6 ms·

Is it my imagination, or do the offerings from Square and Stripe continue to converge?

edwinwee 5y ago
(I work at Stripe.) The offerings are meant for different use-cases. Stripe Terminal’s great for developers looking to deploy in-person payments at tech-forward companies. Square’s great for coffee shops and other SMBs!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- what_ever 5y ago
  What's stopping from coffee shops and SMBs from using Stripe? Why shouldn't they?
  - notatoad 5y ago
    >great for developers I'm guessing this means that the setup process of stripe terminal isn't to the point where a non-developer can plug it in and go. Square is great because anybody competent enough to install an app on their phone can use it
    - jackson1442 5y ago
      They also don’t come with Point-of-Sale software. Square is all-inclusive while Stripe is DIY.
  - pbreit 5y ago
    The whole point of sale system.
  - paxys 5y ago
    They'll have to build their own app and the rest of the checkout system themselves.
    - runawaybottle 5y ago
      Nothing. It’s an insurgent tactic. Payment is being reinvented and developers are at the forefront, so enable them.
- schappim 5y ago
  More like Stripe is helping developers create the next Shopify :) The true lesson here is that the bulk of value can be found at the point of the transaction.
dangwu 5y ago
It shouldn’t be surprising. That’s how you steal customers.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  I’m not in the payment space, but it seems like it’s rapidly commodifying. The hardware to support mag stripe, contactless, and EMV isn’t terribly expensive per unit, and as long as there’s some bare minimum functionality, the competitive edge is the processing cost. This seems less about stealing customers and more about keeping Stripe attractive to existing customers who might be continually evaluating other payment providers and their hardware offerings. Long term, we likely end up like China with WeChat and Alipay, using apps and QR codes primarily for payments eventually. Venmo and PayPal support C2C and C2B payments with QR codes, Zelle is beta testing them currently. https://www.paymentsjournal.com/how-wechat-alipay-networks-make-transactions-free/ https://www.paymentsjournal.com/how-wechat-alipay-networks-m...
  - posguy 5y ago
    Gravity Payments, First Data Merchant Services (the direct sales side of First Data), Vantiv/Mercury and numerous other platforms and platform resellers (Square & Stripe resell others processing platforms) have spent the last decade driving down prices. Some wholesale contracts for certain ISO resellers are as low as 1 basis point (.01% of a transaction) and $0.01 for bank underwriting (where the bank holds the chargeback risk if the underwritten business goes bankrupt), with platform fees being as low as 3 basis points and $0.02 cents. Stripe is probably doing the underwriting in house, hence why sometimes deposits of recent transactions to your bank account are delayed for a few days to a week.
    - granzymes 5y ago
      Square & Stripe don't seem to be reselling other processing platforms. > We work directly with multiple networks https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/payment-platform https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/payment-platform > Stripe’s platform connects directly to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and China Union Pay across global markets https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/direct-platform https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/direct-platform
pbreit 5y ago
Surprisingly they have not encroached much on each other’s business, particularly Square moving very slowly into card-not-present.
- posguy 5y ago
  Square's 3.5% + $0.30 transaction fee for card not present transactions is significantly higher than Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee.
  - tdeck 5y ago
    Not sure where that pricing comes from. I believe Square's payments API is priced the same as Stripe (I'm sure that's not an accident): https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/payment-api https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/payment-api > Square’s payment APIs are free to integrate into your software. For online sales, the only cost is 2.9% + 30¢ per payment transaction. Sales made with Square’s POS app are charged at our standard fees: 2.6% + 10¢ per swipe, chip card dip, or NFC payment. Manually entered transactions are charged at 3.5% + 15¢.
ksec 5y ago
I was curious and look up Square, they dont tend to go on news headline as much as stripe in tech circle. I didn't know they went IPO, and they have a market cap of ~$100B. Wow.

(I work at Stripe.) The offerings are meant for different use-cases. Stripe Terminal’s great for developers looking to deploy in-person payments at tech-forward companies. Square’s great for coffee shops and other SMBs!

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
what_ever 5y ago
What's stopping from coffee shops and SMBs from using Stripe? Why shouldn't they?
- notatoad 5y ago
  >great for developers I'm guessing this means that the setup process of stripe terminal isn't to the point where a non-developer can plug it in and go. Square is great because anybody competent enough to install an app on their phone can use it
  - jackson1442 5y ago
    They also don’t come with Point-of-Sale software. Square is all-inclusive while Stripe is DIY.
- pbreit 5y ago
  The whole point of sale system.
- paxys 5y ago
  They'll have to build their own app and the rest of the checkout system themselves.
  - runawaybottle 5y ago
    Nothing. It’s an insurgent tactic. Payment is being reinvented and developers are at the forefront, so enable them.
schappim 5y ago
More like Stripe is helping developers create the next Shopify :) The true lesson here is that the bulk of value can be found at the point of the transaction.

dangwu 5y ago

It shouldn’t be surprising. That’s how you steal customers.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
toomuchtodo 5y ago
I’m not in the payment space, but it seems like it’s rapidly commodifying. The hardware to support mag stripe, contactless, and EMV isn’t terribly expensive per unit, and as long as there’s some bare minimum functionality, the competitive edge is the processing cost. This seems less about stealing customers and more about keeping Stripe attractive to existing customers who might be continually evaluating other payment providers and their hardware offerings. Long term, we likely end up like China with WeChat and Alipay, using apps and QR codes primarily for payments eventually. Venmo and PayPal support C2C and C2B payments with QR codes, Zelle is beta testing them currently. https://www.paymentsjournal.com/how-wechat-alipay-networks-make-transactions-free/ https://www.paymentsjournal.com/how-wechat-alipay-networks-m...
- posguy 5y ago
  Gravity Payments, First Data Merchant Services (the direct sales side of First Data), Vantiv/Mercury and numerous other platforms and platform resellers (Square & Stripe resell others processing platforms) have spent the last decade driving down prices. Some wholesale contracts for certain ISO resellers are as low as 1 basis point (.01% of a transaction) and $0.01 for bank underwriting (where the bank holds the chargeback risk if the underwritten business goes bankrupt), with platform fees being as low as 3 basis points and $0.02 cents. Stripe is probably doing the underwriting in house, hence why sometimes deposits of recent transactions to your bank account are delayed for a few days to a week.
  - granzymes 5y ago
    Square & Stripe don't seem to be reselling other processing platforms. > We work directly with multiple networks https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/payment-platform https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/payment-platform > Stripe’s platform connects directly to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and China Union Pay across global markets https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/direct-platform https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/direct-platform

pbreit 5y ago

Surprisingly they have not encroached much on each other’s business, particularly Square moving very slowly into card-not-present.

posguy 5y ago
Square's 3.5% + $0.30 transaction fee for card not present transactions is significantly higher than Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee.
- tdeck 5y ago
  Not sure where that pricing comes from. I believe Square's payments API is priced the same as Stripe (I'm sure that's not an accident): https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/payment-api https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/payment-api > Square’s payment APIs are free to integrate into your software. For online sales, the only cost is 2.9% + 30¢ per payment transaction. Sales made with Square’s POS app are charged at our standard fees: 2.6% + 10¢ per swipe, chip card dip, or NFC payment. Manually entered transactions are charged at 3.5% + 15¢.

ksec 5y ago

I was curious and look up Square, they dont tend to go on news headline as much as stripe in tech circle. I didn't know they went IPO, and they have a market cap of ~$100B. Wow.