Remember those heady days when you were planning and launching your business? Back when everything was new and shiny, you were thrilled to find a payment processor with tools that could be set up in a matter of days and carried no upfront costs.

But now that you are more established, you may be getting the feeling that Stripe is no longer the right fit for your company. 

The following insights will help you to determine if you need to seek an alternative solution.

Stripe is becoming too expensive

Without a doubt, you appreciated the fact that you didn’t need to pay for your Stripe software or card readers when you got started. However, there is no free lunch, and Stripe is in business to make a profit just like you are. 

Over time, their per-transaction and payment processing costs may have started to gobble up your profits to a degree that you can no longer tolerate.

You can’t negotiate better rates with Stripe

Once you recognized that what you were paying in fees was excessive, you may have decided to advocate on your own behalf by attempting to negotiate with Stripe. You might have even had some positive results that made you feel better, however briefly. 

But the truth is that Stripe is notoriously rigid about its fees and will probably never lower them sufficiently to meet your budgetary expectations.

Some businesses speak with a representative from Stripe and learn that the company is willing to lower fees, albeit with the requirement that you take on burdens like chargebacks. Ultimately, this places a heavy onus on your shoulders that you may not be equipped to assume.

Your payments volumes are increasing

As your company grows and you gain new customers, your sales have probably started to rise. This is great news and is totally what you want as an entrepreneur. 

However, the flat per-transaction fees you were paying Stripe for your meager number of sales become a significant expense as your numbers start to go up.

You need more than Stripe billing provides

These days, you might be looking to appeal to a wider customer base, perhaps one that includes overseas shoppers. If you want to implement a subscription model or recurring billing, Stripe does not have the scope. 

Nor does it do well with localization issues such as overseas multiple currencies, payment methods or languages. This gap requires that you hire your own developers to integrate your non-Stripe-compatible tools or build your own all-in-one program. 

That can be expensive and overwhelming for many smaller companies without a dedicated staff of developers.

You know you need to change providers but are procrastinating

Secure payment processing is one of the cornerstones of any company’s infrastructure. Recognizing this fact, many entrepreneurs are wary of making a change out of fear that something terrible will happen during the switching process, or they might realize too late that their new choice was a poor one.

The bottom line is that if you have that nagging feeling that your payment processing universe needs to be broadened and updated, it probably does. 

But just how do you go about finding a viable Stripe alternative that will grow alongside your flourishing company?

What to do when you have outgrown Stripe

Fortunately, yours is not the first company whose needs and priorities have evolved beyond the initial advantages to be found with Stripe. The marketplace has recognized this need, resulting in two models that have proven to be effective alternatives.

The first is via a merchant of record (MOR). This solution provides an all-in-one way to take payments that encompasses the payment gateway, checkout, pricing, localization and subscription renewals. The model assumes full liability for international sales tax and tax compliance. 

Offering you all of their multi currency payment processor tools at one flat rate, this alternative is more economical than paying separately for software tools, processes and employees to accomplish the same tasks.

There are a number of excellent MOR options, each with its own set of features and advantages. They include Paddle, Cleverbridge, and Fastspring, among others.

Your second option is to select a different payment gateway with features that go beyond what Stripe can furnish. Like Stripe, any other gateway is designed to help you transact payments online. 

As a result, they will all carry the risk of burdening your company with challenges that may be similar to the ones you are changing providers in order to avoid.

That being said, there are a plethora of payment gateways, each of which offers its own services, costs, integrations, available payment methods, features and third-party tools. 

As any business owner will tell you, growth is a mixed blessing. While it brings with it new customers and the ability to boost product offerings and elevate your brand, it is also accompanied by challenges. 

Not the least of these is overcoming your own reluctance to make the changes that you know are essential if you want your company to continue to bloom.

Stripe, with its easy-to-use APIs and shopping cart integrations, its low upfront costs and simple set-up, may have been a no-brainer when you were planting the seeds of your company. 

However, to further the analogy, this plant’s roots are becoming cramped in your current Stripe pot. Although change can be intimidating and difficult, it is essential if your company is to become the strong and resilient powerhouse you have always dreamed about creating. In other words, saying goodbye to Stripe could well mean saying hello to a world of new opportunities, capabilities and profits.