There is no single best payment gateway for every French online store. Stripe and Mollie publish transaction-based rates that can be compared against your card mix; PayPal may suit merchants who want PayPal Checkout’s hosted payment experience; Adyen’s published pricing requires payment-method-level costing; and Worldline Full Service bundles online acceptance and acquiring with fixed platform charges and customized acquiring fees. The right choice depends on what your customers use, how you want checkout to work, and the complete cost—not just one headline rate.
The fees below are the providers’ published terms captured on October 8, 2026, not individualized quotes. Check the provider’s current terms for your country, payment method, card category, currency, and contract before deciding.
How to compare payment gateways for a French store
Compare providers using your own expected payment mix and workflows. A percentage rate alone does not show the full cost: fixed per-transaction charges, international-card pricing, currency conversion, disputes, refunds, and monthly or setup fees may also matter. Contracted or volume pricing can differ from public rates.
- Payment mix: Estimate the share of consumer and commercial cards, Cartes Bancaires, EEA and non-EEA cards, wallets, and other payment methods your customers are likely to use.
- Checkout and operations: Decide whether you want a hosted checkout or a more integrated experience, and establish who handles fraud screening, disputes, refunds, and compliance-related workflows.
- Integration: Confirm support for your ecommerce platform, API, or mobile setup, and check what implementation and ongoing support are available.
- Contract and scale: Compare public pay-as-you-go terms with eligibility requirements, negotiated pricing, and any fixed charges.
- Cross-border sales: Check how the provider prices cards issued outside the EEA and any currency conversion your business needs.
For a large or unusual business, ask for a written, itemized quote that covers the same card and payment-method mix across providers. Include settlement terms, refunds, dispute fees, and integration support in the comparison.
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Published prices and pricing structures
The figures in this table are published provider terms captured on October 8, 2026. They are not a like-for-like quote: the categories, payment types, and pricing structures differ. Follow each provider’s pricing page to confirm which terms apply to your business.
| Provider | Published pricing evidence | What to account for |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Standard EEA cards: 1.5% + €0.25; premium EEA cards: 2.8% + €0.25; UK cards: 2.5% + €0.25; international cards: 3.15% + €0.25. | The pricing page lists an additional 2% when currency conversion is required for UK and international card categories. Stripe says its standard offer has no setup, monthly, or hidden fees. Check its separate local payment method pricing for method-specific charges. |
| Mollie | Consumer Cartes Bancaires: 1.20% + €0.25; commercial Cartes Bancaires: 2.90% + €0.25; consumer EEA Visa and Mastercard: 1.80% + €0.25; commercial EEA Visa and Mastercard: 2.90% + €0.25; non-EEA cards: 3.25% + €0.25; American Express: 2.90% + €0.25. | These are payment-method- and card-category-specific published prices. Mollie says custom pricing is available above 2,500 transactions or €100,000 per month; check eligibility and terms with Mollie. |
| PayPal | The French business fee page lists 2.9% + €0.35 per transaction for standard domestic PayPal and Pay in 4 fees. | This is not a single rate for all card processing. PayPal lists card-processing fees separately and says eligible businesses with high payment volumes or particular business models can request custom pricing. |
| Adyen | A fixed processing fee plus a fee determined by the payment method; the page does not provide a complete France-specific estimate for a merchant’s mix. | Adyen says there is no setup fee or monthly fee on the referenced pricing page; other Adyen products are priced separately. Request an itemized quote for your payment methods and expected volumes. |
| Worldline Full Service | €50 per month, €200 setup, 500 transactions included per month, then €0.09 per additional transaction. | Acquiring percentage fees are customized to the merchant’s payment flows. The listed platform charges are not the total cost without those fees. |
Rates can change, and card classification or payment method affects which published fee applies. Compare the applicable provider terms rather than treating one row’s headline figure as the cost for every transaction.
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Which provider may fit your business?
Stripe: a documented, usage-based option with broad payment tooling
Stripe may be worth considering if you want a published, transaction-based offer and broad online payment tooling. Stripe describes more than 100 payment methods and prepared interfaces. Its standard EEA card rate is not automatically the lowest total cost for a French store: the rate depends on the card category, and currency conversion adds a charge for the specified UK and international card categories. Review the relevant card and local-method terms against your actual sales mix.
Mollie: published distinctions for consumer and commercial cards
Mollie’s published France pricing distinguishes consumer from commercial Cartes Bancaires and EEA Visa and Mastercard, as well as non-EEA cards and American Express. That detail can help merchants estimate costs if they know their payment mix. Mollie says custom pricing is available above 2,500 transactions or €100,000 per month; ask how its offer applies to your business rather than assuming a threshold guarantees a particular rate.
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PayPal: consider the checkout model as well as the fee
PayPal’s French business fee page describes different operational arrangements. For PayPal Checkout, PayPal says it hosts the payment experience and provides integrated fraud screening, dispute and chargeback processes, and some compliance support. Its description of Expanded Checkout assigns payment management, refunds, unauthorized-payment disputes, and compliance reporting to the merchant. These are PayPal’s descriptions of its services, not an independent assessment. Confirm which checkout model and responsibilities apply to your planned integration.
Keep PayPal’s published domestic PayPal and Pay in 4 fee distinct from its separately listed card-processing fees. If you expect substantial volume or have a particular business model, ask whether you qualify for custom pricing.
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Adyen: get a quote for the payment methods you actually need
Adyen publishes a pricing structure rather than a single comparable France card rate: a fixed processing fee plus a payment-method fee, with other products priced separately. It also describes one integration for preferred payment methods. This structure may be relevant when you want to manage multiple methods through one integration, but the public information cited here is not enough to calculate a complete merchant-specific France cost. Request an itemized quote and compare it on the same assumptions as other providers.
Worldline Full Service: bundled acceptance and acquiring with fixed charges
Worldline describes Full Service as combining online payment acceptance and acquiring under one partner, integration, and contract, with consolidated reporting. The product page lists plugins, APIs, mobile SDKs, hosted or integrated checkout, fraud tools, a merchant portal, and payment links. Its fixed monthly and setup charges make the platform component visible, but the acquiring percentage is customized, so the published figures alone do not establish the total transaction cost.
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Authentication and payment operations in France
Strong customer authentication is part of the PSD2 online-payment environment. France Num’s guidance, updated June 3, 2025, explains that a payment service provider may be permitted to omit strong authentication for certain remote electronic payments of €30 or less, subject to a cumulative-value condition or a limit on consecutive transactions. This is not a rule that every payment below €30 automatically avoids authentication; the applicable conditions matter. Check current requirements before implementation.
When assessing providers, ask how authentication, fraud controls, and dispute handling fit your checkout and support processes. The ACPR’s payment-actor overview, updated September 24, 2026, describes non-bank payment providers within the French payment-services framework and discusses PSD2’s role. It provides regulatory context, not a ranking or a judgment about an individual provider’s service quality.
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