If you're integrating a shopping cart in your website, there are several options available. Depending on your requirements, some are cheaper than others. In this article, let's compare top 3 shopping carts - Stripe Checkout, PayPal, and Razorpay. We will see their pros and cons, pricing model, and compare their features side by side.
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What shopping cart really means on a custom website
On a custom site, you typically split ecommerce into two layers
Cart layer: This is your UI and logic that collects items, quantity, shipping, coupon, and totals
Checkout layer: This is where payments happen securely, with fraud checks, receipts, and compliance handled by a provider
Stripe Checkout, PayPal Checkout, and Razorpay Checkout all cover the checkout layer. You can implement a lightweight cart yourself and hand off payment to one of these providers.
๐ Region support: what works and what does not
Here is the clean way to think about it
Merchant availability: Where you can open an account and receive settlements
Buyer reach: Where your customers can pay from
Stripe support reality
Stripe is supported for businesses in a specific list of countries and regions, and once you are supported you can sell to customers globally.
If your business can open a Stripe account in a supported region, you can charge customers worldwide, but your feature set and settlement options depend on your account country and local rules. Stripe pricing is transparent and published for online card payments.
PayPal support reality
PayPal is available in 200 plus countries and regions, so buyer reach is massive. PayPal India states that it supports international payments, which is a key constraint for certain domestic use cases.
Razorpay support reality
Razorpay is heavily India centered for merchant onboarding, and it also provides international payments capability to accept foreign cards and currencies, which is especially useful when you want settlement in INR for cross border sales. Razorpay also has a US pricing page, which indicates a separate offering for that market.
Razorpay is often strongest when your operational core is India, especially for Indian payment rails, while Stripe is usually the cleanest developer first global default when you want one modern integration for worldwide cards and wallets.
๐ง My recommendation for your exact case
Best default stack
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Stripe Checkout as primary checkout
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Add PayPal as a secondary option if your audience expects it
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Use Razorpay when India payment methods and INR settlement are the priority
Stripe Checkout is designed to be low code. You create a Checkout Session and use webhooks for fulfillment using checkout.session.completed.
๐งฉ How Stripe Checkout works
Step 1 Create a Checkout Session on your server
A Checkout Session represents the customer payment session for one time purchases or subscriptions.
Step 2 Redirect the customer to Stripe hosted checkout
Stripe handles the payment UI, wallets, fraud signals, and compliance.
Step 3 Fulfill the order with a webhook
Stripe explicitly recommends fulfillment via webhook after the transaction, using checkout.session.completed.
๐ฐ Cost section: real examples you can copy into your pricing model
Stripe online card fees
Stripe publishes online card pricing as
Example A US customer pays 100 dollars using a domestic card
Fee = 2.9 dollars + 0.30 dollars Total fee = 3.20 dollars Net to you = 96.80 dollars
Example B India customer pays 100 dollars using an international card and currency conversion applies
Base domestic fee = 2.9 percent + 0.30 International add on = 1.5 percent Currency conversion add on = 1 percent
Approx fee percent = 5.4 percent plus 0.30 Fee โ 5.40 + 0.30 = 5.70 dollars Net to you โ 94.30 dollars
This is why many teams price India separately in INR to reduce conversion costs.
PayPal US checkout fees
PayPal publishes a US business fee table showing PayPal Checkout at 3.49 percent plus a fixed fee.
Example US customer pays 100 dollars via PayPal Checkout
Fee โ 3.49 dollars + fixed fee Net โ 96.51 dollars minus fixed fee
Razorpay India pricing
Razorpay pricing page indicates 2 percent plus GST per transaction for many standard cases, and Razorpay has also explained that it applies a platform fee even when MDR is 0 percent for certain UPI flows.
Example India customer pays 10,000 rupees Gateway fee at 2 percent = 200 rupees GST applies on the fee, so the effective cost is higher than 200 rupees depending on GST rate
If you are margin sensitive in India, Razorpay often wins because the payment methods are India native and settlement is INR.
๐ Stripe vs PayPal vs Razorpay comparison table
| Feature | Stripe Checkout | PayPal Checkout | Razorpay |
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| Best for | Developer first global checkout on custom sites | Adding a trusted PayPal button and wallet style checkout | India focused payments, INR settlement, India payment rails |
| Merchant availability | Supported business regions list | Broad global availability | Strongest in India, also offers international payments and a US offering |
| Buyer reach | Global buyers when you are onboarded in a supported region | 200 plus countries and regions | International cards and currencies supported for cross border in many setups |
| Typical US online fee | 2.9% + 30ยข domestic, add ons for international and FX | 3.49% + fixed fee for PayPal Checkout | US pricing listed starting at 2.9% + 30ยข with other tiers shown |
| FX and cross border clarity | Explicit add ons published | Varies by flow and market, often less transparent for founders | India export and cross border tooling is a key selling point |
| Implementation effort | Low code sessions plus webhooks | Easy button and checkout integrations, multiple flows | Straightforward for India stack, can be more nuanced for global setups |
| Best pattern | Primary checkout | Secondary option | Primary for India heavy businesses |
๐งฑ What to implement on your custom site
Recommended build plan
Build a simple cart UI in your frontend
Implement Stripe Checkout for payment completion
Add PayPal as an alternate payment method for trust and preference
Add Razorpay when India conversions matter and you want UPI and INR settlement
Fulfill orders only from webhook confirmation, not from success page redirects