PayPal Alternatives And Competitors

An early-stage, Techstars and Western Union backed fintech startup building the first social, investment-based peer-to-peer payment platform that allows anyone to create value from every transaction, by making investing as easy as getting paid by your friends through fractional shares of stock.

While Zelle is currently only US-based, it’s worth knowing about if you deal with any friends and family with US bank accounts. This popular peer-to-peer app lets users send and receive money either directly into bank accounts or their Zelle account. Transfers are processed within minutes, and the app’s compatible with most major banks and credit unions within the United States. Users benefit from sending and receiving funds directly into their bank accounts, without waiting on processing times.

Robinhood. is an American financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, that facilitates commission-free trades of stocks, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrencies via a mobile app introduced in March 2015. Robinhood is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer, registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. The company’s revenue comes from three main sources: interest earned on customers’ cash balances, selling order information to high-frequency traders (a practice for which the SEC opened an investigation into the company in September 2020) and margin lending. As of April 2022, Robinhood had 22.8 million funded accounts and 15.9 million monthly active users. In April 2022, Robinhood rolled out a cryptocurrency wallet to more than 2 million users.

Created by Square, Cash App is first on our list for its user-friendly interface and flexible mobile payment options. When you want to send a contact money, you can do so using either your Cash App balance or a linked credit card, debit card, or bank account. In addition to sending and receiving money, you can also use Cash App to buy and sell Bitcoin or invest in stocks. One thing to note is that Cash App does charge a transaction fee if you decide to use your credit card for payments, making it a more costly option than some others on this list.

Apple’s digital wallet enables mobile payments to merchants and individuals alike. The Apple Pay Cash app is connected to the usual Apple Pay app, allowing Apple users to send and receive money through their Messages. To register, users can sign up with Apple Pay and link a payment card through the Apple Wallet app. You can purchase goods and services through a variety of retailers using Apple Pay, provided your device supports NFC transactions. Apple Pay Cash works best if your friends and family are also Apple users – it’s incompatible with Android devices.

Acorns is an American financial technology and financial services company based in Irvine, California that specializes in micro-investing and robo-investing. According to Fortune’s Impact 20 list for the year 2020, Acorns had 8.2 million customers and $3 billion in assets under management. Since its inception, the platform has expanded to include checking account services and retirement IRA products. This was made possible following an acquisition of Portland, Oregon fintech retirement startup, Vault