Partial.ly is an established payment-plan platform. If you are comparing options because of unpublished fees, features you do not use, or a workflow that does not match how you sell, here are the real alternatives, honestly compared.
Short answer
The strongest Partial.ly alternatives depend on what you sell. Planpacer fits deposits and dated final balances for bookings (retreats, workshops, venues, stays) at a published 1% per successful transaction with concierge setup. Paythen fits e-commerce with layaway-style plan types and store plugins at a published 2%. Plain Stripe (invoices or custom code) fits occasional one-offs or teams with engineers. All of these, like Partial.ly, run without credit checks and settle to your own payment account.
Each of these keeps money flowing through your own payment account and none of them lend to your customers. The differences are fees, plan shapes and how much of the work is done for you.
Built for businesses that take a deposit now and need the rest collected before a real date: retreats, workshops, venue hire, stays, courses, private healthcare. Schedules anchor to the booking date, instalments and the final balance are charged automatically from the saved card with retries and reminders, and everything runs on your own Stripe account through Stripe Connect. Pricing is published: concierge launch from EUR 199, then 1% per successful transaction plus standard Stripe fees, no monthly subscription. The honest limitation: no store plugins and no layaway or pre-order modes. It does one job well.
The closest like-for-like alternative to Partial.ly. Many plan shapes (standard, date-based, layaway, pay-your-way, subscriptions), plugins for WooCommerce and Shopify, Zapier support, and self-serve customer pages. Published pricing at 2% per successful transaction with a 7-day trial and no fixed fees. Strong when plans live inside an online store checkout rather than around a booking. See our full Planpacer vs Paythen comparison.
No extra tool fee at all. Send a Stripe invoice per instalment if you only run the occasional plan and do not mind chasing. Or, with engineers, build the real thing: a SetupIntent saves the card at deposit, scheduled PaymentIntents charge it later, and you own retries, notifications and maintenance. We wrote up all four DIY routes in payment plans in Stripe without subscriptions.
Partial.ly has real strengths: a pre-order engine, contract and e-signature features, in-house financing workflows, and integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce and QuickBooks. It does not publish an exact fee on its pricing page (pay-as-you-go on successful transactions, custom at volume), so the practical test is simple: if its features earn their fee at your volume, stay. If you are paying for breadth you do not use, one of the options above will likely cost less.
Published facts as of July 2026; check each vendor for changes.
| Partial.ly | Planpacer | Paythen | Plain Stripe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published fee | Not published | 1% per transaction | 2% per transaction | Stripe fees only |
| Deposit + dated balance | Yes | Core focus | Date-based plans | If built |
| Store plugins | Shopify, WooCommerce | No | Shopify, WooCommerce | n/a |
| Layaway / pre-order | Yes | No | Layaway modes | If built |
| Setup style | Self-serve | Concierge, done with you | Self-serve | You build it |
| Credit checks / lending | None | None | None | None |
Rule of thumb: selling in a store, compare Partial.ly and Paythen. Taking deposits for dated bookings, use Planpacer. Running one plan a quarter, plain Stripe invoices are fine.
Depends on what you sell. Deposits and dated balances on bookings: Planpacer, 1% per successful transaction with concierge setup. E-commerce checkouts with layaway-style plans: Paythen. Occasional one-offs: plain Stripe invoices.
Its pricing page describes pay-as-you-go on successful transactions and custom pricing at volume, without an exact published fee. Planpacer publishes 1% and Paythen publishes 2%, both plus standard Stripe fees.
No. None of them are lenders and none run credit checks. Customers pay over time from their own card, so automatic retries and reminders are what protect your revenue.
Let running plans finish where they started. Tools that run on your own Stripe account, like Planpacer and Paythen, keep your customers, history and payouts in Stripe, so starting new plans elsewhere is clean.
If you use its pre-order engine, contracts, or QuickBooks integration and the fees work at your volume, stay. Switch when you are paying for breadth you do not use.
No. Nobody pays you upfront on the customer's behalf and nobody lends. Planpacer schedules and collects the customer's own payments into your Stripe account.
Tell us the deposit, instalments and final-balance date you need. Concierge launch from EUR 199, then 1% per successful transaction.
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