I have been a PayPal user for almost five years, and I love it to the core. When I was starting out online, I had no idea how to receive money from people outside of my own country, and PayPal made it so easy to receive money from these foreign country transactions.
In my homeland (India) due to PayPal and RBI disputes, I can no longer use PayPal the same as other users from countries like the U.S.A, the U.K., and Australia.
For example, one Indian PayPal user cannot send or receive money from another Indian PayPal user. This is just one big limitation of PayPal.
So I started digging around to find some of the best alternative sites to PayPal.
There are many sites that are similar to PayPal with more or fewer features. I will list some of the best money transfer sites which I have found while searching for an alternative method to receiving payments. If you know of any others feel free to suggest via the comments.
Note: This article was updated on 1st June 2017 to feature new services.
Best Alternative sites to Paypal: 2017 Edition
I’m making this list exclusive for bloggers and freelancers, but if you are a small business, I would love to know what tool you are using to send or receive payment from overseas.
So, let’s start with our grand list of best PayPal alternatives:
1) Payoneer
Payoneer is one of the oldest services for global payment, and now they are available in countries like India, Pakistan, and many more. Payoneer will let you receive money from the U.S. & European countries. The best part about Payoneer is the transaction fees are lower and because of this, you will end up saving a lot of money.
Signing up for Payoneer is free, and once you have done a transaction of $100 using Payoneer, you will get a bonus of $50.
Here are a few more tutorials & guides for using Payoneer:
- How to receive Commission Junction payment using Payoneer
- How to Configure Amazon Affiliate account to receive commission using Payoneer
2) PayZa.com
PayZa is another popular money transfer service that you might have heard of. It is a great alternative to PayPal & even better than PayPal in many cases. They are also preferred by many ad companies to pay bloggers & publishers. In mid 2017 they have added Bitcoin services which would let you exchange your existing fund in Payza into Bitcoins. This is a great way to hold Bitcoins & one of the first popular Payment processor to offer Bitcoin integration. Here are few highlights of PayZa that I personally like:
- Offers prepaid card (Mastercard) that you can use as a credit card or withdrawal funds at an ATM. It’s pretty useful for every netizen.
- Accept payment & withdrawal using Bitcoin (haven’t used it myself, but it will be handy for many).
- Supports personal & business accounts.
- Offers Android app.
- Exchange existing money into Bitcoins
- Sell Bitcoins
- Send Bitcoins to other Payza users
- Free to set up an account & no monthly or yearly fees.
- Supports Nigeria, Pakistan & 190+ other countries.
You can also widthdraw fund on Payza using Bitcoins. This is their new feature & something every one who is into digital currency are enjoying.
You can create a free account or business account depending upon your need. They take great measures to ensure security of your account & this is something which anyone who is paranoid about safety will love.
3) Stripe
If you are looking for a PayPal alternative to accept payment on your online store, Stripe is the best option. It’s a USA based company & accepts the application from many countries in the world. If you are from a country which is not in operation list of Stripe, you can take advantage of Stripe Atlas program that let you incorporate a company in USA & also opens a bank account for you. I actually did all this to run ShoutMeLoud store & you can read about Stripe Atlas program here.
Stripe has integration with almost all the web stores, e-commerce store so you are more likely to find a plugin or a way to integrate Stripe with your web store or e-commerce site. You can use Stripe to accept one-time payment & even for accepting recurring payments.
Stipe accepts payment from all major debit/credit cards from 135+ countries, so you can truly go global with Stripe.
There is no setup fees or monthly fees. However, per transaction Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents. You can also accept payment in Bitcoins using Stripe payment processor.
4) TransferWise
Many of you might not know this popular money transfer website which was created by the people behind Skype & backed by Richard Branson. You might prefer TransferWise over PayPal because of their low transaction fees & currency conversion charges. That means you won’t lose money in currency conversion.
Watch the below video to understand how easy it is to send money using TransferWise:
TransferWise supports various countries & currencies.
