Tyro vs Square vs Stripe at a glance
If you only read one part of this, read the table. It is the short version of what we tell clients who ask which gateway to pick.
| Tyro | Square | Stripe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic card rate (2026) | ~1.4–1.6% negotiated, volume based | 1.6% in person, 2.2% online or keyed | 1.7% + 30c domestic, 3.5% + 30c international |
| Settlement | Same day to any AU bank | Next business day, instant for 1.75% | 2 business days, faster for a fee |
| Best for | Hospitality and multi-site retail with real in-store volume | Cafes, salons and small retail wanting one ecosystem | Custom eCommerce, SaaS, marketplaces, international |
| POS | Deep integrations with specialist AU POS platforms | Its own POS, tight and simple | Terminal exists, thin in Australia |
| Online checkout | Adequate, usually via a platform default | Square Online and Weebly, limited customisation | Best developer experience of the three |
| Afterpay | Via POS partners | Owns Afterpay, native | Supported as a payment method |
| PayID and BPAY | Bank side, not gateway | Not native | Not native, layer a bank-transfer tool |
| Chargeback fee | Varies by plan | AUD 25 | AUD 22 |
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.
The October 2026 surcharge ban changes the maths
From 1 October 2026, surcharging is banned on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks, across debit, prepaid and credit. The ban is enforced through the card networks' own scheme rules rather than by a regulator, and it comes with lower interchange caps meant to offset part of the cost. American Express, Diners Club, PayPal and Buy Now Pay Later sit outside it.
For anyone choosing a gateway this year, that changes the question. Until now a merchant who surcharged was fairly indifferent to the rate, because the customer paid it. From October the merchant service fee comes out of margin, so the difference between 1.4 and 2.2 per cent stops being an accounting detail and starts showing up in the P&L. Three practical consequences:
- Price the rate as a cost of goods, not a line item. On AUD 1m of card volume, the gap between a negotiated 1.45 per cent and Square's 2.2 per cent online rate is AUD 7,500 a year.
- You cannot rename the surcharge. Dressing the same charge up as an administration, service or handling fee is explicitly out.
- Amex and BNPL are still surchargeable, so the cost of accepting them becomes a separate decision from the cost of accepting Visa and Mastercard.
If you are replatforming anyway, do the rate negotiation before October rather than after. Acquirers have been quietly repricing all year.
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
Tyro vs Square, head to head
This is the comparison most Australian owners are actually making, because both are pitched at the same in-store business. The honest split is this.
Tyro wins on money. Negotiated rates for a venue doing meaningful volume land below Square's flat rate, and same-day settlement is the difference between paying suppliers today and paying them on Thursday. Tyro also integrates with the specialist hospitality and retail POS platforms Australian venues already run, so you are not changing your till to change your terminal.
Square wins on simplicity. One account covers the terminal, the online store, invoicing, gift cards and Afterpay, with no minimum volume, no contract negotiation and a setup you can finish in an afternoon. For a single-site cafe or salon that will never process enough to earn a Tyro discount, Square is cheaper to run once you count the time.
The tipping point in our experience sits around AUD 500k a year in card volume. Below that, Square. Above it, or with more than one venue, price Tyro properly and it usually comes out ahead. Neither is the right answer for a custom online checkout, which is where Stripe comes in.
Zeller, eWay and the other Australian alternatives
Stripe, Square and Tyro are not the whole market. Two more names come up in nearly every conversation, and they answer different questions.
Zeller vs Tyro
Zeller is the closest thing Tyro has to a direct local competitor: an Australian acquirer with its own terminal, its own business transaction account, and flat pricing instead of a negotiation. At the time of writing that is 1.4 per cent on every card in person including Amex, 1.2 per cent when the terminal is integrated with Zeller POS, 1.75 per cent plus 25 cents through the virtual terminal, and no monthly or terminal rental fees.
The split is straightforward. Zeller wins for a venue that wants a good rate without negotiating one, has no minimum volume to hit, and is happy with next business day settlement. Tyro wins on same-day settlement and on the depth of its POS integrations: if you run a specialist hospitality or retail till, check that list first, because it is still the longest in the market. Once you are processing enough volume for Tyro to discount seriously, a negotiated Tyro rate can land under Zeller's flat one, which is exactly the point where it is worth asking both for a quote.
eWay vs Stripe
eWay is a gateway first. You can bring your own merchant facility from your bank and use eWay purely to process, or take their bundled Online Payments plan, advertised at 1.5 per cent plus 25 cents for domestic cards and 2.9 per cent plus 25 cents for international, plus GST, with no monthly or setup fee. Budget for their PCI compliance program as well, which is charged annually after your first 50 transactions.
Choose eWay when you already have a merchant facility you like, when your bank's rate beats what a full-stack provider will offer, or when your platform has a mature eWay plugin and you need nothing custom. Choose Stripe when the checkout itself is the product. The API, the webhooks, the test environment and the documentation are still the best of any option available here, and that gap is what you are paying the extra few tenths of a per cent for.
The rest, briefly
- Airwallex: worth pricing if a meaningful share of your revenue is in another currency. Local entity, competitive FX.
- PayPal: still converts for a certain buyer, still expensive. Treat it as an additional payment method, not a gateway.
- Shopify Payments: the default for a Shopify store under about AUD 1m. Leaving it costs you a third-party gateway fee on top of the rate.
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
- Single venue that wants a flat rate and no negotiation: Zeller
- Existing bank merchant facility you want to keep: eWay as the gateway in front of it
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.
