Softwr
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PayPal

The simpler, safer way to pay and get paid

As of 30 August 2026, PayPal starts at $29/month. PayPal is a global digital payments platform that enables businesses and consumers to send and receive money online securely. Softwr lists it under Personal Finance. PayPal is made by PayPal Holdings Inc, launched in 1998, available on Web, iOS, Android, API.

Overview

What PayPal does

PayPal is a global digital payments platform that enables businesses and consumers to send and receive money online securely.

What people use it for

  • Paying online merchants without sharing card details
  • Sending money to friends and family domestically and internationally
  • Holding balances in multiple currencies for cross border purchases

The honest half

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about PayPal.

  • Currency conversion on international purchases and sends carries a 4.00 percent fee, and 3.00 percent in other conversion scenarios
  • Instant transfer to a bank or debit card costs 1.75 percent of the amount, with a minimum of 0.25 USD and a maximum of 25.00 USD
  • International personal transactions carry a 5.00 percent fee regardless of payment method, with a minimum of 0.99 USD and a maximum of 4.99 USD
  • Sending domestic personal payments funded by a credit card costs 2.90 percent plus a fixed fee of 0.49 USD
  • Instant transfers are capped at 25,000.00 USD per transaction

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of PayPal

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Pricing

What PayPal costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Standard

$2.99 /transaction

  • Card payments
  • PayPal checkout
  • Invoice payments

Capabilities

Features

  • Payment processing

  • PayPal Checkout

  • Invoicing

  • Business debit card

  • Working capital loans

  • Shopify

    Integration with Shopify

  • WooCommerce

    Integration with WooCommerce

  • BigCommerce

    Integration with BigCommerce

  • PCI DSS

    PCI DSS security feature

  • Buyer/Seller protection

    Buyer/Seller protection security feature

  • Web support

    Available on web

  • Ios support

    Available on ios

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Does PayPal charge fees and when do they apply?

PayPal states that fees apply when converting currency and sending money to accounts in another country. Specific fee amounts are not disclosed on the homepage but are referenced in their published fee schedule.

Source
Is there a subscription cost to use PayPal's basic services?

No subscription fees are mentioned on the homepage. PayPal operates on a transaction-based fee structure for money transfers and payments rather than recurring charges.

Source
Are there restrictions on when I can use buyer protection?

PayPal offers buyer protection for eligible purchases, but coverage limitations exist. A user agreement sets the specific conditions for protection eligibility.

Source
What payment methods can I link to PayPal?

PayPal's digital wallet allows storage of multiple payment methods and can be used for secure money transfers, payment requests, and checkout at major retailers.

Source

Behind it

Who makes PayPal

Company
PayPal Holdings Inc
Based in
San Jose, CA
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Where to go from PayPal

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for PayPal, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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