When you signup for TransferWise using the link below, your first transaction (up to £500) is completely free.
Claim your first free transaction on TransferWise
Many of my online partners have resorted to 2CO for all their online money needs. 2CO has a lot of positive reviews and is considered as a great alternative to Paypal. Here at the ShoutMeLoud download store, 2CheckOut is used to collect payment from all over the world.
The only downside of 2CheckOut is the high transaction & transfer fees. If you use 2CheckOut, I would suggest keeping your payment release level high so that you save on money transfer fees.
Getting on-board with 2CheckOut is easy & their support is pretty awesome.
Supported currencies for FOREX:
US Dollars, Argentina Peso, Australian Dollars, Brazilian Real, Canadian Dollars, Danish Kroner, Euro, GBP-Sterlings, Hong Kong Dollars, Indian Rupee, Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, New Zealand Dollars, Norwegian Kroner, South African, Rand, Swedish Kroner, Swiss Francs
6) Skrill
Skrill is a very popular alternative for PayPal & Payoneer because of their currency conversion rates (they are the best).
I have tried it myself a couple of times and MB transfers work great. They also offer a prepaid Mastercard that works in millions of shop worldwide. They also have an iPhone & Android app so you can make transactions from your mobile.
7) Remitly
Remitly is another popular service to send money to India & Philippines. They are running great promotional offers & one of them is no charge on transfers over $1000. When sending money via credit or debit card, the transfer will happen automatically at the flat rate of $3.99.
You also have an option to send payment without any fees, but it will take 3 days.
I believe that when you are not in hurry, free is good.
Bonus service:
These are the top alternatives for PayPal. Frankly, compiling this list was a bit of a pain because all of the above-mentioned services have something unique about them.
Other services which are popular to send & receive money internationally:
I personally enjoy using Payoneer & Payza the most due to their credibility & great service.
Which service do you prefer as PayPal alternative?
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Hello Harsh, PayPal is good, but they no support my country.
Do you think getting a USA paypal account from Auction Essistance would be a good option for us?
I want to run a woocommerce store for US only. Which is the best option to recieve payment from US as paypal does not support transfer of money from US to India.
@Nitin
You can use Stripe using Their Atlas program
If you looking for the simpler option, then you can use 2checkout.
Pls clarify this. I want to use payment system which will ‘instantly’ transfer money to my bank account.i am from India. I want to accept payments from only India.which is better To me? Either paypal or other?
Payoneer is the best. Eg. I transfer USD from Upwork to Payoneer Account at 9 AM IST and the money gets deposited in my Indian Bank account around 5 PM same day. Moreover, their conversion rates are far better than Paypal and Upwork local transfer.
Thanks for the useful information that you have shared. I had already implemented paypal and payumoney and planning to add few more on my website.
Harsh,
If I am not mistaken, there is no wordpress integration of payza for business account, so how can I link my wordpress woocommerce site to sell my digital products??
Is there any alternative of payza for business account? I have just started my business and receiving money in dollars.
@Guneet
You should use 2Checkout. I’m using it & had no problem with them in last 1.6 year.
Payza seems to me like a company to be careful with as it doesn’t look like an ethical one. They held my funds after charging my credit card, asking me a bunch of questions and documents in the name of verifying my identity. That is something they could just easily have done prior to charging my card. And once I sent that info to them, they came back with more document requests and more questions. At which point when I asked them to cancel the transaction, they sidestep the request and parrot the same lines and ask new questions, more confidential info, and more documents. All the while you don’t have access to your funds, or provision to cancel the transaction, and their parroted emails won’t address the request. Later my credit card company showed it as a Chinese company registered as Women’s Accessory and Specialty Shop. Definitely something fishy and I’d not do business with again, or even hesitate to recommend it to someone.
Hi! Can you please tell if there ways to receive in India from India like there are ways in paypal. Paypal allows us security by telling only our email id to payers.
