The Best Payment Gateway Providers For Small Businesses
A payment gateway forms the backbone of an integrated payment system that tracks all of your transactions, including for retail and online sales.
Frank KehlFrank Kehl has been researching and analyzing merchant services, payment gateways, and international money transfer services since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State and a Juris Doctorate from the Ventura College of Law.
Expert Analyst & Reviewer
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Looking for the best payment gateway for your small business? As you know, a payment gateway is essential for any online business that needs to accept customer payment data, encrypt it, and transfer it to the credit card processing networks. Modern payment gateways can handle both online and in-person transactions and facilitate fund transfers to your business bank account.
In this article, we’ll provide a rundown of the best payment gateway providers for small businesses. We’ll also cover pricing and the most important features to look for in choosing a gateway for your business. While no one provider is the all-around best choice for every business, you should be able to choose the best payment gateway for your business based on the information presented here.
The best payment gateways offer a wide range of standard features, extensive customization options, and state-of-the-art security — all at an affordable price. Our editorial team reviewed dozens of popular payment gateways and determined that Stripe, Authorize.Net, Square, Amazon Pay, 2Checkout, Braintree, and Helcim stand out as the best gateways with these qualities.
1. Stripe: Best For Customization & Expandability Options
Pay-as-you-go pricing with no setup or monthly fees
Transparent flat-rate pricing
No long-term contracts or early termination fees
Huge API library for developers
Cons
May be expensive for high-volume merchants
Elevated risk of account holds and terminations
Why We Chose Stripe As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
Stripe is not only one of the most well-known payment gateway providers in the industry, it’s also one of the best. Stripe’s integrated payments platform offers just about every feature or function an eCommerce business could need, and supports a host of customization options through its vast API library. Unlike many of its competitors, Stripe fully supports data portability, making it easy to take your customer information database with you if you decide to switch to a different provider.
As a payment service provider (PSP), Stripe uses aggregated merchant accounts that make account approval and setup a painless process. Stripe accounts are billed on a month-to-month basis, with no long-term contracts. While there are no monthly fees for a basic account, Stripe offers many optional services that require a monthly fee.
While Stripe doesn’t have many drawbacks, there are a few issues to be aware of before you sign up. Like all PSPs, Stripe accounts come with an elevated risk of a sudden account hold, freeze, or termination if something goes wrong. Stripe also does not accept most high-risk businesses, so we recommend checking the company’s Acceptable Use Policy before signing up. Stripe’s flat-rate pricing, while simple and predictable, can also become quite expensive at higher monthly processing volumes. Lastly, you will probably need access to a developer (or your own coding skills) to take full advantage of Stripe’s customization options.
Broad support for multiple payment methods and currencies
Strong security and fraud prevention features
Month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts
Cons
Pricing is expensive for merchants who sign up with the company directly
High flat-rate pricing for the optional merchant account
Data portability is unusually difficult and expensive
Why We Chose Authorize.Net As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
Authorize.Net (now owned by Visa) is one of the oldest and best-known payment gateways in the payments industry. Many merchant services providers offer the company’s gateway as part of their services, and many proprietary payment gateways feature an ‘Authorize.Net emulator mode’ to ensure compatibility. You can also sign up for a merchant account with Authorize.Net itself, which features flat-rate pricing and includes the gateway. However, we generally don’t recommend this option for most businesses, as it’s usually less expensive overall to obtain the Authorize.Net gateway from a third-party merchant services provider.
The Authorize.Net payment gateway includes all of the features you would expect from an industry-leading gateway provider, including support for credit/debit card processing, ACH and eCheck payments, and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. There’s also extensive support for international transactions and foreign currencies, as well as a host of advanced fraud protection tools to protect your account. One word of caution: Authorize.Net is notorious for offering little support for data portability. While the company has made improvements in this area in recent years, you might still find it difficult and expensive to move your existing customer database to a different gateway provider.
For a detailed comparison between Stripe and Authorize.Net, check out our Stripe VS Authorize.Net matchup.
