Is Braintree or Shopkeep better?

Neither clearly leads. Braintree starts at On request and Shopkeep at $89/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Braintree or Shopkeep?

Braintree starts at On request and Shopkeep at $89/month.

Does Braintree or Shopkeep run on more platforms?

Braintree runs on Web. Shopkeep runs on iPad, Web.

What is Braintree best used for?

Braintree is most often used for a united states consumer brand that wants venmo in the checkout rather than as an off-site redirect, a subscription business that needs a vault and recurring billing alongside wallet acceptance, a marketplace splitting each payment between the platform and multiple sellers, a merchant consolidating card and paypal acceptance into a single integration and a single settlement. Of those, a united states consumer brand that wants venmo in the checkout rather than as an off-site redirect and a subscription business that needs a vault and recurring billing alongside wallet acceptance are not what Shopkeep is typically brought in for.

What can Braintree do that Shopkeep cannot?

Braintree covers Card processing, PayPal and Venmo acceptance, Digital wallets, Hosted fields. Shopkeep covers Point of sale, Payment processing, Inventory management, Customer profiles.

E-Commerce · head to head

Braintree vs Shopkeep

Braintree

E-Commerce

PayPal's payment gateway and processor for cards, PayPal, Venmo and digital wallets

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Shopkeep

E-Commerce

Cloud-based POS for small businesses

From: $89/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Braintree the merchant relationship sits with PayPal, whose risk operations can place reserves on or hold funds in accounts they flag, and appeals run through support queues, so a business with thin working capital carries real exposure to a decision it cannot negotiate.; Shopkeep all plans require 24/7 phone and chat support; no tiered support options
They diverge on capability: Braintree covers Card processing, Shopkeep covers Point of sale.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Braintree and Shopkeep actually diverge.

Attributes where Braintree and Shopkeep differ
Attribute	Braintree	Shopkeep
Starting price	On request	$89/month
Pricing model	transaction	subscription
Platforms	Web	iPad, Web
Founded	Unknown	2008

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Braintree

Card processing
PayPal and Venmo acceptance
Digital wallets
Hosted fields
Card vault
Recurring billing
Split payouts
Multi-market coverage

Only in Shopkeep

Point of sale
Payment processing
Inventory management
Customer profiles
Sales analytics
Employee management
Mobile POS
Reporting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Braintree

A United States consumer brand that wants Venmo in the checkout rather than as an off-site redirectnot Shopkeep
A subscription business that needs a vault and recurring billing alongside wallet acceptancenot Shopkeep
A marketplace splitting each payment between the platform and multiple sellersnot Shopkeep
A merchant consolidating card and PayPal acceptance into a single integration and a single settlementnot Shopkeep

Shopkeep

No use cases recorded yet. See the Shopkeep review.

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Braintree

The merchant relationship sits with PayPal, whose risk operations can place reserves on or hold funds in accounts they flag, and appeals run through support queues, so a business with thin working capital carries real exposure to a decision it cannot negotiate.
Cross-border transactions and currency conversion carry additional charges on top of the headline rate, so an international customer base costs materially more per order than the quoted percentage suggests.
Disputes carry a per chargeback fee in addition to the reversed transaction amount, so a category with a high dispute rate loses money at roughly twice the rate a naive model predicts.
Leaving means requesting a vault export to another PCI compliant processor and then re-tokenising every stored card and every active subscription, which is an engineering project with a customer-visible failure mode if any subscription fails to migrate.
It is a payments component rather than a commerce platform, so checkout, tax determination, invoicing and refund workflow still have to be built and maintained somewhere else, and merchants who assume otherwise underestimate the integration.

Shopkeep

All plans require 24/7 phone and chat support; no tiered support options
Prices vary by business type and industry with additional service fees possible
Extra locations and registers incur additional charges beyond base plan cost

Pricing, plan by plan

Braintree

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Braintree review.

Shopkeep

$89/month

Basic$89/month
- Retail POS platform
- 1 register included
- Integrated Payments 1.5%
Core$149/month
- All Basic features
- Advanced management tools
- Business growth support
Plus$289/month
- All Core features
- Advanced customization
- Established retail operations support

Which should you pick?

Choose Braintree if

You need card processing.
You also want paypal and venmo acceptance.

Braintree review

Choose Shopkeep if

You need point of sale.
You work on iPad, Web.
You also want payment processing.

Shopkeep review

Questions people ask

Is Braintree or Shopkeep better?: Neither clearly leads. Braintree starts at On request and Shopkeep at $89/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Braintree or Shopkeep?: Braintree starts at On request and Shopkeep at $89/month.
Does Braintree or Shopkeep run on more platforms?: Braintree runs on Web. Shopkeep runs on iPad, Web.
What is Braintree best used for?: Braintree is most often used for a united states consumer brand that wants venmo in the checkout rather than as an off-site redirect, a subscription business that needs a vault and recurring billing alongside wallet acceptance, a marketplace splitting each payment between the platform and multiple sellers, a merchant consolidating card and paypal acceptance into a single integration and a single settlement. Of those, a united states consumer brand that wants venmo in the checkout rather than as an off-site redirect and a subscription business that needs a vault and recurring billing alongside wallet acceptance are not what Shopkeep is typically brought in for.
What can Braintree do that Shopkeep cannot?: Braintree covers Card processing, PayPal and Venmo acceptance, Digital wallets, Hosted fields. Shopkeep covers Point of sale, Payment processing, Inventory management, Customer profiles.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Braintree: How is it different from using PayPal directly?

Braintree gives you a full processing account and a native checkout with cards, PayPal and Venmo in one integration, rather than a redirect flow bolted onto a separate card processor.

Shopkeep: What is included in the Lightspeed Retail Basic plan at $89 per month?

The Basic plan includes 1 register, retail POS platform, integrated payments at 1.5% card-present rate, inventory management, Lightspeed Wholesale access, NuORDER Catalog with 5 million+ products, built-in eCommerce, loyalty programs, and 24/7 support.

Source

Braintree: Is Venmo the main reason to choose it?

For United States consumer brands, frequently yes. It is the practical route to native Venmo acceptance, and no competing processor offers an equivalent.

Shopkeep: How much can I save by paying annually instead of monthly?

Shopkeep (Lightspeed Retail) offers up to 18% discount when paying annually instead of month-to-month. All three plans (Basic, Core, Plus) qualify for this annual discount.

Source

Braintree: What does it actually cost?

A percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction on standard accounts, with interchange-plus available at volume. Add cross-border and currency conversion charges, plus a fee per chargeback, before comparing.

Shopkeep: What additional costs should I budget beyond the monthly subscription?

Beyond the monthly plan cost, extra locations require additional charges, extra registers incur per-register fees, and hardware (terminals, scanners, iPad devices) have separate costs. Integrated payment processing charges 1.5% per transaction.

Source

Braintree: How hard is it to switch away later?

Harder than most merchants expect. The vault export to another compliant processor is possible but every stored card and subscription has to be re-tokenised and tested.

Braintree: Can PayPal hold my money?

Reserves and holds are a documented part of PayPal's risk management. Ask about reserve policy for your category and volume before you migrate revenue onto it.

Braintree vs Shopkeep

Braintree

Shopkeep

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Braintree

Only in Shopkeep

What people use each for

Braintree

Shopkeep

Where each one falls short

Braintree

Shopkeep

Pricing, plan by plan

Braintree

Shopkeep

Which should you pick?

Choose Braintree if

Choose Shopkeep if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Braintree

More on Shopkeep

Keep looking

Other head to heads