We had to pick a payment processor for ToolbagCRM. That sounds simple until you actually look at the options. Stripe, Square, QuickBooks Payments, PayPal, four big players, all with different fee structures, different customer experiences, and different integration stories.
Here's what we learned, both from evaluating them for our product and from watching how contractors actually use them.
Stripe
Stripe is the developer-first processor. If your CRM, booking page, or accounting tool takes payments, there's a decent chance Stripe is running underneath. We ended up choosing it for ToolbagCRM, and here's why.
The customer-facing experience is clean. A payment screen, a polite email receipt, ACH bank transfer support. On a big-ticket job, ACH is the difference between a few cents on the dollar and a few dollars total. The customer never downloads an app or logs into anything. They click a link, they pay, done.
Where it falls short: Stripe isn't a counter-top tool. There's hardware called Stripe Terminal, but it isn't where the product shines. If most of your work gets paid at the kitchen counter with a tap, Square has the edge.
Square
Square earned its name with that little white dongle. The in-person card-present rate is competitive, the hardware works, and you can be set up to take cards on a job site by tomorrow morning.
Square also gives you invoicing, customer files, recurring billing, and a basic CRM. Sounds good. The problem: the CRM is shallow, the invoicing is generic, and once your trade has more than a few moving parts, you outgrow it inside a year.
It's the best stopgap on this list. For a one-truck plumber doing residential drain calls, it's tough to beat. For anyone running a real crew, it's a stepping stone.
QuickBooks Payments
The natural answer if your books are already in QuickBooks. Every charge books itself to the right account, every deposit shows up reconciled, and your accountant doesn't chase down what came from where.
ACH is the strong point. Bank-to-bank charges are typically a flat fee rather than a percentage. On a $6,000 roof job, that's the difference between losing a hundred bucks to processing and losing a few dollars.
Where it falls short: the customer-facing payment experience feels dated next to Stripe's. And if you don't use QuickBooks for bookkeeping, there's no reason to pick this one. It's a tax-and-accounting tool that happens to take cards.
PayPal
PayPal is the one your customers already recognize. Half of them have an account. That recognition has real value, especially with older homeowners who trust PayPal more than typing a card into an unknown form.
Two things to watch. The per-transaction fee tends to come in higher than the others once you stack invoicing fees, instant transfer fees, and chargeback costs. Second, PayPal's hold policies are stricter. A $9,000 invoice lands, the algorithm doesn't like it, and the money sits for days.
For occasional online payments from a customer who insisted, fine. As your primary processor? It's the most expensive door of the four.
What actually matters
Picking by headline fee is the wrong starting point. What decides whether you get paid faster is when and how you ask, not which logo is on the receipt. That said:
Speed to bank: Square and Stripe offer next-day deposit. QuickBooks takes one to two business days. PayPal varies.
ACH support: On any job over a few thousand dollars, bank-to-bank transfer is where the savings live. Stripe and QuickBooks make it easy.
Card-present vs card-not-present: In-person taps cost less than emailed invoices across the board. Finish the job, ring it up before you leave.
Customer experience: A link they tap once, no account required. Anything clunkier costs you a percentage of customers who won't finish.
The biggest jump in days-to-paid never comes from switching processors. It comes from asking for the money on the spot.
We chose Stripe for
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