Best Stripe alternatives for enterprise businesses
For enterprise businesses processing payments across borders, channels, or platforms.
Stripe works well for a lot of businesses. It's fast to set up, developer friendly, and a sensible choice for small-to-mid-sized businesses processing payments online.
But, at enterprise scale, needs often look different. This article is written for businesses who:
are an existing Stripe customer looking for a new solution,
have had Stripe recommended and want to compare it against other options,
and fit one (or more) of the following:
you process payments across borders,
you serve customers in person as well as online,
you're a SaaS platform managing payments for your users.
We'll compare four providers, including Adyen, all offering enterprise-grade solutions built to meet a range of requirements. We'll also establish what to look for when you're evaluating your options.
Ready to learn how Adyen might be the right fit for your enterprise business? Talk to our team.
Considerations for enterprises looking for Stripe alternatives
Whether you’re an existing customer of Stripe or evaluating alternatives before committing, the following considerations are worth bearing in mind:
Does the provider cover the regions you operate in?
If you're operating or expanding into Europe, the US, APAC, LATAM or other markets, it's worth digging into a provider's coverage in those regions. For businesses specifically searching for Stripe alternatives for international payments, you'll want to consider questions like:
Do they hold their own local acquiring licences? (Transactions processed locally are more likely to be approved and are up to 59% cheaper.)
What local payment methods do they support (such as bank transfers or region-specific wallets)? Given that 62% of consumers will abandon a purchase if their preferred payment method isn't available, it’s vital you let local customers pay how they want.
What regulatory groundwork does it have in place, such as EEA passporting or a UK and US banking licence? This is important since it affects whether they can settle funds directly or if they rely on a partner bank to do so on their behalf.
Do you need in-person and online payments to work together?
If your business sells both online and in person, it's worth thinking about how those two channels connect. Some providers treat online and in-person payments as one, with shared data, tokenization, and reporting across both. Other providers only support one channel, or support both but manage them as two separate systems. This can make reconciliation complicated. Plus you lose out on a single view of your customer, which makes it hard to support cross-channel journeys like buying online and returning in store.
If your aim is omnichannel, it's worth asking a provider how their online and in-person offerings are connected under the hood. Look for an integrated system that gives you as much visibility as possible.
Are financial products built in-house or through a third party?
Some providers offer products like issuing, capital, and treasury directly, using their own banking infrastructure. Others deliver the same products by partnering with third-party banks behind the scenes. So, while the product offering looks the same, there are some fundamental differences in how they work, for example:
When products are built on the provider's own infrastructure, they typically share one ledger and one data model, so a transaction or customer record looks the same whether you're viewing it from the payments side or the issuing side. You can also easily move money between products since they’re all built on the same system.
When products are delivered through third-party bank partnerships, each one runs on a separate system with its own data model. This can mean extra work reconciling records, or delays moving funds from one product to another. It can also introduce extra fees during processing, and introduces more potential points of failure that require maintenance.
If you're planning to use several financial products together, it's worth asking a provider how those products connect to each other behind the scenes. A single dashboard doesn’t always mean a single underlying system.
How much personal support do you need?
Support needs vary depending on the size and complexity of your operation. Some providers, like Stripe, are built around self-service, with documentation and ticketing as the main route to help. Others offer a dedicated account team, made up of people who understand your business and can provide more proactive, consultative support.
The right model depends on how much in-house payments expertise your team has, and how much strategic input you want from your provider as you grow. Ask vendors what support looks like day to day and whether dedicated support comes as standard or as a paid add-on.
Comparison table: Four alternatives to Stripe
Acquiring
Adyen
Direct acquiring, owned banking licences across multiple regions
Checkout.com
Direct acquiring, strong focus on card performance
Worldpay
Acquiring network built through scale and acquisitions
Airwallex
Local payment rails in 160+ countries
In-person payments
Adyen
Built in-house with 16 different terminal options. Unified with online data and reporting.
Checkout.com
Primary focus is ecommerce
Worldpay
Positioned separately from online processing
Airwallex
Launched in-person payments in April 2026
Financial products
Adyen
Issuing, capital, and treasury built on owned infrastructure
Checkout.com
Primarily payments and checkout infrastructure
Worldpay
Primarily acquiring and processing
Airwallex
Treasury, FX, and billing products, including a standalone billing suite
Support model
Adyen
Dedicated account management included as standard
Checkout.com
Enterprise-focused support
Worldpay
Enterprise support at scale
Airwallex
Self-service, with enterprise support available
Adyen: Single-platform payments built for enterprise
We've started with ourselves because we have a strong solution for enterprise businesses operating at scale across borders and channels.
That said, Adyen isn't the right fit for every business. Adyen is a best fit for businesses that need payments, in-person acceptance, and financial products to work together as one system, rather than several stitched together. If you're a small team looking for the fastest possible setup with minimal configuration, a self-service platform may suit you better.
Here’s what you can expect if you choose to work with Adyen:
Boost approval rates with direct global acquiring
When transactions route cross-border, approval rates and costs can suffer. For example, a customer's card might be declined not because there's anything wrong with the payment, but because the transaction looks unfamiliar to their bank.
Adyen offers global payment processing through direct acquiring relationships across regions, so transactions can be processed locally by default. As well as improving authorisation rates, it also cuts costs (by up to 59%). At high transaction volumes, that can add up.
