Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Setapp VS Stripe

Compare Setapp VS Stripe and see what are their differences

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Setapp logo Setapp

The one place for trusted apps. Hundreds of high-quality apps for your Mac and iPhone, including AI tools.

Stripe logo Stripe

Online payment processing for internet businesses. Stripe is a suite of payment APIs that powers commerce for online businesses of all sizes. Use Stripeโ€™s payment platform to accept and process payments online for easy-to-use commerce solutions.
  • Setapp
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    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
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    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
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    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25

A unified marketplace for Mac and iPhone users to get hand-picked, trusted apps. Get over 260 apps for a flat fee with Setapp Membership, or purchase individual apps on flexible terms through Setapp Marketplace.

  • Stripe Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-04-30

Setapp

Website
setapp.com
$ Details
paid Free Trial $14.99 / Monthly (1 Mac)
Release Date
2017 January

Setapp features and specs

  • Diverse Application Library
    Setapp provides access to a wide range of high-quality Mac applications across different categories, all from a single subscription service.
  • Cost-Effective
    For a monthly fee, users gain access to multiple paid applications, which can be more cost-effective than purchasing individual app licenses.
  • Updates and Upgrades Included
    All apps within Setapp come with automatic updates and upgrades included in the subscription, ensuring users always have the latest features and security patches.
  • Easy Installation and Management
    The Setapp platform provides a user-friendly interface for browsing, installing, and managing applications, simplifying the overall user experience.
  • Free Trial Available
    Setapp offers a 7-day free trial, allowing potential users to explore and evaluate the service before committing to a subscription.

Stripe features and specs

  • Comprehensive API
    Stripe offers a robust and well-documented API that allows businesses to customize their payment processing to suit their specific needs.
  • Global Reach
    Stripe supports payment processing in multiple countries and currencies, making it ideal for businesses with international clientele.
  • Advanced Security
    Stripe provides advanced security features, such as PCI DSS compliance and fraud prevention tools, ensuring that both businesses and customers are protected.
  • Scalability
    Stripe is suitable for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, offering solutions that scale with the business's growth.
  • Rich Feature Set
    In addition to payment processing, Stripe offers a wide range of features including subscription billing, invoicing, and marketplace payments.
  • Integration with Popular Platforms
    Stripe easily integrates with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, simplifying the setup process.

Possible disadvantages of Stripe

  • Costly for High-Volume Businesses
    Stripe's transaction fees can become expensive for high-volume businesses, especially when compared to other payment processors that offer volume-based discounts.
  • Complex Setup
    For businesses without a dedicated developer or technical team, setting up Stripeโ€™s API and customizing it can be complex and time-consuming.
  • Limited Customer Support
    Some users have reported that Stripe's customer support can be slow to respond and may not always provide satisfactory solutions to issues.
  • Account Stability
    There have been instances where Stripe has abruptly terminated accounts or held funds, causing disruptions to businesses.
  • Subject to Chargebacks
    Like other payment processors, Stripe is not immune to chargebacks, which can be a significant issue for certain types of businesses.

Analysis of Setapp

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Setapp is considered good for users who frequently use multiple Mac apps and value convenience and flexibility. It provides excellent value for money by offering a diverse selection of reliable and well-crafted applications. However, it might not be the best choice for those who only need a few specific applications or prefer to own their software outright.

Why this product is good

  • Setapp is a subscription-based service that provides access to a wide range of Mac applications for a single monthly fee. Users often find it beneficial because it offers a curated selection of high-quality apps without the need to purchase each one individually. It saves time and money for those who require multiple tools, ensuring they always have the latest versions without additional costs. Furthermore, it simplifies software management by centralizing the process of discovering, updating, and accessing various applications.

Recommended for

    Setapp is recommended for professionals, creatives, and productivity enthusiasts who use a variety of Mac applications regularly and appreciate the ease of access to a comprehensive software library without the hassle of individual purchases. It's also suitable for users who enjoy exploring new tools and apps to enhance their workflow.

Analysis of Stripe

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Stripe is generally considered a good choice for businesses looking for reliable and flexible payment processing solutions. It is praised for its developer-friendly design and its capability to support complex billing models.

Why this product is good

  • Stripe is widely regarded as a good payment processing platform due to its ease of use, robust API, comprehensive documentation, and the ability to handle various payment methods across multiple countries. It also offers advanced security features, fraud prevention tools, and a scalable infrastructure suitable for businesses of all sizes.

Recommended for

  • E-commerce businesses seeking a reliable payment gateway
  • Developers looking for a customizable and programmer-friendly API
  • Startups and SMEs for scalability and ease of integration
  • Global businesses that need multi-currency support and international payment options

Setapp videos

What's Setapp?

