Opayo vs Stripe
Side-by-side comparison — pricing, features, ratings, use cases. Find which Payment Gateways fits you best.
🔍 Independently researched ·
📊 Data-driven
· ★ GitHub stars from public repos
36/100
$20 starting
UK and Irish SMBs, particularly former Sage Pay users, who need a dependable gateway for online, recurring, and fraud-pr
💰 Pricing
Starting at $20 (hybrid)
Fee notes:
- Standard plan: 2.75% + 20p per transaction for UK debit/credit cards; 3.75% + 20p for international cards.
- Plus plan: £19.95 per month; 1.75% + 10p per transaction for UK debit/credit cards; 2.75% + 10p for international cards.
- Chargeback fee: £25 + VAT per chargeback.
- Transaction fees are not refunded on refunded/cancelled transactions.
- Corporate, commercial, and premium cards often incur higher merchant fees (included in the percentage).
⚠ Watch for:
- International card cross-border fees can be significantly higher than UK card fees.
- Chargeback fees of £25 + VAT apply even if the chargeback is won.
- Corporate/commercial card surcharges may apply above the standard rate.
- Optional add-ons like advanced fraud screening or PCI compliance services may carry separate charges.
🔧 Features
✓ Elavon Owned✓ Uk Ireland✓ Sage Pay Legacy✓ Fraud Screening✓ Tokenisation
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Strong UK/Irish focus is a genuine advantage. Opayo's acquiring and settlement are native to the UK and Ireland, meaning local businesses get smoother onboarding, domestic currency settlement, and local customer support. This is particularly beneficial for SMBs that want a partner that understands the local regulatory landscape (e.g., GDPR, PSD2) and can offer in-person support if needed.
- Tokenisation is built-in and robust. Opayo securely stores card details, allowing for one-click payments and seamless recurring billing. This is a critical feature for subscription businesses (like gyms, SaaS, or membership sites) because it reduces cart abandonment and simplifies the customer experience. Unlike some gateways that charge extra for token vault, Opayo includes it in the core offering.
- Advanced fraud screening tools give merchants control. These include 3D Secure (including the newer 2.0 version), custom rules, and AVS/CVV checks. You can set up rules to block high-risk countries or flag suspicious patterns, which is essential for fraud-sensitive retail. This level of customisation is more powerful than what you get from basic gateways like PayU or RedSys, and it can reduce chargebacks significantly.
- Reliability and trust are proven. With over 50,000 businesses, Opayo has a long track record of processing payments reliably. The platform is PCI DSS Level 1 certified, and its 99.9% uptime is well-documented. For merchants who can't afford downtime, this stability is a major plus.
- Flexible integration options. Opayo offers a REST API (with SDKs in PHP, .NET, and Java), plus ready-made plugins for major e-commerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and Shopify. This means you can get started quickly even if you're not a developer, yet still have room to customise for a bespoke build.
⚠ Watch out for
- Pricing is opaque. There's no public rate card; you have to contact Opayo sales and go through a quote process. This makes it difficult to compare costs upfront, and you might be hit with additional fees (e.g., setup fees, monthly minimums, international fees) that aren't clear until you read the fine print. For a small business, that's a frustration point.
- The admin dashboard and API feel dated. The interface is clunky compared to modern, developer-friendly platforms like Stripe or Adyen. Developers have to deal with older documentation and more manual configuration. This means slower onboarding for dev teams and a steeper learning curve, especially if you're used to more streamlined systems.
- International expansion is limited. While Opayo supports multi-currency and offers some international acquiring, its core is firmly in the UK and Ireland. If your business plans to expand to Europe, the US, or beyond, you'll likely need to switch to a global payment processor like Adyen, Checkout.com, or Stripe, which adds an unwelcome migration later. For global e-commerce, Opayo is not a long-term fit.
- Customer support is inconsistent. While Opayo provides phone, email, and live chat, some users report slow response times during peak hours. The knowledge base is extensive but a bit scattered, and finding specific solutions sometimes requires digging through forums. For a business that needs immediate help during a payment outage, this can be stressful.
- No flexible pricing for startups. Opayo doesn't offer a self-serve, pay-as-you-go plan. You have to negotiate a contract, which often includes monthly fees and longer-term commitments. This is off-putting for small businesses or solo entrepreneurs who want to test a gateway without a heavy upfront commitment.
🎯 Best for
UK and Irish SMBs, particularly former Sage Pay users, who need a dependable gateway for online, recurring, and fraud-protected payments without chasing global scale.