Unify every channel with one platform for online and in-person payments
Running online and in-person payments as separate systems creates a fractured view of the customer. A shopper who buys online and returns in store becomes two different records instead of one, and finance teams end up reconciling two sets of data by hand.
Adyen's in-person payments solution runs on the same platform as online payments, sharing data, tokenization, and reporting across both channels. That means a single view of each customer, regardless of channel, which can be used to both build loyalty and spot and block known fraudsters.
Settle funds directly, with owned banking licences
When your provider relies on a third-party bank, they’re adding a layer between your business and your money. Every settlement, compliance check, and regulatory update runs through someone else's system before it reaches yours. This slows things down and makes it harder to get a straight answer when something needs attention.
Adyen operates as a licensed financial institution with banking licences across the UK, EU and US. This means we can settle funds and manage compliance requirements directly, without routing through a third party.
For a business operating across several markets, that means a more consistent experience wherever you're trading, since you're dealing with one regulated entity rather than a different partner bank in every region.
Create your own financial products (without becoming a PayFac)
If you’re a SaaS platform wanting to embed payments products, you’ve typically faced a tough choice. Either take on the regulatory burden of becoming a registered PayFac or use a provider whose issuing and financial products run on a separate infrastructure.
But, with Adyen, you get the commercial and operational control of a PayFac without needing a licence. That’s because we’ve built issuing, capital, and treasury products on our own infrastructure. So, with just one integration, you can process online and in-person payments, issue cards and offer pre-approved loans, all within your platform.
Get proactive support, with a dedicated account team as standard
Self-service support means starting from scratch with every ticket, explaining your setup to someone new each time, and waiting to notice a problem before you can raise it.
Every Adyen enterprise customer is assigned a dedicated account team as standard, made up of people who already understand your business. That means you get proactive support and strategic input on things like market expansion or payment method mix, not just troubleshooting when something breaks.
Checkout.com
Checkout.com positions itself as a global, high-performance payments platform built for scale, speed, and ownership, operating as a payment gateway, acquirer, and processor for enterprise clients. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, it supports payments in more than 150 currencies with in-country acquiring.
Global acquiring: Checkout.com holds direct acquiring relationships and positions authorisation performance and card processing as core strengths, making it a strong option for cross-border businesses.
In-person payments: Checkout.com focuses on ecommerce and digital payments. In-person and omnichannel capability aren't part of its public positioning, so businesses with significant in-store operations should ask directly about this.
Financial products: Checkout.com's core offering is payments and checkout infrastructure rather than financial products such as issuing, capital, or treasury.
Support model: Checkout.com offers enterprise-focused support for its larger customers.
Worldpay
Worldpay positions itself as a global leader in payments processing technology, helping merchants accept payments across multiple channels worldwide. In January 2026, it was acquired by Global Payments from FIS and GTCR, forming a combined company that processes $3.7 trillion in annual volume across more than 175 countries.
Global acquiring: Worldpay's enterprise offering covers 146 countries, more than 135 currencies, and over 300 payment methods, positioning global reach and acceptance optimisation as core strengths.
In-person payments: Worldpay offers POS and unattended payment solutions for high-volume physical retail, hospitality, and transit environments, and states that it connects in-store and online transactions into a single customer view. This capability, along with the rest of the platform, has been assembled through a series of separate acquisitions over time.
Financial products: Worldpay focuses on payments processing, acceptance, and fraud prevention rather than owned financial products such as issuing or treasury.
Support model: Worldpay serves the full spectrum from SMB to enterprise, with dedicated enterprise-focused solutions sitting alongside its broader small business offering, rather than an enterprise-only focus.
Airwallex
Airwallex positions itself as a a single global financial platform that combines banking, payments, billing, treasury, and spend management. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, it's now dual headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco, and operates under more than 80 licences and registrations worldwide.
Global acquiring: Airwallex's core strength is cross-border payments and treasury, with local payment rails in more than 160 countries and multi-currency accounts built into the platform.
In-person payments: Airwallex launched in-person payments in April 2026, extending its infrastructure to physical checkout and connecting online and in-store transactions under one system.
Financial products: Treasury, foreign exchange, and billing are core to Airwallex's offering, including a dedicated billing platform for invoicing, subscriptions, and usage-based revenue models.
Support model: Airwallex serves businesses from startups to enterprises, with an API-first platform and enterprise-focused support available for larger customers.
Choosing the right Stripe alternative for your business
There's no single best alternative to Stripe for enterprise businesses. The right choice depends on where you operate, how your customers pay, whether online and in-person channels need to work as one, and how much support you want from your provider as you scale.
Payments can be complex, but you don't have to navigate it alone. As you talk with providers, keep your goals in mind and ask for their opinions. Whichever direction you take, you want to ensure your setup is optimized for exactly what you need.
Want to see how Adyen fits your specific setup? Talk to our team.
Stripe alternatives FAQs
Both Adyen and Stripe are well known global payment providers, but they're built for different stages of business growth. Stripe is designed around self-service and fast setup, which makes it a sensible choice for startups and small-to-mid-sized businesses processing payments online. Adyen is built for enterprise businesses operating at scale, with direct acquiring relationships and owned banking licences across multiple regions, in-house financial products including issuing, capital, and treasury, and a dedicated account team included as standard. Adyen also unifies online and in-person payments on a single platform, which matters for businesses selling across both channels. The right choice depends on your scale, whether you operate across borders or channels, and how much support you want from your provider.