Best Stripe Connect alternatives for UK platforms

This guide is for UK software platforms and marketplaces that are looking at Stripe Connect and want to know what else is worth a call. It is written by Synapto, which is one of the options, so every provider gets a line on when it is the better choice, Synapto included.

Every provider fact below comes from that provider's own public pages, checked on 2 November 2026 and listed under Sources. Pricing and features change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Stripe Connect is the best-known way to put payments inside software, and the baseline every alternative is measured against. A platform either lets Stripe price its users and earns as a qualifying partner, or prices them itself and pays Stripe £2 per monthly active account plus 0.25% + 10p per payout. In the UK, Stripe Payments UK Ltd holds the funds as an FCA-authorised electronic money institution.

Its strength is new sign-ups: hosted onboarding and embedded components get a new customer taking payments with very little work from the platform. The work it leaves with you is adoption. If your customers already take payments with someone else, persuading each one to switch is your job, and that is usually why platforms look at alternatives.

Mollie Connect. Mollie's platform product, with separate set-ups for platforms and marketplaces. A platform adds an application fee when it creates a payment; Mollie credits the merchant's balance less its own processing fee and moves the application fee to the platform's balance. Split payments for marketplaces are enabled by Mollie's partner team on request. Mollie completed its acquisition of GoCardless on 1 September 2026, so it now covers cards and Direct Debit under one group.

Checkout.com for platforms. Built for large platforms that already own the customer relationship. Onboarding runs through its APIs inside your product, the platform sets the rate its customers pay and keeps the margin above Checkout.com's processing fees, and payouts are automated. Access is through its sales team.

GoCardless. Bank-to-bank payments, Direct Debit first. Platforms integrate it and can add an app fee to each payment, up to half the payment's amount, which they must make clear to their customers. It has a long list of integration partners. It does not take card payments, so a platform whose customers also take cards needs a second provider.

Ryft. A UK payment provider for marketplaces and platforms, authorised by the FCA as a payment institution. It splits payments between sellers and the platform automatically, onboards sellers with checks built in, and supports delayed release of funds. Card and wallet payments; a good fit for marketplaces that want a UK-based provider.

Synapto. An embedded payments partner for UK software platforms and marketplaces. Your customers sign up inside your product, under your brand. On a software platform each business is settled in full to its own account, billed its payment fees monthly on one statement, and your platform sets its price and is paid its margin monthly. On a marketplace each payment is split as it lands, with the seller's share to the seller and the platform fee to you. Cards, Direct Debit and Tap to Pay sit on one account. Our regulated acquiring partner holds the licences and the funds; Synapto does not. The difference is the adoption work: we move your existing customers onto your payments with you, in your name.

Checked 2 November 2026 from each provider's public pages. Where a page did not say, the table says so rather than guessing.

Four questions settle most decisions.

Are your customers new or existing? If most are new sign-ups, a self-serve rail such as Stripe Connect or Mollie Connect gets them live with little work. If most already take payments elsewhere, the hard part is moving them, and you want a provider that does that work with you.

Software platform or marketplace? On a software platform each business is the merchant and should be settled in full; your earnings come as a margin. On a marketplace the platform is the merchant and splits each payment. Check that a provider supports the model you actually run, not just the one in its headline.

Do your customers need cards and Direct Debit? Memberships, rent and recurring services usually need both. Two providers means two integrations, two statements and two support lines for your customers.

Who holds the money, and who answers the phone? Your counsel will ask who the regulated party is. Your customers will ask who to call when a payout is late. Get both answers in writing.

Stripe Connect if your customers are mostly new sign-ups and you have a payments lead who wants to own the product, the pricing and the adoption work.

Mollie Connect if you sell across several European markets and want a wide spread of local payment methods with published pricing.

Checkout.com if you are a large platform with a payments team and global routing needs.

GoCardless if Direct Debit is genuinely all your customers need, especially if your billing tool already connects to it.

Ryft if you run a UK marketplace and want split payments from a UK-based, directly authorised provider.

Synapto if you are a UK platform whose customers already take payments elsewhere, you want cards, Direct Debit and Tap to Pay on one account, and you want the work of moving those customers done with you. If that is not your situation, one of the others may well suit you better, and we would rather say so on the first call.