Due to RBI rules PayPal and Payoneer force Indian user to auto withdraw money to their bank accounts. As much I Know we can’t hold money in Payza too, and their prepaid master cards are only available in the US. I don’t much about other payment gateways you mentioned here, can you please tell me if any of them allow us to hold money on their e-wallet (no forced transfer to banks until I want), and which of them allow us to use their prepaid cards in India?
Anyone used stripe ?
Please Guide me to set up purpose code for payoneer for affiliates markets and other money making on net I am from india.
Domain website hosting provider ebay amazon bluehost hostgator adsense click bank jvzoo empowr.com empowernetwork.com mobe.com clicksure.com please guide me to set purpose code
Nice Posts
I use both Payoneer and PayPal
Thanks for sharing
Which is the safest & convenient sites among all these for making business account & sending and receiving money within India ? Other than Paypal ?
I stopped using PayPal since 2014, I use payoneer and it’s one of the best.
I think payoneer comes after paypal. I heard of payneer before but paypal is still at the top by a big margins from others.
Informative post.I faced the payment problem before because paypal was not yet there in my country.Currently i am using paypal and its amazing and fastest secure way of payments and receipts.
Do payoneer support freelancer.com transactions,
I never tried something other than Paypal. Hence, this blog post is refreshing to me and I think I should try Payoneer as you say the transaction charges are low.
What about zoom? It’s another payment gateway from paypal.
Fantastic description of alternatives. Very useful. Skrill seems to take the 1st Prize !
skrill is the worst payment processor ever, stay away from them. Sometimes they charge me more than what I have ever received. Go to hell skrill..
Honestly, I personally don’t consider any payment processor to use other than paypal as it is a recognized payment processor by RBI. Others are not on the list of RBI for foreign transaction I believe. In fact I have a benchmark that I will use a site only when I see paypal associated with it. Do they pay us through bank wire only or do they have NEFT facility available like paypal? But, its a good list you compiled. You said you use Transferwise & Payoneer. It would be awesome if you mention the names of the merchants from which you receive your payments through payment processors other than paypal. Thanks!!
I use paypal and payoneer.
Informative post as always.
Keep it up.
All information is right. But we cannot use PayPal. Because Bangladesh does not support PayPal service. It’s a big problem of Bangladeshi People.
@Palash in that case you can use Payza or Payoneer. I believe both of them work flawlessly in Bangladesh.
I am using paypal since last 7 year, their service is awesome and the good news is that they are coming to india at july last.
I recently get a call from PayPal because of 7 year experience and they were asking for review paypal. They also return me some $$$ that i have lost in a dispute.
So in my view you don’t need to go anywhere else if you are already using paypal.
they always take decision in favour of customer ( paypal )
they do what they like, worst payment gateway, looking for some alternative,
many scammers there using paypal they get goods, then claim for money too and paypal return them i have lost more then 2000 USD in last 8 months,
no dispute result come in our favour, customer have goods and money also.
Thats a nice list there, Can you make a similar one but for Indian Payments like instamojo and payu? I would like to see other options also. I personally use Instamojo and paywithpaytm for my site but wondering what are the best alternatives.
Nice list of PayPal alternative Harsh. I am using PayPal since 10 Years and never have had any problem with them. However they have some limitations for Indian users though it is my No.1 payment processor. BTW apart from PayPal I have used Payoneer and 2Checkout both are good PayPal alternatives.
Even I use PayoNeer , the set up is quite hassle free and the functionality , even better. I totally recommend it over PayPal
@Punya
Awesome. Glad my assumptions have been validated.
Thank you’ Harsh for the alternatives but I want to know one thing from you and that is do I need any legal documents if I want to sell something in online through my own website ?
@Shirsndu
Mostly you need a PAN card & address proof (Passport, Driving license). This document is asked by payment processing companies. I use 2checkout for collecting payment at ShoutMeLoud store & that was the only thing I had to submit.
Hi Harsh,
Thank you for providing this awesome list of Paypal Alternatives. As I have start getting advertisement offers for my blog so I applied for Paypal account to receive payment but my account is still not active. They are asking me to link my debit/credit card but my debit card is not activated for overseas usage.
