Payment gateway for your online store: Przelewy24, PayU, Tpay and Stripe compared

Choosing a payment gateway looks like a hard decision for a small store, because every provider boasts about something different. In practice the percentage fee is only part of the bill. Cost and convenience are also decided by fixed per-transaction fees and the subscription, payout timing and cost, business verification, and the plugin for your store.

In this guide I compare four popular solutions: Przelewy24, PayU, Tpay and Stripe. You get criteria, a calculation of the monthly cost for 200 orders of PLN 150 each, and a checklist you can send to any provider before signing a contract. I give rates according to the providers’ official price lists, checked on 20 October 2026. Check them again before you sign, because providers change offers and promotions.

Start with how your customers pay

A Polish customer most often wants to pay with BLIK (the Polish mobile payment system) or an instant bank transfer. Cards and wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay) are also worth having, especially for customers from abroad, but it is the BLIK rate that affects the bill the most. So the first question is: how much will you pay per BLIK and bank transfer transaction, not what the “from” rate in the ad is.

The four gateways in brief:

You will find the full rates and the cost calculation below.

The fee: what BLIK costs according to the price lists

Blogs and comparison sites give conflicting numbers, because rates depend on the package, promotions, volume and date. That is why I use only official price lists (as of 20 October 2026). For a BLIK payment, the merchant pays:

• Przelewy24: 1.29% + PLN 0.30 (an offer for new customers, with a crossed-out rate of 1.9%), no subscription,
• PayU: 1.1% + PLN 0.32 for the first 3 months in the offer for new merchants (valid until 31 January 2027), then 1.49% + PLN 0.32,
• Tpay: 1.59% + PLN 0.41 in the Starter package or 0.99% + PLN 0.02 in the Business package for PLN 99 a month,
• Stripe: 1.6% + PLN 1.00.

Online transfers and cards cost the same or almost the same as BLIK in the domestic gateways. In Stripe, a card from the European Economic Area costs 1.5% + PLN 1.00, and a premium card 1.9% + PLN 1.00. For high sales the rate is set individually: in Przelewy24 above PLN 150,000 a month, in PayU at a turnover above PLN 800,000, in Tpay in the Enterprise package. The final rate is confirmed by the contract or the offer the provider sends you.

What does that mean in practice? A difference of 0.2 percentage points on sales of PLN 30,000 a month is about PLN 60. That is real money, but less than a badly chosen plugin or a week’s delay in launching the store costs.

The calculation: 200 orders of PLN 150 a month

Take a small store: 200 orders of PLN 150, which is PLN 30,000 a month. I assume all customers pay with BLIK, and I take the rates from the price lists of 20 October 2026. In reality some customers will pay by card or transfer, so the cost will be a little different.

In the first 3 months PayU costs PLN 394 a month in this example (1.1% + PLN 0.32). The amounts do not include payout fees (in Tpay Starter PLN 2 for each, in Przelewy24 4 payouts a month are free and further ones cost PLN 0.99) or the one-time activation fee: in PayU PLN 29 in the promotion instead of PLN 199, in Tpay PLN 99 in the Starter package and PLN 1 in Business, in Przelewy24 PLN 59 refunded after 10 transactions in the first two months, in Stripe PLN 0.

The conclusions are simple:

1. Between Przelewy24 and PayU after the promotion, the difference is PLN 64 a month, or PLN 768 a year, and between the Tpay packages already PLN 159 a month.
2. Every full percentage point more is PLN 300 a month at this turnover, and every 10 groszy of fixed per-transaction fee is PLN 20.
3. Stripe with BLIK costs PLN 680 a month in this example, which is PLN 121 to PLN 280 more than the domestic gateways. As much as PLN 200 of that amount is the fixed PLN 1.00 fee on every transaction.

Put your own numbers in the table: average cart value, number of orders and the rates from the offers. It will take ten minutes and show whether the argument over tenths of a percent makes any sense at all.

Fixed fees can eat the whole difference

A lower fee doesn’t win if the provider adds fixed charges. Two examples from the price lists:

• a PLN 99 monthly subscription in Tpay Business: at 200 orders of PLN 150 the package costs PLN 400 and Starter PLN 559, but at 50 such orders Business comes out more expensive (PLN 174.25 versus PLN 139.75); with a PLN 150 cart it starts to pay off at around 77 orders a month,
• a fixed PLN 1.00 fee per transaction in Stripe: with a PLN 150 cart that is an extra 0.67 percentage points, and with a PLN 50 cart already 2 points, so BLIK then costs 3.6% of the order value.

That is why you should ask every provider three questions:

1. What is the rate for BLIK, instant transfers and cards?
2. Is there a monthly, activation or per-transaction fee?
3. How much does a payment refund cost, and is the fee on a refunded order returned?

