Stripe, Square, PayPal payment tools for audience purchases

Selling to your audience without a full online store

If you already have followers on social media, an email list or a messaging group, you can sell to them with a shareable payment link instead of building an online store.

Stripe Payment Links, Square Payment Links, and PayPal Payment Links and Buttons all take payments without coding.

Stripe's links can be shared on social media, in emails or on your website. PayPal's can go by email, text message, social media or messaging apps, or be used in person with a QR code, with no website needed.

Square describes payment links as a way to accept online payments without a dedicated eCommerce website.

You can sell a one-off product, a service, a donation, an event, a class or a subscription. Square's link types cover payment collection, item sales, donations, and events or classes, while Stripe's link types cover products, subscriptions and donations.

Key features for audience purchases

Stripe Payment Links: build a hosted checkout and share the URL

A Stripe payment link is a Stripe-hosted checkout page you create without code, then share. Customers pay in their preferred language and local currency through Adaptive Pricing, and more than 40 payment methods are supported.

Receipts are automatic and refunds can be issued without code.

Sharing options include social media, email and your website; you can also create an embeddable buy button for a site you already run. URL parameters and UTM codes track a payment link, showing which channel a sale came from.

A link can be reused across many buyers, or you can limit the number of purchases.

The same no-code setup collects addresses and phone numbers, creates different shipping rates for customers, and adds promotion codes, optional items and upsells.

Styling is deliberately limited to 20 preset fonts, three preset border radius options, and custom logo, background and button colours.

Choosing between a link and an invoice comes down to who is paying. Invoices suit one-time or recurring payments from a specific customer and can't be reused, though they can be duplicated and edited.

Payment Links suit anyone with the link and can be reused many times, or capped at a set number of purchases.

How to create a payment link (overview)

Square Payment Links: links from your dashboard or point of sale

Square Payment Links are created, shared and deactivated from Square Dashboard and Square Point of Sale. Account owners or team members need payment link permissions, which are set in Square Dashboard.

From Square Dashboard you can create a link to take a payment, sell a product, accept a donation, or sell an event or class.

From the point of sale app you can take a payment, sell a product or accept a donation; selling an event or class isn't available there.

Some options, such as redirecting a link to a website, can only be set up from Square Dashboard.

Payment links can't be created or customised from Square Restaurant POS, Square Appointments POS or Square Invoices apps.

For touch-free checkout, you send a link from your point of sale and the customer receives a unique link on their phone. They pay without entering a PIN or installing a special app.

Each link takes a title shown to the customer, an optional description, an optional image, a one-time or recurring frequency, and up to two custom fields.

When selling a product or an event, you select it from your item library or create a new one with a price.

Payment links work for domestic and international sales, but for international sales the tax and shipping fee settings can't be applied.

If you want a larger online catalogue, more online fulfilment methods or a fully customisable storefront, Square's guidance is to set up a website.

PayPal Payment Links and Buttons: a link, a QR code or an embedded button

PayPal Payment Links and checkout buttons are built in seconds, with no coding experience needed. You add a name and a price for what you're selling, optionally add images and a description, then copy the URL and share it.

Share the link by email, text message, social media, messaging apps, or in person using the QR code option, with no website required. Shoppers pay on a hosted PayPal checkout page using PayPal, Pay in 4, Apple Pay, debit cards or credit cards.

You can customise the checkout with product variants, a fixed price, or a price the customer sets themselves, and offer a tip.

Shipping and tax can be calculated automatically, and customisable fields include quantity, currency, shipping, tax and invoice number.

Buy Buttons and Shopping Cart Buttons come with embed code and step-by-step instructions for adding it to your site. You paste the code into your website's code without coding knowledge, and PayPal handles updates on its end automatically.

What happens after someone buys

Stripe shows each payment in the payments overview in your Dashboard. New users receive an email after their first payment; to receive emails for all successful payments, update your notification preferences in your Personal details settings.

You can replace the default confirmation message with your own, or redirect buyers to your website instead.

