Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#1

Post by tinyprojects » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

Hey, I'm Ben. I built Zoneless because I was paying so much to use Stripe Connect on my own marketplace. The fees were really, really bad, and it was also limiting in terms of the seller countries I could onboard. To give you an idea, I was paying around $9,000 per month in fees just to run payouts. Using Zoneless, that cost goes down to around $6.

I've been using it personally for the past few months, and onboarded 5,000+ sellers and done 3,000+ payouts. 74% of new sellers on my marketplace choose Zoneless over Stripe, which is really interesting. I appreciate crypto and stablecoins are a bit of a touchy subject, but for this use case of sending global payouts cheaply, it's perfect.

The project is open source with an Apache 2.0 licence, which means there's the benefit of no lock-in and no risk of your account getting flagged or shut down. It also has an almost identical API and dashboard to Stripe.

Would love to hear any feedback you may have in the comments.

Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative
zoneless.com

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#2

Post by php_survivor » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

Who's your target customer, marketplace owners?

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#3

Post by tinyprojects » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

php_survivor wrote: post #2

Who's your target customer, marketplace owners?

Yes, its mainly for marketplace operators / creator platforms right now to pay sellers, specifically global marketplaces where Stripe Connect may not support the country of the seller. Microtransaction marketplaces (transactions < $10) or so also are nearly impossible to operate profitably under the current fee models of Stripe Connect / PayPal would also benefit.

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#4

Post by zuzululu » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

read it again, ah this is USDC but not sure if that is still safe, i know tether has a lot of issues and fragility and some very dodgy stuff

so take normal cards then pay out in USDC....is that safe?

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#5

Post by mandarinclips » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#6

Post by aleqs » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:32 PM UTC

Cool project, what is your marketplace you are referring to if not a secret?

Also the pricing is not very clear - you mention your costs went down to $6, but the first paid tier is $99/month ?

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#7

Post by tinyprojects » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:37 PM UTC

zuzululu wrote: post #4

read it again, ah this is USDC but not sure if that is still safe, i know tether has a lot of issues and fragility and some very dodgy stuff so take normal cards then pay out in USDC....is that safe?

Yes it uses USDC behind the scenes, which is regulated, fully reserved, and designed to stay at $1 (very different to USDT) - there's no Stripe behind the scenes, it's completely independent.

I totally understand where you're coming from, because I felt the exact same, but stablecoins specifically do not suffer from the same crypto crowd problem. They are just a very boring, elegant way of moving money cheaply.

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#8

Post by tinyprojects » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

aleqs wrote: post #6

Cool project, what is your marketplace you are referring to if not a secret? Also the pricing is not very clear - you mention your costs went down to $6, but the first paid tier is $99/month ?

The marketplace is called PromptBase, which I've been bootstrapping for the past few years (now around ~500k users).

Thanks for this feedback, that could be clearer - the $6 is the total network fees for the underlying rails if you were self-hosting (about $0.002/transaction). The managed hosting option is just if you don't want to host it and run it yourself.

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#9

Post by renierbotha » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:53 PM UTC

tinyprojects wrote: post #8

aleqs wrote: post #6

Cool project, what is your marketplace you are referring to if not a secret? Also the pricing is not very clear - you mention your costs went down to $6, but the first paid tier is $99/month ?

The marketplace is called PromptBase, which I've been bootstrapping for the past few years (now around ~500k users). Thanks for this feedback, that could be clearer - the $6 is the total network fees for the underlying rails if you were self-hosting (about $0.002/transaction). The managed hosting option is just if you don't want to host it and run it yourself.

Out of interest, how is it going with PromptBase? Love the idea, does it have legs -- ie are you making money?

Re: Show HN: Open-source Stripe Connect alternative

#10

Post by renierbotha » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

How do you handle refunds & chargebacks? And do you have a maximum amount that can be charged?

For context - I'm building a marketplace for artists and struggling to find a global payouts rail. The ones that exist have really high turnover requirements or reject new marketplaces that deal with higher value physical items due to chargeback risk.