Stripe or Mollie: which payment provider should you choose?

Stripe or Mollie is the question that almost always comes up as soon as you want to accept payments on your website. Both are reliable payment providers, both support iDEAL and credit cards, both have good documentation. Yet they are not interchangeable. The difference lies in where your customers are, how complex your checkout process is and who builds the integration. In this article we put them side by side.

What does a payment provider do?

A payment provider handles the technical and financial processing of online payments, so you do not have to make separate agreements with every bank and every credit card company. Through one integration you offer iDEAL, credit cards, Bancontact, Apple Pay and other methods. The provider processes the transaction, checks for fraud and transfers the money to your account.

Up to this point Stripe and Mollie are the same. The difference is in the details: focus, options for subscriptions, international coverage and how the API can be built in. For the broader picture, from checkout to webhooks, read a payment system on your website: how to integrate online payments.

What is Mollie strong at?

Mollie is strong in the Dutch and European market: iDEAL, Bancontact and SEPA direct debit work naturally, and setup is simple. Mollie was founded in Amsterdam and grew big with local payment methods.

• Local payment methods. iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA direct debit and other European methods are fully embedded.
• Quick to start. Create an account, go through verification and you can begin. The dashboard is clear.
• Transparent cost structure. You pay per transaction, with no fixed monthly costs.
• Support close by. Dutch-language support from a team that knows the local market.
• Subscriptions. Recurring payments via SEPA direct debit are well arranged for standard subscriptions.

The downside: for complex subscription models, marketplaces or sales outside Europe, the options are more limited than Stripe's.

What is Stripe strong at?

Stripe is strong in flexibility and scale: a very extensive API, advanced billing and global coverage. It has become the standard for software companies and international webshops.

• API and documentation. Developers enjoy working with it. Almost every scenario is covered.
• Stripe Billing. Trial periods, tiers, usage-based billing, upgrades and downgrades with proration.
• Stripe Connect. For platforms and marketplaces where a payment is split across several parties.
• Global coverage. Local payment methods in many countries and currencies.
• Extra modules. Fraud detection, tax calculation and a ready-made customer portal for subscriptions.

The downside: it takes more configuration to set up properly, and for a simple Dutch webshop that power is often more than you need.

What do the costs of Stripe and Mollie depend on?

The costs depend on the payment methods your customers use, the number and size of your transactions and the extra modules you turn on. Both charge per transaction, with a fixed amount or a percentage depending on the method. iDEAL is generally cheaper than credit cards, and cards from outside Europe cost more than European ones.

If you sell many small purchases, fixed costs per transaction weigh heavily. If you sell large purchases, the percentage is decisive. With Stripe, modules such as Billing or Tax also count. So compare based on your own expected mix, not on the rate of a single method.

How do you choose between Stripe and Mollie?

Choose based on three questions: where are your customers, how complex is your checkout model and who builds and manages the integration.

Where are your customers? Mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium: Mollie is the logical choice. International, or planning to sell outside Europe: Stripe offers more local methods and currencies.

How complex is the checkout? One-off payments or simple subscriptions work fine with both. Trial periods, tiers, usage-based pricing or splitting payments across several parties: then Stripe wins. You can read more about subscriptions in setting up recurring payments and subscriptions.

Who builds the integration? Both integrate well with Webflow, Make and custom work in, for example, Next.js. If your team has worked with one of the two for years, that saves time.

Which payment provider do we recommend?

For most Dutch organisations with one-off payments or standard subscriptions, we recommend Mollie. It works, it is quick to set up and iDEAL feels familiar to customers.

We recommend Stripe if you sell or are going to sell internationally, have complex subscription models, are building a platform or marketplace, or if your team already works with Stripe. For organisations with customers outside Europe, Stripe is often the obvious choice.

Sometimes we use both side by side: Mollie for Dutch customers, Stripe for international ones. With a back end that tracks payment status centrally, that is easy to manage.

What should you look out for in the integration?

The integration is mainly about what happens after the payment: your system needs to know reliably whether a payment succeeded. You arrange that with webhooks, messages the provider sends to your system as soon as the status changes.

• Never rely only on the customer returning to your site. They might close the window.
• Handle failed, expired and reversed payments with clear messages.
• Test all scenarios in the provider's test environment before going live.
• Record every transaction in your own administration, linked to the order or customer.

That is the difference between a pay button and a payment process that works. We build payments into webshops, membership platforms and booking systems. Not sure which provider suits you? Get in touch and we will think along with you.