For shops that get paid by PayPal invoice
PayPal invoicing is free to send and easy for customers, and at a few orders a week it does the job. This page covers what it costs, where it leaves the order behind, and how to keep taking PayPal if you move your orders to Broidry.
PayPal invoicing has no setup or monthly fee. Customers know the name, and most of them don't need a PayPal account to pay, because the invoice takes PayPal, Venmo, Pay Later, or a card.
Check "Allow partial payment" on the invoice and set a minimum. The customer pays at least that much now, and the invoice shows partially paid until the rest comes in.
The payment goes to your PayPal balance, the customer gets a receipt, and the invoice shows paid. For the money side of a small order, that's a complete job.
A PayPal invoice says "Custom sweatshirt, $48." The name, the spelling, the font, the thread color, and the placement are back in the message thread where you agreed them. When it's time to stitch, you open the invoice to see that it's paid and the thread to see what to stitch, and you hope the two still match.
An invoice can't show the customer their name in your font on the shirt they picked. Approval happens in a chat, off a picture you put together yourself, and the yes lives in that chat. In Broidry the customer sees a mockup of the piece and approves it on the order, and the payment sits on the same order.
PayPal lets the customer pay the minimum or any amount above it. That's flexible, and it also means a 50% deposit can arrive as 50%, 70%, or the whole thing. You also set it up again on every invoice. In Broidry you set your deposit once under "Take a deposit?", the quote asks for that amount, and you can keep deposits for only the customers you choose. When the deposit is in, the order shows what is still owed, and "Send balance reminder" sends the customer your message with their pay link on it.
PayPal keeps a record of what someone paid. It doesn't keep the design file, the thread colors, or the spelling, so a reorder a year later starts with scrolling back through old messages. Broidry keeps those on the customer's record.
Where the details live before you stitch.
Both take the money. The difference is what it's attached to.
A paid order should turn into a schedule and a history.
Plenty of customers would rather pay with PayPal, and you don't need to talk them out of it. Put your PayPal.Me name in your payment settings and every Broidry quote shows a PayPal button with the amount filled in. The money goes to your PayPal account the same as it does now, and PayPal charges you its usual fee for it. Broidry adds nothing on top, because the payment never passes through Broidry. The customer clicks the "I've sent the $…" button on the quote, and you click "It arrived" on the order once you see it, so the order shows paid next to the spec and the mockup they approved.
If that's you, put the full spec in the invoice note (name, spelling, font, thread color, placement) so the paid invoice is also your work order. The deposits and payment policy guide covers when to ask for a deposit, and the embroidery invoice template has the lines every invoice should carry.
PayPal invoicing has no setup or monthly fee. In the US, an invoice paid through PayPal, PayPal Guest Checkout, or Venmo costs 3.49% plus $0.49, and one paid by standard credit or debit card costs 2.99% plus $0.49. Broidry is free to start, with up to 15 orders a month and a 2% fee on payments that go through Broidry. The Maker plan ($19 a month) makes orders unlimited and drops the fee to 1.5%, and the Shop ($39) and Atelier ($79) plans add more on top. Card processing applies to card payments either way, and a payment to your own PayPal carries no Broidry fee. Full detail on the pricing page.
In the US, an invoice paid through PayPal Checkout, PayPal Guest Checkout, or Venmo costs you 3.49% plus $0.49. Paid with a standard credit or debit card, it costs 2.99% plus $0.49. On a $48 order paid through PayPal, that's about $2.17. Sending the invoice is free, and if you refund the order, PayPal keeps the fee it already took. These are PayPal's published rates as of October 2026; check their fees page before you price around them.
Yes. On the Create Invoice page, check "Allow partial payment" and set a minimum amount. The customer can pay the minimum, more than the minimum, or the full amount, and the invoice shows partially paid until it's paid in full. If you want a fixed deposit, say the amount in the invoice note as well, because the minimum is only a floor.
Yes. Add your PayPal.Me name in your payment settings and every quote you send shows a PayPal button with the amount already filled in. The money goes straight to your PayPal account, the customer clicks the "I've sent the $…" button on the quote, and you click "It arrived" on the order once you see it. Broidry takes no fee on a payment that goes to your PayPal.
Use the invoice while your orders are few and simple: a name on a shirt, a design you've stitched before, a customer you can talk to in person. Move when you're matching invoices to message threads to find out what to stitch, when a customer has paid for a spelling they never saw, or when a reorder starts with "what thread did I use last time?"
PayPal invoicing fees and partial payment details as published by PayPal, read October 2026. Taking orders on a form instead? See Broidry vs Google Forms and Square.
The customer picks from what you sell, sees their piece, approves it, and pays by card or PayPal, and the order shows up on your stitching list with nothing missing. Free to start.
The Free plan costs nothing until your first sale, and signing up does not ask for a credit card. The Free plan covers 15 orders a month, and any month a customer pays you by card through Broidry has no limit at all.