Authorize.Net Pricing
$25/month gateway fee (often waived by third-party providers)
2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (gateway + merchant account option)
+ $0.10/transaction (gateway-only option)
$0.10 daily batch fee
$25/incident for chargebacks (gateway + merchant account option)
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Pros
No monthly fees (for basic account)
No long-term contracts or early termination fees
Predictable flat-rate pricing
Fully-integrated all-in-one payments platform
Cons
Account stability issues
Does not accept most high-risk industries
Limited customization options
Why We Chose Square As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
Square has become the most well-known payment service provider (PSP) for small businesses, offering easy account sign-up and transparent pricing with a minimum amount of additional fees. While Square is best known for offering affordable credit card processing services to small retail businesses, it also supports eCommerce through Square Online.
Square is a great solution for retail businesses that want to add an online sales channel, but don’t require the extensive customization options needed by larger eCommerce-only businesses. Square Online provides all the functionality of a payment gateway, but also integrates with Square’s credit card readers and terminals for in-person sales.
Square Online’s free plan supports credit and debit card transactions, and includes 500MB of storage, SSL encryption, basic inventory management features, and a number of other features. Square also offers a number of paid plans that add numerous extra features and offer a discount on credit card processing rates.
Risk of account holds, terminations, and withheld funds
No brick-and-mortar payment support
Why We Chose Amazon Pay As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
Amazon Pay is Amazon’s payment gateway for Amazon sellers. Despite its name, Amazon Pay isn’t restricted to the Amazon website and Alexa. Amazon Pay uses the payment service provider (PSP) model to provide credit card processing services.
To get an Amazon Pay account, you must sign up as an Amazon merchant because most of the processing is controlled through the Amazon Seller Central dashboard.
With Amazon Pay, you can:
Take credit card payments while staying on your website
Collect donations
Set up recurring billing (customer must make the payment through their Amazon.com account)
Integrate with numerous third-party shopping carts
Amazon Pay is an obvious choice for merchants that only want to sell through their Amazon Seller accounts. While the service could be used through your own website, be aware that your customers will need to have an Amazon account to be able to make a purchase.
Amazon Pay Pricing
No application or account setup fees
No monthly fees
2.9% processing fee + $0.30 authorization fee per transaction (for domestic US transactions)
Why We Chose 2Checkout (Now Verifone) As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
2Checkout (now Verifone) is a payment service provider (PSP) focused exclusively on online processing. As such, 2Checkout does not support in-person processing at all.
2Checkout offers very strong international processing capabilities, as it can process payments from 234 countries and territories worldwide. 2Checkout accounts come with a large set of services, but it also has higher pricing to match all the extras you’ll get. Depending on your plan, you’ll get some or all of the following services typically found in other gateways:
Integrates with 120+ online shopping carts
Checkout page can be hosted by 2Checkout or integrated with your website
Recurring billing
Fraud protection tools
Online store builder
2Checkout (Now Verifone) Pricing
No monthly fees
2Sell plan: 3.5% + $0.35 per transaction
2Subscribe plan: 4.5% + $0.45 per transaction
2Monetize plan: 6.0% + $0.60 per transaction
+2% cross-border fee
$15-$45/incident chargeback fee (varies by chargeback ratio)
Flat-rate pricing may be expensive for high-volume merchants
Why We Chose Braintree As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
PayPal-owned Braintree Payments is a payment gateway provider that also offers a full array of merchant services. The company is primarily eCommerce-focused, offering little support for retail businesses.
Merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and New Zealand can sign up for Braintree’s processing services. Payments can be accepted in over 130 currencies, including Bitcoin.
The Braintree gateway comes with the following standard features:
Basic fraud tools
Encrypted vault for keeping payment card information
Recurring billing
Wide variety of third-party integrations
Braintree also supports data portability at no extra cost. However, using the Braintree gateway with another merchant account provider will cost you $49/month + an extra $0.10/transaction processed over the gateway.
Braintree is very similar to Stripe in terms of costs and features. Check out our Stripe VS Braintree comparison for a more detailed breakdown of the differences between these two providers.
