Payments Used by UK E-Commerce Companies: Market Share (2026)
This page shows detected Payments usage across 2,180 of 61,187 trading UK e-commerce companies, with PayPal ahead at 57.7%.
Among 61,187 trading UK e-commerce companies, 2,180 have a detectable Payments system. PayPal has the largest share at 57.7% (1,257), followed by Stripe at 35.6% (775) and Klarna at 15.2% (331).
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Scale does not change the system with the largest share. PayPal accounts for 58.6% of the 1,500 detected companies under 10 employees, 54.7% of the 632 in the 10–50 band, and 66.7% of the 48 over 50 employees.
Usage fragments beyond the first three systems: Square has 3.7% (81), Recharge 3.5% (76), Afterpay 3.0% (66), Worldpay 2.4% (52) and PayU 1.8% (40). A further 7 systems cover 35 companies between them.
2,180
e-commerce with detected Payments
Of 61,187 UK e-commerce
3.6%
Detection rate
2026
15
Systems detected
In this category
57.7%
Leader share
PayPal
UK E-Commerce Payments market share
Payments compared
| System | UK E-Commerce | Share | Median headcount | London share | Typical profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal | 1,257 | 57.7% | 6 | 17.2% | Small merchants, broadest detected usage |
| Stripe | 775 | 35.6% | 6 | 17.5% | Small merchants, broad detected usage |
| Klarna | 331 | 15.2% | 7 | 13.6% | Small merchants, mid-level detected usage |
| Square | 81 | 3.7% | 7 | 14.8% | Small merchants, narrower detected usage |
| Recharge | 76 | 3.5% | 7 | 46.1% | Small merchants, London-skewed usage |
| Afterpay | 66 | 3% | 6 | 30.3% | Small merchants, London-skewed minority usage |
| Worldpay | 52 | 2.4% | 7 | 21.2% | Small merchants, narrower detected usage |
| PayU | 40 | 1.8% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Google Pay | 27 | 1.2% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Opayo | 25 | 1.1% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Authorize.net | 17 | 0.8% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| GoCardless | 9 | 0.4% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Ideal4Finance | 6 | 0.3% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Plaid | 2 | 0.1% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
| Codeweavers | 1 | 0% | — | — | View these companies in Firmbase → |
Systems detected below the page threshold appear with counts only; their full lists are available in the Firmbase app.
Market leader by size
The leading Payments system shifts with company size: among UK E-Commerce with under 10 employees, PayPal leads at 58.6% of the 1,500 with a detectable system; among UK E-Commerce with 10–50 employees, PayPal leads at 54.7% of the 632 with a detectable system; and among UK E-Commerce with over 50 employees, PayPal leads at 66.7% of the 48 with a detectable system.
Under 10 employees
58.6% of band
This is the largest detected band, with 1,500 companies. PayPal has 58.6%, leaving the rest of the market spread across other Payments systems.
10–50 employees
54.7% of band
The 10–50 employees band contains 632 companies with a detected Payments system. PayPal has 54.7%, a lower share than in the under-10 band.
Over 50 employees
66.7% of band
Only 48 companies sit in the over-50 band. PayPal’s 66.7% share is the highest of the three employee bands shown.
How Payments usage is detected
Company data
Detected companies are joined to UK Companies House records and XBRL accounts data. Revenue and headcount figures come from the most recent filed accounts; where the company has not filed, values are estimated using a model trained on filed history and peer benchmarks and are labelled as estimates.
Detection
Firmbase crawls the public website of actively-trading UK companies and fingerprints the technologies present: tracking scripts, embedded forms, chat widgets, CMS markers and similar signatures. A company is included in this list when one or more of the technology's signatures are found on its site; closely-related variants of the same product are grouped under one name. Detection covers what is visible on the public web — a company using the technology purely internally, with no website footprint, will not appear. Counts are therefore a conservative floor, not a ceiling.
Freshness
Websites are re-crawled on a rolling basis and the underlying company data is refreshed from Companies House continuously; filings appear within days of submission. The list and its statistics are regenerated when the detected cohort moves meaningfully. You can see the last-updated timestamp near the top of the page.
All product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Firmbase is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any trademark owner.
UK E-Commerce by Payments
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most-used Payments among UK e-commerce companies?
How many UK e-commerce companies have a detectable Payments?
What is a Payments?
How is Payments usage detected?
Which has more UK e-commerce companies, PayPal or Stripe?
What is the best Payments for UK e-commerce companies?
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