As primarily social beings, humans surprisingly love to take advantage of every opportunity to NOT have to deal with other people. So it’s no surprise that eCommerce is steadily growing…
Of course we must take into account that in 2020 we were all forced to stay at home, so a growth rate of 25.7% tracks. Though this spike is not isolated to 2020. In 2021, merchants saw a 16.8% growth rate, and 2022 is expected to come in at 12.7%.
All this to say, it’s absolutely critical to nail down your eCommerce experience and ensure you have the best tech stack to accept that hard-earned money from your customers.
In this piece, we’ll be going over our top picks for payment gateway solutions.
What is a Payment Gateway
Payment Gateways are the consumer-facing interface used to collect payment information from customers. An essential part of the electric payment processing system (but not the entire system), online gateways require APIs that allow a merchant’s website to communicate with the relevant payment processing network.
While payment gateways work with payment processors, they are not the same thing. It’s important for eCommerce professionals to understand their differing functions before deploying anything.
Payment Gateways vs Payment Processors
The easiest way to explain a gateway versus a processor is to break down an electronic transaction into two halves.
As mentioned above, payment gateways act as the initial collector of customer payment information. It gathers and encrypts the input data to use “later”.
Payment processors, on the other hand, are the facilitators with the gateway data. The processor uses the encrypted information to contact the customer’s bank and merchant’s bank account.
Top Payment Gateway Solutions
Authorize.net Overview
Having been one of the first payment gateway providers to come on the market, Authorize.net has been able to build strong partnerships with almost all merchant account providers. This means that authorize.Net is incredibly well equipped to accept online payments from cards, e-checks, and digital payments, so much so that the platform processes over 1 billion transactions every year. The gateway can accommodate foreign payments from most countries, but merchants’ businesses must be based in Europe or the US, Canada, UK, or Australia.
Authorize.net is PCI-DSS compliant, and they have no contract or early termination fees.
Features
– Advanced fraud detection system
– Customer information manager
– Recurring payments
– Invoicing
– Simple checkout
Paid Features
– Account updater
– eCheck payments
Support
Phone support is available 24/7, barring major holidays.
Customers can also take advantage of the online chat feature, can open support tickets, or head to the Support Center for a full library of articles.
Pricing for Gateway Only
– No setup fee
– $25/month gateway fee
– $0.10 per transaction + Daily batch fee of $0.10
Pricing for Bundle
– No setup fee
– $25/month gateway fee
– 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
– Custom pricing for merchants who process $500K+ per year
BlueSnap Overview
BlueSnap is marketed as an All-In-One Payment Platform that helps increase cart conversions, reduce costs for companies accepting online payments, and consolidating payment processing functions. With 42% of companies using 3 or more payment gateways to handle international and domestic payments, BlueSnap unifies processes to reduce technical debt and solidify reporting. The platform accepts payments in 200 regions with local acquiring in 47 countries.
Features
– Combined payment gateway, merchant account, and built-in payment optimization
– SDK and RESTful API
– Hosted checkout
– 100+ 3rd party integrations with carts, CRMs, ERP systems
– 100+ accepted currencies
– Integrated fraud and chargeback management
– Tax and regulation compliance solution
– Real-time data reporting
Support
Support for BlueSnap customers is available by phone in the US, UK, Ireland, and Israel.
Besides a large Support Guide library, merchants can also access a live chat functionality or submit a support ticket form.
Pricing
– BlueSnap pricing is primarily done on a case-by-case basis
– For quick start pricing, BlueSnap charges 2.90% + $0.30 per successful transaction
Braintree Overview
Braintree is a PayPal service that helps vendors reduce integration costs with developer-friendly SDK, meet industry PCI compliance standards with ready-made or fully customized checkout flows, and automate payment processes. While the service is not as flashy or feature-filled as other solutions mentioned in this list, it’s simplicity allows for a seamless checkout experience on practically any website.
Features
– Basic fraud prevention tools
– Data encryption via the Braintree Vault
– Data migration assistance
– Reporting
– Recurring Billing
– Third-party integrations
– Integration support
– 130+ currencies supported in over 45 countries
Paid Features
– 3D Secure
– Fraud Protection Advanced
Support
Support for Braintree is available via Phone and Email.
The company also has extensive Support articles and Developer docs available.
Pricing
– 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
– $0.30 charge for fully- and partially-refunded transactions
– 1% fee for USD transactions
– Custom pricing available
PayPal Overview
Founded in 1999 as a digital wallet, PayPal has since become a brand name synonymous with eCommerce. Because of its reputation, the company claims that adding it’s service as a payment option on checkout pages can increase conversions by 44%.
