Skydo vs Wise: Best Choice for International Payments (2025)
When dealing with international clients, you need the right payment partner to ensure timely payment. Skydo and Wise are trustworthy and reputed platforms helping business owners streamline this process. Wise (formerly TransferWise) is known for its global presence and multi-currency accounts while Skydo is popular for its flat fee structure and high-quality support.
But you don't need two platforms; you just need one that fulfils most of the requirements. This blog will help you pick the right one by comparing their pros and cons and fee structures with an example.
Skydo vs Wise: Understanding the Differences
Wise and Skydo enjoy a strong reputation as payment solutions. However, their differences will help you decide which one meets most of your needs
What Is Wise?
Wise (formerly TransferWise) was founded in 2011 and soon gained popularity due to its pricing and user-friendly interface. It started as a peer-to-peer remittance service allowing individuals to send and receive money without intermediaries like banks.
Later, it grew as a business-to-business money transfer service for organizations to receive and make international business payments via international virtual accounts. Based, on the location Wise also offers business debit cards to its users. In India, Wise Business lets you receive international payments in multiple currencies, but you can’t use it to send business payments abroad. Also, Wise Debit card is not available to businesses in India.
Moving forward, we'll focus on comparing Wise Business and Skydo for receiving international payments, excluding Wise's peer-to-peer services.
Pricing
Wise charges a conversion fee in the range of 1.7-1.9% of the transaction amount and it varies depending on the currency. For example, when receiving a payment of USD 1,000, USD 17 will be deducted as Wise fee/conversion fee.
Wise uses mid-market exchange rates to convert payments without levying any markup.
Wise also charges an additional fee for issuing digital FIRA for every transaction. This fee again varies across currency, for USD payments it is USD 2.50 per FIRA
Pros of Wise:
- User-friendly and intuitive interface
- Transparent pricing with mid-market exchange rate
- Digital FIRA for every transaction
- Also supports p2p transfers along with b2b payments
Cons of Wise
- Its fees can add up for larger payment volume. For eg, for a payment of USD 10,000, Wise's fee would be USD 161.98, excluding the FIRA fee.
- Additional fee for FIRA
- Lack of an India-based support team
- Wise debit card is not offered to Indian users
- Businesses can only request up to USD 10,000 for each payment
What Is Skydo?
Skydo is an India-based international payment platform offering businesses virtual accounts in key geographies like the US, UK, Europe, Australia and more to receive cross-border payments seamlessly. In addition to facilitating international payments, Skydo offers businesses tools to create professional invoices and monitor payments in real-time, simplifying the process for exporters.
Skydo has a transparent fee structure and converts payments at live forex rates without levying any markup, unlike banks and many other payment platforms. Skydo also offers instant FIRA for every payment you receive automatically at no additional cost. As a homegrown brand, Skydo offers India-based customer support to assist new users throughout the onboarding process and address any queries existing users may have.
Pricing
Skydo offers a transparent, fee structure for receiving international payments:
- Payments up to $2,000: $19 fee
- Payments between $2,001 and $10,000: $29 fee
- Payments over $10,000: 0.3% fee
Additionally, Skydo converts your funds at live forex rates with no markup, ensuring you receive the most competitive exchange rates.
Pros of Skydo
- Transparent and affordable fee structure
- Instant and free FIRA after every transaction
- India-based support team to attend to queries
- Live forex rate without any markup
- Payments are settled within 24-48 hours
- Can receive payments above USD 10,000 in a single invoice
Cons of Skydo
- Outward business remittances are currently not supported on Skydo
- Skydo currently doesn't offer other payment methods like debit cards/credit cards etc to its users
Skydo Vs Wise: A Quick Comparison
| Skydo | Wise | |
| Pricing | Payments up to $2,000: $19Payments between $2,001 and $10,000: $29Payments over $ 10,000: 0.3% | Varies across currencies, roughly in 1.7% - 1.9% of the transaction amount |
| Support | India based support team | No India based support team |
| Compliance | Free and instant FIRA for every transaction | FIRA at additional cost |
| Exchange rate | Live exchange rate without markup | Mid market exchange rate without markup |
| Payment limit | No payment limit | Upto USD 10,000 for each payment |
Receiving USD 10,000 in India with Skydo vs Wise
How much can you expect to receive via Skydo vs Wise if a US-based client transfers USD 10,000? Let's find out:
| Wise | Skydo | |
| Amount received | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Total fee | $194.09 (inclusive of FIRA charges of $2.5 and GST of $29.61) | $ 29 |
| Balance amount | $9805.91 | $9971 |
| Assumed exchange rate for 1 USD | Rs. 85 | Rs. 85 |
| You will receive | Rs. 833, 502.35 | Rs. 847,535 |
By choosing Skydo, you can save $165 in fees, resulting in over ₹14,000 more credited to your bank account.
But Skydo offers more than just competitive fees:
- India-Based Support: Our dedicated team assists you through the onboarding process and addresses any queries you may have.
- RBI Authorization: Skydo has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator-Cross Border (PA-CB), enhancing trust and reliability.
Curious if Skydo is the right fit for your business? Sign up for a free demo to find out.
