Shopify Payments vs Stripe: what is the difference?

Shopify Payments IS Stripe under the hood, integrated directly into Shopify with seamless dashboard unification and no Shopify transaction fees. If you're on Shopify, Payments is almost always the better choice — same Stripe infrastructure without the 0.5%-2% extra transaction fee. Use Stripe directly only if you need features Shopify Payments doesn't expose.