Stripe vs Revolut vs PayPal for Irish online stores

Three names dominate Irish ecommerce checkouts: Stripe, Revolut Business, and PayPal. They look interchangeable from the outside. They're not. Here's the practical comparison.

Stripe

• Fees: 1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards (2.8% + €0.25 for premium EEA cards), 2.5% + €0.25 for UK, 3.15% + €0.25 for international, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed.
• Payouts: the first one typically lands 7–14 days after your first payment, then on a 3-business-day standard settlement.
• Integrates with everything — Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, custom builds.
• Best-in-class developer tooling. If your store is custom-built, Stripe is the default.
• Excellent fraud detection (Radar), built-in subscriptions, and Apple Pay / Google Pay out of the box.

Revolut Business

• Fees: 1% + €0.20 for EEA consumer cards on any plan — cheaper than Stripe's standard EEA rate.
• Payouts: next-day access to your earnings in your Revolut Business account.
• Limited integrations — Shopify and WooCommerce yes, but the ecosystem is much smaller than Stripe's.
• Strong if you already bank with Revolut Business and want money in your operating account quickly.
• Weaker on advanced features (subscriptions, complex tax, multi-currency edge cases).

PayPal

• Fees: 3.4% + €0.35 for payments from Ireland and the EEA, higher for UK and other cross-border payments.
• Payouts: instant to PayPal balance, then a standard withdrawal to your bank (free when no currency conversion is involved).
• Most expensive of the three for card payments — but a meaningful share of Irish shoppers will only check out via PayPal.
• Chargeback handling famously favours the buyer.
• Worth offering as a secondary method, not your primary.

What we recommend for Irish SMEs

1. Primary: Stripe. The best all-round option once you factor in integrations, Apple/Google Pay conversions and fraud protection.
2. Secondary: PayPal as a fallback. Some Irish online shoppers prefer it.
3. Consider Revolut Business if you already use Revolut for your business banking and don't need Stripe's wider integrations.

What about Klarna and Afterpay?

Buy-now-pay-later is becoming standard on Irish stores. Klarna integrates with Stripe via a single toggle — it's worth testing if your average order value is on the higher side. Smaller baskets tend to benefit less.

The biggest mistake we see

Stores that bolt on 4 payment methods at launch and overwhelm the checkout. Start with Stripe + PayPal. Add others only if you can show a conversion lift.

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