Financial tech: How Bonzai aims to compete with Stripe and PayPal
For more than a decade, two companies have defined online payments: Stripe and PayPal.
They power marketplaces, subscription services, e-commerce giants and millions of independent businesses.
Their infrastructure is global, stable and deeply rooted in the digital economy.
Yet a new wave of financial tools is emerging, tools designed not for traditional companies, but for the fast-growing world of independent creators.
Among them, Bonzai.pro stands out as the first payment ecosystem built specifically for creators, not retrofitted for them.
Bonzai is not trying to imitate Stripe or PayPal.
It is trying to solve the problem these giants have never addressed:
creators don’t need generic financial software. They need clarity, sovereignty and simplicity.
Why Jean-Marie Cordaro believes creators need a different kind of financial tech
Jean-Marie Cordaro, founder of Bonzai, spent more than fourteen years facing the same obstacles as the people he now serves.
Payment holds, unexplained delays, opaque fees, blocked accounts, and a constant dependence on tools built for someone else’s business model.
Stripe and PayPal were designed for companies with accounting teams, legal departments, and predictable structures.
Creators, by contrast, work with:
- smaller margins,
- irregular income cycles,
- global audiences,
- and a need for speed and fluidity that corporate systems don’t provide.
Jean-Marie Cordaro’s philosophy is clear:
a tool is only valuable if it simplifies, clarifies, and strengthens autonomy.Stripe and PayPal are powerful, but they do not understand the creative profession.
Bonzai was built precisely to fill that gap.
Stripe and PayPal: efficient, but not creator-centric
Stripe and PayPal are impressive from a technical standpoint.
But they operate under a logic that rarely matches the reality of independent creators.
Creators face:
- complex onboarding,
- unpredictable account reviews,
- multi-layered fees,
- poor support for alternative currencies,
- delayed withdrawals,
- and customer service that feels distant and corporate.
For creators working solo, these aren’t small inconveniences, they are structural barriers.
In Jean-Marie Cordaro’s view, these obstacles create one major problem:
a loss of sovereignty.
Creators depend entirely on systems they do not control, built for industries that do not resemble theirs.
What Bonzai does differently
Bonzai does not position itself as a simplified Stripe.
It positions itself as a creator-centric financial infrastructure with its own logic, its own priorities, and its own philosophy.
1. A platform designed for creators, not businesses
- intuitive interface,
- no technical setup,
- offers, customers and payments in one place,
- easy-to-read revenue dashboards.
Everything is structured around the daily workflow of an independent creator.
2. Bonzai-Pay: integrated, transparent, human
Where Stripe and PayPal impose rigid corporate rules, Bonzai-Pay prioritises:
- fast payouts,
- global currencies,
- full transparency on fees,
- no redirection to external tools,
- simplicity from start to finish.
3. Independence built into the product
Creators remain owners of:
- their revenue,
- their audience,
- their products,
- their data.
This is what Jean-Marie Cordaro calls “financial sovereignty”.
4. Technology that stays invisible
Bonzai doesn’t overload creators with functions they don’t need.
It focuses on the core essentials: creating, selling, getting paid, and understanding one’s numbers.
The design goal is simple:
the technology should fade away so the creator can focus on their work.
The human factor: Bonzai’s real advantage over Stripe and PayPal
Where the major financial platforms excel in engineering, they fall short in something fundamental:
pedagogy.
Jean-Marie Cordaro has built Bonzai with a strong educational philosophy.
The platform is not only a tool, it is a learning environment designed to make creators more autonomous.
That includes:
- human, accessible support,
- clear explanations,
- a structure that teaches through simplicity,
- zero jargon or hidden mechanisms.
Stripe and PayPal offer technical power.
Bonzai offers mastery.
More than payments: a broader vision of creative independence
For Jean-Marie Cordaro, “competing” with Stripe and PayPal doesn’t mean copying them.
It means offering a new model based on three pillars that guide all of Bonzai’s decisions:
- transmit knowledge,
- build long-term stability,
- connect creators with their audiences directly.
This is where Bonzai diverges from traditional fintech.
Its goal is not only to process payments, but to empower the individuals behind those payments.
Stripe and PayPal manage transactions.
Bonzai strengthens the economy that produces them.
Bonzai isn’t a smaller alternative, it’s a more relevant one
The strength of Stripe and PayPal is universality.
The strength of Bonzai is specialisation.
Creators don’t need advanced corporate features.
They need clarity, transparency, and tools that reflect the rhythm of their work.
In a world overflowing with general-purpose financial systems, Bonzai’s focus becomes a competitive edge.
It allows creators to build, sell, get paid and grow in a single environment, without the fragmentation of traditional fintech stacks.
Stripe and PayPal are ideal for large structures.
Bonzai is ideal for humans working alone.
Conclusion: creator-centric fintech as the next evolution
Rivaling Stripe or PayPal doesn’t require more complexity.
It requires more relevance.
More understanding of the creator’s reality.
More respect for their autonomy.
This is exactly what Jean-Marie Cordaro brings with Bonzai.
Not a copy of existing systems, but a new model built around the real needs of creative workers.Bonzai doesn’t aim to replace the giants.
It aims to give creators something they’ve never truly had:
a financial system designed for them.
