Adyen alternatives: where to go, and how to get your stored cards out
Five priced destinations, one per reason to leave, and an eight-step exit plan that keeps your customers and their saved cards.
Short answer: go to Stripe if you want the same depth of API plus built-in subscriptions (2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card, no monthly fee), Helcim if you sell in the US or Canada and want to keep interchange-plus pricing without a minimum, Square if you also take payments in a store, Paddle if you sell software worldwide and sales tax is eating your week, and keep PayPal as a second button. Picking the processor takes a week. The exit takes longer: Adyen holds your customers' card data and only releases it to a PCI DSS compliant processor, as an encrypted file. We compared these five destinations, read their 2026 pricing pages and went through Adyen's migration documentation.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why merchants leave Adyen, even when it works
Adyen is a strong platform for a retailer processing tens of millions across several countries. That is exactly who it is built for. People rarely leave because of an outage. They leave because the invoice stops matching their volume, their account manager goes quiet, or they need something the platform handles poorly. Here are the six reasons that come up most.
A minimum invoice you only see in the contract
Adyen charges no monthly, setup or closing fee. Its pricing page does say a minimum amount is billed depending on your industry and business model, and it never publishes the number. While volume stays high, you never notice. The month it drops (a slow season, a lost key account), you pay the gap. For a younger business, that clause is often what triggers the move.
Interchange++ is fair but hard to forecast
On Visa and Mastercard, Adyen bills $0.13 per payment plus Interchange++ plus 0.60%: the real fees of the card issuer and the network, passed through to the cent, with Adyen's own markup on top. It is the most transparent model at scale. But the bill moves with your card mix every month (debit, rewards credit, corporate, foreign). If your finance lead wants one rate to drop in a spreadsheet, a flat 2.9% + 30¢ is easier to plan around.
A demanding onboarding, and an exit to match
Some merchants report having to build a basic integration before their application was even approved. Compliance takes time and paperwork. That is normal for an acquirer, but every change of model (a marketplace, a new country) goes back through the same loop. Early-stage marketplaces in particular are sometimes told they are not a current focus.
Funds held when risk goes up
Like every acquirer, Adyen watches your chargeback ratio, the share of payments disputed by cardholders. Above its threshold it can hold a reserve on your payouts or suspend the account. Public merchant reviews mostly describe delayed or frozen payouts. If you sell things delivered weeks later (travel, courses, preorders), that risk weighs more.
Less attention once you are a "small" account
Adyen lives on enterprise accounts. Mid-market merchants often describe support that fades after go-live and technical help that runs mostly by email. Engineering teams still rate the platform well: the docs and the API are solid. Without an in-house developer, that gap matters.
Subscriptions you have to build around it
Adyen can store a card and charge it again, but it has no recurring billing tool as complete as Stripe Billing: proration, dunning, a customer portal. Many merchants pair it with Chargebee, which requires webhooks (the event notifications sent on every payment) to be set up. Two tools, two invoices, two points of failure.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Adyen alternative depends on what is pushing you out. Usually one line fits, and each card links to the detailed profile below.
2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card, Billing at 0.7%.
You like interchange-plus but not the minimumHelcimFrom interchange + 0.50% + 25¢, lower above $50K a month.
You also sell in a physical storeSquare2.6% + 15¢ in person, 3.3% + 30¢ online.
You sell software worldwide and sales tax is a burdenPaddleMerchant of record for 5% + 50¢.
You want a well-known second checkout buttonPayPal3.49% + 49¢ for PayPal Checkout.
You are still enterprise and just want another acquirerCheckout.comInterchange++ or blended, quote only.
Adyen alternatives, one by one
For each one: why move there, who it fits, its limit, how to migrate from Adyen, and what it costs. Fees are the US list prices shown in 2026. Scores come from our payment gateway ranking, where Adyen scores 3.3 out of 5; tools outside that ranking have no score here.
