Alternatives
PayPal alternatives for home services & trades
Home services & trades usually move off PayPal for one of three reasons: they want payments in an account in their own name, they need deposits, packages and memberships without paying per feature, or they need per-location and per-staff visibility. Enterprise Pay Gateway is software on top of Stripe that covers all three — a monthly subscription plus a platform fee of 0.20%–0.75%, with Stripe's processing fees billed separately by Stripe.
Last updated 9 September 2026
Why home services & trades look past PayPal
- Checkout is branded as PayPal, so the customer relationship and the statement descriptor are not fully yours.
- Account limitations and holds are a recurring complaint for service businesses with large tickets.
- Recurring plans, storefronts and staff access need extra products or third-party tools.
You can keep offering PayPal as a payment option to customers who ask for it.
What home services & trades actually need from payments
Invoices sent after the van leaves
Every day between completion and payment lowers the chance of collecting in full. A link sent while the technician is still on site is paid at a far higher rate.
Materials funded out of cash flow
Large installs mean buying materials before any money arrives. A deposit at quote acceptance funds the job instead of the business.
Maintenance plans sold on paper
Annual agreements collected by cheque or not at all. Recurring card billing turns them into predictable revenue and a reason to visit.
No visibility across technicians
Who sold what, at what value, is spread across job sheets. Consolidated payment reporting shows real revenue per technician and per service type.
How the switch works
- 1
Quote deposit
Send a deposit checkout link the moment the quote is accepted, sized to cover materials.
- 2
Progress or completion payment
Send a balance link from site. The customer pays by phone before the technician leaves.
- 3
Maintenance plan
Bill monthly or annually with automatic retries so the agreement renews without a phone call.
- 4
Reporting
Track revenue by service type, technician and plan renewals in one dashboard.
What would you pay here?
Move the slider to your monthly card volume. Stripe keeps billing you its own processing rates directly — this is only what Enterprise Pay Gateway adds on top.
$15,000
Recommended plan
Starter
- Subscription
- $49 / mo
- Platform fee (0.75%)
- $113 / mo
- Total added by us
- $162 / mo
- Effective rate on volume
- 1.08%
Stripe's processing fees are separate and billed to you by Stripe under your own account.
Common questions
- Can a contractor take a deposit before starting work?
- Yes. Create a deposit product sized to cover materials and mobilisation, share the checkout link when the quote is accepted, and credit it against the final balance. Put the deposit terms on the quote and in the checkout description.
- Can technicians take payment on site?
- Yes. Send the customer a checkout link by text from the job. They pay on their own phone and you see the payment in the dashboard immediately.
- Can we bill annual maintenance agreements?
- Yes. Set the agreement up as a recurring product billed monthly or annually, with automatic retries on a declined card and a self-serve portal for updates.
- What does it cost?
- Stripe's card processing fee plus a platform fee. Enterprise Pay Gateway charges $49 to $199 a month plus 0.75% down to 0.40%, with negotiated 0.20%–0.35% pricing at higher volume.
Stripe-powered payments
Card processing runs on Stripe under your own Stripe agreement.
PCI handled by Stripe
Checkout pages are hosted by Stripe, so card numbers never reach our servers.
We never hold your money
Stripe pays out straight to your bank on its standard schedule.
Per-merchant data isolation
Every record is scoped to your business and enforced at the database level.
Other options for home services & trades
Third-party features and pricing are typical published figures and change often — verify with each provider before deciding.