Best alternative to Stripe Connect for Payments in the UK

Stripe Connect is an API designed for businesses, particularly platforms and marketplaces, to split customer payments between multiple parties or other businesses.

What You Will Discover:

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Struggling with high transaction fees, slow payments, or limited custom branding on your payment platform?

Many businesses in the UK face these challenges with popular platforms like Stripe Connect. But what if there’s a solution that not only reduces costs but also provides instant bank transfers and seamless bulk payouts? Meet Finexer, the best stripe connect alternative in the UK you didn’t know you needed.

In this blog, we’ll examine the key differences between Stripe Connect and Finexer, helping you discover which platform is best for your business needs.

What is Finexer?

Finexer is an innovative Open Banking-powered platform that provides UK businesses with comprehensive payments and data services. By utilising direct bank-to-bank transfers, finexer eliminates the need for card networks, enabling real-time payments and bulk payouts that are faster and more cost-effective. With access to 99% of UK banks, finexer ensures extensive coverage across the UK, making it a reliable solution for industries like Credit & Lending, PropTech, Utility Billing, and other B2B sectors requiring seamless, scalable payment and data management.

A Complete Open Banking Solution

Finexer offers an impressive array of features that provide seamless payment and data capabilities for UK businesses:

• Instant Payments: Real-time, bank-to-bank transfers, eliminating delays.

• Bulk Payouts: Effortlessly make multiple payments in one click, perfect for contractors or suppliers.

• Request-to-Pay: Secure and flexible payment requests.

• Real-Time Financial Data: Access up-to-date bank transaction data, balance checks, and income/expense details.

• Rapid Deployment: With minimal development complexity, deploy your payment solution 3x faster, getting your service to market quickly.

• Comprehensive Payment & Data Flow: With end-to-end integration, you can simplify operations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

• White-Labelled Solution: Customise the platform to perfectly align with your branding, ensuring a seamless user experience for your customers.

• Unmatched Bank Coverage: finexer covers 99% of UK banks, giving you extensive reach.

What is Stripe Connect?

Stripe Connect is a highly popular payment platform for online marketplaces and platforms. It offers seamless multi-party payments, custom onboarding, and compliance tools. Its strength lies in simplifying the process for businesses that handle transactions with multiple connected accounts. Stripe’s built-in tax management, global payouts, and robust API make it a go-to choice for various business models.

Why is Finexer the best Stripe Connect alternative in the UK?

• Stripe Connect, available in over 100 countries, doesn’t offer full transparency on the depth of its bank connections in each region. This lack of clarity can limit its effectiveness, especially in markets like the UK, where businesses need comprehensive banking access for seamless payments. On the other hand, Finexer covers 99% of UK banks, making it a far more reliable option for UK businesses. With Finexer’s extensive bank coverage, companies can benefit from faster, more secure payments and real-time financial data, giving it a clear edge in the UK market.

Customisation

• One of Stripe Connect’s limitations is its co-branded user interface, which doesn’t allow businesses full control over the customer’s payment journey. While it provides basic customisation options like logos and colours, businesses seeking a fully branded payment experience may find this restrictive. This lack of control can dilute brand identity, particularly for B2C companies where maintaining a consistent and professional customer experience is crucial.

• Stripe Connect offers customisation and integration options, but these often require development expertise, making the process time-consuming for SMEs with limited resources. This complexity can delay deployment and increase costs. On the other hand, finexer offers a White-Labelled Solution, allowing businesses to tailor features, branding, and integrations with ease and in less time. This solution aligns perfectly with business needs and takes significantly less time to implement, making finexer a more efficient and accessible option for SMEs setting up payments and data flows quickly.

• Stripe Connect often experiences longer onboarding times for marketplace vendors due to stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. While necessary for legal adherence, the process can be a lengthy hurdle for businesses looking to scale quickly. In contrast, finexer shines with rapid deployment, allowing businesses to onboard and operate 3x faster. finexer’s streamlined approach reduces development complexity and compliance delays, making it an ideal choice for businesses that need to accelerate time-to-market without sacrificing regulatory compliance.

