PayPal vs Stripe vs Square: What Should You Choose (2025)

In the travel industry, tour and activity operators face unique payment challenges. This includes handling international customers to taking on-site payments in remote locations.

Choosing the right payment processor can significantly affect your booking conversions, fees, and overall customer experience.

PayPal, Stripe, and Square are three of the most popular payment platforms available, each with its own strengths.

In this comparison, we’ll explore how these platforms stack up, specifically for tour and activity businesses.

We’ll cover why these three are top choices, examine each platform’s best use cases, features, and pricing. Let’s dive in!

Why choose between PayPal, Stripe, and Square

PayPal, Stripe, and Square are widely used because they offer the reliability and flexibility tour operators need.

All three providers are Payment Service Providers (PSPs) that can handle both online and in-person transactions. Each is PCI DSS compliant and offers robust fraud prevention measures.

They also integrate with many booking and e-commerce platforms, ensuring you can connect your reservation system or website with minimal hassle.

However, they cater to slightly different priorities.

While Stripe may be best for small businesses that prioritize customization, PayPal may be better for small businesses with an international customer base. With that said, if price is key, Square may be your winner.

That’s why it is important to assess their features to make sure they’re the right fit for your business. Here’s more on which gateway may be the right fit for you:

PayPal

PayPal is one of the longest-standing online payment platforms, known for enabling payments via email. Today, PayPal has evolved into a full-fledged payment processor for businesses. 

When you use PayPal, customers can pay using their PayPal account balances, linked bank accounts, or credit/debit cards.

PayPal acts as both a payment gateway and processor, handling the transaction end-to-end without requiring a separate merchant bank account. Your funds go into your PayPal business account, which you can then transfer to your bank.

One key aspect of PayPal is its massive global network. It’s available in over 200 countries and supports payments in 25 different currencies.

This means you can accept bookings from customers abroad as PayPal will handle currency conversion for you.

PayPal’s interface is user-friendly, and setup is simple. There’s minimal coding required if you use PayPal’s standard tools or integrate through a booking platform that supports PayPal. PayPal also has in-person payment capabilities.

Key Features

• Global Multi-Currency Support: PayPal allows you to accept payments from customers in 25 currencies and automatically handles conversions
• Widely Recognized & Trusted: PayPal’s biggest strength is its name recognition and consumer trust.
• Easy Integration: PayPal integrates easily into websites with minimal setup
• Multiple Payment Options for Customers: With one PayPal integration, your customers can use their PayPal balance, credit or debit cards, or Venmo to pay.
• Security & Fraud Protection: PayPal is PCI compliant and handles the heavy lifting of securing card data.
• Invoices, Subscriptions, and More: Beyond standard checkout, PayPal lets you issue online invoices and set up subscription payments or recurring billing.
• In-Person and Mobile Payments: Through PayPal Zettle, you can accept chip and tap card payments in person at a relatively low rate.

Pricing

PayPal’s fee structure is primarily transaction-based with no monthly fee for its standard services.

Here’s a breakdown of key U.S. fees relevant to tour and activity operators:

Stripe

Stripe is a technology-first payment processor that emerged in the 2010s and quickly became a favorite among startups and online businesses.

At its core, Stripe provides a suite of APIs and tools that let you accept payments online and in-person with a lot of flexibility.

Unlike PayPal, Stripe is pure back-end with no consumer-facing “Stripe wallet.” Customers simply pay with their credit/debit card or other methods on your website, and Stripe processes the payment behind the scenes.

Stripe deposits funds from sales directly into your bank account on a rolling basis typically daily or two-day payouts, once settled.

One of Stripe’s defining traits is its developer-friendliness. The platform was designed so that businesses can really tailor the payment experience.

If you have a custom booking website, your web developer can use Stripe’s APIs to create a seamless checkout page.

It’s available to businesses in fewer countries than PayPal but it supports processing payments in 135+ currencies.

Key Features

• Extensive Multi-Currency & Global Payment Support: Stripe supports 135+ currencies for payment processing.
• Developer-Friendly Customization: Stripe provides clean APIs, extensive documentation, and libraries in multiple programming languages.
• Integration with Booking Platforms: Many popular tour booking and reservation systems have Stripe integration baked in..
• Advanced Fraud Protection: Stripe includes Radar, an AI-driven fraud detection system that analyzes payments and can block or flag suspicious activity.
• Recurring Billing & Subscription Management: Stripe easily handles recurring payment and billing natively without the need for extra services.
• Transparent Pricing and No Surprise Fees: Stripe’s pricing model is very straightforward, with no monthly fees for standard accounts and no fees for things like setup or PCI compliance.
• Dashboard and Reporting: With Stripe, you can see real-time updates of payments, filter by date or tour type, and manage refunds or disputes.
• Security & Compliance: Stripe is very secure and responsible for PCI compliance as long as you use their recommended integration methods, like Stripe Elements or Checkout.

