Razorpay vs Stripe India: Which Gateway for Your SaaS?

For Razorpay vs Stripe in India, the deciding facts in 2026 are simple. Stripe accepts new Indian businesses by invite only, while Razorpay lets an Indian company switch on UPI, UPI AutoPay, Indian cards, and international cards itself. So most Indian SaaS teams start on Razorpay, and add Stripe only when an invite and real overseas card demand both arrive.

TL;DR: Pick Razorpay if your company is registered in India, because Stripe is invite-only for new Indian accounts and Razorpay covers UPI AutoPay plus 128 currencies. Pick Stripe if you already hold an account and sell mostly to overseas card buyers. Either way, keep plans and entitlements in your own database so a second gateway is a small change.

We run both gateways across our own products. Kraftr bills in six currencies through Razorpay, Pullsy prices its plans in INR and USD through Razorpay, and NoteTube bills on the web with Stripe, including Stripe Connect for its creator marketplace. Below is the choice as we'd make it for a new SaaS registered in India, checked against each vendor's own documentation on 21 October 2026.

What changed for Stripe in India?

Stripe is invite-only in India. Its support page says Indian businesses can't sign up through the website and must request an invite, and that currently active Indian accounts will continue to be supported (Stripe support). New connected accounts for Indian platforms are invite-only too.

That single fact settles the question for many founders. If you're incorporating in India this year and don't have a Stripe account, you can't plan your launch around Stripe. You can request an invite, but Stripe's docs say it supports "a select number of businesses, with a focus on international expansion" (Stripe docs). Treat an invite as a bonus, not a plan.

If you do hold an Indian Stripe account, it still works well for exports. The account must belong to a registered business (sole proprietorship, LLP, or company, never an individual), you declare an RBI transaction purpose code, and payouts arrive in INR, with international payouts labelled separately (Stripe docs).

Razorpay vs Stripe in India: how do they compare?

The two gateways differ most on onboarding and on Indian payment methods. Razorpay lets an Indian business activate international cards from its dashboard and supports 128 currencies, settling in INR (Razorpay docs). Stripe offers presentment in 135+ currencies to existing Indian accounts. Here's the side-by-side we use:

Question	Razorpay	Stripe (Indian entity)
Can a new Indian company sign up?	Yes, self-serve with KYC	Invite only
Recurring payments	Cards, UPI AutoPay, eMandate	Stripe Billing subscriptions and invoices
International cards	Activated by the merchant in the dashboard	Export opt-in, purpose code, IEC in some cases
Currencies listed	128	135+ presentment currencies on Visa and Mastercard
Settlement	INR to an Indian bank	INR payouts, international ones labelled
Marketplace payouts	Route (one-to-many splits)	Connect, invite-only for new Indian connected accounts

Sources for the table: Razorpay's international payments and subscriptions docs, Stripe's India export guide and support page. Fees change often, so read each vendor's pricing page on the day you sign.

Who are your customers, and how do they pay?

Gateway features matter less than where your paying customers sit. Indian businesses and consumers reach for UPI, Indian cards, and net banking. Overseas buyers expect a card checkout. App users buying digital features pay through the App Store or Google Play. Map your customer list first, then pick.

If your customers are mostly...	They tend to pay with	Lean towards
Indian businesses and consumers	UPI, Indian cards, net banking	Razorpay
International businesses, card-first	Cards and wallets	Razorpay international, or Stripe if you hold an account
Both, in real numbers	A mix	Both, behind one billing model
App users buying digital features	App Store or Google Play	Store billing, through RevenueCat

What about next year's customers? If you'll sell abroad within twelve months, check your gateway can take those cards now. Switching later means asking subscribers to re-enter payment details.

Where does Razorpay fit best?

Razorpay fits a SaaS whose company is in India and whose buyers are mostly Indian. Its subscriptions accept cards, UPI AutoPay "via all major UPI apps including PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, BHIM and Amazon Pay", and eMandate through Aadhaar, net banking, or debit cards (Razorpay docs).

International reach isn't a reason to leave it, either. Kraftr bills brands in six currencies through Razorpay and sells them credit packs, which they spend on image generations in the studio on web and in the mobile app. Razorpay's orders API maps cleanly to one-off credit packs, and its subscriptions API maps to monthly plans. We haven't needed a second gateway for Kraftr.

For a marketplace that splits a payment between you and a seller, Razorpay offers Route, built for a one-to-many payout model (Razorpay docs). Read its KYC requirements for linked accounts before you promise sellers a payout date.

When is Stripe still the right call?

Stripe is the right call when you already hold an active Indian account, or your company is registered outside India, and most customers pay by card from abroad. Its billing handles subscriptions and invoices for international customers, though Stripe asks for the customer's name and address on every recurring export payment for services (Stripe docs).

NoteTube is the example we know best. Its web billing runs on Stripe, and its creator marketplace uses Stripe Connect so educators can sell study material, with payouts, balances, and earnings dashboards. Connect is built for platforms that "collect payments from customers and automatically pay out a portion to sellers." If you need that today and can't get a new Indian Connect setup, Razorpay Route is the place to look.

