Mastercardvs.PayPal
MA vs PYPL · both in Payment rails & networks, part of the Banks, payments & capital markets value chain: The networks and processors that take a fee every time a card is swiped, the fee engine.
Mastercard is about 11× larger than PayPal by market cap; PayPal trades at the lower P/E (9.7 vs 31.2); year to date, Mastercard leads (+0.7% vs −5.8%).
Supply-chain link: Mastercard supplies PayPal.
Side by side
| MA | PYPL | |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $508B | $47.5B |
| Price | $589.14 | $55.53 |
| Today | +2.5% | +0.9% |
| Return YTD | +0.7% | −5.8% |
| Return 1Y | −0.3% | −27.7% |
| Since July 13, 2026 | +9.6% | +16.5% |
| P/E | 31.2 | 9.7 |
| P/S | 14.5 | 1.4 |
| P/B | 90.5 | 2.4 |
Data as of 2026-10-09 · updates daily after U.S. close
Since July 13, 2026: the change in the closing price from the first session with a close for both companies. Sectivia records these closes itself, starting June 26, 2026.
The two companies
MastercardMA
The second card network, in a near-duopoly with Visa. Capital-light and fee-based.
Full MA profile →PayPalPYPL
Online checkout is the core, with Venmo for peer-to-peer transfers and Braintree processing behind other companies' payments. Growth has matured and rivals have crowded in.
Full PYPL profile →More MA & PYPL comparisons
Other head-to-heads in the Payment rails & networks segment.