Braintree is what PayPal built after buying it in 2013 to compete with Stripe for developers: a clean API, a vault, recurring billing, and PayPal and Venmo built in. Its pricing is slightly different from Stripe’s in a way that matters depending on your ticket size. This page lays out the fees, the comparisons, and the volume where a merchant account wins.
Braintree’s published pricing, 2026
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Cards and digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo) | 2.59% + 49¢ |
| PayPal transactions | 3.49% + 49¢ |
| ACH direct debit | 0.75%, capped at $5 |
| Monthly, setup, PCI | $0 |
| Chargeback | Fee applies (confirm current amount in your agreement) |
| Interchange-plus (high volume, by application) | About interchange + 0.35% + 10¢ |
Figures from PayPal Braintree’s published US pricing and 2026 reviews; PayPal adjusts these periodically, so confirm on your agreement.
Braintree vs Stripe on ticket size
| Ticket | Braintree 2.59% + 49¢ | Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ |
|---|---|---|
| $20 | $1.01 | $0.88 |
| $40 | $1.53 | $1.46 |
| $61 | $2.07 | $2.07 |
| $100 | $3.08 | $3.20 |
| $250 | $6.97 | $7.55 |
| $1,000 | $26.39 | $29.30 |
Break-even is a $61 ticket. Subscriptions at $15 favor Stripe; furniture at $800 favors Braintree. PayPal-branded transactions at 3.49% + 49¢ are more expensive than either card rate, which matters for stores where a large share of customers click the PayPal button.
Where Braintree is the right choice
- PayPal and Venmo are a meaningful share of checkout, and you want them in the same integration as cards.
- Average ticket is over $60 and volume is under about $15,000 a month.
- A developer team that likes the Braintree SDKs and Drop-in UI.
- Marketplaces using Braintree’s split-payment features.
Where a merchant account beats it
Same aggregator trade-offs as Stripe: flat rate on every card type, after-the-fact underwriting, reserves and holds without warning. Over about $15,000 a month with a normal domestic card mix, a standalone gateway with interchange-plus processing costs less. Braintree’s own interchange-plus tier addresses that for large merchants but starts around $80,000 a month.
| $50,000 / 600 txns, $83 ticket | $200,000 / 2,000 txns | |
|---|---|---|
| Braintree standard | $1,589 | $6,160 |
| Gateway + interchange-plus (interchange + 0.30% + 10¢) | $1,325 | $5,120 |
| Difference per month | $264 | $1,040 |
If PayPal and Venmo matter, keep a PayPal button through PayPal’s own checkout alongside the merchant account for cards. Most carts support both at once.
Braintree vs Authorize.net, NMI and accept.blue
Braintree is a bundled processor; the other three are standalone gateways on a merchant account. The bundled option has no monthly fee and one bill. The standalone option has a $10 to $25 gateway fee, negotiated processing, an underwritten merchant account, Level 3 for B2B, and the ability to run dual pricing in store on the same account. The Authorize.net alternatives comparison puts all of them side by side.
Leaving Braintree
Vaulted cards export to another PCI-compliant gateway, encrypted, on request. Subscriptions are recreated in the new gateway’s recurring engine. Your cart’s payment plugin changes. PayPal and Venmo wallet agreements stay with PayPal; customers who want to keep paying that way re-authorize through a PayPal checkout you retain. Two to four weeks with stored cards.