Key takeaways
- As of November 2026, Stripe's global page lists 44 countries, plus India and Indonesia in preview and five African countries served through Paystack. If yours isn't there, you need another route.
- If you sell software or digital products, a merchant of record such as Paddle is usually the shortest route: it sells for you, for about 5% plus 50 cents a sale.
- If you sell to businesses on invoices, you may not need a card processor at all. Named local accounts and bank transfers can do the job without a card fee on each sale.
- Stablecoins suit business customers who already hold them. They don't replace a card checkout for consumers, and Stripe's own stablecoin payments are limited to businesses in certain countries.
The short answer
Stripe signs up businesses country by country. As of November 2026, its global page lists 44 countries, with India and Indonesia in preview and five African countries sent to Paystack. If your company isn't in one of them, there are four routes: a merchant of record, an enterprise processor, a local payment provider, or invoicing without a card processor.
Which one fits depends on what you sell and who pays you, not on which brand has the longest feature list. If you're in a supported country and Stripe works for you, stay with it: nothing below is simpler.
Check Stripe's own list first
As of November 2026, Stripe's global page shows three groups:
| Stripe's label | Countries |
|---|---|
| Available | Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States |
| Preview | India and Indonesia, through Stripe's sales team |
| Extended network | Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, which link to Paystack rather than a Stripe sign-up |
Countries that aren't on the page include Türkiye, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Argentina and Colombia. Your customers can be anywhere: the limit is on where your business is, not where it sells.
Which route fits
| Your situation | Start with | Why | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| You sell software or digital products to many buyers | A merchant of record: Paddle, or Lemon Squeezy | It sells to the customer for you and handles sales tax | About 5% plus 50 cents a sale; digital products only |
| You're a large company selling into emerging markets | dLocal | One API for local methods such as Pix, UPI and M-Pesa | Built for global enterprises, not small sellers |
| You have a company in a region Adyen covers | Adyen | Cards and local methods through one integration | Minimum invoice set by industry or business model |
| You sell mainly to customers in your own country | A local payment provider | Local licensing, local methods, local settlement | Check that it takes cards issued abroad |
| You invoice businesses | Bank transfers to named accounts | No card fee on each invoice | Customers pay by transfer, so no instant checkout |
| Your customers already hold USDC or USDT | Stablecoin payment on invoice | Fast, and it works across borders | Few consumers can pay this way |
Merchants of record
A merchant of record is the legal seller. The customer buys from it, it collects and files sales tax, and it pays you what's left. You don't need a processor account of your own, which is why this route works from countries Stripe doesn't list.
Paddle. As of November 2026, Paddle says it works "with software businesses anywhere in the world" except an unsupported list that includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Its pay-as-you-go price is 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction, with no monthly fee, and products under $10 need bespoke pricing. Paddle is for software, so this isn't a route for physical goods.
Lemon Squeezy. Its fee is also 5% plus 50 cents, and it says some payments may carry additional fees. It takes sellers who can receive payouts by PayPal, which it says covers 200+ countries and regions, or by bank in a fixed list of countries. If neither works, you can't use it. Note who owns it: Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy in 2024, and a January 2026 post from its CEO says the team is building Stripe Managed Payments and wants to give users "an easy way to migrate". The post doesn't announce a shutdown, but it does admit to slower support and fewer updates.
Stripe Managed Payments. Stripe's own merchant of record doesn't solve this problem. Your business must be based in one of its supported locations, a shorter list than Stripe's main one, and it covers digital products only, not physical goods or professional services.
What 5% plus 50 cents costs
The percentage is not the whole cost on small sales, and it adds up on large ones.
| Sale price | Fee at 5% + $0.50 | Share of the sale |
|---|---|---|
| $19 | $1.45 | 7.6% |
| $49 | $2.95 | 6.0% |
| $499 | $25.45 | 5.1% |
| $5,000 | $250.50 | 5.0% |
That fee buys tax filing, fraud handling and chargeback handling, so compare it with what those would cost you, not just with a card rate. On a $5,000 invoice to one business customer, you're paying for services you may not need.
Enterprise processors
dLocal describes itself as a payments platform for emerging markets: one API, 60+ countries across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, and 1,000+ payment methods. It reports 760+ merchants, and its product pages speak to global enterprises. It's a fit for a large company adding local methods, not for a startup looking for its first processor.
Adyen charges a $0.13 fixed fee plus a fee for the payment method. For Visa and Mastercard, that's Interchange++ plus 0.60%. It also says it has "a minimum invoice depending on industry or business model", with the amount set by its sales team. Its docs list Adyen for Platforms as covering Europe, Canada, the US, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore, so it's narrower than many people assume. If your company isn't in one of those places, ask its sales team before planning around it.
Payoneer Checkout often appears on lists like this one, but it's the wrong answer here. Payoneer says the service "is provided by Stripe Inc. and/or its affiliates exclusively to US and Hong Kong entities", and that eligibility requires monthly webstore volume above $20,000.