Stripe: the easiest exit if you have developers
Most completeWhy move to Stripe. It is the one destination that covers most of what Adyen does online (cards, wallets, ACH, local methods) and adds what Adyen lacks: subscriptions, invoicing, a customer portal. The price is flat: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% when currency conversion applies. ACH Direct Debit costs 0.8%, capped at $5. No minimum to negotiate.
Who it fits. SaaS companies, platforms and online stores with a developer who want to stop running Adyen next to a separate billing tool.
Who it doesn't fit. A retailer moving several million a month on domestic debit cards. At that size, interchange-plus usually beats a flat rate. Run the numbers on your last Adyen invoice first.
Its limit. Fees stack by product: Billing takes 0.7% of billing volume, and each dispute costs $15. Stripe also freezes accounts when its risk team gets nervous.
How to migrate. Stripe documents card imports from other processors: Adyen drops a file encrypted with Stripe's PGP key on an SFTP share, and Stripe imports it in about ten business days once the data is valid. CVCs never transfer, which is expected. Subscriptions are rebuilt with the Billing migration toolkit.
- Domestic cards
- 2.9% + 30¢
- Monthly fee
- $0
- Score
- 4.0/5
- Limit
- add-ons billed on top
Helcim: interchange-plus without the enterprise contract
Lowest feesWhy move to Helcim. If what you liked about Adyen was paying real interchange instead of a padded flat rate, Helcim keeps that logic for smaller businesses: interchange + 0.50% + 25¢ online up to $50K a month, with lower markups in published tiers above that, and no monthly fee.
Who it fits. US and Canadian SMBs with steady card volume that want a transparent statement without a negotiated minimum.
Who it doesn't fit. Anyone selling in Europe or Asia in local currencies. Helcim is built for North America only.
Its limit. Its ecosystem is narrower than Stripe's: fewer plugins, fewer local payment methods, no global reach.
How to migrate. Swap the plugin on your store and ask Helcim for its PCI attestation and import process before you request the export from Adyen.
- Online
- from interchange + 0.50% + 25¢
- Monthly fee
- $0
- Best for
- US and Canada SMBs
- Limit
- North America only
Square: one account for the store and the website
In person + onlineWhy move to Square. If you used Adyen for terminals and ecommerce together, Square gives you both with no contract: on the Free plan, 2.6% + 15¢ per in-person payment and 3.3% + 30¢ online, with hardware, a POS app and an online store in the same account.
Who it fits. Restaurants, retail shops and service businesses in the US that sell over the counter first and online second.
Who it doesn't fit. A pure online seller with high volume. 3.3% + 30¢ online costs more than Stripe or Helcim.
Its limit. Online fees are high and the platform is built around Square's own tools. Leaving later means swapping readers again.
How to migrate. Move your catalog, order new card readers, and plan a weekend for the store switch. Saved cards for repeat customers need an export from Adyen like any other destination.
- In person
- 2.6% + 15¢
- Online
- 3.3% + 30¢
- Best for
- shops that also sell online
- Limit
- pricey online
Paddle: let someone else be the seller of record
Software, globalWhy move to Paddle. Paddle is a merchant of record: it sells your software on your behalf, collects and files sales tax and VAT, and handles disputes and fraud. All of it for 5% + 50¢ per transaction. Adyen gives you a payment rail; Paddle takes the whole compliance load.
Who it fits. SaaS and digital product companies selling to customers in many countries without a finance team to file tax everywhere.
Who it doesn't fit. Physical goods, and any business selling mostly at home, where 5% is far above a processor's fee.
Its limit. The price. On $1M a year, that is at least $50,000, against a fraction of that on interchange-plus.
How to migrate. Paddle's pricing includes a migration service; ask it what it needs from Adyen before you request any export.
- Price
- 5% + 50¢ per transaction
- Included
- tax, fraud, disputes
- Best for
- software sold globally
- Limit
- costly for local sellers
PayPal: keep it as your second button
Second processorWhy move to PayPal. You may already offer PayPal through Adyen, which adds its own processing fee on top of your PayPal contract. Going direct removes that layer: 3.49% + 49¢ for PayPal Checkout, and 2.89% + 29¢ for advanced card processing.
