Payment Processors · reliability comparison
GoCardless vs PayPal: which is more reliable? (2026)
PayPal is more reliable than GoCardless, scoring 80.0 vs 38.0 out of 100. Over the last 90 days GoCardless reported 8 incidents and PayPal reported 3, with effective uptime of 97.84% and 99.92% respectively. PayPal resolves incidents faster on average (3h 3m).
Data updated Nov 2, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | GoCardless | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 38.0 | 80.0 |
| Rank (payment processors) | #14 | #7 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 97.84% | 99.92% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 8 | 3 |
| Partial / major outages | 2 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | 1d 19h | 3h 3m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 1 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 50/100 |
Where GoCardless and PayPal differ
- GoCardless reported 2.7× as many incidents as PayPal over the last 90 days (8 vs 3).
- GoCardless had 2 partial or major outages, compared with 0 for PayPal.
- PayPal fixes problems faster: 3h 3m on average, against 1d 19h for GoCardless (14.1× quicker).
- GoCardless's longest outage on record lasted 1d 1h (May 19, 2026); PayPal's lasted 4h 20m (Oct 22, 2026).
- Our own probes detected 0 outages at GoCardless and 1 at PayPal, of which 0 and 0 respectively were acknowledged on their status pages.
90-day uptime
GoCardless
PayPal
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent GoCardless incidents
- InformationalOct 20, 2026 · resolved in 55m
- InformationalOct 12, 2026 · resolved in 2d 23h
- Degraded performanceOct 1, 2026 · resolved in 3d 20h
Bacs Processing Issue Affecting Payments Scheduled for Collection on 2 October
Affected: Submissions
- Degraded performanceSep 24, 2026 · ongoing
- Partial outageSep 21, 2026 · resolved in 1d
Delayed BACS reportsofficial update ↗
Affected: Reporting
- InformationalSep 4, 2026 · resolved in 16d 19h
Recent PayPal incidents
- Degraded performanceOct 22, 2026 · resolved in 4h 20m
Detected Resolved: Impact to Online Checkout (PP-LIVE-110330)
Affected: Online Checkout
- MaintenanceOct 16, 2026 · resolved in 3h
Initial Notification: PayPal Live Site Maintenance (PP-LIVE-110012)
Affected: Retail Checkout > Mobile In-Store, Retail Checkout > PayPal Here, Online Checkout > Payments Standard (WPS), Online Checkout > Express Checkout, Enterprise Solutions (Braintree) > Pay with Venmo, Hyperwallet > Payouts Processing and Network +1 more
- Degraded performanceOct 11, 2026 · resolved in 3h 39m
Impact to BNPL (Pay Later) authorizations (PP-LIVE-110179)
Affected: REST APIs > Orders, Online Checkout > PayPal Complete Payments (PPCP) - Payment Service
- MaintenanceOct 9, 2026 · resolved in 3h 30m
Initial Notification: PayPal Live Site Maintenance (PP-LIVE-110005)
Affected: Retail Checkout > Mobile In-Store, Online Checkout > Payments Standard (WPS), Online Checkout > Express Checkout, Enterprise Solutions (Braintree) > Pay with Venmo, Homepage > PayPal Homepage, Account > Seller Onboarding +1 more
- MaintenanceOct 2, 2026 · resolved in 3h 30m
Initial Notification: PayPal Live Site Maintenance (PP-LIVE-109883)
Affected: Retail Checkout > Mobile In-Store, Retail Checkout > PayPal Here, Online Checkout > Payments Standard (WPS), Online Checkout > Express Checkout, Enterprise Solutions (Braintree) > Pay with Venmo, Hyperwallet > Payouts Processing and Network +1 more
- MaintenanceSep 25, 2026 · resolved in 3h 30m
Affected: Retail Checkout > Mobile In-Store, Retail Checkout > PayPal Here, Online Checkout > Payments Standard (WPS), Online Checkout > Express Checkout, Enterprise Solutions (Braintree) > Pay with Venmo, Hyperwallet > Payouts Processing and Network +1 more