Best Online Payment Processors For Small Business

Square may be best known for its convenient POS hardware and expansive support software for small businesses. That said, Square does offer respectable eCommerce support and infrastructure, including a freemium online store and shopping cart support, which is ideal for businesses that are primarily brick-and-mortar but also do a portion of their business online.

• Cryptocurrency processing
• Currency conversion
• Invoicing (via Square Invoices)
• Premade online checkout form
• Native eCommerce integrations
• Sell on multiple channels
• Sell internationally
• Marketing features
• Inventory management

Square’s pricing makes it a great all-in-one solution for businesses with a relatively low transaction volume.

• Online Transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (2.6% + $0.30 with a Premium Square Online subscription)
• Invoice Payments: 3.3% + $0.30 per transaction (2.9% + $0.30 with a Square Invoices Plus subscription)
• ACH Bank Transfers (Via Invoices): 1% with a minimum of $1 per transaction
• Online Rate For CBD Merchants: 3.8% + $0.30 per transaction
• Monthly Fee: $0+/month, depending on your subscription level

Remember that Square is a payment service provider and does not provide individual merchant accounts to businesses. This means that you’ll want to take steps to minimize the risk of account holds and terminations.

Additionally, while CBD sales are supported, CBD merchants must first apply to Square’s CBD program and undergo extra scrutiny. Furthermore, other business types considered high-risk in the processing industry are not supported by Square.

Stax includes a strong and varied feature set for accepting online payments and omnichannel selling. Some of its many features include:

• Virtual terminal for keyed-in payments
• Support for recurring billing and scheduled payments
• Digital invoicing
• eCommerce website builder
• Numerous payment gateway and shopping cart integrations
• Text payments
• Hosted payment pages
• Developer tools
• ACH processing
• In-house customer support

Stax charges a monthly membership fee that ranges from $99 to $199+, depending on how much you sell. You can cancel this plan at any time. Stax also offers various monthly software packages with added features such as hosted self-service pages.

As for processing rates, Stax charges between 8 and 15 cents on every transaction (plus interchange fees), depending on how you take the payment. To accept online or keyed-in payments with Stax you will pay $0.15, plus interchange fees.

Stax’s chargeback fee is $25, and you will also be charged a $25 fee if you do not process a certain amount each month.

With a membership processing model, a flat monthly membership fee is typically charged instead of various merchant account fees such as PCI compliance fees and payment gateway fees. However, some Stax customers have complained that they were charged extra a la carte fees on top of their membership fee.

Before signing your merchant agreement, make sure you confirm with the company exactly what fees you will pay.

Helcim offers payment processing services to US businesses and is also one of the best credit card processors for Canadian merchants. Helcim’s integrated payments platform (Helcim Commerce) combines the functions of a payment gateway with other ancillary services that you’ll need to run your online business.

• Interntional payments
• Hosted online store builder
• Hosted payment pages
• Online food ordering
• Helcim API
• Virtual terminal
• Recurring billing
• Tokenization
• Product and inventory management
• Optional surcharging program available

Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively. Your rates will decrease as your monthly processing volume increases.

• Online Transactions: From interchange + 0.15% + $0.15 to interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 per transaction
• Chargeback Fee: $0-$15 (depends on the outcome)
• Monthly Fee: None
• eCheck/ACH processing: 0.5% + $0.25 ($6 maximum) per transaction

As with most merchant account providers offering interchange-plus pricing, Helcim is most cost-effective for businesses processing $5K to $10K/month and above. Process less than that, and a payment service provider with flat-rate pricing like Square/Stripe/Shopify Payments may be a better deal for you.

Stripe Payments has always been closely tied to eCommerce and is known for its international acceptance, wide selection of integrations, and exceptional array of developer tools.

Other PSPs (such as Square and PayPal) are easier to use when you’re just starting your eCommerce business. However, if you’re planning to use a web developer to design a top-of-the-line, slick-looking web store (and/or to add in-app payment functions), Stripe gives you more tools to integrate into your platform.

• Payment gateway
• Cryptocurrency processing
• Accepts payments in 135+ currencies
• Dynamic currency conversion
• Recurring billing and subscriptions
• Invoicing
• Developer tools (some of the best in the industry)

Being a payment service provider, Stripe offers simple, flat-rate eCommerce pricing.

• Online Transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• International Transactions: +1%/transaction
• ACH: 0.8% (capped at $5)
• Chargebacks: $15
• No Monthly Fees

Larger businesses with higher sales volumes can apply to get interchange-plus pricing with volume discounts. Stripe is a processor that can be made to fit a vast array of business types, sizes, and needs.

Stripe requires some serious technical skill to implement. Don’t think you can just open an account and start selling — you’ll need developer expertise on hand, and the more advanced customization you require, the more expertise you’ll need.

However, if this isn’t a problem for your business and you have unique needs that can’t be met by a more cookie-cutter solution, it may be time to set up a Stripe account.

HMS offers full merchant accounts, transparent interchange-plus pricing with no yearly contract, great customer service, and a robust suite of eCommerce features, including:

• Virtual terminal and payment gateway (Transaction Express) offering tokenization and encryption of customer data
• ACH processing
• Recurring billing
• Check-imaging
• Wireless processing
• Shopping cart integrations
• Free basic website with hosting

• Online Transactions: Interchange + 0.35% + $0.10 per transaction
• Monthly Fee: $14.99
• Gateway Fee: $5.00/month
• Annual 1099 Reporting Fee: $24
• Chargeback Fee: $15

Like most merchant account providers exclusively offering interchange-plus pricing, HMS may be on the pricey side for lower-volume businesses, though HMS does say that it offers customized rate packages for lower-volume accounts.

