For WooCommerce merchants evaluating professional payment processors, the decision typically comes down to four options: Stripe (the default for most), Adyen (enterprise-grade direct acquirer), Braintree (PayPal’s developer gateway), and ConvesioPay (Adyen infrastructure with WooCommerce-native integration). This comparison covers each on the dimensions that drive real revenue outcomes.
Adyen-level infrastructure without the enterprise minimums? See ConvesioPay pricing →
Stripe
What it is: The dominant payment-as-a-service provider. Excellent developer tools, vast documentation, and the broadest payment method library available in a single integration.
Pricing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, no monthly fee. International cards add 1.5%.
Authorization rate infrastructure: Good, but Stripe operates as an indirect acquirer in many markets, meaning it routes through sponsoring banks rather than holding direct acquiring licenses globally. Authorization rates are competitive but not at the Adyen level.
Dispute management: Self-service dashboard. No dedicated dispute support at standard tiers.
WooCommerce fit: Excellent plugin, strong ecosystem. Best choice for merchants who prioritize developer customization over payment-specific optimization.
Ideal for: Startups, developer-led organizations, merchants with complex custom checkout needs, and anyone processing under roughly $5M/year where the cost gap to Adyen-level pricing doesn’t yet outweigh Stripe’s developer speed.
Adyen
What it is: A direct acquirer and global payment platform used by major retailers (eBay, McDonald’s, Uber). Adyen holds acquiring licenses in 40+ markets, delivering industry-leading authorization rates.
Pricing: Interchange-plus with a processing fee on top. Highly competitive at enterprise volume but requires a minimum invoice and enterprise onboarding — set case by case with their sales team.
Authorization rate infrastructure: Best in class. Direct acquiring relationships, network tokenization, and ML-based routing.
WooCommerce fit: No native WooCommerce plugin. Integration requires developer resources. Not designed for WooCommerce merchants.
Ideal for: Large enterprises with dedicated payment teams, global retail operations, multi-market merchants with $10M+ in annual processing.
Braintree
What it is: PayPal’s developer-focused payment gateway, acquired in 2013. Strong API, Drop-in UI, and hosted fields for custom checkout builds.
Pricing: 2.89% + $0.29 for cards and third-party wallets. PayPal and Venmo transactions are 3.49% + $0.49. No monthly fee.
Authorization rate infrastructure: Good but declining. Strategic investment from PayPal has slowed since the acquisition, and the platform has lagged competitors on network tokenization and ML fraud.
Dispute management: Self-service, with limited support differentiation from standard PayPal.
WooCommerce fit: Functional plugin but fewer WooCommerce-specific features than Stripe or ConvesioPay. Subscription support requires additional work.
Ideal for: Custom checkout builds where PayPal’s developer tools are valued; merchants with existing PayPal relationships, or where PayPal/Venmo wallet acceptance meaningfully lifts conversion for a US direct-to-consumer audience.
ConvesioPay
What it is: A payment facilitator built on Adyen’s global acquiring infrastructure, designed specifically for WooCommerce merchants. Provides Adyen-level authorization rates and fraud detection through a WooCommerce-native integration.
Pricing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, no monthly fees.
Authorization rate infrastructure: Direct acquiring in major markets, network tokenization, and RevenueProtect ML fraud detection. Behavioral and contextual risk scoring cuts false declines, and saved-card retry logic recovers transactions that would otherwise fail at checkout.
Dispute management: Dedicated human support for disputes, not self-service — and ConvesioPay is an Authorized Reseller of select Verifi dispute-resolution tools, giving merchants access to pre-dispute resolution options most flat-rate processors don’t offer at all.
WooCommerce fit: Native plugin with WooCommerce Subscriptions support, Apple Pay, Google Pay, 3DS2. Built for WooCommerce from the ground up.
High-risk and regulated verticals: Unlike Stripe, Braintree, or a standard Adyen integration, where Stripe and Braintree decline whole categories outright, ConvesioPay underwrites these merchants individually — CBD and nutraceuticals, firearms and ammunition, age-restricted goods, LegitScript-monitored healthcare. Approval is never automatic and depends on the individual business, but the category alone isn’t a rejection.
Ideal for: WooCommerce merchants at any volume who want Adyen-quality infrastructure without Adyen’s minimums or integration complexity, and merchants in regulated or high-risk categories who need that infrastructure without being declined for their vertical.
Which One Should You Actually Choose
The honest answer depends less on brand reputation and more on three concrete factors: your annual volume, your WooCommerce dependency, and whether you sell into a regulated category.
- Under $5M/year, standard retail category, want fast integration: Stripe. The developer experience and plugin ecosystem outweigh the rate difference at this volume.
- Enterprise volume, multi-market, have a dedicated payments team: Adyen direct. At that scale, interchange-plus pricing and direct acquiring relationships outperform any flat-rate option — but budget for the integration work, since there’s no native WooCommerce plugin.
- PayPal/Venmo wallet acceptance drives meaningful conversion for your audience: Braintree, particularly for US direct-to-consumer stores where customers actively prefer paying with PayPal.
- WooCommerce-native, want Adyen-level authorization rates without enterprise minimums or custom integration: ConvesioPay. This is the gap the other three don’t fill — Adyen’s infrastructure quality is real, but it’s inaccessible below enterprise volume unless it comes through a partner built specifically for WooCommerce.
- You sell CBD, nutraceuticals, firearms, age-restricted products, or another high-risk/regulated category: ConvesioPay is worth checking first, regardless of volume — Stripe, Braintree, and most direct Adyen relationships will decline these categories outright rather than price them appropriately.
Still deciding on pricing model rather than provider? Flat rate vs interchange-plus covers the break-even math, and the credit card fee calculator shows what you’re paying on your current processor.
Head-to-Head Summary
| Stripe | Adyen | Braintree | ConvesioPay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | 2.9% + $0.30 | Interchange++ | 2.59% + $0.49 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Volume minimum | None | $10M+ | None | None |
| Auth rate infra | Good | Best | Good | Best (Adyen) |
| WooCommerce plugin | Excellent | None | Good | Native |
| Dispute support | Self-service | Enterprise | Self-service | Dedicated + Verifi tools |
| High-risk/regulated verticals | Declined | Case-by-case, enterprise only | Declined | Actively supported |
Ready to get started? Learn more about ConvesioPay or view pricing.