Braintree Pricing
No account setup fee
No monthly fees
2.59% + $0.49/online transaction
0.75%/ACH transaction ($5.00 maximum)
3.49% + $0.49/Venmo transaction
+ 1% international transaction fee
+ 1% currency conversion fee
Customized pricing available (over $80,000/month volume)
$15/chargeback
$49/month + $0.10/transaction for gateway-only option
Why We Chose Helcim As A Payment Gateway For Small Business
Helcim stands out as one of the few full-service merchant account providers to offer interchange-plus pricingwithout charging a monthly account fee. Every Helcim account includes a free virtual terminal and free access to Helcim’s proprietary payment gateway. This gateway, which forms the backbone of Helcim’s integrated payments platform, includes the following key features:
PCI compliance through tokenization and encryption
Secure customer credit card information vault
Helcim Fraud Defender
Product & inventory management features
Reporting & analytics
Tipping & discount options
For omnichannel businesses, Helcim’s proprietary Helcim Card Reader ($109) and Helcim Smart Terminal ($349) offer some of the most affordable processing hardware options on the market today. The company also has an excellent reputation for customer support, which we’ve found to be one of the most important features to look for in a merchant services provider.
There are two ways to add a payment gateway to your credit card processing system. The most common – and easiest – method is to use an integrated approach, where your merchant account and payment gateway are both provided by your merchant services provider. This method eliminates most compatibility issues and often costs less overall. However, your choice of payment gateway will be limited to whatever services your provider offers, and the gateway itself might not have a robust feature set or extensive customization options.
It’s also possible to utilize a non-integrated approach, in which you obtain your gateway and merchant account separately from different providers. This approach was more common during the early days of eCommerce when many traditional merchant account providers didn’t offer a payment gateway. While that’s no longer the case today, a non-integrated approach can still be a good choice if you need specialized gateway features that your merchant account provider doesn’t offer. Be sure to research potential compatibility issues before trying this approach. Also, be aware that getting these two separate services from different companies will usually be more expensive overall.
Regardless of which approach you use, our best advice is to focus primarily on selecting the best payment processor for your business, rather than letting your choice of payment gateway drive your decision on which merchant services provider to sign up with. The exception would be if your business has unique needs in terms of gateway features and you have the technical skills to cobble everything together on your own.
Understanding Payment Gateway Pricing & Fees
These are the three types of fees you might encounter when using a payment gateway:
Setup Fee: This is a one-time fee to set up your payment gateway on your website and connect it to your payment processor’s network. Setup fees typically run about $25-$50, although they’re being phased out industry-wide, and most providers no longer charge them.
Monthly Gateway Fee: Most providers charge a monthly subscription fee for the use of their gateway (usually around $25/month). However, it’s becoming increasingly common for merchant services providers to not charge this fee if you use one of their gateways.
Per-Transaction Processing Fee: Many providers will charge an extra fee of $0.05-$0.10 per transaction for every sale processed over the gateway. You’ll usually see these fees if you take a non-integrated approach and get your gateway and processing services from different providers.
Many of these additional fees for using a gateway stem from the fact that eCommerce as we think of it today has only been around for a few decades, and there were many more security concerns back in the early days.
With integrated payment systems processing even in-person transactions over a gateway, there’s little reason today to charge extra for using one. At the same time, gateway providers have to charge you something for using their product, even if that cost is bundled in with your regular merchant services.
Also, card-not-present transactions are always going to incur higher interchange fees due to the limited options available to authenticate the buyer’s identity.
Do Free Payment Gateways Exist?
With the caveat that nothing is ever truly free in the payments processing industry, it is possible to get a payment gateway for your business without having to pay any of the additional fees listed above.
For small business owners looking to get access to a payment gateway for as little as possible, the best option is to sign up with a payment service provider (PSP) such as Stripe or Square, both of which are profiled above. PSPs typically operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no setup fees, monthly gateway fees, or additional per-transaction charges.
