Product overview — Payments & Billing APIs Medium

Braintree

Braintree is PayPal's end-to-end payment platform designed for growth, offering card processing, PayPal/Venmo integration, ACH payments, and fraud tools. Uniquely positioned to leverage PayPal's ecosystem while offering standalone payment processing.

Sources linked — see verification below.

Freshness & verification

Last updated 2026-02-09 Intel generated 2026-01-10 2 sources linked

Who is this best for?

This is the fastest way to decide whether Braintree is in the right neighborhood.

Best for
  • Businesses wanting native PayPal and Venmo acceptance
  • Merchants with existing American Express merchant accounts (pass-through savings)
  • Verified 501(c)(3) charities (2.19% discounted rate)
  • Companies processing large ACH transactions (benefits from $5 cap)
  • Businesses in PayPal ecosystem seeking integrated solutions
  • Growth-stage companies ready for IC+ negotiations
Who should avoid
  • Need Venmo outside the United States (not supported)
  • Heavy international payment volume (1% + 1% adds up)
  • High chargeback rates in your industry ($15 each)
  • Require lowest ACH fees for small transactions (0.75% expensive for small amounts)
  • Want transparent pricing without 'established business' gatekeeping
  • Need advanced fraud tools without per-transaction add-ons

Sources & verification

Pricing and behavioral information comes from public documentation and structured research. When information is incomplete or volatile, we prefer to say so rather than guess.

  1. https://www.paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees ↗
  2. Official website ↗