Overview
PayPal Holdings operates PayPal Checkout, Venmo, Braintree and in-person card acceptance. In the third quarter of 2026 it reported total payment volume of US$487.1 billion, up 6%, revenue of US$8.58 billion and 440 million active accounts.[15] For small merchants the main appeal is the PayPal and Venmo buttons, which let customers pay with stored wallet balances or cards without re-entering details.
PayPal’s US merchant-fee pages returned access errors during research for this article, so current rates are not quoted here; PayPal publishes a fee schedule that varies by product (PayPal Checkout, card processing, Venmo, QR code and in-person payments) and charges different rates for international transactions. Merchants comparing PayPal with flat-rate processors should check the live schedule, because PayPal’s wallet-based checkout rates have historically differed from its card-processing rates. PayPal suits businesses for which wallet conversion matters more than the lowest card rate.
PayPal features
- PayPal and Venmo buttons
- Pay Later instalments
- Card fields for guest checkout
- Pairs with a separate card processor
- PayPal and Venmo checkout buttons
- Card processing for websites
- Pay Later instalment options
- In-person payments and QR codes
PayPal pricing
Not verified (fee pages blocked). Rates vary by product and region.
PayPal strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Large two-sided network of consumer and merchant accounts
- Owns several brands across checkout, processing and peer-to-peer payments
- Recognised consumer wallet
- Adds a wallet option alongside cards
- Venmo acceptance
- Large consumer wallet base
Limitations
- Market value is a fraction of the card networks' despite similar sales
- Profit margin is much lower than those of Visa and Mastercard
- Rates could not be verified
- Complex product-based fee schedule
- Fee schedule varies by product and is complex
- Current rates could not be verified for this article
Appears in
- Largest Fintech Companies (2026) #2
- Best Payment Gateways in 2026 #11
- Best Payment Processors for Small Business in 2026 #12
PayPal alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to PayPal: companies ranked in the same lists.
Global Payments
Helcim
Adyen- Square
Stripe Atlas
Braintree- Authorize.net
Mollie
Razorpay- NMI
- Visa
Clover
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