Stripe, Square or Tyro: Choosing a Payment Gateway for Australian Sites

eCommerce

Why the AU market makes this harder than it looks

Every global comparison of payment gateways ignores the fact that the Australian payments landscape has genuinely unusual features. PayID, BPAY, a dominant Buy Now Pay Later segment led by Afterpay, and a strong hybrid retail base where online orders and in-store trading sit in the same P&L. Pick the wrong gateway and you end up bolting on a second one six months later.

We have shipped stores on all three of the major options. This is the straight comparison we give clients when they ask which one to choose.

Fees, the real 2026 numbers

Headline domestic rates at the time of writing, for standard in-Australia card-present or card-not-present transactions:

Stripe AU: 1.7 per cent plus 30 cents for domestic cards, 3.5 per cent plus 30 cents for international cards, plus a 2 per cent currency conversion fee where applicable.
Square AU: 1.6 per cent for contactless and chip in person, 2.2 per cent for manually keyed or online payments, no fixed fee per transaction.
Tyro: negotiated rates based on volume, blended around 1.4 to 1.6 per cent for mid-market merchants processing above AUD 500k annually. Online Tyro rates via their payment platform sit slightly above their card-present rates.

Fees are only one axis. Two others matter at least as much. Settlement timing and the cost of the adjacent services you end up using.

Settlement

Stripe settles on a 2-business-day cycle by default in Australia, with same-day or next-day settlement available to eligible merchants for a fee. Square offers next-business-day standard and instant transfers for 1.75 per cent. Tyro is the standout. Same-day settlement to any Australian bank account is their headline feature, and for hospitality or retail with cashflow pressure it is genuinely valuable.

Local payment methods

This is where the gap between the three becomes practically important.

PayID and BPAY

None of the three gateways natively support PayID or BPAY for eCommerce. If you need these (common for B2B invoicing, not common for consumer retail) you will likely layer in a service like Monoova or Zepto alongside your main gateway, or use a Xero-integrated invoicing flow that pushes customers to pay via their bank.

Afterpay and Buy Now Pay Later

Stripe has native Afterpay and Zip integration with straightforward toggles in the dashboard. Square supports Afterpay end-to-end including in-person scan-and-pay. Tyro supports Afterpay online and increasingly in-store through partner integrations.

For apparel, beauty, furniture, and anything in the AUD 100 to 1500 range, offering Afterpay lifts conversion by 10 to 20 per cent. All three gateways can get you there, but Stripe and Square make the on-boarding smoother.

Apple Pay and Google Pay

All three support both. Stripe is the cleanest developer experience, with a single Payment Request Button component that handles browser detection and fallbacks.

POS integration for hybrid retailers

If you run a physical store as well as online, the answer starts to diverge sharply.

Tyro

Tyro is the clear winner for hybrid bricks-and-mortar operators, particularly in hospitality. Their EFTPOS terminals integrate directly with major point-of-sale systems (Kounta, Lightspeed, Vend, Retail Express, Hike, Revel) and most specialist vertical POS platforms used in Australian hospitality and retail. A transaction goes from POS to terminal with no manual re-entry, and reconciles back into Xero or MYOB cleanly.

Square

Square is a strong fit for small retail and hospitality where you want a single ecosystem. Their own POS software, terminals, card readers and online store all speak the same language. For a cafe or a single-site retailer under AUD 2m turnover, Square is often the best choice because it eliminates integration work entirely.

Stripe

Stripe Terminal exists in Australia and works, but it is primarily a developer platform for building custom in-person experiences rather than a drop-in POS. If you need traditional EFTPOS with full POS integration, it is not the right tool.

Developer experience

For engineering teams building custom checkouts, Stripe is in a different league. The API is consistent, the documentation is the best in the industry, webhook delivery is reliable, the testing environment covers what you need, and the client libraries cover every meaningful language. Stripe Elements and Payment Intents let us build custom checkouts in days rather than weeks.

Square's API is solid but narrower, and its developer ecosystem is smaller. It is fine for straightforward cart integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce, but less pleasant to build against for heavily customised checkouts.

Tyro's payment platform API has improved significantly over the last two years but still lags both Stripe and Square. For merchants who prioritise Tyro for their terminal integration, the standard approach is to run Tyro in-store and Stripe (or their chosen platform-native gateway) online.

When each one wins

Think about it as three distinct use cases.

Stripe wins when

You are building a custom eCommerce, SaaS or marketplace experience
You operate internationally or plan to
You have a development team or agency building the checkout
Recurring billing, usage-based pricing or marketplace split payments matter
Conversion rate and checkout UX are priorities

Square wins when

You run a small-to-medium retail or hospitality business
You want one ecosystem covering POS, online and payments
You value low setup overhead over configurability
You do not need complex developer-level customisation

Tyro wins when

You run a hospitality or retail business with meaningful in-store volume
Same-day settlement materially helps cashflow
You use a specialist AU POS platform that Tyro integrates with
Your online channel is secondary and can run on a platform default gateway

The decision matrix

A compressed version:

SaaS, marketplace, or international scale: Stripe
Single-site cafe, salon or small retail: Square
Multi-site hospitality or mid-market retail with dedicated POS: Tyro for in-store, Stripe or platform default for online
Australian-only Shopify store under AUD 1m: Shopify Payments, with Stripe as the natural upgrade if you outgrow it
B2B invoicing with PayID or BPAY needs: Stripe or Square for card, layered with a dedicated bank-transfer tool

Contracts and small print worth checking

Before you sign, check three things that trip up merchants in practice. The chargeback fee (Stripe charges AUD 22, Square AUD 25, Tyro varies by plan). The rolling reserve policy for new merchants (Stripe occasionally holds a percentage for 90 days for higher-risk categories). And the exit process: can you export your customer payment methods if you switch? Stripe is the most portable. Others require more coordination.

If you are picking a gateway for a new Australian site or replatforming an existing one, get in touch and we will help you land on the right one the first time.