Apps like Afterpay, and what separates them

Eight buy now pay later alternatives compared by how they actually make money, and the one question that decides whether to build your own.

Last reviewed 2026-09-30.

How buy now pay later actually works

Afterpay splits a purchase into instalments and charges the shopper nothing extra if every instalment is paid on time. The merchant pays a fee, which is higher than a card fee, in exchange for a larger average order and fewer abandoned baskets. That is the whole model, and every product below is a variation on it.

One piece of context that most comparisons leave out: Afterpay is now part of Block, Inc., which acquired it in 2022 and built it into Cash App. If you are comparing Afterpay with Cash App's instalment option, you are comparing the same company's product with itself.

The variations that matter are three. Whether the plan is interest free or interest bearing. Whether missing a payment produces a late fee or accrued interest. And whether the provider reports the plan to a credit bureau, which determines whether it affects the shopper's credit file at all.

The main alternatives to Afterpay

Availability, fee structure and credit reporting differ by country and change over time. The linked pages are the only authoritative source for current terms.

Two names that circulate on older lists are worth dropping. GoCardless is a direct debit and recurring payments service for businesses, not a consumer instalment product. FuturePay, which appeared on most comparison articles a few years ago, is no longer a live consumer option. Lists that still carry both are being copied rather than checked.

Klarna

Klarna is the broadest of the group. It carries the short instalment plan that competes with Afterpay directly, longer financed plans for bigger purchases, and a shopping app and browser extension that let it be used at merchants who have not integrated it. That last part is why it tends to be the default recommendation: the merchant network is wide enough that you rarely have to check first.

Affirm

Affirm is built around larger purchases and longer terms, which makes it a different product from Afterpay rather than a substitute. Some plans are interest free and some carry interest, and the rate is shown before you accept. It states that it charges no late fees, which is unusual in this group and is the reason it is worth a look if the risk you are managing is your own cashflow rather than the headline price.

PayPal Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit

These are two products under one brand. Pay in 4 is a short instalment plan in the Afterpay mould. PayPal Credit is a revolving credit line, which behaves like a card and should be compared with one. Both appear wherever PayPal already sits at checkout, so adoption takes no new account and no new app, and that convenience is most of the appeal.

Zip

Zip splits purchases into instalments and commonly charges a small account fee per instalment, which makes it look cheaper than it is on small baskets. Its more interesting feature is a card that works at merchants who have no relationship with Zip at all, which removes the network limitation the whole category normally has.

Sezzle

Sezzle runs short instalment windows and is most notable for letting shoppers reschedule a payment. If your income arrives irregularly, that single feature is worth more than a few basis points of fee, because the cost of this category is concentrated almost entirely in missed payments rather than in the plan itself.

Splitit

Splitit is the structural outlier. Rather than underwriting new credit, it holds the amount against the credit limit on a card you already have and releases it in instalments. There is no new application and no new line of credit, so it does not add an account to your file. The trade is that you need an existing card with enough available limit.

Uplift

Uplift exists almost entirely inside travel. It is sold through airlines, cruise lines and travel agents rather than at general retail checkouts, and the plans run over the months before and after a trip. If the purchase is not travel, it will not appear.

Perpay

Perpay underwrites on employment rather than on a credit score and takes instalments directly from a paycheck. That makes it a different proposition from everything else here, aimed at people building a credit file rather than at people optimising a purchase. The catalogue is its own, which is the limitation.

Choosing between them

As a shopper the decision comes down to the size of the purchase and what you are protecting against. For a small basket, take whatever the merchant offers, because the differences are not worth the admin of a new account. For a large purchase, Affirm's longer terms and stated absence of late fees are the meaningful difference. If you do not want another credit line on your file, Splitit is the only one here that does not create one.

The failure mode worth naming is running plans with several providers at once. Each one underwrites you without visibility of the others, so four individually modest commitments can add up to something none of them would have approved. That is the most common way this category causes harm, and no provider is positioned to warn you about it.

If you are the merchant, not the shopper

The merchant question is different and simpler. You are trading a transaction fee for conversion, so the only comparison that means anything is fee against incremental revenue, measured on your own traffic rather than on the provider's case studies.

Three things decide it. Your average order value, because instalments matter far more at four hundred dollars than at thirty. Your category, because furniture, electronics, travel and fashion behave differently. And your return rate, because instalment plans and returns interact awkwardly and the reconciliation work is real.

The test that settles it is an A/B test on your own checkout for a full purchase cycle, including returns. Anything shorter measures novelty.

What to check before you use any of them

• Whether a missed payment triggers a flat late fee or interest, because the two compound very differently.
• Whether the provider reports to a credit bureau, which decides whether the plan can help or hurt a credit file.
• What happens on a return, specifically whether the instalment schedule stops immediately or continues until the refund clears.
• Whether the plan is regulated as credit where you live. Treatment varies by country and has been changing; the CFPB is the place to check for the United States.
• Whether you are running several plans at once. Individually small instalments across four providers is the most common way this goes wrong, and no single provider can see the others.

Building your own instead

Retailers above a certain size regularly ask whether they should operate their own instalment product rather than pay a provider. It is a reasonable question and the answer turns on one thing: who carries the credit risk.

Using a provider, they do. They underwrite the shopper, they absorb the defaults, and the fee is the price of that. Building your own means you carry it, which changes the project from a software problem into a lending business with software attached. That distinction is usually the end of the conversation, and it should be reached early rather than after a build has started.

Where a build does make sense, the engineering shape is well understood. A decision service that scores an application in the time a checkout can wait, which is a latency requirement before it is a data science one. A schedule engine that handles partial payments, returns, reschedules and disputes without manual intervention. A ledger that reconciles against the money actually received. And collections and servicing, which is where most internal builds turn out to be underestimated.

The team for that is mostly backend engineers who are careful about correctness and state machines, with mobile or frontend work on top. Our technology pages cover the stacks this is normally built on, and the metro pages show published wage data for each US market so you can size the cost before you commit to it.

Related reading: apps like Cash App, which covers the peer to peer side of the same market.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Afterpay?

It depends on the purchase. Klarna has the widest merchant network for ordinary retail. Affirm suits larger purchases because its plans run longer. Splitit is the outlier worth knowing about, because it charges instalments against the credit card you already hold rather than opening anything new.

Is Afterpay the same as Cash App now?

They are the same company. Block, Inc. acquired Afterpay in 2022 and integrated it into Cash App, so an instalment option shown inside Cash App is Afterpay underneath.

Do buy now pay later plans affect your credit score?

Only if the provider reports them, and providers differ. Some report plans to credit bureaus and some do not, and the practice has been changing. Check the provider's own terms rather than assuming, because this is the detail most likely to be out of date in any comparison article.

Which buy now pay later app has no late fees?

Affirm states that it charges no late fees. Most others charge a flat late fee rather than interest on short plans. Since terms change, treat the provider's own page as authoritative rather than a list.

Should a retailer build its own BNPL product?

Usually not, and the deciding question is who carries the credit risk. With a provider, they underwrite the shopper and absorb defaults, and the fee buys that. Building your own moves that risk onto your balance sheet, which turns a software project into a lending business.

What does a BNPL system need to handle beyond payments?

Underwriting fast enough that a checkout can wait for it, a schedule engine that copes with partial payments, returns, reschedules and disputes, a ledger that reconciles against money actually received, and collections. Collections is the part internal builds most often underestimate.