Claude on Question 28, Sep 25

Stripe — if I have to pick one without knowing anything about you.

The reasoning: Stripe serves a far wider range of businesses well. Best-in-class API and docs, fast self-serve onboarding, and a deep product suite around the core payments rail (Billing for subscriptions, Connect for marketplaces, Radar for fraud, Tax, Terminal for in-person). It's also the default in most integration ecosystems, so whatever tool you're using probably has a Stripe connector already. For anyone under roughly $10–20M in annual processing volume, it's the safer bet.

But Adyen is genuinely better if you fit its profile:

• •High volume. Adyen prices on Interchange++ (interchange + scheme fees + a transparent markup), which beats Stripe's blended ~2.9% + 30¢ once you're big enough to negotiate. Stripe will do custom pricing too, but Adyen's structure is cheaper and more legible at scale.
• •Europe or truly global. Adyen holds its own acquiring licenses across many markets, so local acquiring lifts authorization rates — a 1–2% approval-rate gain often swamps any processing-fee difference. Local payment method coverage (iDEAL, Bancontact, Klarna, Alipay) is excellent.
• •Omnichannel retail. Adyen's unified commerce — one platform for online, in-app, and physical POS with a single customer view — is its strongest differentiator. Stripe Terminal is fine but not in the same league for large store footprints.

The catch with Adyen: it's enterprise-oriented. There's a monthly minimum, a sales-led onboarding process, and they're selective about who they take. If you're a small or mid-size business, you may not be able to sign up at all — and the developer experience, while much improved, still isn't Stripe's.

Quick heuristic: SaaS, marketplace, subscriptions, or anything under ~$10M volume → Stripe. Multi-country retailer, high volume, physical stores, or Europe-centric → run the Adyen numbers, because it'll likely win on both cost and approval rates.

Worth noting that many large companies run both — one as primary, one as failover or for specific regions. If you tell me your volume, geography, and business model, I can give you a sharper answer.