What is PayPal

PayPal, a US-American company, has become the leading online payment service worldwide with more than 360+ million active accounts. It allows you to send and receive money around the world. You can either use popular debit or credit cards – like Visa or Mastercard – or your bank account. In addition to this, you can also make recurring payments with PayPal as well as paying with it at millions of online stores globally.

Why switch to European alternatives?

Overview of best European PayPal alternatives in 2026.

For people based in Europe, with the growing trend to support the European market and buy products from this region, many are looking to make changes – and so it’s understandable that people would look for an alternative online bank to PayPal which is from the US.

When creating a PayPal account, you need to provide personal details like your name, postal address, phone number, email address and other identifying information. This means: a lot of sensitive information is stored in one place. This is why it is crucial to protect your account, for example by enabling 2FA.

Moreover, PayPal’s privacy policy states that it shares user’s personal information with third parties. This includes other services involved in a transaction for example. Third-party sharing can increase the risk of identity theft.

High conversion fees of 3% – 4%, service fees or mistakenly freezing accounts (with you being unable to retrieve your PayPal fund) are just a few of the reasons why people are starting to leave and switch to PayPal alternatives.

Additionally, scammers often target PayPal. Concerns about PayPal’s security were raised again in August 2025 when a huge data leak (allegedly) exposed almost 16 million user data in the dark net.

Keep in mind: When you are using online payment services its best practice to secure your login credentials by enabling 2FA and using a password manager to make sure your data will not be leaked.

With Tuta, the end-to-end encrypted mail, calendar and drive provider, you will never have to worry about your data being exposed thanks to its quantum-secure cryptography and zero-knowledge architecture.

In the following, we take a look at European PayPal alternatives that offer better security and data protection to keep your financial data save.

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ConnectPay

Screenshot of ConnectPay website.

ConnectPay, headquartered in Lithuania, is a European digital financial platform for online businesses. It is primarily suitable for companies that deal with real payment volume across markets. ConnectPay allows businesses to manage full payment flows in one system. Moreover, it offers multi-currency accounts.

How to open an account: Customers can open a ConnectPay’s business account by completing its online application which can be found on its website. ConnectPay asks you to provide further details such as your full name, email address, your business’ industry and the country of incorporation.

Target audience: ConnectPay’s target audience primarily consists of online businesses.

Klarna

Screenshot of Klarna website.

Klarna, founded in 2005 in Sweden, offers online financial services and has become one of the leading payment providers with over 119 million customers and 3.4 million transactions every day. It is best known for offering flexible payment options such as buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services. Meanwhile, it has expanded its services with now offering a Klarna bank account or a Klarna credit card. In the beginning of 2026, Klarna launched an instant peer-to-peer (P2P) payment across 13 countries in Europe.

How to set up your account: To set up your Klarna account, you need to download the app (either for iOS or Android) and create an account by providing your phone number or email address. Finally, you need to add a payment method in your account under Settings → Payment Methods with a valid debit or credit card.

Target audience: If your primary needs are “Buy Now, Pay Later”- purchases or open invoice purchases, then Klarna offers a good PayPal alternative.

Note: In 2024, Klarna was fined for violating GDPR rules.

Revolut

Screenshot of Revolut website.

Revolut, a fully licensed UK bank built around a mobile app, states on its website that it wants “to change the way you do money”. With nowadays more than 75 million personal customers and more than 800 thousand business customers, Revolut has grown significantly in the last years. It allows you to create a multi-currency account, provides physical and virtual debit cards as well as it offers you the possibility to do international transfers.

How to set up your account: The entire signup process of Revolut is digital. All you need to do is to download the app and create an account by filling in your details and upload your ID to confirm your identity with a photo.

Pricing: The standard plan of Revolut charges no monthly subscription fees although it also offers paid plans. The prices for the paid plans range from 3.99 GBP to 55 GBP per month.

Target audience: If you are looking for a digital bank account that offers access to other financial services like investing and cryptocurrency, Revolut is a good alternative to PayPal to choose.

Skrill

Screenshot of Skrill website.

Skrill, based in the United Kingdom, is a “digital wallet” and offers payment solutions including features such as making payments without sharing your bank details or sending money to a bank account or another Skrill user. Additionally, you can order a Skrill Prepaid Mastercard.

How it works: Skrill allows you to pay online with just your email address and a password. Once you have created a Skrill account, you can upload or withdraw funds whenever you need them.

How to open an account: To use Skrill, you need to register and verify your account on its website. You have to fill in your personal information as well as selecting your country and preferred currency. Eventually, you need to verify your email as well as your address, date of birth and phone number by providing a government-approved photo ID and a proof of address.

Target audience: The target audience of Skrill primarily consists of consumers who are looking for digital wallets for online transactions or who need a secure multi-currency payment service.

Wero

Screenshot of Wero website.

Wero (a combination of the words we and euro) started in July 2024 as a European alternative to US-American online payment services like PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay. It aims to create a new payment system for Europe in the future. Wero is part of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) – a partnership of European banks and financial institutions.

How Wero works: If you want to use Wero, you need a bank account at one of the cooperating bank institutions. So far, 14 major bank institutions, including for example Sparkasse or Deutsche Bank, are supporting Wero. You can find an overview of all the cooperating bank institutions on Wero’s website.

If you want to send money to an individual (that also uses Wero), all you need to do is to provide an email address and a mobile number – an IBAN number is not necessary. Usually the transaction takes place within a few seconds without relying on a third party – which reduces security risks.

How to activate Wero: If you want to activate Wero, you do not need to download it in Google Playstore or App Store. Instead you click on the app in your own bank account. In it users can then activate Wero.

For private use, Wero is free. For business, the fees for transactions are around 0.77% of revenue.

Target audience: According to Martina Weimer, the CEO of EPI company, Wero is designed to address the needs of consumers, professionals and merchants in Europe

So far, Wero can be used in Germany, France and Belgium. Luxembourg and the Netherlands are planning to join in 2026.

Wise

Screenshot of Wise website.

Wise, based in London, is an online payment service that specializes in international payments. With more than 15 million users, Wise’s goal is “to make money transfers easy and cheap”. With its multi-currency account Wise allows you to hold and receive money in over 40 currencies for free. According to its website, the average fee for Wise is currently 0.53% and most transfers are sent immediately.

How to register a Wise account: It is free to sign up in Wise and there are no monthly fees. All you have to do if you want to register a Wise account is to provide your email address, create a password and choose whether you want to create a personal or business account. For 2FA you have to share your phone number and, additionally, tell Wise in which country you live.

Target audience: Wise is most suitable for those who send international transfers and multi-currency payments regularly.

Good to know: You can add as many different currencies to your Wise account as you want.

Wrapping up

In the world of the 21st century, making quick and easy online payments has become the standard of money transactions worldwide. Although PayPal may be the pioneer and the Big Player when it comes to sending money online, it is possible to leave it and switch to a European alternative. Because there is not only one but several alternatives available that offer better security and data protections.

Nevertheless, with every online payment service you need to be aware that you (may) share sensitive financial data with it. Therefore, keep in mind to use a password manager and to enable 2FA to secure your login credentials. Spread the word, and together we can leave Big Tech and fight for a better and safer internet.

You want to ditch more US Big Tech, but don’t know if there are suitable alternatives? Find out more about the best alternatives for Instagram or Discord.