Who it fits. Consumer stores whose buyers look for the PayPal button at checkout.
Who it doesn't fit. A business that wants one platform for everything. PayPal works best alongside a card processor.
Its limit. Expensive on its own, and PayPal also holds funds on young accounts.
How to migrate. Nothing to export: open a business account, add the official plugin, and remove PayPal from your Adyen setup. If PayPal later becomes the problem, our guide to leaving PayPal covers that exit.
- Checkout
- 3.49% + 49¢
- Cards
- 2.89% + 29¢
- Score
- 3.4/5
- Limit
- holds happen here too
Adyen and its alternatives side by side
A rough order of magnitude to start the math. Take $100,000 a month in 1,000 domestic card payments of $100. Stripe costs $3,200, Square online $3,600, PayPal's card processing $3,180. Helcim's markup is $750, plus interchange. Adyen's own part is $730 ($0.13 per payment plus 0.60%), almost the same as Helcim's markup, and interchange and network fees come on top, as with Helcim. Pull your last Adyen invoice, add everything up, and compare. If Adyen still wins, your problem is not price. If you want to stay with an enterprise acquirer, Checkout.com, Worldpay and Braintree all price on quote, with no published rate to compare here. Our rankings of ecommerce payment gateways and SaaS payment gateways narrow the choice by business model.
| Online fees | Exit from Adyen | |
|---|---|---|
| AdyenStarting point | $0.13 + Interchange++ + 0.60% (Visa, Mastercard), minimum not published, set by industry | Encrypted export to a PCI DSS processor, on request to support |
| StripeAPI and billing | 2.9% + 30¢, +1.5% international, +1% conversion, $0/month | Card import in about ten business days, subscriptions via Billing |
| HelcimInterchange-plus | Interchange + 0.50% + 25¢ under $50K/month, lower above, $0/month | Plugin swap, card import on request |
| SquareStore + online | Free plan: 3.3% + 30¢ online, 2.6% + 15¢ in person | Catalog move, new readers, card export |
| PaddleMerchant of record | 5% + 50¢, tax and disputes included | Migration service included |
| PayPalSecond button | 3.49% + 49¢ Checkout, 2.89% + 29¢ cards | Nothing to export, official plugin |
US list prices shown in 2026, in dollars. The example assumes domestic cards; redo it with your real card mix.
Leave Adyen in eight steps
A clean Adyen exit takes one to three months, mostly because of stored cards. The order matters: each step protects revenue, subscribers or cash flow.
Map everything that runs through Adyen
Week 1List active payment methods, merchant accounts by country, stored cards (each customer has a shopperReference at Adyen), recurring payments, in-store terminals and every webhook feeding your store, billing tool or CRM. Note connected tools such as Chargebee too.
- Time
- two to three days
- Risk if rushed
- a forgotten flow
Open the new account and route new customers to it
Weeks 1 to 2Get the new account approved before announcing anything, then send new customers through it. Existing customers stay on Adyen during the export, which keeps the number of cards to migrate down.
- Documents
- EIN, ID, bank account, site
Request the card export from Adyen
Week 2Write to Adyen support naming the receiving processor. Expect to provide a written request, the receiver's PCI DSS attestation of compliance (AOC) and its public PGP key. On Stripe's side the process is documented: the file arrives encrypted with Stripe's PGP key on an SFTP share. Stripe warns that old processors take anywhere from a few days to several months, so start early.
Tip: to keep Adyen running alongside, its forwarding feature sends a card stored at Adyen to a PCI-compliant third party, one payment at a time. Support enables it, and it needs Checkout API v70 or later.
- Documents
- written request, AOC, PGP key
- Format
- encrypted file over SFTP
Get the cards imported and apply the mapping
Weeks 3 to 6The new processor validates and imports the file (about ten business days at Stripe) and returns a mapping from old Adyen references to new IDs. Load it into your customer database. Without it the cards exist, but your app does not know whose they are.