How do RBI e-mandate rules affect recurring billing?

Recurring payments in India run under the RBI's e-mandate rules, consolidated in a notification dated 21 April 2026. Recurring debits can go through without extra authentication up to ₹15,000 per transaction, and the issuer must notify the customer at least 24 hours before each debit (RBI notification).

Razorpay's docs show the same ₹15,000 ceiling for frictionless UPI AutoPay debits, with mandates created up to ₹1,00,000 (Razorpay docs). So what does a plan priced above ₹15,000 a month mean? Each renewal asks the customer to approve again, and some won't. Your product has to handle what follows:

1. Mandate pending. Mandate setup can fail or be abandoned. Treat "subscription created, mandate not active" as its own state, not as paid.
2. Renewal failed. Show a clear "update payment" path and keep access for a short grace period.
3. Manual payers. Some customers prefer to pay each period themselves. Send a pay-now link for renewals, not only automatic charges.

Annual plans above the ceiling are the usual trap. A yearly invoice of ₹40,000 will always need the customer's approval, so plan the reminder emails before launch.

Should you price in both INR and USD?

Price in both if you sell to India and abroad in real numbers. Pullsy prices its plans in INR and USD through Razorpay, so creators in India and outside it each see a price in money they use. A rupee price converted at display time looks odd to an American buyer, and the reverse is worse.

A few rules keep multi-currency pricing honest:

• Store each price in its own currency, not as a conversion of one base price.
• Store amounts as integers in the smallest unit, with the currency beside every amount.
• Decide how GST appears on invoices for Indian and foreign customers, and have an accountant confirm it.

Stripe's export guide also asks Indian accounts to present non-INR charges in the customer's card currency to cut declines.

What about payments inside a mobile app?

Neither gateway can sell digital features inside an iOS app in most countries. Apple's guideline 3.1.1 says that apps selling features, subscriptions, or premium content inside the app "must use in-app purchase" (App Store Review Guidelines). The United States storefront is the exception: apps there may include buttons and links to outside purchase.

So a SaaS with a companion app usually runs three rails: a web gateway, App Store billing, and Google Play billing. We cover how the store side and the web side share one subscriber in our RevenueCat and Stripe post, and Apple's payment rejections in App Store rejections and fixes. If that's the shape of your product, our in-app subscriptions page covers the setup.

What has to be true before you run both gateways?

Running Razorpay and Stripe together works when your own database, not either gateway, decides what a customer can use. Both vendors warn that a webhook can arrive more than once: Razorpay calls duplicates "expected behaviour" (Razorpay docs) and Stripe says to log processed event IDs (Stripe docs).

In practice that means three things. Verify each signature and store each event ID, so a repeat changes nothing. Let billing country or the buyer's choice at checkout pick the gateway, with both mapping to the same plans. And run a scheduled reconciliation per gateway. NoteTube already does this across Stripe on the web and RevenueCat in the apps.

Pullsy shows why the database layer matters. Its entitlement service covers per-seat and per-storefront plans and is enforced down to a database constraint, so what a customer paid for and what they can use can't drift apart. The full billing model, entitlements, and tenant checks are in our multi-tenant SaaS checklist.

A quick decision checklist

Answer these six questions before you write any billing code. Most teams can pick a gateway in an afternoon once they're written down.

1. Is your company registered in India, and do you already hold an active Stripe account?
2. Where are most paying customers today, and where will they be in a year?
3. Do they expect UPI, and are any plans priced above ₹15,000 per renewal?
4. Do you need a marketplace that pays out to sellers?
5. Do you sell digital features inside a mobile app?
6. Which currencies do you need to show, and which do you settle in?

If the first answer is "no Stripe account", the rest mostly confirm Razorpay. The wider product decisions sit on our SaaS development page.

FAQ

Can a newly registered Indian company open a Stripe account?

Not through self-serve sign-up. Stripe says businesses from India can't sign up on its website and must request an invite, and it supports a select number of businesses focused on international expansion. Existing active Indian accounts keep working. Plan your launch on a gateway you can open today, and treat an invite as optional.

Does UPI AutoPay work for expensive annual plans?

It works, but renewals above ₹15,000 need the customer to authorise each debit, under the RBI's e-mandate rules dated 21 April 2026. Razorpay allows UPI AutoPay mandates up to ₹1,00,000. For a large annual plan, send reminders before the renewal date and offer a pay-now link if approval doesn't arrive.

Can we move from one gateway to the other later?

Yes, if plans and entitlements live in your own database. New customers can go to the new gateway on day one. Existing subscribers usually have to re-authorise a mandate or re-enter card details, so move them at renewal with a clear email rather than all at once.

Do Razorpay and Stripe both pay out in rupees?

Yes, for an Indian business. Razorpay settles international bank transfers in INR to an Indian bank account. Stripe pays Indian accounts in INR for domestic and international payments, and may send two payouts on the same day, with the international one labelled.

Planning billing for a SaaS? See how we set up Razorpay integration, and talk to us about which gateway fits your customers before you write the first webhook handler.