Payment Processors · reliability comparison
Paddle vs PayPal: which is more reliable? (2026)
Paddle is more reliable than PayPal, scoring 93.6 vs 90.3 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Paddle reported 2 incidents and PayPal reported 3, with effective uptime of 99.96% and 99.92% respectively. Paddle resolves incidents faster on average (2h 19m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Paddle | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 93.6 | 90.3 |
| Rank (payment processors) | #2 | #3 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.96% | 99.92% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 2 | 3 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | 2h 19m | 3h 3m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Paddle and PayPal differ
- PayPal reported 50% more incidents than Paddle over the last 90 days (3 vs 2).
- Paddle fixes problems faster: 2h 19m on average, against 3h 3m for PayPal.
- Paddle's longest outage on record lasted 1d 22h (Apr 28, 2026); PayPal's lasted 4h 20m (Oct 22, 2026).
90-day uptime
Paddle
PayPal
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Paddle incidents
- Degraded performanceOct 21, 2026 · resolved in 4h 5m
Issue affecting metrics and reporting in the seller dashboard
Affected: Production - Billing, Production - Classic
- MaintenanceSep 21, 2026 · ongoing
Affected: Production - Classic, Production - Billing, Production - Classic, Production - Billing, Production - Billing, Production - Billing +1 more
- Degraded performanceSep 2, 2026 · resolved in 33m
Report downloads unavailable in the Paddle Dashboard
Affected: Production - Billing
- MaintenanceAug 7, 2026 · ongoing
Production and Sandbox Databases Maintenance
Affected: Production - Classic, Production - Billing, Production - Billing, Sandbox - Billing, Sandbox - Billing, Production - Classic +10 more
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
Other payment processors to consider
- Braintree · #1 · 99.97% uptime
- Stripe · #4 · 99.99% uptime
- Clover · #5 · 99.88% uptime
- Shift4 Payments · #6 · 99.36% uptime