Should you build your own payment system?
Stripe takes 2.9% + 30¢. At scale, that's millions. But building payments is a minefield. Here's the reality.
⚠️ This category is different
Payments involve money, regulation, and fraud. The consequences of getting it wrong are severe. We almost always recommend buying here, even for large companies.
The math that tempts you
If you process $10M/year, Stripe costs ~$320K in fees. At $100M, it's $3.2M. That's real money that feels like it should be margin.
Direct card network integration (Visa, Mastercard) costs closer to 1.5-2%. The savings look huge.
But those savings come with costs that aren't in a spreadsheet.
Build when...
- You're processing $500M+/year
- Payments ARE your product
- You have a dedicated payments team
- Regulatory requirement (rare)
- You're a payments company
Buy when...
- You process under $100M/year
- Payments are just a feature
- You want to focus on your product
- You need global coverage
- Fraud protection matters
Don't even think about vibe coding
Just... no. Payments is the one category where vibe coding is actively dangerous. PCI compliance, fraud detection, chargebacks, international regulations — this is not a weekend project.
Even "simple" things like storing card numbers require PCI DSS Level 1 compliance: annual audits, penetration testing, security policies. One breach and you're done.
What you're actually buying
When you pay Stripe 2.9%, you're not just paying for card processing. You're paying for:
- Fraud detection: Stripe Radar blocks millions of fraudulent transactions using ML trained on billions of data points
- Compliance: PCI Level 1, SOC 2, GDPR — they handle it
- Chargeback management: Dispute handling, evidence submission, risk scoring
- Global reach: 195+ countries, 135+ currencies, local payment methods
- Uptime: 99.999% availability SLA
- Instant payouts: Cash flow management
Building this yourself costs millions and years. And you still won't have their fraud data.
Real cost comparison
For a company processing $50M/year over 3 years:
| Build (Direct) | Buy (Stripe) | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | $2M – $5M | ~$0 |
| Annual fees | $750K – $1M (network fees) | $1.45M (2.9%) |
| Team required | 5-15 engineers + compliance | 1-2 engineers |
| Time to launch | 12 – 24 months | Days |
| 3-year total | $5M – $10M+ | $4.35M |
What people underestimate
Fraud losses. Without Stripe's fraud ML, you'll lose 1-3% of transactions to fraud. That wipes out your fee savings.
Compliance burden. PCI audits alone cost $50K-$200K/year. SOC 2, GDPR, state money transmitter licenses — it adds up.
Card network rules change. Visa and Mastercard update their rules constantly. Someone has to track and implement changes.
International complexity. Each country has different payment methods, regulations, and fraud patterns. Stripe handles 195 countries. You'd be starting from zero.
The long tail. 3D Secure, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Buy Now Pay Later, crypto payments, recurring billing edge cases — the feature list never ends.
Compare tools
Our take
Buy. This is the clearest "buy" in this entire guide.
Unless you're Uber-scale ($500M+ in payments) or payments is literally your product (like Square), building your own payment infrastructure is a bad idea. The savings don't materialize when you factor in fraud, compliance, and engineering. Negotiate with Stripe/Adyen for better rates at scale — that's a better use of energy than building.