion fees to pay.

Get a Wise Account – send money with low and transparent fees, including the UK and more

You may save money when sending internationally, by choosing Wise.

Open a Wise account for free¹³ online or in the Wise app, to make international payments which use the mid-market exchange rate with no markups.

You can send money to 80+ countries with the exchange rate you’ll find on Google, and low, transparent fees.

Or open a Wise Account to hold and exchange 50+ currencies, receive money in 10 currencies with local account details, and for a one-time fee, get a Wise debit card for spending all over the world. No steep charges and no sneaky fees, just easy, low-cost ways to send, spend, hold and receive money in 50+ currencies.

Learn more about
the Wise Account

Safety: Is Cash App safe like PayPal?

Using a digital wallet or payment app is often much safer than carrying cash - as well as being far more convenient. Services like Cash App and PayPal are designed with security in mind, and built to use both automatic and manual processes to keep customers, accounts and money safe.

Cash App is part of the Square group, which processes millions of transactions every day through Square payment processing services. The same sort of technology used in Square point of sale transactions is used to keep Cash App accounts safe.

As one of the largest payment service providers in the world, PayPal also uses cutting edge approaches to make sure that customers and their accounts are secure. In fact, services like PayPal are handy because when you make an online purchase you won’t need to give your card details to a merchant, just use your PayPal account instead.

Here’s a look at how both PayPal and Cash App manage account security:

Cash App vs PayPal: User reviews

User experience is important when it comes to deciding if Cash App or PayPal is right for you. Here are a few factors to consider:

Bottom line: Which payment app is the best?

Whether PayPal or Cash App suits you more will depend on what’s important to you. If you’re looking for an account which makes it easy to send money to US based friends and family, and don’t mind a limited range of international options, Cash App might win thanks to its ease of use and the broad range of fee free services available. However, if you’re more interested in shopping online, PayPal might be the better option because it’s so widely accepted by merchants the world over.

Where both PayPal and Cash App have limitations is in international payments. Cash App has fee free international transfers on offer - but only to the UK at present. PayPal offers payments all over the world, but with relatively steep fees to consider, including a markup on the exchange rate.

If international payments - or shopping online with retailers based abroad - are important to you, you may be better off with an alternative like the Wise Account. See how much you can save with Wise today.

Learn more about Wise

All sources checked on 10 February 2023