🚫 Who should skip
Early-stage startups or international e-commerce companies that want self-serve onboarding, transparent pricing, and built-in multi-currency support should look at more modern, globally focused gateways.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate — setting up hosted payment pages is straightforward, but understanding the full admin interface, fraud rules, and contract terms requires time, and developers may need to adjust to using the older API.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Opayo is a solid choice for UK and Irish SMBs focused on domestic sales, especially those needing robust tokenisation and fraud prevention for subscription or omnichannel retail. It's less suitable for tech-forward startups or businesses with global ambitions—those should look at Stripe or Adyen. Bo
75/100
—
Online businesses, SaaS startups, and platforms that want a flexible, developer-friendly payment infrastructure with bui
★ Best
💰 Pricing
Pricing not publicly available
Fee notes:
- US domestic card transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction
- International/non-US issued cards: 3.9% + $0.30 (2.9% + 1% cross-border fee)
- Currency conversion: 1% above wholesale exchange rate
- Chargeback/dispute fee: $15.00 per dispute (refunded if the dispute is won)
- Standard bank payout (US): 2 business days, no fee
⚠ Watch for:
- International card fee: 1% additional on all non-domestic cards
- Currency conversion fee: 1% when charging in a currency not already in your Stripe balance
- Dispute fee: $15 charged per chargeback, though refunded if you win
- Instant payout fees can accumulate with high-frequency payouts
🔧 Features
✓ Api First✓ Multi Currency✓ Global Reach✓ Subscription Billing✓ Fraud Protection
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Stripe's API is widely considered the gold standard in payments. It's clean, well-documented, and allows for nearly unlimited customization. You can build custom checkout flows, manage complex subscription states, and handle webhooks seamlessly. For developers, this means less time wrestling with payment logic and more time building your product. The extensive documentation and SDKs for all major languages make integration straightforward, and the ability to test everything with the Stripe CLI before going live is invaluable.
- Stripe Billing is a powerful subscription management tool. It handles the entire subscription lifecycle: creating plans, managing trials, prorating upgrades/downgrades, and generating invoices. It also supports usage-based billing, which is perfect for SaaS companies that charge per API call or per seat. The ability to integrate with a customer portal lets your users manage their own subscriptions, reducing support tickets. This level of automation is a huge time-saver and reduces billing errors.
- Stripe Connect is essential for marketplaces and platforms like Shopify, Lyft, and DoorDash. It allows you to onboard users (sellers, drivers, etc.) with a simple embedded flow, handle their payments, and automatically split funds to pay your platform's commission. Connect manages the complex money movement, including regulatory KYC requirements and payout scheduling. This turns a massive compliance headache into a manageable feature set, letting you focus on your core business.
- Stripe's global reach is impressive. With support for 135+ currencies and 50+ payment methods, you can accept payments from customers worldwide in their preferred local method—whether that's iDEAL in the Netherlands, Alipay in China, or Boleto in Brazil. Stripe automatically localizes the checkout experience, which increases conversion. The Global Payments ecosystem also handles currency conversion and tax calculation (Stripe Tax), reducing the complexity of scaling internationally.
- Radar, Stripe's fraud prevention tool, uses machine learning to analyze every transaction in real-time. It comes with a default set of rules that can be customized to your business's risk tolerance. Radar blocks or flags fraudulent transactions, and you can manually review them via the dashboard. For high-volume businesses, Radar for Fraud Teams offers even more advanced tools, like custom rules and a data-rich API. This proactive fraud protection is critical for minimizing chargebacks and keeping payment costs down.
⚠ Watch out for
- Stripe's flat-rate pricing is not the cheapest for high-volume merchants. If you process over $100,000 per month, you might be better off with a processor that offers interchange-plus pricing, where you pay the exact interchange fee plus a small markup. With Stripe, you pay a percentage that bundles in additional costs, which can add up. For example, a business doing $1M in sales might save thousands per year by switching to a provider like Adyen or a traditional processor. Stripe does offer volume discounts, but they require a sales conversation and are often still not as low as interchange-plus.
- Stripe's risk team can be aggressive with account holds and fund reserves. New businesses, or those in 'high-risk' categories (e.g., subscription services, digital goods), may find that a portion of their funds is held in a reserve for a period to cover potential chargebacks. In some cases, Stripe may freeze the entire account pending review, which can be a shock if you're not prepared. While this is standard practice in the industry, Stripe's automated systems can trigger false positives, causing delays in accessing your funds—a critical cash flow issue for small businesses.
- The platform's technical depth is a double-edged sword. For non-developers, Stripe's dashboard can be overwhelming. The settings are numerous, and configuring features like webhooks, API keys, or custom business logic requires technical knowledge. Even simple things like setting up recurring payments might require reading docs and understanding concepts like events and webhooks. If you're a small business owner who just wants a 'Pay Now' button, you might find the learning curve steep, and you'll spend time on tasks you could have avoided with a simpler provider like Square or PayPal.
