Why Platforms Look for Stripe Connect Alternatives
Stripe Connect is an excellent product. It's well-documented, developer-friendly, and handles the complexity of marketplace payments elegantly. For many platforms, it's the right starting point.
But starting points aren't always endpoints. Platforms look for alternatives when they hit one or more of these walls:
PSP Lock-In
Every merchant on Stripe Connect processes through Stripe. If an enterprise customer has a Worldpay contract with negotiated rates, you can't support them. If you want to route UK transactions through a domestic acquirer for better authorisation rates, you can't. Stripe is both the infrastructure and the processor — and they have no incentive to support alternatives.
Geographic Gaps
Stripe operates in 46+ countries, but coverage varies. Some markets have limited features, restricted Connect support, or no cross-border payout capability. Platforms expanding into Southeast Asia, Africa, or parts of Latin America hit limitations.
Channel Constraints
Stripe Connect covers online checkout. It doesn't natively support voice payments, IVR payment capture, or AI agent payment flows. Platforms needing these channels must integrate third-party solutions on top of Connect — creating separate PCI surfaces and additional engineering complexity.
Pricing at Scale
At high volumes, Stripe's standard pricing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, plus $2/active account/month for Express/Custom, plus payout fees) adds up. Platforms processing tens of millions want interchange-plus pricing and more control over payment economics.
PayFac-Lite Complexity
Custom Connect accounts make the platform responsible for significant operational aspects — onboarding, compliance, support, and risk management. As regulatory requirements evolve across jurisdictions, this compliance surface area grows.
What to Evaluate in an Alternative
Before comparing specific alternatives, clarify what you need:
PSP flexibility: Do your merchants need to use specific gateways? If yes, you need PSP-neutral infrastructure — not another single-PSP solution.
Channel coverage: Do you need voice, payment links, or AI agent payments — or just checkout? This filters out many alternatives immediately.
White-label: How important is it that payments look and feel like your product, not a third party's?
Speed to market: Are deals waiting? If you need to be live in weeks, not months, pre-built components matter.
Compliance: Do you want to carry PCI compliance or have a provider handle it?
The Alternatives
1. Adyen for Platforms
What it is: Adyen's solution for platforms and marketplaces. Unlike Connect's aggregator model, Adyen creates dedicated merchant accounts for each sub-merchant.
Strengths:
Strong global acquiring coverage, especially in enterprise
Unified commerce (online + in-store on one platform)
Good multi-currency and local payment method support
Enterprise-grade infrastructure
Limitations:
Same single-PSP problem. Adyen for Platforms means using Adyen as the processor. You've swapped Stripe lock-in for Adyen lock-in.
Enterprise-focused — less accessible for mid-market platforms
Developer experience less polished than Stripe's
Corporate, sales-led process (not self-serve)
Best for: Enterprise platforms committed to Adyen as their sole processor, especially those needing unified commerce (online + POS).
2. Payment Orchestration (Primer, Spreedly)
What it is: Middleware that routes transactions across multiple PSPs. Gives you multi-PSP connectivity, failover, and tokenisation through a single integration.
Strengths:
Multi-PSP routing and failover
PSP-agnostic tokenisation (especially Spreedly's vault)
Smart routing for authorisation rate optimisation
Primer: visual workflow builder, no-code routing rules
Spreedly: deep vault infrastructure, 120+ connections
Limitations:
Merchant-facing, not platform-facing. These are tools for merchants to optimise their own payment stack — not tools for platforms to embed payments for their merchants.
No white-label merchant onboarding or portal
No voice payments, payment links, or AI agent infrastructure
Heavy engineering lift — Spreedly in particular is flagged by users as complex to integrate
You still need to build checkout, onboarding, reporting, and merchant management yourself
Best for: Large enterprises that already have PSP relationships and want to optimise routing between them. Not a like-for-like Stripe Connect replacement for platforms.
3. PayFac-as-a-Service (Payrix, Finix)
What it is: Platforms that give you PayFac-like capabilities without building everything from scratch. You get merchant onboarding, underwriting, and revenue share — but through a managed service rather than building your own PayFac.
Strengths:
Higher revenue per transaction than revenue-share models
More control over merchant underwriting and pricing
Faster than building PayFac from scratch
Limitations:
Still typically single-PSP. Most PFaaS solutions process through a single acquirer.
