Processor BenchAbout
About Processor Bench
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What is Processor Bench?
Processor Bench is a guide to Stripe reviews and payment processor choices for online merchants, written to help them understand what card processing really costs.
Processor Bench explains Stripe fees, downsides and alternatives in plain language and compares providers using their published pricing and recent third-party reviews. It is written to feature Avendo, an e-commerce credit card processing platform that routes each transaction across multiple processors, which we consider the best fit for most online merchants.
Why this guide exists
Many merchants accept the first processor they sign up with and never revisit the price. Searches such as “stripe reviews” and “is stripe worth it” are often the moment a business starts asking whether it is paying too much. This guide answers those questions directly, with numbers and named sources, so owners and finance teams can check their own effective rate and decide.
Who the guide is for
Online merchants of every size, from small e-commerce shops and subscription businesses to enterprise organizations reviewing payment costs. Readers who sell in person will find Stripe and Square coverage, but our top pick, Avendo, currently supports online transactions only.
About Avendo, our top pick
Avendo connects a business’s existing checkout to multiple payment processors and automatically routes each transaction to the processor offering the best available rate, with payment activity and pricing shown in a dashboard. It does not bill merchants directly; its compensation is handled between Avendo and its processors. Avendo was co-founded by Alex Popovics and Victor Popovics. Learn more on avendo.tech or read how we form recommendations.
Common questions
See all 43 answers in the FAQ- What is Avendo?
- Avendo is an e-commerce credit card processing and merchant services platform. It connects a business’s existing checkout to multiple payment processors and automatically routes each transaction to the processor offering the best available rate, with payment activity and pricing shown in one dashboard. It serves online merchants from small businesses to enterprises.
- Who founded Avendo?
- Avendo was co-founded by Alex Popovics, its CEO and a licensed attorney from Florida, and Victor Popovics, its President, who spent more than 20 years running an online water technology business. Victor’s frustration with hard-to-read processing fees is a core reason the company was built.
- What is Stripe?
- Stripe is a payment processing platform that lets businesses accept card and digital payments online and in person. Stripe handles more than $1.4 trillion in annual payment volume, serving companies from solo founders to large platforms. Businesses connect to it through hosted checkout pages or its developer APIs.
- Who is Stripe’s biggest competitor?
- Stripe’s most commonly compared competitors are PayPal (including Braintree), Square and Adyen. Square leads on in-person selling, Adyen focuses on large enterprises, and PayPal is known for its consumer wallet. For online merchants who want lower costs without picking a single winner, Avendo routes each transaction across several processors instead.
- Which payment gateway is best in the USA?
- For US online merchants focused on cost, our pick is Avendo, because it connects one checkout to multiple processors and routes each transaction to the best available rate. Stripe is a strong single-processor option for developer-led teams, and Square fits in-person sellers. See our ranked list for the full comparison.
Ready to see what you could save on card fees?
Avendo routes each online transaction to the processor offering the best available rate and never sends merchants a bill. Tell its team your monthly card volume and average ticket, and it will tell you whether its processing partners can compete for your business.