PayPal, Wise, Stripe, Bank Transfer

When you pay affiliates manually, you still have to pick how the money actually moves. There is no single right answer, it depends on where your partners are, how much you are sending, and how much fee and friction you can absorb. Here is how the common options compare.

PayPal

PayPal is the default for a reason: nearly every affiliate already has an account, and sending is instant with just their email. The trade-offs are fees, which add up on larger or international payments, and availability, since PayPal is restricted or awkward in some countries. For a program with many small global payouts, it is usually the path of least resistance.

Wise

Wise shines for international payouts. The exchange rates are close to the real mid-market rate and the fees are transparent, so a partner in another country receives more of what you send than they would through PayPal. The cost is a little more setup per recipient, since you often need their bank details rather than just an email.

Stripe and bank transfer

• •Direct bank transfer (ACH, SEPA, local rails) is cheapest for larger domestic payments, but slower and clumsier for many small international ones.
• •Stripe payouts can work if you are already deep in Stripe, but Stripe is built to collect payments, not to pay out to arbitrary affiliates, so it is rarely the simplest choice for this.

What to collect from partners

Whatever methods you support, collect the right detail up front and store it against the partner, not in scattered messages. For PayPal that is an email. For Wise or bank transfer it is account details. Letting a partner set their own preferred method and details, once, saves you chasing it every payout cycle.