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.

Stax (by Fattmerchant) has the lower entry price — Stax (by Fattmerchant) starts at $99/mo, Braintree (a PayPal service) at —/mo. Free tier: Stax (by Fattmerchant) No, Braintree (a PayPal service) No. HIPAA: Stax (by Fattmerchant) No, Braintree (a PayPal service) No.

As of 2026-06-13 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

Stax (by Fattmerchant)

$99/mo entry
Entry price$99/mo (Subscription (up to $150K/yr))
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)No
SOC 2
GDPR
Best forEstablished SMBs processing $120K+/year wanting to eliminate percentage markups

Braintree (a PayPal service)

Quote-only
Entry price
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)No
SOC 2
GDPR
Best forEnterprise 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

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