Including the Checkout Session ID placeholder in the redirect URL passes the current Checkout Session ID through, so your own page can tailor the success message. UTM codes added to the payment link are automatically appended to the redirect URL.

Receipts can be sent to customers automatically or manually after a payment succeeds.

A subscription or a saved payment method creates a new customer unless you specify an existing one, while one-time payments use a guest customer.

Fulfilment can run automatically through a Stripe partner such as Zapier, which connects Stripe data to other applications for order fulfilment, customer emails and recording data to a spreadsheet.

It can also be handled programmatically with the Stripe API and webhooks. Subscribers can log in and manage their own plans through a customer portal link you send them.

Beyond the link: taking payments in person and by bank debit

Square sells in-person hardware including Handheld, Register, Terminal, Reader, Stand and Kiosk; each carries a 1.6% fee per transaction taken in person.

Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android is free with your own phone, and the same 1.6% rate applies to in-person transactions.

A payment link can also be sent from the point of sale.

Stripe users in Australia can accept Australia BECS Direct Debit from customers with an Australian bank account.

You must collect a mandate containing the account holder's name, the BSB number and the bank account number, and you must also accept the mandate Service Agreement, which gives you authorisation to debit the account.

BECS Direct Debit is a reusable, delayed notification method: after you initiate a debit, it can take up to three business days to receive notification of success or failure.

For new users, transactions have a default limit of 10,000 AUD per transaction and 10,000 AUD per week, and using the method requires additional identity verification steps.

The method is available through Stripe products including Payment Links, Invoicing and Subscriptions. For PayPal, the QR code option is the in-person route for a payment link.

In-person payment options comparison

Fees and keeping your books straight

PayPal's standard rate for receiving domestic commercial transactions in Australia is 2.90% plus a fixed fee, which is 0.30 AUD for Australian dollar transactions.

Receiving international commercial transactions adds 1.00%. QR code transactions are charged at 1.20%, plus 1.00% for international QR transactions.

Square's free plan has no monthly fees, no setup fees and no lock-in contracts, and you pay only when you take a payment. Upgraded Plus plans start from $40 per month plus processing fees.

Stripe's payout reconciliation report matches the payouts arriving in your bank account with the batches of transactions they settle.

You select a date range covering the payout's estimated arrival date, find the payout in the Payout reconciliation section, and download the Itemized CSV to review every payment, refund, dispute, fee and other balance transaction it includes.

The Ending balance reconciliation section breaks down transactions that hadn't been settled as of the report's end date.

CSV exports can include custom metadata so Stripe transactions line up with records in your accounting system.

The report requires automatic payouts to be enabled, and because you control the timing and amount of instant payouts, you reconcile those against your own transaction history.

Fees for domestic commercial transactions in Australia

Matching the tool to how your audience buys

For a product shared to followers, a reusable Stripe Payment Link or PayPal Payment Link covers it. For a donation, a Stripe Payment Link works. PayPal lets you share the link by email, text, social media or messaging app.

Square covers the same ground with its payment, product and donation link types.

For an event or class, Square has a dedicated link type, but it can only be created from Square Dashboard rather than the point of sale app.

If you already run a website, Stripe's embeddable buy button and PayPal's Buy Button or Shopping Cart Button put checkout on the page with pasted code.

For in-person selling, Square charges 1.6% on each transaction taken in person, whether through its hardware or Tap to Pay. PayPal's QR code route is 1.20% for domestic QR transactions.

If you need to collect by bank debit, Stripe's BECS Direct Debit is available through Payment Links.

International buyers are handled differently. Stripe renders the customer's preferred language and local currency with Adaptive Pricing, PayPal adds 1.00% for international commercial transactions, and Square supports international sales but can't apply tax and shipping settings to them.

How much post-sale automation you need also decides the tool. Stripe automates fulfilment through partners such as Zapier or through the API and webhooks, and lets subscribers manage their own plans through a customer portal.

For a larger catalogue or a customisable storefront, Square points sellers to setting up a website.

Best for post-sale automation and fulfilment