Pricing

Stripe uses a simple flat-rate pricing model for most U.S. transactions, with no monthly fees for the standard plan.

Here are the key pricing points relevant to tour operators:

Square

Square started out in 2009 with a tiny white square card swiper, targeting small merchants and mobile businesses.

It has since grown into an ecosystem, now under the parent company Block Inc., that includes payment processing, point-of-sale software, e-commerce, business banking, and more.

For tour and activity operators, Square provides a very accessible way to accept payments.

The hallmark of Square is that there are no complicated merchant accounts or monthly statements. You sign up online, get a card reader, download the Square Point of Sale app, and you can begin taking payments with a smartphone or tablet.

Square aggregates all merchants, so underwriting is minimal, and you don’t need a separate merchant bank agreement.

Square’s point-of-sale (POS) app is one of its biggest strengths. It’s extremely intuitive, allowing you to add products or services and charge customers with just a few taps.

You can also apply taxes, discounts, and even let customers tip. For tours, you might use the POS app to sell walk-up tickets or related merchandise.

Key Features

• All-in-One POS Solution: Square provides everything you need to accept in-person payments.
• Transparent Flat-Rate Pricing: Square’s pricing is straightforward with a fixed percentage + small fee for each transaction, with no monthly fee for basic service.
• No Chargeback Fees: Unlike most processors, Square does not charge a fee for chargebacks.
• Integration with Booking Software (for POS): Square’s APIs allow certain booking platforms to use Square for payments.
• Next-Day Deposits and Square Banking: With Square, your money typically reaches your bank the next business day. They even have same-day settlements for Friday and weekend sales to hit Monday.
• Ease of Setup & Use: You can create an account online in minutes with no long approval process, and most are approved instantly to take payments.
• Expanded Features: With Square, you can also manually charge cards using their Virtual Terminal from a web browser, send Square Invoices to clients, create appointment modules and more.

Pricing

Square’s pricing is characterized by flat rates and no monthly fees for the basic service. The software is free, with you only paying for transactions and any hardware you purchase.

Here’s the breakdown relevant to tour operators in the:

Comparison Table

To wrap up, below is a side-by-side comparison of PayPal, Stripe, and Square on key metrics relevant to tour and activity operators:

Choosing the Right Booking System

Before you get into selecting a payment gateway, you need to invest in the right booking system.

You can only use the payment gateway of your choice if the system you use supports that gateway. A payment gateway is only as effective as the platform it runs on.

For WordPress users in the travel and tour space, WP Travel Engine is a standout choice.

WP Travel Engine

WP Travel Engine is a powerful, WordPress-based booking system designed specifically for tour and activity operators.

It supports integration with popular gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square via third-party extensions or custom integrations.

WP Travel Engine follows WordPress security best practices and is built to be PCI-compliant when paired with supported payment gateways. This ensures all transactions on your website are safe.

The plugin itself does not store card information, and it relies on gateway providers (like Stripe and PayPal) to securely handle sensitive data.

Additionally, WP Travel Engine does not charge any per-transaction fee. This means the only payment-related fees you incur are from the gateway itself not from the booking plugin.

It’s a transparent, cost-effective way to manage your bookings and transactions on your own terms.

• Multiple Payment Gateway Support: Integrates seamlessly with PayPal and Stripe out of the box. Square and others can be added via extensions or custom development.
• No Transaction Fees: WP Travel Engine charges zero commission on bookings. You only pay the processing fees from the payment gateway you use.
• Secure and Compliant: Built following WordPress best practices. Sensitive payment data is handled by PCI-compliant gateways like Stripe and PayPal, not stored on your server.
• Customizable Trip Packages: Easily create unlimited tours with itineraries, pricing, images, FAQs, and booking forms tailored to each package.
• Multi-Currency Support: Accept payments in various currencies based on what your payment gateway supports, making it ideal for international travelers.
• Responsive and Mobile-Friendly: Optimized booking forms and pages that work seamlessly on all devices.
• Translation & Multilingual Ready: Compatible with translation plugins like WPML for multilingual websites.
• SEO-Friendly: Clean code and structured data ensure your tour packages rank well on search engines.
• Advanced Add-ons Available: Extend functionality with partial payments, group pricing, PDF itineraries, trip reviews, and more.
• Booking Management Dashboard: Central admin interface to view, manage, and export bookings and inquiries efficiently.

Conclusion

PayPal, Stripe, and Square each serve different needs

PayPal is great for international reach and fast setup, Stripe offers flexibility and seamless online integration, and Square is best for in-person payments with simple, transparent pricing.

Choose based on what matters most: speed, global support, customization, or cost. Or, combine them to cover all your bases.