These alternatives are great but I just want to know can I use one of these alternative to receive payment over Paypal?
What about the companies who only pay you through Paypal?
Thanks in advance
@Kalpana
1) Get a debit card which supports international payment. The era we living in, don’t limit yourself because a bank doesn’t allow international transaction. I believe you are also from India, so you can get ICICI, HDFC card. I personally use ICICI bank card.
2) In most of the cases you won’t be able to receive payment from alternative sites. If someone (Client) is sending you payment directly, than you can definitely use any of the above mentioned alternative site.
3) Out of all the above, Payoneer is supported by many popular network such as Amazon affiliate program, Commision junction or any companies who pay via ACH.
In general what I recommend is, take out 20-30 minutes & signup for atleast 3-4 of these services (PayPal & Payoneer is must) & you would thank me in future 🙂
Thanks a lot Harsh for your valuable advice. I will definitely signup for 3-4 services 🙂
I think payoneer comes after paypal. I heard of payneer before but paypal is still at the top by a big margins from others.
But with one major drawback 🙁
Hi Harsh, literally first time seeing these great new services, Unless Paypal has something in the country but definitely still recommend paypal
Hi,Very useful post.1 important question .If i get mastercard from payza can i use it for hosting purchase like ipage, hostgator?.Will these cards will be accepted by them?.Awaiting for reply,Thank you.
@Kaviyarasu
Yes, you can use that Master card for buying anything online.
After reading this article I wanted to change my transaction over payZa .Will you recommend this. ? Harsh I’m a regular shouter; The left side social sharing button irritates many times. So do remove this floating bar or change its location please.
@Arvind
Payza is getting popular & they are operating in many countries; so yes, you can move to Payza. I will look into that Social sharing button issue..I believe it’s happening due to screen size. Will find a solution 🙂
can i recieve Money from amazon USA using Payza? OR TRANSFERWIRE?
@Nijesh
I believe not. You can receive using Payoneer. This guide would help you: https://www.shoutmeloud.com/amazon-us-affiliate-payment.html
payoneer is the best solution for recieving online money payment and i rexommended it rather than paypal
@Hemant
Thanks for your comment on all other posts too. Good to get your insights on the topics here at ShoutMeLoud.
Thank you for the information, now I still use Paypal and FasaPay, for FasaPay I often use for forex deposits.
I just joined payoneer for recive payment from globle and what I should I put purose code for I earn from blogging, sell on net, and other income from net , and I have hosting business. What code,do i put on payoneer.
Hi Kamal,
I live in India. My employer in US has send payment via paypal. But paypal says i can get my money only after 21 days. is there anyway i can get my money quickly. Also suggest if Xoom is better. But my employer says Xoom has cancelled the transaction saying it is “commerical.” Please advice and suggest alternative service that suits me. Thanks
If you are new to Paypal, you have to wait for 21 days until you are an established seller. Once you are established, you can withdraw instantly.
Hi,
I agree Paypal is ruling the market at the moment because of its credibility. But the exchange rate is too low apart from the standard fee.
What should be the best option for freelancers to receive money from UK to India (GBP to INR) ??
Kindly reply.
Thanks.
The Payza personal account doesn’t let me receive money, forcing me to get a business account, and thus paying higher fees.
Google Wallets and Amazon Web Pay is still not available in India.
There is a new provider called Zilra which is in the pre-launch stage. They’ve promised me that they can provide a smooth transaction experience, but I’m still waiting.
Xoom and Skrill are totally new for Me.
Can they are safe paypal alternatives for indian blogger? Because of Indian RBI rules about foreign currency they are not allowing some online payment processing system.
Hi
Joel James is right Payza’s service is the worst service in the world they block customers account without any reason. my account was blocked before one month and i got an email that i need to provide the documents which i have already given to them at the time of opning an account for the reopening of my account i gave then all the documents but still it is on hold i mailed then regarding this and they replied after almost one month and when we go for live chat they always have only one statement that our team will get back to you as soon as possible and when we say that why its taking that much time then they say that we are getting high number of customer flow that’s why its taking time but my question is if you are getting this much customer flow then you should have sufficient staff to resolve that their answers are totally unprofesstional i was thinking to use Payza as an alternate payment option for my customers but they dont want any customer.
