Best Payment Processors · head-to-head
Stax (by Fattmerchant) vs Braintree (a PayPal service)
A sourced, side-by-side comparison for payment processors. Stax (by Fattmerchant) has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it.
At a glance
- Price: Stax (by Fattmerchant) $99/mo vs Braintree (a PayPal service) —/mo — Stax (by Fattmerchant) is cheaper to start.
- Free tier: Stax (by Fattmerchant) No; Braintree (a PayPal service) No.
- HIPAA: Stax (by Fattmerchant) No; Braintree (a PayPal service) No.
Side by side
| Stax (by Fattmerchant) | Braintree (a PayPal service) | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $99/mo (Subscription (up to $150K/yr)) | — |
| Free tier | No | No |
| HIPAA (BAA) | No | No |
| SOC 2 | — | — |
| GDPR | — | — |
| Best for | Established SMBs processing $120K+/year wanting to eliminate percentage markups | Enterprise merchants wanting PayPal/Venmo alongside cards in one integration |
Sources — Stax (by Fattmerchant): staxpayments.com (verified 2026-06-13). Braintree (a PayPal service): quote-only (verified 2026-06-13).
Key features
Stax (by Fattmerchant): 0% interchange markup — flat per-transaction cents only above direct interchange cost; Subscription model saves high-volume merchants vs. percentage-based processors; All-in-one: invoicing, recurring billing, virtual terminal, and reporting included; PCI DSS compliant platform; Dedicated account manager on higher tiers
Braintree (a PayPal service): Payment orchestration with multi-acquirer routing; PayPal, Venmo, and card in a single SDK integration; Global payouts to 200+ markets in 50+ currencies; Fraud management tools; Mobile SDKs for iOS and Android