GoCardless Alternatives for International Payments

One of the more competitive options instead of GoCardless for product and additional features is Sokin. They offer a product called Sokin Pay, which is a customisable payment gateway, but also a number of other features, like multi-currency accounts.

Other features of Sokin

The big benefit of using Sokin, and also Airwallex and Payoneer, is the access to multi-currency accounts.

These local accounts provide bank details in Canada, Europe (for the Euro), USA and the UK. They can be used for receiving cross border transactions, but in the currency of the buyer. This means no currency conversion is needed.

Beyond this, something you can access with Sokin, but not others, is interest on balances. This interest is built through what is called a Balance Boost. You will need to lock a balance, or set amount, for 60 days. Across these 60 days it will earn 3% interest.

There’s no other multi-currency account and payment gateway alternative to GoCardless which offers this.

The range of IBAN accounts is also one of the bigger options on the market and definitely worth considering against GoCardless.

Transactions are a little more expensive, but can go direct into either local accounts or virtual IBAN accounts. This can save money on converting at a later date. Also, there’s with GoCardlless there's only support for GBP, EUR, USD, SEK, DKK, AUD, NZD and CAD for once a transaction is received.

*This converted to AED for a transaction, and works out at around 1 AED.

Airwallex, like Sokin, is an option to consider against GoCardless as it offers access to multi-currency accounts.

Fees again are competitive, and you’ll be able to a number of other things in the account, like send money and manage expenses. For incoming or outgoing transfers, you'll pay from 0.5% conversion with Airwallex. This will not be payable where you accept the payment into one of your multi-currency accounts with the platform.

Other features of Airwallex

With Airwallex, you will get access to more local accounts than you would with Sokin, 12 in total vs the 4 with Sokin. Just to reconfirm, GoCardless does not offer local accounts.

Airwallex has a nice selection of integration options as well. There’s more ‘pre-built’ options than Sokin, but not the same range as GoCardless. This being said, all the ‘major’ accounting software and ecommerce platforms are accounted for. Like all platforms, anything not supported can be managed through an API as well.

There’s often comparisons made between Airwallex and Payoneer, as they’ve been two of the more popular all-round cross border platforms in recent years. So, it makes sense that Payoneer would also be a decent alternative to GoCardless.

Like Sokin and Airwallex, Payoneer comes with local accounts. 7 in total.

Payoneer is also similar to GoCardless in that it caters to a lot of different payment options. You can also be paid through Payoneer for international transactions. This is similar to a P2P payment in essence, so can be quicker for settlements and cost.

Checkout fees and transaction costs are calculated based on transaction volumes into an account.

This is made up of a percentage of the transaction amount plus a fixed fee. This is similar to other providers, but a lack of upfront transparency makes Payoneer a little weaker in terms of alternatives.

Other features of Payoneer

As an additional point, Payoneer is aimed at freelancers as well. So support for ecommerce platforms like Amazon marketplace, Etsy and eBay are at the forefront. Whilst these will have their own payment gateways, it makes settlement into Payoneer accounts easier.

Overall, Payoneer is a good alternative to GoCardless if you’re a freelancer in particular. But businesses over 2 or 3 employees will find more benefit, and lower cost, using Airwallex or Sokin.

Zen is potentially on course to be more popular than GoCardless, and offers a suite of products and services that again goes beyond just payment gateways.

For cost, Zen is one of the better accounts on the market. If you want to take advantage of different payment methods per country, there’s a range of support. This is similar to companies like Rapyd, where both want to push accessibility at the core of their offering.

There’s also options for instant settlement in the account. This is the only alternative to GoCardless that offers instant settlement.

As mentioned, fees with Zen are cheaper than GoCardless. For example, Visa and Mastercard payments start at just 0.89%, but Paysafecard transfers will start at 10.20%.

Here’s the Zen fees by payment method:

These fees are competitive in the international payment gateway market as a whole.

Other features of Zen

The bigger drawback of Zen is no access to native accounting integrations. This means you will need to work with the Zen API to sync Zen with software like Xero or QuickBooks.

All-in-all, Zen is the cheapest alternative to GoCardless, but will require development work to get some of the features you will receive with Sokin, Airwallex or Payoneer.

Rapyd offers enterprise level cross border payments and competes with Zen in terms of starting price point. Like GoCardless, there’s no markup on any international currency conversion.

The platform can be used as a payment gateway, supports subscription collection and provides access to IBAN accounts. Although, unlike with Airwallex, Payoneer or Sokin, you won’t get local accounts with Rapyd but you will get IBAN access.

Other features of Rapyd

25 IBAN accounts is in the same region as Zen, but fewer than the 75 offered by Sokin.

Rapyd offers over 900 payment methods and like Zen is pushing for accessibility of the platform for customers, which in turn is making it a better option for businesses.

One of the downsides to Rapyd is a $99 per month fee. This is something that you do not pay for with other providers. Although, with the savings you could make on the overall cost of transactions, that $99 per month fee could quickly be eclipsed.