The 10 Best Online Credit Card Payment Processing Services For Small Businesses

Get Started with PaymentCloud

Pros

Reasonable rates and fees
Free credit card terminal
Excellent customer support
Shopping cart integration

Cons

No publicly disclosed pricing
High-risk businesses will likely have a monthly minimum

Just because your business is high-risk doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to top-quality processing. PaymentCloud is a great option for businesses in high-risk industries. This payment service comes highly recommended by esteemed low-risk providers such as Dharma Merchant Services, which refers high-risk applicants to PaymentCloud.

As is usually the case for high-risk payment services, PaymentCloud doesn’t provide pricing information in advance. Companies such as PaymentCloud shop your profile around to various back-end processors to get you the best possible deal. Typically, this means tiered pricing, monthly minimums, and contracts (at least initially), but you can expect to be treated fairly by PaymentCloud. The company also offers low-risk services at a monthly fee of $15, with interchange-plus pricing.

For eCommerce specifically, PaymentCloud offers a gateway via Authorize.Net or USAePay. You can, however, use any compatible gateway you want. You’ll also get shopping cart integration along with echeck and ACH processing.

2. Stax By Fattmerchant: Best For High-Volume Businesses

Stax by Fattmerchant

Get Started with Stax by Fattmerchant

Pros

Transparent wholesale pricing
No long-term contract
Next-day funding option available
QuickBooks integration

Cons

US merchants only
Not suitable for low-volume businesses

Interchange-plus pricing is the best pricing model for most businesses due to being both transparent and (usually) cost-effective. But there’s another pricing model that deserves appreciation, and it’s the one offered by Stax by Fattmerchant. Stax deals exclusively in subscription-based (a.k.a. wholesale) pricing.

Interchange-plus pricing separates the interchange fees charged by the credit card companies and those charged by your processor; your processor fees are usually still based on a percentage of your transaction (e.g., 0.3% + $0.15).

Subscription pricing still charges you the interchange fee, but your processor fee is just a flat fee. So unlike the earlier example of 0.3% + $0.15 per transaction, it’s just $0.15. You pay a monthly fee based on your processing volume. A set monthly fee makes subscription pricing very cost-effective for high-volume businesses and less so for low-volume.

While Stax isn’t eCommerce-focused per se, it does offer a free customizable shopping cart, integrations with several of the most popular shopping carts and gateways, and a respectable API for those who want to tinker around with some code.

Stax eCommerce fees are $99/month and $0.15 per transaction for businesses doing less than $5 million in sales annually (pricing for merchants processing more than that is quote-based)
The Stax Pay integrated payments platform costs anywhere from $49-$129/month, depending on the subscription tier you choose

3. Helcim: Best For All-In-One Payment Processing

Helcim

Helcim is now available with NO MONTHLY FEE. Start Here!

Pros

Exclusive interchange-plus processing rates
No long-term contracts or early termination fees
No monthly account fees
Excellent customer support

Cons

Not cost-effective for merchants processing less than $1,500 per month
Not suitable for high-risk industries

Helcim is our pick for the best all-in-one platform provider because of its Helcim Commerce integrated payments platform. The platform combines the functions of a payment gateway with other ancillary services that you’ll need to run your online business. Helcim Commerce supports recurring billing and includes a customer information database. Tokenization, inventory management, and other features critical to running an online business are also built-in.

Helcim offers payment processing services to US and Canadian merchants. It gives you month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment and no additional cost to close your account. Helcim charges no monthly account fee, no monthly minimum, and no PCI compliance fee. Incidental fees are reasonable and published on Helcim’s website.

Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively.

Processing rates start at interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 per transaction, with significantly lower rates available to high-volume merchants and nonprofits
If you need it, echeck/ACH processing is also available for an additional $25 per month plus $0.25 per transaction

Get Started with Helcim

4. Dharma Merchant Services: Best For Nonprofits

Dharma Merchant Services

Get Started with Dharma Merchant Services

Pros

Interchange-plus pricing offered exclusively
No annual fee or monthly minimum
Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
Outstanding sales transparency and highly ethical business practices

Cons

Not recommended for businesses processing less than $10,000 per month
No support for high-risk or international merchants

Dharma Merchant Services — a long-time Merchant Maverick favorite — is our choice for the best nonprofit processor. Dharma offers discounted pricing for nonprofit organizations and partners with 4aGoodCause to provide nonprofits with donation pages and event registration services. Dharma also gives a special discount to high-volume B2B merchants (those processing over $100,000 per month), making it a great choice for those in the B2B sector.

As a part of its eCommerce offerings, Dharma uses MX Merchant as its integrated payments platform. This all-in-one service combines the features of a payment gateway and a virtual terminal into a single product. You’ll have access to online reporting, a customer information database, and even a mobile processing app. You can add optional services for an additional fee, such as recurring billing and echeck/ACH payment processing.

