What Stripe actually is
Stripe is a payment processor. A very good one — well-documented, fast to integrate, reliable infrastructure, broad international coverage. For collecting payments from customers, it works. For an early-stage SaaS or marketplace that needs to accept cards and move on to building the product, it is the right call.
What Stripe is not: a payments strategy. A payments strategy is the set of decisions about program model, economics structure, compliance framework, and bank relationship that determine what your payment program generates at scale. Stripe makes most of those decisions for you — and it makes them in Stripe's favor.
The economics Stripe captures on your behalf
Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on standard card processing. Your actual interchange cost — the fee paid to the card-issuing bank — is typically 1.5–2.0% on consumer cards and lower on commercial cards. The spread between 2.9% and your actual interchange cost is Stripe's margin. At low volume this is an acceptable tax on simplicity. At scale it becomes the most expensive line item in your payment program.
At $5M monthly processing volume, a well-structured interchange-plus program with a direct bank relationship captures $40,000–$70,000 more per month than Stripe's flat rate. Annually that is $500,000–$840,000. The margin does not get smaller as volume grows — it compounds.
What Stripe doesn't do
Card issuing — Stripe Issuing exists but is a separate product with its own economics and limitations. If your program needs to issue virtual or physical cards to your customers or suppliers, Stripe Issuing is a starting point, not a scaled solution. The interchange economics on issued cards through Stripe are materially below what a direct issuing program captures.
Outbound disbursements at scale — Stripe Connect handles payouts but the economics are not designed for high-volume AP, disbursement, or payroll programs. The fee structure and rail economics that matter for $100M+ annual disbursement programs require a different architecture.
Float economics — Stripe holds your settlement funds for 2–7 days by default. A direct bank relationship makes that float yours to negotiate. At meaningful volume, float yield on settlement balances is a material revenue line.
Level 2/3 interchange optimization — B2B card transactions qualify for significantly lower interchange rates when enhanced data (invoice number, line items, tax amount) is transmitted with the authorization. Stripe does not systematically transmit this data. Programs processing significant B2B card volume leave 30–50 basis points on the table.
When Stripe makes sense and when it doesn't
Stripe makes sense when: you are pre-product-market fit and need to accept payments without distraction; your monthly volume is under $1–2M; inbound payment collection is your only use case; and you have no immediate need for card issuing, disbursements, or B2B interchange optimization.
Stripe becomes a constraint when: monthly volume approaches $3–5M; you need card issuing for your customers or suppliers; you need to disburse payments at scale; your customer mix is heavily B2B with Level 2/3 optimization potential; or float economics start to matter to your business model.
The migration question
Most platforms that outgrow Stripe already know it before they act on it. The economics gap is visible. The constraints are felt. The reason migration takes longer than it should is that Stripe was selected without a migration path in mind — so moving means rebuilding the integration architecture, re-boarding customers in some cases, and managing the transition with no downtime tolerance.
Platforms that designed for this transition from the start — treating Stripe as a phase-one solution rather than a permanent architecture — move in 6–9 months. Platforms that didn't typically spend 12–18 months on a migration they could have avoided.
The most expensive Stripe decision is not choosing it. It is choosing it without a defined point at which you will move.
If your payment program is running on Stripe and you want to understand what the economics gap looks like at your volume, the leakage calculator gives you a directional number. Or talk with us directly.