Stripe videos

PayPal VS Stripe 2020: Which Online Payment Processor Is Best For Your Business?

More videos:

  • Review - Stripe Review Video
  • Review - BEWARE: CLOSE YOUR STRIPE ACCOUNT!!! *BEFORE THEY DO*

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Setapp and Stripe)
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Online Payments
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Recurring Billing
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Setapp and Stripe.

What's the story behind your product?

Setapp's answer

Setapp was created in 2016 by MacPaw, the company behind apps such as CleanMyMac, ClearVPN, and more. The key idea behind Setapp was to give users a simple way to discover high-quality apps for Mac. Over the years, the catalog has grown to over 260 apps and now includes tools for Mac, iOS, and web. Setapp is localized in eight languages and has users all over the world. Here are the key dates:

November 2016: Setapp closed beta is launched for the press, opinion leaders, and influencers. December 6, 2016: Setapp Beta release. January 25, 2017: Setapp public release. August 6, 2020: Setapp let users install iOS apps. August 11, 2021: Setapp arrives on iPhone and iPad. March, 2026: Single app purchase via Setapp Marketplace is introduced. Now, Setapp includes 260+ apps, 50+ iOS apps, and about 10 web apps with more to come.

What makes your product unique?

Setapp's answer

Setapp's key differentiators:

-Curation. Setapp is a curated platform with trusted, hand-picked apps โ€” not a place filled with self-submitted apps.

-Professional focus. Setapp includes apps aimed at improving productivity and workflows for professionals who rely on their Macs. Setapp users range from developers and marketers to educators, healthcare experts, logistics and retail professionals, and more.

-Flexible access. Users have two ways to get apps: a single-fee subscription to 260+ fully unlocked Mac, iOS, and web apps; or individual app purchases via Setapp Marketplace, for those who need just a few apps rather than the full catalog.

-Security. Setapp holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2, and GDPR certifications. Apps are not permitted to display ads or include hidden in-app purchases.

-AI access. AI+ plans give access to all popular LLM models โ€” GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok โ€” through a single gateway.

Setapp gives users apps they can count on. Itโ€™s not an endless store but a curated collection of apps worth usersโ€™ time and money.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Setapp's answer

-Quality over volume. The catalog includes only hand-picked, trusted apps. When downloading an app from Setapp, users can be sure it is high quality and safe to use.

-Trusted apps, no fillers. Every app is Apple-notarized, ad-free, fully unlocked, and has no features locked behind additional paywalls. Getting apps through Setapp means avoiding malware and unpleasant surprises.

-Save costs. Setapp Membership offers access to over 260 apps for a flat fee โ€” no need to subscribe to multiple individual apps and juggle subscriptions. In Setapp Marketplace, users can purchase hand-picked, trusted apps individually, with no need to double-check quality or security.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Setapp's answer

Setapp is actively used by professionals who rely heavily on their Macs and want to improve their workflows โ€” including developers, IT specialists, content creators, designers, marketers, writers, educators, students, and specialists in agriculture, logistics, retail, healthcare, and other fields.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Setapp and Stripe

Setapp Reviews

We have no reviews of Setapp yet.
Be the first one to post

Stripe Reviews

  1. Word.Studio
    ยท Editor at Word.Studio ยท
    Streamlined payments for SaaS

    We've had a good experience with Stripe so far. Very easy to get up and running and the dashboard stats are very useful. Able to take payments directly on our site. Also has a mobile app that allows you to keep an eye on things and compare month over month, etc.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: PayPal, Paddle
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Simple|Reliable|Take multiple payment types