- Deliverable
- old ID → new ID table
Collect the cards saved during the export
Week 6Between request and import, some customers saved a new card at Adyen. Ask for a delta export of those cards right before cutover. This is the step teams forget most.
- Risk if skipped
- customers chased one by one
Rebuild subscriptions and cancel the old ones the same day
Week 7Recreate each subscription at the destination with the same renewal date, and cancel the old ones that day, or you bill customers twice. If subscriptions ran in Chargebee, you can often just switch the gateway there.
- Rule
- rebuild, check, cancel
Ramp up gradually
Weeks 7 to 9A new merchant account has no history, and issuing banks decline its first payments more readily. Start with one-off domestic payments, then move recurring ones. Watch your authorization rate daily for two weeks.
- Track
- daily authorization rate
Keep Adyen open, then close it cleanly
Month 3 and afterRefunds and chargebacks on old payments keep landing at Adyen for months. Keep the account live, download your reports, then request closure. Keep a way to pay one last invoice too: some merchants report receiving one after closure.
- Before closing
- reports saved, disputes closed
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes an Adyen migration fail
Failed Adyen exits look alike. They are not technical outages but missed deadlines and bad math.
Leaving on price without checking the real invoice
Interchange-plus often beats flat rates on domestic debit. Compare your full Adyen bill ($0.13 per payment, 0.60% markup, interchange, scheme fees, minimum) to the destination over three real months.
Starting the export too late
Written request, AOC, PGP key, SFTP share: each piece takes days. Asking in cutover week means customers retyping their cards.
Ignoring the ID mapping
Adyen ties a token to a shopper reference, not to the card. If the mapping is not applied in your database, imported cards are useless.
Double billing subscribers
A subscription rebuilt at the destination while the old one still runs means a double charge and, often, a dispute.
Closing before the last disputes
A dispute is fought where the payment was taken. Keep access and delivery proof until every case is closed.
Thinking one processor is enough
Every processor can hold funds. Two live processors protect you better than a switch. Our guides to leaving Stripe, leaving Square and leaving GoCardless cover the other direction.
- Payment methods, merchant accounts and webhooks listed
- New account approved, new customers routed to it
- Request, AOC and PGP key sent to Adyen
- ID mapping applied in the customer database
- Delta export of the latest cards requested
- Subscriptions rebuilt, old ones cancelled the same day
- Authorization rate watched for two weeks
- Adyen account kept open until the last disputes
Adyen alternatives: frequently asked questions
What is Adyen's minimum monthly fee?
It is not published. Adyen sets a minimum invoice amount based on your industry and business model and writes it into your contract. Figures you see online come from third parties and contradict each other. Check your commercial proposal: that is where the number lives, and it is usually what makes Adyen expensive at low volume.
Does Adyen charge a fee to close the account?
No. Adyen charges no closing, monthly or setup fee. Still, keep the account open through the last refunds and disputes, and save your reports: a final invoice can follow closure.
Can Adyen transfer my customers' cards to Stripe?
Yes. Adyen can pass card data to a PCI DSS compliant processor on request to its support. On Stripe's side the file arrives encrypted with Stripe's PGP key over SFTP. Stripe accepts these imports and processes them in about ten business days once validated. CVCs never move.
How long does it take to migrate off Adyen?
Plan one to three months for a business with stored cards; the export and import take most of that time. A store with no recurring payments can switch processors in a week.
Is Adyen cheaper than Stripe?
On published rates, usually yes: $0.13 + 0.60% plus real interchange comes in under 2.9% + 30¢ on many domestic debit cards. The minimum invoice and your real card mix decide the rest. At low volume the minimum invoice can flip that result. Run it on your real card mix.
Can I run Adyen and another processor at the same time?
Yes, and it is the safest way to migrate. Adyen's forwarding feature can also send a stored card to another PCI-compliant processor per payment, so you can route part of your volume elsewhere without a full export.
What is the best Adyen alternative for a small business?
Helcim if you sell in the US or Canada and want interchange-plus with published prices, Square if you also sell in person. Both have no monthly fee and no negotiated minimum.
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