Payment gateways allow online businesses to flourish. A payment gateway is an entity that provides a service in which credit card information of consumers is encrypted and securely collected from a bank and sent back to the merchant.
If you are an online merchant, you will likely want to connect your online business with a payment gateway. Below, we list the pros and cons of the top payment gateways. We hope this helps you decide what online payment gateway you would like to use for international transactions.
10 Best Payment Gateways in World
The best thing about payment gateways is the flexibility of paying through credit or debit cards in both online and offline stores. This makes the purchasing process fast and also secure. Payment gateways are quite significant nowadays as it is widely accepted and used. So, let us know more about the top 10 best payment gateways for fast and effective transactions.
PayPal
PayPal is an American multinational financial technology company widely regarded as one of the most popular online payment platforms. Since then, PayPal was founded in 1988 and has become the most used method to make and receive payments all around the globe.
The major advantages of using PayPal as a payment gateway are multiple customization options, easy integration, online invoicing, and payment through credit card over the phone. E-commerce stores, auction sites, and other commercial entities use PayPal as their default payment gateway all over the world.
Despite PayPal’s wide use and trust by consumers, it is very important to note that PayPal can freeze accounts without warning if you receive a couple of complaints from customers. This freezing might be devastating to your small online business. Therefore, it might make sense to go with a payment gateway with more industry-standard seller protections.
After remaining eBay’s primary payment gateway for years, in 2020, eBay switched to Adyen to provide customers with more competitive prices. Although due to the popularity of PayPal, eBay still has it integrated as an optional payment gateway service.
The PayPal processing fee is between 1.9% to 3.5%, which is very competitive and charges a fixed fee between 5 cents to 49 cents.
Pros of PayPal
- Easy to use. Simple and manageable.
- PayPal is the most well-known and thus is widely trusted by customers.
- PayPal handles the checkout process externally.
Cons of PayPal
- PayPal can freeze accounts without warning. This can be hazardous to your business.
- Inconsistent customer support.
- Unlike Stripe, PayPal charges 5% on transactions under 10 dollars plus $0.05 per transaction.
Stripe
Several eCommerce businesses claim Stripe to be a more powerful payment gateway platform. Stripe handles transactions worth billions of dollars every year. Stripe is a unique payment platform because it provides companies with multiple flexible tools to customize their payment processes instead of simply being a direct payment solution.
To provide efficient services to companies and customers around the world, Stripe supports over a hundred different currencies. With features such as subscription billing, mobile payments, and single-click checkout, using Stripe makes transactions easier and more convenient. Transactions can also be visualized through a dashboard provided to its users.
The only possible downside identified by Stripe is that users need more technical expertise to operate and understand Stripe than the other payment gateways. Having said that, the advantages far outweigh this single disadvantage, which can be solved by following tutorials and gaining more knowledge.
Stripe offers powerful customizations and strong seller protections. Although their fees might be on the higher end – you save money otherwise spent by monthly subscriptions to other payment gateway companies. Despite its ease of use difficulties, Stripe’s vast feature offering makes it worth it to adopt.
For European merchants, Stripe offers a special advantage. The card processing fees for European cards are a mere 1.4% and a small transaction charge.
For non-European cards, processing fees are relatively low too. It is an industry-standard 2.9% and a small transaction fee. For companies or users who intend on making a larger volume of transactions, Stripe offers a customized plan that includes discounts based on the volume.
Pros of Stripe
- Stripe offers industry-standard seller protection, not allowing consumers to retract unapproved retracted payments from the online seller.
- Globally acceptable.
- Strong APIs and documentation. Stripe makes it easier than ever for software developers to integrate Stripe’s eCommerce technology seamlessly into any online business.
Cons of Stripe
- Hard to integrate into your website if you are a lower level software developer.
- Transaction fees tend to be on the higher end of normal.
Authorize.net
Authorize.net, whose parent organization is Visa, is a solution to create a smooth payment process. It is perfect for all types of companies, small-scale or larger-scale. The speed and efficiency of accepting payments and transferring to business accounts using Authorize.net are hard to beat.
All the major credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and Diner’s Club are supported by Authorize.net. Digital payment gateways like Apple Pay, Visa Checkout, and PayPal are also compatible with this platform.