For eCommerce payment processing, Dharma ordinarily charges interchange + 0.20% + $0.11 per transaction (interchange + 0.30% + $0.11 per transaction for American Express).
However, for an extra $20 per month, online merchants processing a monthly volume of $100,000 or more get access to discounted interchange-plus rates of interchange + 0.10 % + $0.11 per transaction (interchange + 0.20% + $0.11 per transaction for American Express). This high-volume plan supports the use of Level II and III processing data for B2B transactions, so it can potentially lower your interchange rates and save you even more money.
Dharma charges a flat $25 monthly fee for eCommerce accounts.

5. CDGcommerce: Best For Low Rates

CDGcommerce

Get Started with CDGcommerce

Pros

Free payment gateway and virtual terminal
Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
Excellent customer service and support
Scales well

Cons

Only available to US-based merchants

CDGcommerce gives you all the standard features you’d expect in an online credit card processing company. While these features might not always be the most advanced available, they’re all very good.

With CDGcommerce, you get your choice of free payment gateways, including Authorize.Net and the company’s proprietary Quantum Gateway. In other words, you should be covered for nearly endless integrations. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or per-transaction fees for the use of the gateways. You get a virtual terminal at no extra charge as well as detailed online reporting. If you have a physical store, CDGcommerce can support your credit card terminal, countertop POS, or mobile POS as well. It also offers 24/7 phone support.

CDGcommerce uses different pricing schemes depending on your sales volume. This isn’t a bad thing, as each pricing scheme is well-matched to the volume. For online processing, the Simple plan (monthly volume between $1,000 and $10,000) charges:

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, with an American Express surcharge of 0.25%
There are no other fees — this flat-fee plan is meant to compete with third-party processors but eventually gives you a merchant account

For the Interchange Plus plan (monthly volume between $10,000 and $200,000), merchants get:

Interchange fees + 0.30% + $0.15 per transaction
Nonprofits get interchange + 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction
There’s still no monthly fee

The Subscription plan (monthly volume over $200,000) has several tiers:

Membership prices range from $49/month to $199/month, each tier capped by processing volume, and the “monthly” membership fees must be paid in one lump sum on a per-year basis
Rates from interchange + $0.10 per transaction to interchange + $0.05 per transaction, depending on the monthly membership price

6. Square: Best For Low-Volume Businesses

Square

Pros

Impressive feature set
Predictable flat-rate pricing
No (mandatory) monthly fees
Available to Canadian businesses
Strong POS support

Cons

Account stability issues
Advanced features require a monthly fee

Square may be known best for its convenient POS hardware and expansive support software for small businesses, and indeed, that’s where its strengths lie. That said, Square does offer respectable eCommerce support and infrastructure that includes a free online store and shopping cart support. These can be ideal for businesses that are primarily brick-and-mortar but also do a portion of their business online.

Square is a great all-in-one solution for businesses that do a relatively low volume of transactions. And while eCommerce may not be Square’s primary focus, what it offers should be more than enough for businesses that dabble in online sales.

Square uses a flat-rate pricing model for all of its transactions.

For eCommerce transactions and invoices, Square charges 2.9% + $0.30, which is more or less the standard industry flat-rate fee for online payments. Square gives you a lot for “free,” including its classic magstripe card reader for mobile devices, a payment gateway, and a virtual terminal, but monthly fees are required for some of the meatier software.

Get Started with Square

7. Durango Merchant Services: Best For International & Global Businesses

Durango Merchant Services

Get Started with Durango Merchant Services

Pros

Specialists in placing high-risk and other hard-to-place merchants
Offers offshore merchant accounts for some international merchants
Fair pricing and excellent contract terms
Dedicated account manager for customer service

Cons

No pricing disclosures on the website

Durango Merchant Services is our top pick for high-risk businesses needing online merchant credit card processing. Durango also offers offshore merchant accounts for international merchants.

Unlike the other online credit card processing companies featured here, Durango doesn’t advertise any pricing information or contract terms on its website. Because Durango works with so many back-end processors to get you set up with an account, all of these factors will be highly variable and subject to negotiation.

Unfortunately, you should fully expect to pay higher processing rates than a similar low-risk business. You should also anticipate being placed on a tiered pricing plan, although interchange-plus is sometimes available. Don’t expect month-to-month billing, either. These certainly aren’t great terms. However, in an industry riddled with less-than-ethical service providers, Durango is one of the few high-risk providers that enjoys an excellent reputation for fair prices and contract terms.

