- ecommerce
- payments
- europe
- stripe
- fintech
Every card payment you take in Europe carries a fee, and over a year those fees add up to a meaningful line on your P&L. The provider you pick also decides which local payment methods your customers see at checkout — and in markets like the Netherlands or Belgium, the wrong choice quietly costs you sales. This guide compares the main European payment providers on fees, features and fit, so you can pick the one that matches how you actually sell.
If you are still setting things up, this pairs with our wider guide on how to start an online business in Europe.
Why local payment methods matter as much as fees
Fees are the obvious number, but coverage is what protects revenue. A Dutch shopper expects iDEAL. A Belgian one expects Bancontact. Subscription and B2B buyers across the eurozone often prefer SEPA Direct Debit because it is cheap and bank-to-bank. If your checkout only offers Visa and Mastercard, you lose the customers who never enter card details online.
So judge a provider on two axes at once: the headline card rate, and whether it supports the local methods your customers already trust. A slightly higher card fee is easily worth it if it unlocks iDEAL in a market where iDEAL is how people pay.
The four main providers
Stripe — developer-first, predictable flat pricing
Stripe uses simple blended pricing. For businesses in the European Economic Area, standard EEA consumer cards are 1.5% + €0.25 per transaction. Premium EEA cards (commercial and corporate) run 1.9% + €0.25, and non-EEA international cards 3.25% + €0.25. There are no monthly fees on standard pricing. Stripe supports iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA Direct Debit and dozens of other methods, and its documentation and APIs are the best in the market — which matters if you have developers or use a modern stack.
Best fit: SaaS, subscriptions, and anyone who wants clean flat rates and strong developer tooling.
Mollie — flat per-method pricing, strong in the Benelux
Mollie prices each method separately, which is unusually transparent. Current rates: iDEAL €0.32 flat, Bancontact 1.40% + €0.25, SEPA Direct Debit €0.35, and European Economic Area consumer Visa/Mastercard at 1.80% + €0.25. PayPal is passed through at +€0.10 on top of PayPal's own fee. There are no monthly fees for online processing. Because iDEAL is a flat €0.32 regardless of order value, Mollie is very cheap on high-value Dutch orders.
Best fit: Benelux-focused shops, and SMBs who want a plug-in for common platforms without touching code.
Adyen — enterprise-grade, Interchange++ transparency
Adyen uses Interchange++ pricing: you pay the true interchange fee, the card scheme fee, and Adyen's own markup separately. In practice that means a €0.13 processing fee per transaction plus interchange, scheme fees and roughly 0.60% acquirer markup on cards; iDEAL is around €0.13 + €0.22 and SEPA Direct Debit €0.13 + €0.27. For high volumes this often lands near ~1% all-in on European consumer cards — cheaper than flat pricing — but Adyen has a minimum monthly invoice and expects a certain scale, so it is not aimed at small merchants.
Best fit: Higher-volume or omnichannel businesses that can justify the setup and want the lowest per-transaction cost.
PayPal — reach and buyer trust, at a price
PayPal's strength is that shoppers already have accounts and trust the buyer protection. The trade-off is cost: standard EU rates are around 2.90% + €0.35 per transaction, meaningfully above card-first providers, though exact rates vary by country and currency. Most European merchants offer PayPal alongside a cheaper primary provider rather than as their only option, so buyers who want it can use it without every transaction paying the premium.
Best fit: as a secondary method to capture PayPal-loyal shoppers and cross-border buyers.
Fees at a glance
- Stripe — European consumer cards: 1.5% + €0.25 (EEA) · iDEAL: supported · SEPA Direct Debit: supported · Monthly fee: none (standard)
- Mollie — European consumer cards: 1.80% + €0.25 · iDEAL: €0.32 · SEPA Direct Debit: €0.35 · Monthly fee: none (online)
- Adyen — European consumer cards: €0.13 + interchange++ + ~0.60% · iDEAL: ~€0.13 + €0.22 · SEPA Direct Debit: ~€0.13 + €0.27 · Monthly fee: none, but minimum invoice
- PayPal — European consumer cards: ~2.90% + €0.35 · iDEAL: — · SEPA Direct Debit: — · Monthly fee: none
Rates are the standard published figures for European Economic Area businesses in 2026; your actual rate can vary by country, card type, currency and negotiated volume. Always confirm on the provider's own pricing page.
Sources: Stripe pricing, Mollie pricing, Adyen pricing, PayPal business fees.
How to choose
Work through these in order:
- Where are your customers? If a big share is in the Netherlands or Belgium, iDEAL and Bancontact support is non-negotiable — Mollie and Stripe both cover them well.
- What's your volume? Below a few thousand euros a month, flat pricing (Stripe or Mollie) keeps life simple. At high volume, Adyen's Interchange++ can be materially cheaper — model it before switching.
- What's your average order value? Flat per-transaction methods like iDEAL at €0.32 favour high-value baskets; percentage rates favour low-value ones.
- How technical is your setup? Developer team or custom stack, Stripe is hard to beat. No developers, Mollie's platform plug-ins are the fastest path.
- Do you need PayPal? Add it as a secondary option for reach, not as your default rail.
The honest answer for most European SMBs is a card-first provider (Stripe or Mollie) as the primary rail, with the right local methods switched on, and PayPal available as a backup.
Because the maths turns on your specific mix of order value and volume, don't eyeball it — run your real numbers through our payment fee calculator to see what each provider would actually cost you per month.
One store, many countries
If you plan to sell beyond your home market, your payment setup connects directly to VAT, currencies and local expectations — we cover the full picture in selling across the EU from one store. The short version: pick a provider that already supports the local methods in every country you target, so you are not re-platforming the moment you expand.
Getting the checkout right
A payment provider only performs as well as the checkout it lives in — slow pages, clumsy flows and missing local methods all leak revenue no matter how low the fee. If you want a store built to convert, with the right European payment methods wired in from day one, see our web development service or book a free consultation and we will map the best setup for the markets you sell in.