Compare the total monthly cost at your own turnover, not the percentages alone.

Payout, business verification and the plugin

Besides cost, there are three matters that hurt a small store more than a PLN 60 difference.

Payout timing. The money reaches your account after several business days, or as early as the next business day, depending on the provider and settings. In Stripe in Poland, the first payout usually arrives after 7–14 days, and later ones as standard after 3 business days. While you are at it, check the payout cost: in PayU and Tpay Business it is PLN 0, in Tpay Starter PLN 2 for each, and in Przelewy24 four payouts a month are free, further ones cost PLN 0.99. For a business that buys stock up front, a fast payout matters more than a lower fee. Ask what the timing depends on and whether it applies to every payment method.

Business verification. The provider checks the merchant’s details, bank account and the nature of the business. PayU, for example, asks for registration documents, the PESEL numbers (Polish national ID numbers) of the company’s representatives and a working website, and in PayU and Przelewy24 you confirm the bank account with a verification transfer. Until verification is positive, PayU accepts only online transfers and BLIK up to PLN 2,500, and transactions wait in the “Oczekuje na odbiór” (awaiting collection) status, so don’t ship orders then. Providers don’t state verification times in their price lists, so ask about it. Apply before the store is ready, so that the launch doesn’t wait for paperwork.

A plugin for your platform. With WooCommerce and Shopify, check whether the provider has an official, regularly updated plugin (Przelewy24 lists ready-made modules for WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento and Shopify, among others). With Tpay, note that the price list rates don’t apply to stores connected through Shopify, Shoper and IdoSell. For a store on custom code, the quality of the documentation and the test environment matters. It is in testing that the most common errors show up: the payment went through, but the order didn’t change status because the callback notification never arrived. I compare how to choose a store platform in the guide Shoper or WooCommerce.

BLIK Pay Later and installments: check before you promise customers anything

Deferred payments and installments sound appealing, but each such option has its own terms: cost to the merchant, formal requirements and rules for informing the customer. Don’t assume that because a gateway has them, they are switched on and cheap for your store. According to the price lists of 20 October 2026:

• Tpay: BLIK Pay Later (BLIK Płacę Później) costs the merchant 1.59% + PLN 0.41 in the Starter package and 1.19% + PLN 0.02 in the Business package,
• PayU: 5 × 0% installments and the deferred payments PayPo and Twisto are 1.49% + PLN 0.30 (1.1% + PLN 0.30 in the promotion), 10 × 0% installments are 3.99%, and 15 × 0% are 4.99%,
• Przelewy24: PayPo costs 1.5% + PLN 0.30, and Przelewy24 Installments (Przelewy24 Raty) from 0% + PLN 0.30.

BLIK Pay Later is also available in Przelewy24 and PayU, but their public price lists give no separate rate for it. The customer gets a limit of up to PLN 4,000 (set individually) and at least 30 days to repay with no additional fees.

Before adding these options, ask the provider:

• whether the option is available for your industry and cart value,
• how much it costs you, not the customer,
• how a return of goods bought on installments works,
• whether a separate contract has to be signed.

Installments make sense for more expensive products, for example bathroom fittings. In a store with cheap small items they mainly add formalities. In Sklep Żukowscy, a store that sells bathroom fittings, I implemented PayU with 0% installments and deferred payments.

Which gateway to choose

There is no single best one, so here are some rules:

• You sell mainly in Poland, with carts up to a few hundred zloty: compare Przelewy24, PayU and Tpay on total cost, payout timing and plugin. At a turnover of PLN 30,000, the differences between them range from a few dozen to about PLN 160 a month.
• You need installments or deferred payments: start with the offers that have them and check the cost to the merchant.
• You sell abroad or charge subscriptions: Stripe can be more convenient, but you will pay more for BLIK (1.6% + PLN 1.00 according to the price list). Calculate it on your own numbers.
• You have a store on custom code: choose a provider with good API documentation and a test environment, because that saves hours of work.

If you hesitate between two, choose the one that verifies your business faster and has a proven plugin. Adding a second gateway later is a matter of a few hours of work.

Summary

With BLIK dominating, the cost of domestic gateways in a store with a PLN 30,000 turnover differs by a few dozen to about PLN 160 a month, and Stripe comes out PLN 121–280 more expensive. Besides the rate, what counts are fixed fees, payout timing, business verification and a working plugin. Check every rate in the official price list, because numbers from blogs can contradict each other.

If you would like me to connect payments in your store or on your website, see online payments: on a ready-made CMS from PLN 490 net, on custom code from PLN 1,490. If you are only planning to start selling, I have described the online store from PLN 5,900 net, with payments included in the price. Write to me and you will get a quote within 24 hours.