PayPal vs Airwallex: compare on fees, features and benefits

What is PayPal?

PayPal is a platform that allows customers to buy online without giving their sensitive financial information to sellers.

Today, PayPal operates in most countries around the world. It has 426 million active users and total payment volume reached an impressive $1.53 trillion in Q4 of 2023¹.

A major player in the digital payment scene, PayPal has also developed additional features to help customers manage their money.

For businesses some key features include: PayPal Working Capital, Pay in 3, Cash cards. Business debit cards, Xoom wire transfer services.

What is Airwallex?

Airwallex enables seamless global business payments and money management. It offers an all-in-one platform for businesses to easily manage finances across borders. Unlike PayPal, Airwallex only provides its platform to businesses.

For businesses, Airwallex key features include:

• Multi-currency accounts held in 23 currencies

• Collect in 180+ countries and send payments to 150+ countries

• Fast, low-cost international transfers

• Borderless debit cards to spend in multiple currencies

• Global payment acceptance capabilities

• Integrated domestic and cross-border expense management and accounts payable

• Accounting platform integrations

Compare PayPal with Airwallex

Use our comparison table to see how PayPal measures up against Airwallex on fees, features and benefits.

Compare key features between PayPal and Airwallex

Find out which platform suits your needs best by considering the following features.

Payment methods

• How you receive payments with PayPal changes with the size of your business. Enterprises can accept card payments online and at POS, PayPal balances, buy-now-pay-later and 10+ local payment methods from 200+ countries.

• Airwallex facilitates online payments including cards, 160+ local payment methods in 180+ countries, no-code payment links and customisable checkouts via API.

Debit cards

• PayPal offers a business debit card that lets users pay with their PayPal balance in stores and online with no annual fee⁸. Airwallex Borderless Cards can be used in 10+ currencies directly, or any currency supported by Visa. The first five employee cards are free and additional cards are £5 p/m and, for customers on the Grow plan, come with an in-built expense management tool.

Expense management

• PayPal cards have basic control features like automatic and recurring payments.

• Airwallex provides a comprehensive spend management tool which helps teams track and control spending globally through spending limits, multi-layer approvals and a centralised dashboard to submit expenses and see cash flow.

PayPal fees explained

Although it’s free to open a PayPal for Business account, as soon as you start receiving or sending money you’ll pay a fee.

If you’re moving funds across borders, PayPal’s international fees can stack up very quickly.

The platform has a complex payment structure with many variables that change depending on the type of transaction and where you’re receiving money from.   

For receiving card payments, PayPal charges between 1.20% + fixed fee for Mastercard and Visa and 3.50% for Amex type cards⁶. The company combines the standard domestic transaction fees, plus an additional percentage-based fee for receiving overseas payments.

There’s also an additional fee for international business transactions that involve a currency conversion. This is 3% above the base exchange rate⁷.

Airwallex fees explained

You can accept and hold 23 currencies in your Airwallex business account from £19 (or free depending on conditions).

To accept payments online (for UK businesses) it's 1.30% + £0.20 to accept UK Mastercard and Visa cards, 2.40% + £0.20 to accept EEA cards and 3.15% + £0.20 to accept all other international cards. For Amex, we charge 2.40% + £0.20 and for the 160+ local payment methods we offer it's £0.20 + the payment method fee.

Airwallex fees are different because we’ve invested in accessing local payment networks to make the transfer of funds internationally quicker and more cost-effective. For international payments in the majority of countries (120+), we won’t charge you any transaction fees. For traditional SWIFT transfers to 150+ countries, flat fees apply.

If you need to convert currencies, our FX rates are interbank rate + 0.5% for USD, HKD, CNY, AUD, EUR, GBP, CAD, SGD, CHF, NZD, JPY, or 1.0% for all other currencies.

From your multi-currency business account, you can spend directly in 10+ countries with virtual and physical cards with 0% foreign transaction fees. If you don’t have the currency balance, we’ll auto-convert your available funds in your home currency at market-leading FX rates.

For more information on Airwallex pricing please visit our pricing page.

Final thoughts: Airwallex offers a business-oriented collection and payout solution

The major differences between Airwallex and PayPal are the end user, fees and additional capabilities.

Airwallex is designed purely for businesses. As an end-to-end financial solution, we support ambitious companies with a variety of features including expense management, reporting and supporting accounts payable.

PayPal is recognised across the world and operates from most countries, supporting both consumers and businesses.

For many, PayPal is used for accepting online and offline payments and occasional, ad-hoc international money transfers. But if you’re looking for an all-in-one financial partner who can help you beyond receiving and accepting payments, it may fall short. 

Plus, if you’re moving money across borders, PayPal’s high transaction fees can add up quickly.

Airwallex is an alternative payments platform that provides end-to-end money management - from collection to payout- helping you slash hidden costs with zero hidden fees, market-leading FX rates and integrated financial management tools.

Sources & References

1. https://www.chargeflow.io/blog/paypal-statistics-facts#:~:text=PayPal%20has%20426%20million%20active,%2C%20an%208.19%25%20YoY%20increment

2. https://www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/article/how-can-i-release-my-payments-on-hold-help129

3. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#:~:text=Back%20to%20top-,PayPal%20Payouts,-PayPal%20Payouts%20(which

4. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#:~:text=Back%20to%20top-,PayPal%20Online%20Card%20Payment%20Services,-Use%20of%20applicable

5. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#fixed-fees-commercialtrans

6. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

7. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

8. https://www.paypal.com/uk/business/financial-services/debit-card

9. https://www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/article/where%E2%80%99s-my-withdrawal-help456

10. https://www.airwallex.com/uk/pricing#:~:text=Custom-,Payments,-UK%20cards%20%2D%20Visa

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q2 2024. The information was based on our own online research and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. For up to date pricing, we recommend visiting the provider’s own website. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

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