Dough vs Stripe: A Canadian Merchant's Honest Comparison

TL;DR

The 30-second answer

Stripe is a powerful product — for the right business. If you're a software company building a payment product, Stripe might be the right fit. If you're a service business, agency, coach, consultant, or in-person merchant, Dough wins on rate, freezes, and human support.

Stripe

Pick Stripe if…

You're a software company building a payment product into your platform
You need the world's strongest payment API and developer documentation
You're processing in 30+ countries and need a single global integration
You're okay with 2.9% + $0.30 and the risk of an algorithmic account freeze

Dough

Pick Dough if…

You're a Canadian agency, coach, or service business tired of Stripe holds
You want a lower effective rate than Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30
You run on HighLevel (GHL) or another agency software stack
You also need in-person terminals — not just an online checkout

Side-by-side

The honest comparison

Stripe's public pricing is fixed at 2.9% + $0.30 for Canadian card transactions. Dough has multiple pricing models depending on how you process. Here's the breakdown.

	Dough	Stripe
Online card transactions	IC+ 0.20% / 2.75% flat (typically lower effective rate)	2.9% + $0.30
In-person transactions	$0 (surcharge) / IC+ 0.20% / 2.75% flat	2.7% + $0.05 (Stripe Terminal — side product)
Recurring billing	Authorize.Net or Converge — full support	Native Stripe Billing — strong
Underwriting	Upfront, on a real call, with a human	Algorithmic, AFTER you start processing
Account freezes	None — no algorithmic risk reviews mid-life	Common — funds held 90–180 days when flagged
HighLevel (GHL) integration	Yes — native via Authorize.Net	Yes, but freezes are common in agency niche
In-person terminal options	Clover Flex / Mini / Station Duo / Newland / Ingenico	Stripe Terminal (M2, S700, BBPOS)
Support	Real Canadian humans, founder-led	Email-first, AI chat, phone tier-gated
Setup time	2–3 days with real underwriting upfront	Instant signup, but freeze risk after
Owner / parent	Independent Canadian operator	Stripe Inc., privately held, US headquartered

Honest take

Where each one actually wins

Stripe is genuinely best-in-class at what it's built for. The trouble is what it's built for might not be what your business actually is.

Where Stripe wins

Developer experience. The API and documentation are the gold standard in fintech — nothing else comes close if you're building software.
Global scale. If you process in 30+ countries with one integration, Stripe is unrivaled.
Native subscription billing. Stripe Billing is genuinely strong out of the box for SaaS.
The fintech ecosystem — Atlas, Issuing, Connect, Climate — all useful for the right startup.

Where Dough wins

Lower rates at any reasonable volume. Stripe's flat 2.9% + $0.30 leaves a lot on the table.
No algorithmic account freezes. Underwriting happens upfront with a human, not after the fact.
Real in-person processing. Stripe Terminal is a side product. Dough has a proper Clover lineup built for retail, hospitality, trades, and service businesses.
HighLevel and agency stack integration — without the freeze risk Stripe is notorious for in this niche.
Lower overhead. Stripe is one of the largest fintech companies in the world with thousands of employees. That cost gets baked into your rate. Dough doesn't carry it.
Canadian operator. You get a real person on the phone the first time you call.

Decision matrix

How to choose in 60 seconds

No fluff. Run yourself through this list.

Choose Stripe if…

You're a SaaS company embedding payments into your own product.
You need the strongest developer API and global multi-currency support.
You're okay with 2.9% + $0.30 and the risk of an account freeze.
Your business is unlikely to get flagged by Stripe's risk system (low chargeback, mainstream vertical).

Choose Dough if…

You're a Canadian agency, coach, consultant, or service business.
You've been frozen by Stripe before — or know someone who has.
You also process some in-person card transactions and need a real terminal.
You run on HighLevel, Dubsado, HoneyBook, or another agency tool and want lower rates underneath.
You'd rather talk to a real human than wait on AI chat.

Real switch story

What happens when you actually move

A typical Canadian marketing agency on Stripe processing around $40K/month in client invoices — what happens after switching to Dough running on Authorize.Net underneath their HighLevel stack.

Stripe froze $28K of our client billings for 90 days because we ran a few bigger invoices in one week. That nearly killed us. Switched to Dough on Authorize.Net inside HighLevel, never had a freeze since, and our effective rate dropped from 2.9% to under 2.5%.

— Canadian marketing agency owner (anonymized), $40K/mo volume

The numbers

Previous processorStripe

Monthly invoiced volume~$40,000

Old Stripe fees~$1,280/mo

Dough fees (IC+)~$680/mo

Account freezes since switchZero

Monthly savings~$600/mo

FAQ

Switching from Stripe — the questions we hear most

Is Dough cheaper than Stripe?

For most Canadian businesses, yes. Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per online card transaction in Canada with no negotiation. Dough offers Interchange Plus pricing (interchange + 0.20%) or flat rate at 2.75% + $0.15. For agencies and B2B merchants processing recurring or invoiced payments, Dough uses Authorize.Net or Converge as the gateway — both offer better effective rates than Stripe at any reasonable monthly volume.

Why does Stripe freeze accounts?

Stripe's underwriting is algorithmic and happens AFTER you start processing. Their risk system flags accounts based on transaction patterns, chargeback rates, refund volume, or industry codes — and freezes hold your funds for 90–180 days while they review. Marketing agencies, coaches, consultants, and digital service businesses get hit hardest. Dough underwrites upfront on a real call with a human, so there's no algorithmic freeze risk after you go live.

Can Dough do everything Stripe does?

For most Canadian small business use cases, yes — and more. Online payments, recurring billing, virtual terminals, invoicing all run through Authorize.Net or Converge with Dough. In-person processing is where Dough actually pulls way ahead — Stripe Terminal is a side product, while Dough offers a full Clover terminal lineup. The gap is API depth: Stripe's developer tools are the strongest in the industry. If you're a SaaS company building a payment product, Stripe wins. If you're a service business, agency, or in-person merchant, Dough wins.

Does Stripe give anything back the way Dough's Boost program does?

No. Stripe charges your fees and that's the relationship. Dough's Boost program reinvests our margin back into the merchant's business through free websites, free monthly social content, custom AI tools, and Google review cards. Note: for marketing agencies and pure card-not-present B2B merchants, Boost doesn't apply — those merchants get raw rate savings and rock-solid uptime instead.

Can I integrate Dough with HighLevel (GHL) or my agency software stack?

Yes — this is one of the main reasons agencies switch from Stripe to Dough. Dough integrates with HighLevel and the major agency software stacks through Authorize.Net. You keep your existing workflow and just swap who's processing the cards underneath.

How long does it take to switch from Stripe to Dough?

2 to 3 days from start to live. Send us your last Stripe statement or a list of your monthly volume, we'll quote you, you sign the application, we provision your gateway access, and your software stack switches over. Your bank account doesn't change. Your bookkeeping doesn't change. The only thing changing is who's actually processing the cards.

Why is Stripe more expensive than Dough?

Stripe is one of the largest fintech companies in the world. Thousands of employees, massive R&D budgets, huge marketing spend, investor return expectations — all of that overhead gets baked into the 2.9% + $0.30 you pay on every transaction. Dough is a lean Canadian operation. Lower overhead means lower rates.

Stripe freezes accounts. Dough doesn't.

Get off Stripe