PayPal (US) is the world’s best-known digital wallet: beyond sending and receiving money between people, it is a checkout method online stores offer to convert more, backed by buyer protection.
What it does
- Pay for online purchases without exposing the card on every site
- Send and request money between people
- Accept payments in stores (express checkout button)
- Sell internationally with platform-managed FX
Products
The consumer layer has the wallet (balance, linked cards, Purchase Protection) and P2P. The merchant layer has checkout buttons, a payments API (PayPal Commerce Platform), subscriptions and reporting. Sister brands — Venmo (US), Braintree (gateway) and Xoom (remittances) — extend the lineup.
Public pricing
- Stores: per-transaction fee published per country (US: 3.49% + fixed fee on standard checkout)
- Domestic P2P between people: free from balance/bank
- Currency conversion with a spread — official remittance table
Strengths
- Instant consumer recognition and trust
- Buyer and seller protection on qualified transactions
- Quick checkout setup on any store
Points of attention
- Commercial checkout fees are higher than pure gateways
- Account blocks and holds have a complaint history
- FX conversion with a spread is not the cheapest in the market