Payments

• Stripe Connect does not currently support Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) for sweeping and non-sweeping scenarios. This limitation impacts businesses that need flexible recurring payments, particularly in sectors like PropTech and Utility Billing, where such payments can streamline operations. On the other hand, finexer is actively developing VRP functionality, providing businesses with a more flexible solution for managing recurring payments and ensuring smoother and more efficient payment flows.

• Stripe imposes rate limits on API requests, especially for bulk operations, which can create a bottleneck for businesses that require frequent data retrieval or high transaction volumes. Specifically, businesses making large API bulk requests may encounter rate limit errors, slowing operations and causing delays. This could hinder real-time performance and scalability for businesses in fast-moving sectors like iGaming or Utility Billing.

Data Services

•While Stripe Connect is highly regarded for processing payments, it falls short in the business landscape due to its minimal access to detailed transaction data. This limits businesses’ ability to gain deeper insights into payment flows and customer behaviour, which are critical for financial decision-making and reporting. In contrast, platforms like finexer offer real-time transaction data, providing businesses with the comprehensive insights they need to operate more effectively and make data-driven decisions.

• Stripe’s bank reconciliation services are provided “as-is,” meaning businesses might experience delays in data rendering, which can affect real-time financial tracking. Additionally, the platform requires businesses to check the accuracy and completeness of the data, which can be a challenge for companies that rely on instant data access for reconciliations. In contrast, finexer provides real-time payment and data access, allowing businesses to reconcile transactions without worrying about delays or data discrepancies.

Affordability

• Stripe Connect can be expensive for businesses handling micropayments due to its fee structure. With each transaction incurring a fixed cost plus a percentage, the fees can add up quickly for businesses processing a large volume of small transactions. This can significantly impact profitability, particularly for startups or SMEs with low-margin products or services. In contrast, finexer’s Open Banking-powered solution offers lower transaction costs. It saves up to 90% on transactions, making it a more cost-effective choice for businesses dealing in frequent, small transactions.

Winding Up

For businesses seeking greater flexibility in their payment solutions, finexer provides a cost-effective alternative to Stripe Connect. With lower transaction fees, real-time bank-to-bank transfers, and the ability to deploy quickly through its white-labelled solutions, finexer is ideal for companies that need seamless, scalable payment services without the high costs or complexity. finexer’s extensive coverage of 99% of UK banks ensures businesses can handle payments efficiently, offering more flexibility at less cost for startups and SMEs.

FAQ’S

What makes finexer the best alternative?

Finexer is the best alternative due to its comprehensive and fully operational features tailored to modern business needs. Here’s why:

FCA Authorised & Secure: Finexer is fully authorised under FCA’s PSR 2017, ensuring that payments and data are handled with top-level security and compliance.

99% UK Bank Coverage: Finexer provides near-total coverage of UK banks, ensuring seamless integration with almost any financial institution for a broad range of businesses.

Instant Payments: Finexer offers a fully operational Pay-By-Bank system, enabling real-time payments without the delays typical of traditional payment methods. This ensures healthy cash flow and faster business transactions.

Bulk Payouts: Unlike many competitors with bulk payments still in Beta, Finexer delivers a fully functional bulk payout system, allowing businesses to handle multiple payments in one click, saving time and reducing operational costs.

Real-Time Financial Insights: Finexer provides real-time access to transaction data, balances, and expenses, empowering businesses to make smarter financial decisions quickly and efficiently.

Customisable White-Label Solutions: Finexer offers complete customisation, allowing businesses to use white-label infrastructure that aligns with their brand, ensuring a consistent and trusted customer experience.

Why do businesses struggle with Stripe Connect?

Businesses face challenges with Stripe Connect, such as high transaction fees, slow payments, and limited custom branding. Finexer, a UK-based alternative, addresses these by offering real-time bank transfers and bulk payouts while reducing costs.

How does finexer help businesses save on transaction costs?

Finexer leverages Open Banking, allowing businesses to save up to 90% on transaction costs by eliminating card network fees. This makes it ideal for startups and SMEs looking to reduce payment processing expenses.

Is Finexer affordable for small businesses?

Yes, Finexer’s affordable pricing and customisable solutions suit businesses of all sizes, including startups and small businesses.