Higher-volume merchants that need the stability and additional features of a full-service merchant account will have a harder time finding a “free” gateway. While most merchant account providers no longer charge a setup fee to use one of their payment gateways, monthly gateway fees are still somewhat common.
Per-transaction processing fees are also becoming less common. However, you can expect to have to pay them if you integrate a third-party gateway into your account instead of using the one offered by your merchant services provider.
6 Essential Features For Credit Card Payment Gateways
At its core, a payment gateway is not an overly complicated piece of software. All it has to do is securely transmit payment information between your eCommerce website and your payment processor’s network. While you don’t need a gateway if you only process in-person transactions, it’s becoming increasingly common to process all transactions over a gateway as part of an integrated payments system that handles both online and card-present payments.
Most modern gateways come bundled with additional services and features. Below, we list a few that we consider fairly crucial when searching for the best payment gateway for your online business.
Security Features
Strong security features are the most important thing to look for in a payment gateway. At a minimum, your gateway should use end-to-end encryption and be fully PCI-compliant. Other security features to look for include tokenization support, AVS checks, and CCV checks. You should also seriously consider optional security features such as fraud analytics software (e.g., 3D Secure) and data breach insurance.
Support For Multiple Payment Methods
The more options you can give your customers to pay you with, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Your gateway should support as many payment methods as possible, including not only debit and credit cards, but also ACH transfers, digital wallets (e.g., Apple Pay or Google Pay), and local payment methods such as Alipay. Some payment gateways now also support cryptocurrency payments.
Multi-Currency Support
eCommerce websites tend to have customers from all over the world, and they all want to pay using the method most convenient to them. Be aware that you’ll have to pay an additional currency conversion fee for international transactions. Our guide to international merchant services offers more detailed information and several recommendations.
Recurring Billing Support
If you sell your services via a monthly subscription, you’ll need support for recurring billing. While this was traditionally a paid optional feature, it’s increasingly included as a standard feature with most payment gateways today.
Data Portability
If your customer payment data isn’t portable, it can be very hard for you to leave your payment processor for a competitor. Be sure to inquire about the ease and expense of exporting your customer data if you switch processors before you sign up with one.
APIs & Developer Tools
Ideally, you want your payment gateway to be able to connect smoothly to other software tools, such as those for inventory tracking, customer data management, bookkeeping, and more. This is why having a robust list of APIs and developer tools matters.
What Is The Best Payment Gateway For My Website?
One way to determine which payment gateway provider is best for your business is to examine what your business needs are today. Then, consider how those needs might expand as your business grows.
With payment gateways, you might want to find one that offers the flexibility you’ll need at the particular stage your business is at. If you’re still new, consider using a pay-as-you-go service to stay flexible. But if you have an established business, and know which features you’ll need and which features you’ll never use, it makes sense to focus on the payment gateways that provide the features you need for the best price. Always keep data portability in mind, though, so you can take your business elsewhere if that becomes necessary.
How much does it cost to set up a payment gateway?
Payment gateway setup costs for merchants vary depending on the gateway. Some gateways that use third party payment processing have a pay-as-you-go model with no setup costs. Others may charge a one-time fee of $25-50. Some merchant account providers waive the setup fee as part of the account creation process.
What is the cheapest payment gateway?
The cheapest payment gateway is a relative matter. For businesses that do not have a large and steady volume of credit card payments, a pay-as-you-go gateway and processor such as Stripe is often the cheapest option. With higher sales volumes, a merchant account that waives gateway fees will provide the lowest rates and best value.
Which is the best payment gateway for high-risk business?
High-risk payment processing does not require a specialized gateway. Many high-risk merchant account providers offer the same payment gateways as other companies. However, high-risk processors do offer additional tools to mitigate risk, reduce or fight chargebacks, and keep cash flowing.
In Summary: The 7 Best Payment Gateways For Small Business
Frank Kehl has been researching and analyzing merchant services, payment gateways, and international money transfer services since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State and a Juris Doctorate from the Ventura College of Law.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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