So i would request everyone not to use Payza if you want to save your time and money.
Hi,
My question about paypal. My paypal account name and my pan card name is same but, my bank account name not match.
Can i still add my bank account?
Help,
Thanx
guys! i provide freelancer services and now i am going to expand my work in usa ….so can u tell me the best payment method (except paypal) for usa to india transcation???
As you said no one is competing closer to Paypal, I also believe this. Others may have some new or excellent features but the largest community behind the Paypal is its biggest plus point. We hope RBI will understand one day and open all unusual restrictions on Paypal.
There are some alternative ways to send money to indian users, but same day transaction is main problem with paypal in India.
Hi,
Are these options fine to RECEIVE money for Transactions in India from Indian resident buyers? I guess most of the listed sites, do not allow this, following similar guidelines to Paypal by the RBI… i.e: You cannot pay any Indian seller, if you are an Indian buyer, through these sites that you have mentioned here.
Alternatives could be gateways like CC Avenue and others – But these are not as convenient as Paypal… Can anyone, suggest Paypal alternatives for Indian transactions as stated above? I mean as convenient as Paypal but acceptable in India as per RBI rules?
Thanks
Please tell me which site best to transfer dollar in paypal account
and what should be the purpose code in paypal account ,also tell me more about a
verified paypal account.
Hello the first alternative doesnt sound right? I mean a set up fee of 49$ and on top of that 5.5% fee and also 0.45$ per transaction doesn’t look right at all, they are simply stealing money. Just my view on the topic, might differ from you apart from that, I would also like to add one more service to this list, its a new player in e-wallet services and named Okpay, not very popular but the cheerful part is it also provides a source of income with its referral service(like you invite users to orkut).
Warm regards,
Anil Sharma
Dear All,
I want to develop a site with products showing INR rates in shopping cart with Paypal integration ..When i enquired with my friends i came to know that Paypal doesnt accepts INR .
1.My question is whether it accepts INR currency as i am targeting only domestic market in india .
if so what is meant by currency convetion rates which its mentioned in Paypal website stating that “This exchange rate includes a 2.5% fee ” , Since i am accepting only INR currency why there is currency convertion rate is getting applied .
So do i need to pay 3.4 % + 0.3 US dollars + 2.5 %
Please advice …its most urgent …
Thanks in advance .. God bless
Paypal does not allow Rupees. This basically means that your customers needs to pay in the currency that Paypal accepts. Let us say you are selling an item and you are asking $20 per item. When an Indian customer tries to buy this product, the money from his account (Rupees) will first get converted to USD (Based on paypal set exchange rate.. they get a commission here) and then the money is converted to rupees again when they convert the USD to rupees (Based on their exchange rate). The seller and buyer are losers due to exchange rate conversions. This is on top of their fees etc.
Nothing comes close to paypal in terms of acceptance and features. Some time back when Paypal had an issue, odesk had waived off the payoneer card fees. I checked out their charges then.
They have withdrawal fees and I think it works out to be more expensive that Paypal even without the card fees at the outset.
Regarding other services like Alert pay and Moneybooker, have heard of them but never felt the need to check them out.
Alertpay is the one which I think is popular after PayPal. So consider that service.
One more alternative is Liberty Reserve..
Yeah Typhoon,
Liberty reserve is another great alternative, I love it because of its popularity and ease of access.
I think moneybookers is doing great. Their charges are lower. Unfortunately moneybookers is not supported at USA, so I also had to use payoneers for USA clients.
An alternative of paypal is now very essential. They are dominating the market as they have huge users.
I use Alertpay it is much better then paypal and other.
we can verify account via mobile phones add bank accounts and for standard member there is no receiving fees. 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Pradeep