What's the difference between Thinkific Payments, Stripe, and PayPal?

Thinkific has native integrations with Thinkific Payments, Stripe, and PayPal; what's the difference between these three payment processors?

About Payment Processors and Differences between Them

Integrating with a payment processing platform allows you to sell your products, receive money from your users, process payments, issue refunds, and get paid.

There are three payment integrations that can be used natively with Thinkific:

• TCommerce, powered by Thinkific Payments
• Stripe
• Paypal

See the table for the quick overview of the difference between the three platforms and read each section below to learn more.

*Availability depends on the plan

TCommerce: Powered by Thinkific Payments

Thinkific Payments is the default payment processor for creators located in USA, Canada, UK, EU, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. For the detailed list, see: Thinkific Payments Supported Countries and Transaction Fees.

Thinkific Payments is a built-in payment processor that is a part of TCommerce's suite of payment processing and selling features. It includes everything you need to accept payments, process refunds, and manage payouts while allowing you to update your banking and business information; all through your Thinkific dashboard.

Thinkific customers on TCommerce sell more. We built TCommerce specifically for creators and education businesses, to help you sell more, and spend less time doing it. We’ve seen the data: Thinkific customers on TCommerce sell more, earn more, see higher conversion rates and have larger transactions overall.

Enabling Thinkific Payments is easy and allows you to get access to the TCommerce suite of tools, giving you the best way to grow your business!

Here is how Thinkific Payments and TCommerce can help you:

• Customers on Thinkific Payments have seen up to 22% larger average transaction sizes.
• Gifting can boost transaction sizes by up to 6.2%.
• Customers who offer Buy Now, Pay Later payment methods (e.g. Klarna and Afterpay/Clearpay) see higher transaction sizes and earn 7.5% more revenue on average.
• Orders with an Order Bump have a 20% larger average transaction size.
• Smart Retries help TCommerce customers to earn up to 30% more revenue.

Thinkific Payments ensures a smooth and hassle-free experience for you and your students:

• Reliable payment processing built on a trusted solution
  Thinkific Payments is powered by Stripe with an uptime of 99.95% and a dedicated engineering team supporting it.
• Avoid the Third-Party Payment Gateway Fee
  Transactions completed through Thinkific Payments do not incur an additional third-party transaction fee.
• Manage payments directly within the Thinkific platform
  No need to juggle multiple platforms, apps, or websites.
• Optimize sales conversion with Performance checkout
  TCommerce leverages Performance checkout to ensure a smooth and efficient payment process.
• Sell more with Thinkific Payments
  By enabling Thinkific Payments, you get access to the suite of TCommerce selling tools with exclusive features, such as Order Bumps, additional payment methods at checkout (including Buy Now Pay Later), Gifting, Group Orders, and more!
• Spend Less Time on Administration with Thinkific Payments
  Spend less time on tedious administrative tasks with Thinkific Payments and TCommerce. With the Sales Tax and VAT Solution, Thinkific automates tax management for your US, Canadian, UK, and EU sales (where tax is applicable). Exclusive Thinkific Analytics Dashboards, such as Subscriptions and Checkout Conversion allow you to monitor your business health directly in Thinkific.
• Flexible payment solutions
  You can offer different payment frequencies with one-time payments, subscription payments, and payment plans, providing your customers with flexibility.
• Direct deposits to your bank account
  Thinkific Payments is powered by Stripe, ensuring secure transactions and depositing payments directly to your bank account.

Learn more about Thinkific Payments and set it up today!

Stripe

If you're located outside of a Thinkific Payments-supported country, we recommend using Stripe as your payment processor. Stripe is a widely recognized and trusted payment processor that you may have already encountered during your online purchases without even realizing it.

When using Stripe, there are a few key points to keep in mind:

• Stripe transactions will incur the Third-Party Payment Gateway Fee
  Transactions completed through Stripe will incur the third-party transaction fee, in addition to the standard processing fees.
• Most functionalities are managed through Stripe's website
  To set up and manage your payments, you'll primarily work within the Stripe platform.
• Additional Stripe functionality is not available
  Although Stripe, as a platform, might support additional functionality, such as FPX payments, iDeal payments, SEPA payments, Apple Pay, and others, our native integration does not support these features.
• Flexible payment solutions
  You can offer different payment frequencies with one-time payments, subscription payments, and payment plans, providing your customers with flexibility.
• Direct revenue transfers
  After the first transaction is processed through Stripe, your revenue will be transferred directly to your bank account following each subsequent purchase. For more details on Stripe's payout schedule, refer to their documentation.
• Can be used with two-step checkout
  If your account was created prior to February 2022, Stripe integration can be used with a two-step checkout.

Learn more about Stripe.

Paypal

If you prefer to accept payments through PayPal, you have that option as well. PayPal is a well-known and trusted payment processor that facilitates convenient one-time payments.

Here are some important details to note when using PayPal for payments:

• Most functionalities are managed through PayPal's website
  To handle various aspects of your payments, you'll primarily interact with PayPal's platform.
• One-time payment support only
  Our native PayPal integration does not offer support for recurring payment types (subscriptions and monthly payment plans).
• PayPal funds stored in your PayPal account
  When customers make payments through PayPal, the funds are stored in your PayPal account. They are not directly paid out to your bank account.
• Order Bumps available with PayPal through the TCommerce suite
  You can leverage the exclusive Order Bumps feature offered within the TCommerce suite of tools when using PayPal for your payments.

Learn more about PayPal.

A note on the checkout process:

PayPal can be enabled alongside Thinkific Payments or Stripe and will appear as an additional payment option at the checkout. If selected by the student as their preferred payment method, the student will be redirected to the PayPal site where they will be required to log in to their PayPal account, before being able to make their payment.

Paypal currency will automatically adopt the currency you have set for Thinkific Payments or Stripe.

[back to top]