8. PayPal: Best For New Sellers & Micromerchants

PayPal

As of August 2, 2021, PayPal has changed its pricing for online payment processing, affecting new and existing merchants. The new rates are complicated and not easy to summarize, so we recommend reading our article on PayPal's pricing to understand how the new prices will affect your business.

Pros

Flat-rate pricing
Ideal for low-volume merchants
Extensive integrations
All-in-one payments system

Cons

Account stability issues
Inconsistent customer support
Not suitable for high-risk industries

There’s an easy way to set up an online business, and there’s a hard way. The hard way involves working with APIs that require computer programming skills. The easy way is to add some readily-prepared code to your website yourself. PayPal excels at the latter, offering simple integration of a whole host of payment processing services.

It’s exceedingly easy for merchants to set up a PayPal account. There are no monthly minimums and no setup fees.

For PayPal Digital Payments, you’ll pay 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction.
Online credit/debit sales will cost you anywhere from 2.59% + $0.49 per transaction to 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction depending on whether you are using PayPal Checkout or PayPal Payments Advanced/Pro (and whether or not you have Chargeback Protection).
Using PayPal Checkout for online sales comes with no monthly charge. This option allows you to either integrate PayPal as a supplemental option or make it your primary processor.
Using PayPal Payments Advanced for online sales costs $5/month.
Using PayPal Payments Pro for online sales costs $30/month.
Nonprofits pay 1.99% + $0.49 per transaction.
Recurring billing costs an additional $10 per month.
A dedicated hosted payments page costs $30 per month.
Merchants with an average transaction size of under $10 can get on a microtransactions plan to reduce their processing costs. Under this plan, you pay 4.99% + $0.09 per transaction.

PayPal’s recent service and pricing changes (implemented August 2nd, 2021) have admittedly made pricing harder to quantify. However, the bottom line is that for new, smaller merchants and micro-merchants, using PayPal Checkout should give you the tools you need for online selling while not requiring you to pay a monthly fee.

PayPal offers an entire suite of services directed at online merchants. Along with accepting online payments and sending invoices, PayPal uses its own gateway, which you can use on a per-transaction basis or by paying a monthly fee. Nonprofits are eligible for a discount and can easily set up a donation button on their site.

9. Stripe Payments: Best For Multiple Payment Methods

Stripe Payments

Get Started with Stripe Payments

Pros

Excellent developer tools
Predictable flat-rate pricing
Advanced reporting, marketplace, and subscription tools
Can take international transactions

Cons

Account stability issues
Needs technical skill to implement

Stripe Payments, like PayPal, is synonymous with internet commerce. PayPal is easier to use when you’re just starting your eCommerce business. But if you’re planning to use a web developer to design a top-of-the-line, slick-looking web store (and/or adding in-app payment functions), Stripe gives you more tools to integrate into your platform.

Stripe is open to merchants worldwide with numerous currency options and support for numerous alternative payment methods and local payment options across North America, the EU, and Asia. You’ll also find a great selection of marketplace tools and recurring billing options. Stripe gives you a gateway (which isn’t usable if you don’t use Stripe for payment processing), a hosted payment page, PCI compliance, invoicing, and the ability to migrate your customer data if you ever decide to leave. Sadly, Stripe doesn’t support a virtual terminal.

Stripe charges just 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. There’s no monthly fee, no monthly minimum, and no PCI compliance fee.
Stripe also offers ACH payments at 0.8% that cap at $5 per month for ACH debit and $1 per ACH credit payment. However, you will pay small fees to access Stripe Billing, which includes subscription management, recurring billing tools, and Sigma, Stripe’s SQL-based custom reporting system. The cost for these services is reasonable, but the pricing scheme is a departure from Stripe’s earlier flat-rate pricing, where everything was bundled together.

10. Shopify Payments: Best For Multiple Sales Channels

Shopify Payments

Get Started with Shopify Payments

Pros

Predictable flat-rate pricing
Multicurrency acceptance
Sync data from multiple sales channels
Can take international transactions

Cons

Account stability issues
A monthly fee is charged

If you’re building an online store with Shopify, using Shopify Payments as your processor is a no-brainer for the simple fact that it’s the only way you can avoid paying a Shopify per-transaction fee of .5%-2% (on top of the processing fee) with each sale. However, if you’re building an online store and not with Shopify, you can still subscribe to Shopify Lite to add buy buttons to your site.

Using Shopify Lite with your existing online store can be beneficial, particularly for merchants who sell items on Amazon, eBay, and/or other sales channels. You’ll be able to sync and manage your listings in a single location, and you can generate all your sales data and shipping through Shopify. And with the numerous integrations Shopify offers for dropshippers and suppliers, eCommerce merchants have a lot of reasons to like Shopify. As for costs:

Shopify Lite costs $9/month to use
You’ll pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in online processing fees