Compliance obligations remain — you're still operating as a PayFac (albeit a managed one)
Regulatory burden scales with your merchant base
No multi-channel coverage (voice, links, AI)
Slower to market than pre-built payment layers
Best for: Platforms where payment revenue is a primary business model and you want maximum margin — and you're willing to accept the compliance overhead.
4. PSP-Neutral Payment Layer (Shuttle)
What it is: A payment layer that embeds multi-PSP payment infrastructure into your platform. White-label checkout, merchant onboarding, management portal, and multi-channel support — all through a single integration.
Strengths:
PSP-neutral: 40+ gateways. Merchants choose their PSP or you assign one. Enterprise customers bring their Worldpay/Adyen/Checkout.com account without friction.
Multi-channel: Embedded checkout, voice payments, payment links, chat, and AI agent payments — all through the same integration.
White-label everything: Checkout, onboarding, merchant portal — branded as your platform.
PCI compliance included: PCI DSS Level 1 + ISO 27001 + SOC 2. Your PCI scope is effectively zero.
Live in weeks: Pre-built components, not a multi-month build project.
Revenue share: Monetise payments without becoming a PayFac.
Limitations:
Lower per-transaction margin than full PayFac ownership
Less transaction-level routing optimisation than dedicated orchestration platforms
Newer entrant — smaller brand recognition than Stripe or Adyen
Best for: Platforms that need to embed payments for their merchants, support multiple PSPs, and go live quickly — without becoming a payments company.
Comparison Matrix
Stripe Connect | Adyen for Platforms | Orchestration (Primer/Spreedly) | PFaaS (Payrix/Finix) | Payment Layer (Shuttle)
PSP flexibility | Stripe only | Adyen only | Multiple | Usually single | 40+ PSPs
White-label onboarding | Partial (Express) | Limited | None | Yes | Yes
Merchant portal | Stripe Dashboard | Adyen Dashboard | None | Varies | White-label portal
Voice payments | No | No | No | No | Yes
Payment links | Limited | Limited | No | Varies | Yes
AI agent payments | No (x402 is agent-to-agent) | No | No | No | Yes
PCI compliance | Stripe carries it | Adyen carries it | Partial (varies) | Shared | Fully included
Time to market | Days-weeks | Weeks-months | Months | Weeks-months | Weeks
Revenue model | Application fees | PSP revenue share | N/A (middleware) | PayFac margin | Revenue share
Best for | Standard marketplace payments | Enterprise single-PSP | Routing optimisation | Max payment revenue | Multi-PSP platform payments
Making the Decision
Stay with Stripe Connect if:
All merchants are happy with Stripe processing
No enterprise customers require alternative PSPs
You only need online checkout (no voice, links, AI)
Stripe's geographic coverage meets your needs
You're comfortable with Stripe's pricing at your volume
Move to an alternative if:
Enterprise customers mandate their own PSP
You need voice payments, payment links, or AI agent payment channels
You're expanding into markets Stripe doesn't cover well
You want PSP negotiating leverage
Stripe's pricing doesn't work at your scale
You need deeper white-label control
FAQ
Can I migrate from Stripe Connect without disrupting existing merchants? Yes. Most alternatives (including Shuttle) can connect to Stripe as one of their supported gateways. Existing merchants continue processing through Stripe while new merchants (or those requiring different PSPs) use alternative gateways. The transition is additive.
What happens to my Stripe-tokenised cards? Card tokens in Stripe's vault are Stripe-proprietary — they can't be used with other processors directly. A payment layer provides its own PSP-agnostic tokenisation. For existing card-on-file customers, you'll need to re-tokenise (typically through a transparent card update flow) or continue routing those specific customers through Stripe.
Is Stripe Connect really "locked in"? Yes, architecturally. Every Connected Account processes exclusively through Stripe's acquiring network. There's no multi-PSP option within Connect. Stripe's business model depends on being the processor, not just the infrastructure.
What about Stripe's Agentic Commerce Suite (x402)? Stripe's x402 protocol enables machine-to-machine payments using USDC on the Base blockchain — AI agents paying for APIs, data, and compute. It's a different use case from AI agents processing consumer card payments. For platforms where AI voice agents or chat agents need to capture customer card payments in PCI-compliant environments, x402 doesn't apply.
Outgrowing Stripe Connect? Shuttle gives your platform 40+ PSPs through a single integration — with white-label checkout, voice payments, payment links, and AI agent support. Your enterprise customers bring their own gateway. PCI DSS Level 1 compliance included.
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