5 Free PayPal Alternatives That Are Actually Worth Using (According To Users)

Mobile payment providers like PayPal, Google Wallet, Stripe, and Apple Pay are likely here to stay, especially since these apps now offer the opportunity to create a digital ID for use with TSA's system as well as let you store your state-issued identification on your phone. That is to say, they're important for more than just mobile payments and simple banking. PayPal is one of the more popular options, holding 45% of the global payments market. PayPal boasts 434 million users and merchants use the service, with 26.3 billion transactions completed in 2024 alone. 

Unfortunately, PayPal is also known for its high service fees and poor support, with over 35,000 reviews on Trustpilot amounting to a less than two-star rating. Not to mention, PayPal is known to have outages from time to time. The good news is it's not the only app that exists, so it may not be the best for you. Sometimes, just knowing there are alternatives is enough. But are there any worth using according to real people?

Alternatives include Square, Venmo, Cash App, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, Apple Pay, Skrill, Payoneer, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and a few others — like Shopify Payments. There's not nearly enough time to evaluate all of these services, but there's clearly a lot of competition. To find out which one is best for you, it's good to focus on user satisfaction.

Exclusively available on Apple devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch, Apple Pay is the ecosystem's standard tap-to-pay digital wallet and money management platform. According to Apple, payment through the service is accepted at 85% of retailers in the U.S. and works pretty much anywhere contactless payments are supported. Like PayPal, that means you can pay with your phone at registers, vendors, and vending machines. You can also use it to pay on websites and on apps, as well as send Apple cash. Some popular vendors that support Apple Pay include Starbucks, Groupon, Fandango, Uber, Etsy, and Postmates, but the list goes on. There's no shortage of places to use your digital Apple wallet, which is a huge benefit.

Like most digital wallets, you add cards or cash through the app, all of which is connected to your Apple ID. You'll notice that most Apple Pay features are centered around paying for transactions or services, either at a store or online. It's less about sending money to others, but you can do that with Apple Cash. TrustPilot reviews aren't great, but there aren't enough to make a valid conjecture there and Apple users seem happy with the solution. Apple Pay uses advanced security, too, so your iPhone can save you from gas pump skimmers hidden in the wild.

Cash App is simple, intuitive, and offers several money-related activities, including the option to buy cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or invest in stocks. Money can be automatically deposited into your account from your bank, there are low payment limits, you can send and receive money to friends and family, and there are built-in tax-filing tools to help calculate what you owe. In addition, Cash App is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, which stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and means they use robust security to protect credit card data.

It works on the web, so you can use it on a computer or on Android and iOS phones through mobile apps. Cash App also allows you to make in-store payments and send money directly, all while taking advantage of Square loyalty rewards. Unfortunately, international payments aren't supported; it's for U.S.-based users only. With over 21,000 reviews, Cash App has a 4.6 star rating on TrustPilot which means users generally rate it "excellent." You'll find quite a few comments that mention they "absolutely love" it. It's easy to use and people usually have few or "no issues." That's not to say there aren't negative reviews, but 64% percent of the total reviews are five stars, 7% are four stars, and 3% are three stars. Quite a few people are happy with it. It's worth knowing a lot of common text message scams utilize Cash App and similar services.

Google Wallet is the default mobile payment option on Android devices and is one of the most popular competitors to Samsung Wallet. It used to be called Google Pay, and it dropped some features in the change. For example, you can't use Google Wallet to send money to friends and family. It's mostly for storing payment cards and managing digital IDs, tickets, boarding passes, and so on. This is another service that doesn't have a measurable rating on TrustPilot, seeing how there are less than 50 reviews. However, if you refer to Google Play, Android's mobile app store, the Google Wallet app has 4.5 stars with over 2 million reviews. Some of the top comments there praise Google Wallet for its security, ease of use, high compatibility, and overall convenience — which could be said about most mobile wallets.

You can add credit and debit cards, bank accounts, loyalty rewards cards, and even add your state ID to your Google Wallet. You can also add supported gift cards to shop and pay with them. Mostly at locations that support contactless payments, but you can pay online through select websites and retailers, too.

If sending money abroad is the goal, Wise may the best option out of the bunch. You can use it to send money to family and friends, make any kind of transfer, exchange funds into foreign currencies, spend anywhere through contactless and mobile payments, and receive money. Moreover, it's federally regulated and offers excellent security with specialized fraud tech that actively checks for suspicious activity daily. On TrustPilot, Wise has a 4.3 star rating with over 270,000 reviews, which is phenomenal.

Top comments say that it's convenient, the Wise team offers great customer service and support, the app works reliably, and it's fairly intuitive. Where most of these alternative options don't allow you to do much outside of the United States in terms of sending money or paying (unless they support contactless payments), Wise is a solid option for making money transfers of any kind; not unlike bank wire transfers, but simpler. You can also sign up for a Wise debit card and connect it to your account. Wise is available for Android and iOS, but you can access your account in a browser if need be.

Also highly-rated by users, with a 4.3 star rating on TrustPilot and nearly 7,000 reviews, people mention in the reviews that Square works well for mobile payments, offers fast response times in terms of support, and is a valuable tool for small business owners. You can also see that the official Square account responds regularly to user reviews on TrustPilot, which is a good sign they're responsive in general.

For Square, it's more about facilitating business payments, allowing contactless payments person-to-person, customizing and sending digital invoices, and making card payments from a browser or phone. It works with Android and iOS, and with mobile apps on both platforms. What's also great about it, if you are a small business owner, is you can take contactless payments from other sources like Apple Pay or Google Wallet. A common complaint for Square, however, is that they have inordinately high credit card processing fees, which is similar to PayPal's high fees. Overall, however, user reviews seem to be much more positive about their experiences when using the platform.