Payment processing fees are one of the most accepted costs in business, and one of the least examined. Percentage-based fees feel negligible on any individual transaction. Across a year of processing, they become a significant figure that grows in direct proportion to your revenue, not to the cost of running the platform.
A flat-fee payment model works differently. Understanding the difference, and where the break-even point falls for your volume, makes it possible to calculate what you are actually paying to collect payments.
What percentage fees actually cost
Stripe's standard rate is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. For a business processing $5,000 per month, that is roughly $175 in fees. For $20,000 per month, it is approximately $610. For $100,000 per month, it exceeds $3,000.
These figures do not include international card surcharges (an additional 1.5% or more), currency conversion fees, or chargeback costs ($15 per dispute on Stripe, regardless of outcome). The headline rate understates the actual cost for merchants with international customers or any dispute activity.
The structural issue is that fees scale with revenue rather than with the actual cost of running the payment infrastructure. A business that doubles its revenue doubles its payment costs. The cost to the platform of processing each transaction does not change meaningfully at that scale.
The break-even calculation
DropPay Pro costs $9.99 per month with no per-transaction fees. Stripe charges 2.9% per transaction with no monthly fee.
The break-even point, where Stripe's monthly fees equal DropPay Pro's flat cost, is approximately $345 in monthly processed volume. Below that, Stripe costs less in absolute terms. Above it, flat pricing is cheaper. The advantage grows with every additional dollar processed.
- $1,000/month processed: Stripe approximately $29 vs DropPay $9.99
- $5,000/month processed: Stripe approximately $175 vs DropPay $9.99
- $20,000/month processed: Stripe approximately $610 vs DropPay $9.99
- $50,000/month processed: Stripe approximately $1,480 vs DropPay $9.99
These are estimates using Stripe's standard domestic rate. International transactions cost more. Chargebacks cost more. The difference widens for merchants with cross-border volume or any dispute history.
Why flat pricing changes how you think about growth
Percentage-based fees create an implicit cost that scales with success. Every price increase, every volume milestone, every higher-value product sold results in more revenue leaving as fees. This is manageable at low volume. At scale, it is a structural disadvantage that flat pricing eliminates.
Flat pricing also makes financial planning predictable. A $9.99 monthly cost is the same whether you process 50 payments or 5,000. Percentage fees fluctuate with revenue and require ongoing reconciliation. Predictability has real value for cash flow management and accounting.
Zero transaction fees means DropPay takes 0% of each payment. The $9.99 Pro fee covers platform access. The XRP Ledger charges a network fee under one cent per transaction, paid by the sender, which goes to the network rather than to DropPay.
How DropPay's pricing works
DropPay has two plans. The Free plan supports up to 25 payments per month with no monthly cost and no transaction fees. It includes Payment Links and dashboard access, which is enough to test whether XRP payments work for your customers before making any commitment.
Pro at $9.99 per month adds unlimited payments, Embedded Checkout with webhook support, CSV export for accounting, and full API access. There is no per-transaction fee on either plan.
The full plan comparison is on the pricing page.
Who benefits from zero-fee payments
High-volume merchants. The higher the processing volume, the greater the savings. A merchant processing $50,000 per month saves over $1,400 monthly compared to a 2.9% fee structure.
Low-margin businesses. For businesses where margins are thin, absorbing a 2.9% fee on every sale can mean operating below margin on some transactions. Flat pricing restores those margins fully.
Merchants with recurring payments. Subscription and retainer businesses process the same customers repeatedly. Each billing cycle at 2.9% compounds. A flat monthly fee costs the same regardless of how many payments you process.
Merchants with international customers. International surcharges on Stripe and PayPal push effective rates above 3.9% in many cross-border scenarios. Flat pricing carries no equivalent surcharge.
Common objections addressed
My customers do not have XRP wallets. In markets with strong XRP adoption, including Japan, South Korea, parts of the US and Europe, and growing markets in West Africa and Latin America, many customers already have exchange accounts that support XRP. For markets with lower familiarity, XRP works best as an additional payment option alongside existing methods rather than a replacement.
I need chargebacks for buyer protection. XRP transactions are final and cannot be reversed. This eliminates chargeback costs for merchants but also removes the consumer protection mechanism that card chargebacks provide. For merchants where disputes are rare, this is an advantage. For merchants whose customers expect reversibility as a condition of purchase, this is a genuine trade-off to consider.
I am not sure my volume justifies it. The Free plan lets you add XRP as a payment option with no monthly cost. Start there, observe what volume you process, and move to Pro if the numbers support it.
Start with the Free plan. Up to 25 payments per month, no transaction fees, no commitment.
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