Fiona Shepherd of "The Scotsman" praised the song's composition, calling it "tastefully restrained". However, Barry Nicholson from "NME" named it the weaker track on the double A-side and stated that it "leers at you for a bit, then staggers off to puke up that last Bacardi Breezer". Marianne Gunn from "The Herald" called the track's strings "inferior" and wrote that it contains "the same cheesy sentiment" as American singer Britney Spears' song of the same name. "Stronger" debuted at number seven on the UK Singles Chart in the issue dated 23 November 2002 as part of its double A-side release with the album's title track. It became the third consecutive single from "Angels with Dirty Faces" to reach the top ten in the UK. The single eventually spent thirteen weeks on the chart. The double A-side has sold 125,000 copies in the United Kingdom, placing it twelfth on the Sugababes' list of highest-selling singles. The double A-side debuted and peaked at number thirty-four on the Australian Singles Chart on 9 March 2003 and spent nine weeks on the chart. It performed better on the New Zealand Singles Chart, where it peaked at number twenty-four and remained on the chart for eighteen weeks. "Stronger" charted individually in other countries. The song performed most notably on the Dutch Top 40 chart, where it peaked at number five, spent six weeks in the top ten, and was placed 29th on its list of best-performing singles in 2003. "Stronger" reached number six on the Norwegian VG-lista chart and spent fourteen weeks in the top twenty. The single peaked at number eleven on the Danish Singles Chart, and number thirteen on the Irish Singles Chart. "Stronger" debuted at number forty-three on the Ultratop chart in Belgium (Flanders) and later peaked at number twenty. It peaked at number 23 on the Swedish and Swiss singles charts and reached the top forty on the German and Hungarian charts. The accompanying music video for "Stronger" was directed by Alison Murray. It was filmed in September 2002 at a swimming pool, located in London. Range played a stripper in the video, while Buena portrayed a gangster and Buchanan was a heartbroken woman. Range described being semi-naked in front of the camera as "weird, and very invasive". The video opens with a scene of Buena in a moving car down the streets in London, where she is sitting next to a man on the phone.