Fintech Branding Trends: Comparing PayPal’s New Rebrand with Revolut and Wise

PayPal’s recent rebrand has sparked fintech and design community discussions, with many noting its visual similarities to Revolut and Wise. While some see this as a natural evolution, others feel the brands are starting to look too similar. This analysis explores whether these three fintech giants are adopting similar visual brand strategies.

PayPal’s new look led to comparisons from the fintech community with Revolut and Wise, prompting our deeper dive into each brand. By applying a Similarity Scale to analyze key brand elements, we’ll see how PayPal is aligning with Revolut and Wise and how distinct its own identity is. This will help clarify how these brands position themselves visually in a crowded finance competitive market.

We’ll focus on the core elements of each brand: logos, typography, color palettes, brand photography, and brand graphics and visuals. By comparing these aspects, we’ll identify where they align and where they differ, offering insights into each brand’s visual strategy.

By analyzing primary logo marks, we can see that all three brands use wordmark logos, emphasizing simplicity and recognition. PayPal and Revolut favor minimalist, typography black logos, giving them a minimal, effortless, modern look. Wise, however, differentiates itself with a combined, customized logo mark and green iconography, creating a unique visual cue out of three.

PayPal’s Logo Similarity Score:

• Revolut: 7/10
• Wise: 5/10

Bold typography as a graphic element is key for all three brands, ensuring clarity and strong presence. PayPal and Revolut use similar styles but differ in using sentence case versus uppercase. Wise’s custom typeface adds character, enhancing its unique brand identity.

PayPal’s Typography Similarity Score:

• Revolut: 7/10
• Wise: 4/10

Color palettes play a vital role in brand differentiation. PayPal and Revolut both rely heavily on black and various shades of blue. While these colors convey professionalism and trust, the similar palettes might blur the lines between the two brands. Wise stands out with its green-focused palette, enhancing its distincness in the fintech space.

PayPal’s Color Similarity Score:

• Revolut: 8/10
• Wise: 0/10

PayPal and Revolut both use natural, candid brand photography to signal authenticity and relatability, aiming to connect with users on a personal level. In practice, however, PayPal’s photography style is indistinguishable from Revolut’s, making their visual identities identical in this aspect. Wise combines product-focused images with lifestyle photography, balancing functionality with human experience.

PayPal’s Photography Similarity Score:

• Revolut: 10/10
• Wise: 5/10

Revolut and Wise build rich brand graphics libraries to enhance their digital presence, adding depth and dynamism to their designs and compositions. Their approach to brand graphics is playful and unique. In contrast, PayPal uses graphics sparingly, resulting in a very minimal asset library—essentially, they don’t rely on brand graphics as a key visual element. However, PayPal occasionally features 3D coin elements similar to Revolut’s, indicating a selective adoption of this trend.

PayPal’s Graphics Similarity Score:

• Revolut: 7/10
• Wise: 1/10

Taking an overall look at the visual brand strategies, we can see a clear spectrum from simple to complex. PayPal’s “less is more” approach ranks as minimal complexity. Revolut, with a more defined identity, has a medium complexity in its visual strategy. Wise, on the other hand, uses a rich and dynamic visual identity with diverse assets, resulting in a high complexity rating for their brand strategy.

PayPal’s visual brand strategy shares notable similarities with Revolut, particularly in its approach to logo design, photography, and color choices. While this approach is trendy, it poses a risk of companies losing their distinctiveness and blending into the crowded fintech market. It is concerning when two major players lose their significant visual differentiation. Wise, with its distinctive visual language, shows how thoughtful design can achieve differentiation. Balancing trends with unique elements is crucial for a strong, recognizable brand identity in fintech.