PayPal’s Payflow Payment Gateway links your website to almost any processing network and merchant account, and allows merchants to deliver a rewarding experience for their customers at a single low rate. To address varying needs of eCommerce professionals, PayPal provides 2 gateway products to choose from: Payflow Link and Payflow Pro.
Payflow Gateways are available to eCommerce brands that conduct business from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Features
– 25 currencies accepted in 202 countries
– PCI-compliant solution
– Mobile optimization
– Customizable check processes
Paid Features
– Additional fraud protection services
– Recurring billing
– Buyer authentication
Support
PayPal provides localized email and phone support.
Support hours for USA and Canada: 8AM-8PM CDT, Monday-Friday
Support hours for Australia and New Zealand: 9AM-56PM AEDT, Monday-Friday
Pricing for Payflow Link
– No setup fee
– No monthly gateway fees
– $0.10 per transaction
– PayPal and PayPal Credit are required payment options with Payflow Link. Pricing applies to domestic US payments. Additional conversion fee for foreign currency charged at 2.5%, with a 1% charge for payments received from another country.
Pricing for Payflow Pro
– No setup fee
– $25/month gateway fee
– $0.10 per transaction
Square Overview
Founded by Twitter executive, Jack Dorsey, Square has direct relationships with a wide swath of industry partners. Their established partnerships ensure that their customers are always up to date on industry rules and regulations, and can take advantage of the latest technologies.
Features
– Out-of-the-box PCI compliance
– End-to-end encryption and tokenization
– Fraud protection
– 32 eCommerce platform integrations
– Accept Apple and Google Pay, tips, recurring and one-time donations
– Customizable buy buttons
– Printable QR Codes
Paid Features
– Full eCommerce website building and hosting functionality
– Invoicing
Support
Customers can reach their dedicated Customer Success agents via Square’s in-app support chat.
Extensive Support Center and Seller Community for product guides, help articles, and troubleshooting tips.
Pricing
– No monthly fee
– 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
– Custom rates available for merchants who process over $250K/year in credit card sales
Stripe Overview
In the United States, over 90% of online shoppers have purchased something from a business using Stripe.
If you’re looking for a solution that is developer-focused, Stripe is a great contender. With a powerful and easy-to-use API, Stripe gives its customers the option to build their own platform or to take advantage of their long list of native integrations (63) with existing eCommerce platforms including Woocommerce, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Webflow, WedgeCommerce, UltraCart, and more.
Stripe boasts a customizable payment solution at competitive rates that scales along with your business, and is built to accept 135 different currencies.
Features
– Hosted payment page
– Embeddable UI components
– Payment links
– Invoicing
– Localized Subsidiary support in 30+ countries
– iOS and Android SDK
– Recurring payments
– Built-in KYC and AML checks
– PSD2-compliant
– Authentication and Authorization
– Stripe Radar (machine learning fraud prevention)
– Dynamic 3D Secure
– Dispute handling
– Financial reporting
– Payout management
– Stripe dashboards and consolidated reports
– Prebuilt integrations (Accounting, Analytics, Automation, Mobile payments, Notifications, Shipping, Tax calculation)
Support
24/7 email, phone, and chat support.
Online support centre is also available.
Pricing
– No monthly gateway fees
– 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
– ACH direct debit 0.8% (with a $5 cap)
– Customized solutions available
2Checkout Overview
Now Verifone, 2Checkout provides a payment gateway product for eCommerce professionals called 2Sell. According to 2Checkout’s website, 2Sell enables merchants to accept both mobile and online payments in 100 different currencies from 200+ countries. While fees are slightly higher than average, 2Sell is widely recognized as one of the best eCommerce payment gateways for merchants doing business internationally. They provide localized buying experiences and can help boost cart conversions with shopping cart templates.
Features
– Accepts 100 billing currencies
– Coverage in over 200 countries
– Supports 45+ payment methods
– Multilingual checkout available in 29 languages
– BI reporting and analytics
– APIs and 3rd party connectors with 120+ carts
– Security and fraud protection
– Recurring billing
– Order notifications
– Discount management
Paid Features
– Verifone CPQ – for better, faster B2B quotes
– 2Bill – for complex subscription management
– 2Recover – for increase renewal recovery
– 2Partner – for increased channel distribution and automation
– 2Service – for premium services and dedicated support
Support
2Sell claims to have 24/7 merchant support services, though this is conducted through technical support ticket forms. They also have a Knowledge Center that is open to all.
Support for customers of 2Sell merchants is available 24/7 for order and payment related issues.
Pricing
– 3.5% + $0.35 per successful sale
