Stax Review

Stax is a payments technology company founded in 2014 that partners with SaaS companies, ISOs, and SMBs to enable flexible, multi-channel payment processing and invoicing solutions, claiming a distinctive subscription-based pricing model with 0% interchange markup.

How Stax pricing works

Stax inverts the usual processing model. Instead of marking up every transaction by a percentage, it charges a flat monthly subscription tiered by your annual processing volume and passes interchange — the card networks' wholesale cost — through at direct cost with 0% markup. The only per-transaction charges are fixed cents: $0.08 in person, $0.15 keyed or online. In effect, you're buying processing at wholesale and paying a membership fee for access.

The subscription math

Because the subscription is fixed, the economics hinge on volume. The fee is the same whether you process a little or a lot, so every additional dollar of volume is processed at interchange plus cents — the percentage a markup-based processor would take simply never gets charged. That's the whole pitch, and it's why Stax targets businesses processing upwards of $10,000 a month. Run the same math at low volume and it flips: under roughly $5,000 a month, the $99+ subscription costs more than the markup you're avoiding, which is why Stax itself is a poor fit for occasional sellers and very small merchants.

Published rates and fees

• Subscription: $99/mo (up to $150K/yr volume), $139/mo ($150K-$250K/yr), $199+/mo ($250K+/yr)
• Interchange markup: 0% — direct cost pass-through
• Card-present: $0.08 per transaction; keyed/online: $0.15 per transaction
• ACH: 1% per transaction, capped at $10
• PCI compliance: not on Stax's published rate card (the $10/mo figure is third-party reporting)
• Optional: terminal protection $19/mo, which Stax publishes; chargeback protection is offered but carries no published per-chargeback price — the $25 figure comes from third-party guides
• Funding: next business day
• Contract: month-to-month, no early termination fee; 30 days' written notice and signed closure paperwork to cancel

What to pin down before you sign

Confirm which volume tier you'll be placed in and what happens to the subscription price if your volume grows past a threshold mid-year. Get the complete fee schedule in writing — the recurring complaints about Stax across review platforms concern billing changes, rate disputes, and services merchants say they didn't authorize, so reconcile your first few statements against the quote. Finally, if your business has any high-risk exposure, ask underwriting directly before migrating: Stax doesn't serve high-risk industries, and some merchants report funds held during risk reviews with poor communication.