- Stripe's fees for international cards and certain payment methods are higher. For example, a standard card charge is 2.9% + 30¢, but a card issued outside the US might incur an additional 1% fee. Some alternative payment methods, like bank debits, have flat fees that can be high for small transactions. If you have a global customer base, these fees can eat into your margins. While Stripe's localization efforts improve conversion, they come at a cost that you need to factor into your pricing strategy.
- Stripe's customer support is primarily via email and chat; phone support is available only for high-volume customers or on paid plans. While the help center is extensive and the response times are generally good, for complex issues like account holds, you might wait days for a resolution. This can be stressful when your funds are at stake. If you prefer to talk to a human immediately, Stripe's support model may not meet your expectations, especially compared to providers like PayPal that offer 24/7 phone support.
🎯 Best for
Online businesses, SaaS startups, and platforms that want a flexible, developer-friendly payment infrastructure with built-in subscription and fraud tools.
🚫 Who should skip
Businesses in high-risk industries, those needing robust phone support, or very small merchants wanting simple flat-rate in-person payment without setup.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate — basic checkout can be set up in minutes, but leveraging the full API and advanced features requires developer experience.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Stripe is the payment gateway of choice for developers, SaaS, and online businesses that outgrow simple payment links. Its flexibility, global reach, and ecosystem (Billing, Connect, Radar) are unmatched. If you're a non-developer looking for a simple, fixed-fee pay button, simpler alternatives like
📊 Use Case Suitability
Higher score = better fit. Scores from editorial review.
Use CaseOpayoStripe
Recurring subscription billing90—
Opayo's tokenisation and repeat payment support make it a reliable choice for su
UK and Ireland SMB e-commerce85—
Opayo is built around the UK and Irish market, with local acquiring, familiar pa
Fraud-sensitive retail businesses80—
Its advanced fraud screening and 3D Secure tools help merchants reduce chargebac
Migrating from Sage Pay95—
Existing Sage Pay merchants can move to Opayo with minimal disruption because it
Subscription Billing—98
Stripe Billing automates recurring payments, trial management, dunning, and tax
Global E-commerce—92
Native support for 135+ currencies and 50+ local payment methods makes it easy t
Marketplaces & Platforms—94
Stripe Connect handles complex money movement between buyers, sellers, and the p
Small Online Store or Digital Products—85
Pre-built checkout and integrations with major e-commerce platforms make it acce
🧭 Which One Should You Pick?
Choose Opayo if...
- You are: UK and Irish SMBs, particularly former Sage Pay users, who need a dependable gateway for online, recurring, and fraud-pr
- 👍 Strong UK/Irish focus with local acquiring and support, especially beneficial for domestic businesse
- 👍 Built-in tokenisation enables secure recurring billing and one-click payments.
- 👍 Advanced fraud screening options, including 3D Secure and custom rules.
- 💰 From $20/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: Pricing is opaque—no public rates, so you must go through sales to get a quote,
Choose Stripe if...
- You are: Online businesses, SaaS startups, and platforms that want a flexible, developer-friendly payment infrastructure with bui
- 👍 Transparent pay-as-you-go pricing with no monthly fees.
- 👍 Extremely flexible API and extensive documentation, making it the developer's first choice for custo
- 👍 Global reach with support for 135+ currencies, 50+ payment methods, and localized payment experience
- ⚠ Trade-off: Transaction fees are higher than interchange-plus pricing offered by some compet
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is Opayo and how does it differ from Sage Pay?
Opayo is the current brand name for what used to be Sage Pay, after the company was acquired by Elavon. It offers the same core payment gateway services—online card processing, tokenisation, and fraud screening—with a focus on UK and Irish businesses.
How does Opayo pricing work and is it transparent?
Opayo does not publish standard pricing; you have to contact their sales team for a quote. Costs typically include a setup fee, monthly service fee, per-transaction charges, and possibly extra fees for fraud screening or payment methods like Amex.
Does Opayo support recurring payments and subscriptions?
Yes, Opayo is well-suited for recurring billing. It offers tokenisation to securely store card details and supports repeat payments, making it a practical choice for subscription-based businesses.
Can Opayo integrate with my e-commerce platform?
Opayo provides pre-built plugins for platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce, plus a REST API and hosted payment pages. Most standard e-commerce setups can be connected without custom development.
🔗 More Payment Gateways Comparisons
🔀 Explore Alternatives
📧 Save this comparison
We'll email you a link to this comparison. No spam.