Local payment providers
If most of your customers are in your own country, a provider licensed there is often the best answer, because it has the local methods your customers use. Examples, each from the provider's own site:
- Paystack: where Stripe's global page sends Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
- PayTabs: lists Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the UAE, and says products vary by country.
- PayMongo: calls itself a licensed payments partner in the Philippines.
Ask each provider three things: whether it accepts cards issued abroad, which currency it settles in, and whether you can move that money out of the country. The last answer depends on local currency rules, not just on the provider.
Forming a company somewhere Stripe works
Some founders form a US company to reach Stripe. Lemon Squeezy's own post points sellers in unsupported countries to Stripe Atlas. It can work, but it isn't a shortcut. Atlas says it "can't guarantee that your business will be approved to use Stripe payments", and a US company brings annual filings and US tax paperwork whether or not you make sales. Stripe Atlas alternatives sets out the running costs, and the cases where you shouldn't form one.
Where stablecoins fit
Stablecoins are a good fit for a narrow set of payers, and a poor fit for most others.
Where they work. Business customers who already hold USDC or USDT can pay an invoice from anywhere, without a card network or a correspondent bank. Web3 companies, some importers and crypto-native customers fall in this group. Tether and Circle both say their token transfers can't be reversed, so you don't carry chargeback risk.
Where they don't. Most consumers don't hold stablecoins, so a stablecoin option won't replace a card checkout for a typical online store. A payment sent on the wrong network or to the wrong address may not come back. Local rules differ too: see stablecoin regulation by country before you offer it.
Stripe's version won't help if Stripe doesn't serve you. Stripe's docs list the US as a supported business location for stablecoin payments, with a private preview for the EU, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland. A Stripe help page says Pay with Crypto is limited to a set of US merchants. Payments settle in your local currency, with a limit of $10,000 per transaction.
How to accept USDT and USDC from business customers covers invoices, networks and checks.
Where Align fits, and where it doesn't
Align isn't a card processor, and it isn't a bank. It has no card checkout, so it can't take payments from shoppers on your website. If your customers pay by card, use one of the routes above.
Align fits the invoice side. It gives registered companies named USD accounts and EUR, GBP and AED accounts, with invoices your customers can pay by bank transfer or in USDC or EURC. Money paid into a named account stays in that currency's balance until you convert it or pay it out. How to get paid by US customers without a US entity shows how this works for US customers.
Some countries and activities are prohibited, so check eligibility first. If you already use a processor, don't assume its payouts can go to an Align account: Stripe has its own rules on payout accounts, and we haven't confirmed that Stripe payouts work with Align. Check with Stripe first. Pricing is by quote.
Sources
All accessed 6 November 2026.
- Stripe, Global availability
- Stripe, Managed Payments and Managed Payments eligibility
- Stripe, Stablecoin payments and Crypto supportability and availability by region
- Stripe, How to incorporate your company with Atlas
- Paddle, Which countries are supported by Paddle? and Pricing
- Lemon Squeezy, Supported countries, Pricing, Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy and 2026 update
- dLocal, Home page
- Adyen, Pricing and Adyen for Platforms
- Payoneer, Checkout
- PayTabs, Home page
- PayMongo, Home page
- Tether, Terms of service; Circle, USDC terms
Common questions
- What can I use if Stripe isn't available in my country?
- It depends on what you sell. For software and digital products, look at a merchant of record such as Paddle. For larger companies selling in emerging markets, look at dLocal. For local customers, use a payment provider licensed in your country. For business customers on invoices, bank transfers to named accounts may be enough.
- Which countries does Stripe support?
- As of November 2026, Stripe's global page lists 44 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, EU members, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico and the UAE. India and Indonesia are in preview, and Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are listed as an extended network through Paystack. Check the page itself, because the list changes.
- Is Lemon Squeezy still a good Stripe alternative?
- It's owned by Stripe. Stripe acquired it in 2024, and in January 2026 its CEO said the team is building Stripe Managed Payments and wants to give Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate. The post gave no shutdown date. It takes sellers who can receive PayPal or bank payouts in a country it supports, but ask about its future before you build on it.
- Is Payoneer Checkout an alternative to Stripe?
- Not really. Payoneer says its Checkout service is provided by Stripe and its affiliates, exclusively to US and Hong Kong entities, and that you need monthly webstore volume above $20,000. If you can't use Stripe because of your country, it only helps if you have or will set up one of those entities.
- Can Align replace Stripe?
- Not for card payments. Align isn't a card processor and has no card checkout. It gives registered companies named USD, EUR, GBP and AED accounts and stablecoin rails, so it can replace Stripe only where customers pay by bank transfer or in USDC or EURC, for example on invoices.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules and providers' terms change; check the sources linked above and take advice on your own situation.