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 the following:

• Online reporting
• A customer information database
• A mobile processing app
• Recurring billing
• eCheck/ACH processing

• Online Transactions: Interchange + 0.20% + $0.11 per transaction
• Online Transactions (Nonprofits Only): Interchange + 0.10% + $0.11 per transaction
• Monthly Fee For eCommerce Accounts: $20 ($15 for nonprofits)
• Chargeback Fee: $25
• Retrieval Fee: $5

Dharma is excellent for countless business types, but it is only available to US-based organizations, does not accept high-risk merchants, and isn’t cost-effective for those processing under $10K/month. Notably, Dharma itself acknowledges this last fact, recommending Square or PayPal as cheaper options for smaller merchants.

PaymentCloud is available to all online merchants but specifically caters to businesses in high-risk industries (eCommerce merchants have a greater chance of being classified by banks as “high-risk” than other merchants).

Here’s some of what PaymentCloud offers to online businesses:

• Payment gateway (Authorize.Net, which includes a developer toolbox with an open API for customizing your site’s integration, is available and is one of the best payment gateway and API platforms around)
• Virtual terminal
• Shopping cart integration (PaymentCloud integrates with a wide variety of popular online shopping carts)
• eCheck and ACH processing
• Contactless payment requests
• PCI compliance
• Data migration
• Dedicated account manager for support

PaymentCloud offers tiered, flat-rate, and interchange-plus pricing models. Like many other high-risk specialists, the company has no specific pricing information on its website.

However, low-risk PaymentCloud merchants report that the online processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30 (high-risk businesses will likely be charged more).

Depending on just how high-risk your business is considered to be, you may have to accept a tiered pricing scheme, and you might possibly have to accept a multi-year contract with an early termination fee (ETF) as well.

While we recommend that low-risk businesses pursue month-to-month agreements and avoid tiered pricing when seeking a merchant account, high-risk businesses may have to accept these terms to find a back-end processor willing to take on the risk of working with them.

Thankfully, PaymentCloud partners with numerous acquiring banks and processors to find you the best deal possible. It never hurts to ask for interchange-plus pricing either.

With CDGcommerce, you get your choice of free payment gateways, including Authorize.Net and the company’s proprietary Quantum Gateway. You’ll also get the following:

• Shopping cart software
• Virtual terminal
• Detailed online reporting
• High-risk processing
• Recurring billing
• A security service (cdg360)
• A Fraud Loss Reimbursement Plan (FLRP) for users of the Quantum gateway

CDG fees depend on your sales volume and risk level.

Here’s what you’ll pay with CDGcommerce’s flat-rate starter plan:

• $0/month
• 3.5% + $0.30 per keyed-in/online transaction
• 2.9% + $0.30 per in-person transaction

Here’s what the interchange-plus plan will cost you:

• Monthly fee not disclosed
• Rates for keyed-in and online transactions not listed

Lastly, here are the details of CDGcommerce’s membership pricing:

• $49-$199/month
• Rates for keyed-in and online transactions not listed

With CDGcommerce, your pricing plan will depend on your sales volume and whether or not your business is considered high-risk.

• Flat-rate pricing is for merchants processing $1,000-$10,000/month
• Interchange-plus pricing is for those processing $10,000-$200,000/month
• Membership pricing for merchants processing over $200,000/month
• High-risk merchants may be accepted but will pay more than low-risk merchants (pricing for high-risk merchants is not specifically disclosed)

CDGcommerce is only available to US-based merchants.

While Shopify Starter is great for managing your existing sales channels, Shopify’s full online stores are feature-packed as well. Plus, with the numerous integrations Shopify offers for dropshippers and suppliers, eCommerce merchants of all stripes have many reasons to like Shopify.

• Omnichannel selling
• Shop Pay (Shopify’s accelerated checkout flow tool)
• Developer tools
• Security features and PCI compliance
• Chargeback management
• Shopify shipping
• Local and curbside pickup
• Local delivery

If you have a Shopify online store, using Shopify Payments for website payment processing lets you avoid paying a Shopify per-transaction fee of 0.6%-2% (on top of the processing fee) with each sale.

Plus, if you’re building a non-Shopify online presence, you can still subscribe to Shopify Starter ($5/month) to add buy buttons to your website or your social media posts.

• No 0.6%-2.0% Shopify transaction fee when you use Shopify Payments for processing
• Online Transactions: 2.5% + $0.30 to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, depending on your subscription level
• Monthly Fee: $5-$299 (pricing for plans that include a Shopify online store builder start at $29/month with annual billing)

While Shopify’s base services are reasonably priced for small to mid-sized businesses, if you need additional functionality, the cost of add-ons can, well, add up.

Additionally, Shopify Payments is a payment service provider, which carries some inherent account stability risk.

Durango is an excellent choice for high-risk businesses needing online credit card processing. Durango also offers offshore merchant accounts for international merchants. Let’s go through what else Durango offers:

• Proprietary cloud-hosted Durango Pay gateway
• A variety of shopping cart integrations
• eCheck processing
• Cryptocurrency support
• Fraud protection

Durango Merchant Services specializes in servicing high-risk businesses. The company does not disclose any pricing information or contract terms online; Durango works with numerous back-end processors, so these factors will be highly variable and subject to negotiation.

If yours is a high-risk business, expect to pay higher processing rates than a similar low-risk business. Although interchange-plus is sometimes available, you’ll likely be placed on a tiered pricing plan.

While you’ll likely have to accept tiered pricing to get an offshore/high-risk merchant account, that’s just an unfortunate reality when it comes to this type of payment processing — though it never hurts to ask if interchange-plus pricing is possible for you.