Stripe

Stripe became the payments engine behind a huge slice of the internet, quietly powering checkout for millions of businesses, from startups to giants.

By Alexandre Le Hégarat · datastats · Updated June 13, 2026

HaeB · CC BY-SA 4.0

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison with a simple frustration: accepting payments online was painfully complicated for developers. Their answer, a clean set of APIs that let a business take payments with a few lines of code, turned Stripe into the financial infrastructure behind a vast portion of internet commerce, from tiny startups to some of the world’s largest companies.

Unlike consumer brands, Stripe works mostly out of sight, which is why people search for it to understand what it actually is: whether it is safe to pay a Stripe-powered checkout, how its fees work, who owns it, how it compares with PayPal, and whether a small business or individual can use it. The answers below stick to widely reported facts about the company and product; specific fees and features vary by country and change over time, so check Stripe’s site for current details, and note that nothing here is financial advice.

People also ask

Stripe is a payments technology company that lets businesses accept money online. When you buy something on a website or app and enter your card details, there is a good chance Stripe is processing that payment behind the scenes. It provides the developer tools, APIs and infrastructure for online checkout, subscriptions, invoicing, marketplaces and fraud prevention. Stripe is aimed at businesses, not consumers, most people use Stripe without realising it, as the invisible layer that moves the money.

Yes. Stripe is one of the largest and most trusted payment processors in the world, used by companies from small shops to Amazon and Google for parts of their billing. It is fully PCI compliant (the security standard for handling card data), uses strong encryption, and has sophisticated fraud tools (Stripe Radar). For shoppers, paying a merchant that uses Stripe is as safe as any major processor; for businesses, it is a mainstream, regulated choice. As always, your own account security and the merchant's honesty still matter.

Stripe is a privately held company, co-founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick Collison (CEO) and John Collison (President). The brothers retain significant stakes and still lead the company, alongside major venture and growth investors. Stripe is one of the most valuable private companies in the world, valued in the tens of billions of dollars, but it is not publicly traded. Its headquarters are split between South San Francisco and Dublin.

Stripe is free to set up, no monthly fee on its standard plan, and charges per transaction instead. The headline rate for online card payments is commonly around 2.9% plus a small fixed fee per successful charge, with variations by country, card type, and product. Additional features (in-person payments, billing, advanced fraud tools) and currency conversion can add costs. So Stripe is 'free' to start but takes a percentage of each sale, which is how payment processors make money.

They overlap but target different needs. Stripe is built for developers and businesses that want deep control over a custom checkout, subscriptions, and complex payment flows via code, it is infrastructure. PayPal is more consumer-facing and plug-and-play, instantly recognised by shoppers and easy to add without much development, with its own buyer-protection brand. Many businesses use Stripe to power their own branded checkout and offer PayPal as an additional button. For a custom product, Stripe; for quick, familiar consumer checkout, PayPal.

Stripe is both a payment gateway and a payment processor rolled into one developer-friendly platform. In simple terms: a customer enters their card on a business's site, Stripe securely captures and encrypts those details, communicates with the card networks and banks to authorise the charge, handles fraud checks, and then settles the money into the business's bank account (minus its fee). Businesses integrate it with a few lines of code or no-code tools; the customer just sees a smooth checkout.

No, Stripe is not publicly traded, it remains a private company, one of the most valuable in the world. A potential IPO (stock-market listing) has been speculated about for years and is among the most anticipated in tech, but as of 2026 Stripe has not gone public. Its valuation has been set through private funding rounds and employee share programmes rather than a public share price. This is not investment advice.

Stripe is designed for businesses, but you generally do not need to be a large company, sole traders, freelancers and small online sellers can use it, often by registering as a sole proprietor with their tax details. What you cannot do is use Stripe as a personal peer-to-peer app to send money to a friend; that is what PayPal, Venmo or local services are for. If you are selling something and want to accept card payments, Stripe is built for you, even as an individual.