Compared with
The Steda customer portal compared with QuickBooks Payments
Both let a customer pay an invoice online. The differences worth knowing are whose account the money lands in, whose branding the payer sees, and what a large bank payment costs.
What QuickBooks Payments does today
QuickBooks Payments is Intuit as the processor. The money moves through Intuit, the payment page is Intuit, and the rate is on your Intuit account. The Steda portal is not a processor. Payments run through your own Stripe account, on your own subdomain with your own logo, and Steda never holds the money. Steda charges a platform fee on top of whatever Stripe bills you directly.
On fees there is one thing to check before you compare anything, because it is the part that surprises people. The bank payment fee on QuickBooks Payments is one percent. Whether that one percent is capped depends on when the Payments account was opened. Intuit does not publish the rate on its own pricing page, which invites you to call for a quote, so the only reliable figure is the one on your own account.
Row by row
The comparison
| Steda Receivables | QuickBooks Payments | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who processes the payment | Your own Stripe account. Steda never holds the money. | Intuit. | Comparable |
| What the payer sees | Your subdomain, your logo, your statement, your supplier documents. | Intuit's payment page. | Steda |
| Fee on a bank payment | Steda charges 0.5 percent, capped at $5. Stripe bills you its own bank fee separately. | 1 percent. Whether it is capped depends on when your Payments account was opened. | Steda |
| Fee on a card payment | Steda charges 0.5 percent. Stripe bills you its own card rate separately. | Intuit does not publish a rate on its pricing page. | Comparable |
| Is the rate published | Yes, on the pricing page, one rate for everybody. | No. The pricing page asks you to call. | Steda |
| Payment written back to QuickBooks | Written back to the invoice, with the payout reconciled to the bank deposit. | Recorded in QuickBooks directly, since it is the same company. | They lead |
| Autopay | A customer can authorise autopay, and it runs on your policy. | Recurring payments are supported on recurring invoices. | Comparable |
| A returned bank payment | Reverses as its own entry, and the invoice goes back on the aging. | Handled inside QuickBooks. | Comparable |
| Disputes raised by the payer | Raised from the portal, and the chase pauses while it is open. | Not part of the payment page. | Steda |
| QuickBooks Desktop | Full support, including Enterprise, through the Web Connector. | QuickBooks Desktop 2023 was discontinued after 31 May 2026 and can no longer process card and check transactions. | Steda |
| Monthly cost | The portal is inside Steda Receivables at $199 a month for the first entity. | No monthly fee. | They lead |
Read from the other product’s own documentation in September 2026. The sources are listed at the foot of this page. Tell us if something here has changed and we will correct it.
The other side of it
Where QuickBooks Payments is the better answer
- There is no monthly fee. If you take a handful of payments a month, a per-payment rate with no subscription behind it is cheaper, and no arithmetic makes it otherwise.
- It is the same company as your ledger, so the payment is recorded without anything being connected.
- It is already switched on for most QuickBooks Online companies.
- If your Payments account still carries a capped bank fee, that cap is worth keeping.
Do not buy this if
When Steda Receivables is the wrong purchase
- You take few payments online and do not chase invoices. The portal is part of a collections product, not a cheaper card terminal.
- You want Steda to hold the money or to be your processor. It does neither, and you will need a Stripe account.
- Your invoices are small enough that a cap never bites. A fee cap only matters on large payments.
If one of those is you, say so on the call and we will tell you so. A customer who did not need this is worse for us than a customer we never had.
Questions
Is the QuickBooks bank payment fee capped or not?
It depends on the account. Intuit staff answering in the QuickBooks Community have said that Payments accounts added on or after early September 2023 are on a plan with no cap, while older accounts kept a cap. The exact date is given differently in different answers, and Intuit does not publish the rate or the cap on its payments pricing page. Check the rate on your own Intuit account rather than taking a figure from anybody, this page included.
What does Steda charge exactly?
Half a percent on a card payment and half a percent on a bank payment, capped at $5 per payment, on top of the processing Stripe bills your own account for. It is published on the pricing page and it is the same rate for everybody, although a negotiated rate on an order form can override it.
Does Steda hold our money?
No. Payments run through your own Stripe account and the payout lands in your own bank account. Steda reconciles the payout to the deposit and writes the payment back to the invoice in QuickBooks.
Can we use both?
Yes. Nothing stops you sending some invoices through QuickBooks Payments and taking others through the portal, though two payment paths for one ledger makes reconciliation harder rather than easier. Most companies pick one.
Sources
- QuickBooks Payments pricing (Intuit), which publishes no rate
- Intuit staff answer on the bank payment cap and the September 2023 change (QuickBooks Community)
- QuickBooks Desktop 2023 service discontinuation policy (Intuit)
Steda is not affiliated with Intuit. QuickBooks is Intuit’s trademark and is used here to say what Steda works with and what it is being compared against.
Other comparisons
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Steda Registers and QuickBooks Online Advanced →
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Steda Receivables and QuickBooks reminders →
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