The 8 Best Payment Processing Systems
Stripe offers a more general solution sure to suit any online retailer. Itโ€™s highly customisable, meaning you can choose from a variety of APIs to match its service to your own website best. You can accept credit and debit card payments in over 100 currencies and cryptocurrencies. To start using Stripe, you'd benefit from having some developer time at your disposal, as it's...
Source: gocardless.com
Subscription Billing Solutions Comparison: Stripe vs Recurly vs Chargebee vs Rainex
Stripe is one of the worldโ€™s largest payment processing platforms, trusted by their customers for many years. In addition to gateway features, for a fee, Stripe offers billing and subscription management tools for its users. Its intuitive interface and extensive documentation make it a favorite among developers and companies of different sizes.
Source: rainex.io
Top 5 Payoneer Alternatives for Seamless Online Transactions
Key Features: A powerful payment processing platform focused on online businesses, offering features like subscriptions and fraud prevention. Stripe boasts a unified suite of tools and APIs that simplify the entire online payment process for businesses.
Source: www.doola.com
What to Use Instead of PayPal? 10 Best PayPal Alternatives
Conveniently, Stripe automatically deposits your funds into your bank account. Another convenient feature of Stripe is that the checkout process takes place on your website. That reduces customer friction compared to platforms like PayPal, which sends customers to external sites. The platform is also highly customisable.
The 6 best online payment processing services in 2024
Part of the HubSpot Commerce Hub feature set, Payments adds payment processing on top of a mountain of possibilities. It's seamlessly connected to all other parts of this sales software, so you can manage your business relationships, marketing, website, content, and operations from the same place. The actual payment infrastructure belongs to Stripe, with HubSpot charging...
Source: zapier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Stripe seems to be a lot more popular than Setapp. While we know about 301 links to Stripe, we've tracked only 15 mentions of Setapp. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Setapp mentions (15)

  • Ask HN: How to Sell as a Software Engineer?
    > I've reached the conclusion that software quality and even price matters much less than distribution, especially now. I highly doubt that is true. We don't yet know how end-users will make purchasing decisions now that almost anyone can build something that "works". Taking AI out of the picture: you still need to define the target market segment before you build anything. You still need to find a way to... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Show HN: BoringBar โ€“ a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
    There could be 4x buyers at $10. Iโ€™d be one of the now, the dock is a constant annoyance. The app looks great, downloading the trial now. To the appโ€™s author Iโ€™d say get as many licensees as you can fast before youโ€™re Sherlocked or somebody vibecodes a clone out of โ€œwhy notโ€. I use many free and paid apps, little QoL types, like BetterDisplay, Coctail, etc and for me the included support is of little value. These... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Coders Coded Their Job Away. Why Are So Many of Them Happy About It?
    I used a bunch of tools from https://setapp.com/ and no longer subscribe. I used to pay for Linear for all my personal projects, built one with CC that perfectly fits my needsโ€ฆ I also built a myriad of small tools that help me automate bunch of busy work I used to do manually, both for professional and personal projects. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position
    > are there any real 3rd-party AppStores for iOS now "Always has been": Setapp. Very interesting model. Readily recommend devs subscribing to this collection, but non-devs as well if you're into "there's an app for that" and fatigued with IAP. https://setapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • The One Productivity Tool You Didn't Know You Can't Live Without
    I use Paste, a very feature rich clipboard manager for Mac with gorgeous UI. It's not free, but it comes along with a Setapp license that I got from work, so if you already have a license you can use it to install Paste. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

Stripe mentions (301)

  • SEO audits in Claude + Cursor: our new MCP server
    "Audit https://stripe.com and tell me the top 3 things to fix.". - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • I built an open-source browser agent that turns any website into structured JSON
    Bw "https://stripe.com" "what does this company do and who is it for". - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Turn any company website into structured B2B data (one API call)
    { "url": "https://stripe.com", "cached": false, "data": { "company_name": "Stripe, Inc.", "sector": "Financial Technology / Payments", "description": "Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses...", "social_links": { "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/stripe", "twitter": "https://twitter.com/stripe", "github": "https://github.com/stripe" }, ... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • When the Merchant Is Real but the Funnel Still Says No
    Stripe โ€” https://stripe.com/ Buyer: Head of Global Onboarding, Director of Merchant Risk, or GM for an expansion region. Budget bucket: risk operations, onboarding conversion, or international expansion QA. Monthly budget: $40,000 to $80,000 if used as a recurring launch-readiness and regression-testing program across several countries. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 10 Questions Every Non-Technical Founder Should Ask Before Their First Web App Build
    Are we using Stripe (or another battle-tested provider)? If something custom โ€” why? - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Setapp and Stripe, you can also consider the following products

Konfigure - APARTMENTS | VILLA | WORKSPACE | RETAIL

PayPal - PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay online without sharing financial details, send and receive money or accept credit and debit cards as a seller

Metavine Platform - Metavine Platform is a comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service that help businesses build agility and compete effectively in the digital world by enabling them to iterate and create apps quickly.

PayPal Braintree - An all-in-one solution to accept, process, and split payments in your mobile app or online - from small business to large enterprise.

QuickBase - Quickbase provides a no-code operational agility platform that enables organizations to improve operations through real time insights and automation across complex processes and disparate systems. โ€‹โ€‹

Chargebee - Chargebee lets you manage subscriptions and payments at scale, handle custom recurring billing scenarios, reduce subscription churn and simplify accounting.