Top 4 GoCardless alternatives: compare fees, features & benefits

If you run a growing business, you’ll need a payment platform that will allow you to open local accounts in several currencies, seamlessly accept payments from international customers, and send money across borders without excessive fees.

Whilst GoCardless may be one of your options, you may like to consider its alternatives to see which one suits your needs best.

What is GoCardless? 

GoCardless is a financial technology company with a reputation for providing a secure payment pathway for SMEs and larger enterprises with recurring billing systems across multiple countries.

Headquartered in London, the company helps businesses send and receive payments directly by facilitating domestic, international, one-off, recurring and scheduled payments via Direct Debit and Instant Bank Pay. GoCardless also now offers open banking services, after acquiring Nordigen in 2022.

Since 2011, GoCardless has processed over £30 billion in payments annually for thousands of organisations around the world, including Sage, TripAdvisor and Les Mills­¹.

GoCardless offers a tiered subscription model for UK customers, with incremental features included. There are no monthly subscription costs and transaction fees start at 1% + 20p².

The top alternatives to GoCardless

Here are the top alternatives to Payoneer

Airwallex is a global financial technology company that offers a range of financial services, including international payments, multi-currency accounts, and Borderless Cards. It aims to empower businesses of all sizes to drive their global growth through easy-to-use transaction solutions.

Payoneer is a global fintech company that offers digital payment solutions. It enables businesses and professionals to send and receive funds, manage finances, and operate internationally. With Payoneer, users can handle cross-border payments and access global markets.

PayPal has been a trusted payment gateway for over 20 years, serving the global community. It empowers eCommerce brands to process payments from credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers.

Stripe is a technology company that creates the economic infrastructure for the internet. It equips businesses with a comprehensive suite of payment processing tools and APIs to facilitate payment acceptance, payouts, and financial management online.

Compare the top 4 alternatives to GoCardless

Why choose Airwallex over GoCardless?

*These are Account-to-Account payments and not card payments.

What questions should I ask when choosing alternative providers to GoCardless?

With so many providers on the market, it can be tricky to find the right payment software for your business. But it matters; the time and money it takes to find a new provider and exit a contract can add up quickly.

Find out if GoCardless, or one of the alternatives we’ve mentioned in this article, is a good fit for your needs by finding out the answer to these 10 questions: 

1. What industries and business sizes do you serve?

2. Which countries and currencies do you support?

3. What are your transaction fees?

4. Are there any additional costs (FX fees etc)?

5. What payment methods do you support?

6. Do you offer tiered pricing or volume discounts?

7. Do you offer recurring billing and subscription management features?

8. How easy is it to integrate your platform with my business systems?

9. How do you protect sensitive financial information?

10. What kind of technical and customer support do you offer?

Final thoughts on alternatives to GoCardless

While GoCardless is a smart choice for domestic businesses that rely on recurring billing models, Airwallex can offer a more flexible, cost-effective solution for businesses with diverse and international payment needs.

As a cross-border payments specialist, Airwallex helps you accept payments in 160+ local payment methods in 180+ countries and collect and hold funds in 23 countries. If you need to convert to another currency, we offer transparent, competitive FX rates (Interbank rate + 0.5%-1%).

With GoCardless, you can only accept payments from 30+ countries and currency conversions are powered through third-party Wise. You’ll be charged 2%+20p to collect international transactions, plus you can only hold 8 currencies.

Sources

For more information on Airwallex, visit Airwallex Business Account and Airwallex pricing. 

1 https://gocardless.com/guides/moving-customers-to-direct-debit/explaining-gocardless-to-customers/

2https://hub.gocardless.com/s/article/Pricing-comparison?language=en_GB

3 https://www.payoneer.com/get-paid-by-clients/#:~:text=Payment%20request%20%E2%80%93%20sent%20payment%20requests,bank%20debit%2C%20direct%20bank%20payment

4 https://www.payoneer.com/about/pricing/#pay-your-supplier

5 https://www.paypal.com/uk/enterprise/payment-methods

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

7 https://stripe.com/en-pt/payments/payment-methods

8 https://wise.com/us/blog/stripe-international

9 https://stripe.com/gb/pricing

10 https://gocardless.com/international-payments/

11 https://gocardless.com/pricing/

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q3 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. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].