Authorize.net is operational all over the world for companies to make and accept transactions globally. Still, the business must be registered in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, or Australia to use its service.
Having a merchant account gives businesses multiple benefits from Authorize.net. Some significant benefits include a monthly gateway fee, a reduced monthly gateway fee, a transaction fee, and a daily batch fee. There are also enterprise solutions on Authorize.net, which are beneficial for multinational companies.
Despite Authorize.net’s monthly charge, it does offer strong customer support and makes it easy to submit payments with either PayPal or any major credit card. For large online businesses, this is a very reliable payment gateway option.
Pros of Authorize.net
- Customers can pay on Authorize.net with any major credit card, and with PayPal.
- There are no long-term contracts with Authorize.net.
- Authorize.net offers excellent customer support.
Cons of Authorize.net
- Authorize.net has a fairly limited availability globally. It is only available in America, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and Europe.
- There is a $25 recurring monthly subscription charge.
2Checkout (Verifone)
With availability in more than 180 countries, 2Checkout(now known as Verifone) is a very efficient payment processing gateway. 2Checkout is suitable for any business, whether a small company with a few products just starting or a large multinational corporation.
The monetization platform was founded in 2006 and had been helping companies increase their sales by making the checkout process convenient for customers. Over 20,000 companies use 2Checkout as their primary payment gateway. That is also due to its compatibility with some of the most popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
2Checkout gives companies the benefit of providing customers with more than 45 payment methods while maintaining global tax and regulatory compliance. It supports recurring billing; global payments can be made or accepted almost instantly.
Skrill
Skrill is a comparatively newer payment gateway and is currently operational in over 40 countries across the globe. Skrill is being praised for being one of the most affordable payment gateways, with a processing fee of just 1.2%. It is mostly used by smaller businesses and is suitable for dropshipping.
Some regions which are considered to be risky for transaction purposes have availed of the services of Skrill. Skrill is trying to attract businesses that prefer targeting the “high-risk” areas. Most other payment gateways are prohibited from operating in those regions.
Other advantages of Skrill include dropshipping integration with WooCommerce, a flat $0.29 charge per transaction, and multiple offers on referring others to Skrill.
The primary disadvantage of Skrill is that, due to its availability in high-risk regions, companies sometimes need help navigating it. Skrill was previously known for storing and transmitting earnings from gambling.
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is the leading touchless payment system in the world. It is popular because of its compatibility with Apple smartphones and devices. Apple Pay works both in-person as well as online for eCommerce stores. The most significant advantage of Apple Pay that customers get is that it is easy, straightforward and only requires a single tap to make payments.
Apple Pay gateway is compatible with multiple traditional debit and credit card providers like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express while also being touchless. Companies that choose Apple Pay as their primary payment gateway for every completed transaction pay $0.15 in processing fees for selling products, services, or digital downloads.
Square
For companies that sell online and offline products, Square is a preferable option as a payment gateway. Square is an excellent solution for selling products in a retail store or a local shop. This is done with the help of a physical payment terminal that can process payments just like online payment gateways but on-site.
Square is compatible with multiple popular eCommerce platforms like Wix, WooCommerce, OpenCart, and Magento. The per-transaction cost while using Square is as low as $0.10 with an additional 2.5% service fee. For offline stores, keeping a Square payment terminal costs $60 per location for the services rendered.
SecurePay
SecurePay is one of the most popular online payment gateway providers. It comes packed with a secure, integrated, and flexible user interface. Many businesses or companies can trust accepting online payment, detailed viewing of reports, access to local support, and going through seamless transactions on a day-to-day basis while on the go.
SecurePay has an inbuilt dashboard that allows businesses to update day-to-day reports and get a transparent overview of the history of transactions as and when required. SecurePay is exactly as it sounds. The data stored within SecurePay is completely safe and secure. The platform has eliminated any potential chances of fraudulent activities as it complies with PCI regulations. Other additional functions like local support, simple set-up, multi-payment method compliance, and exclusive integration are available on this platform.
Payline
Pineapple payment company Payline has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Providing solutions to all sorts of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, that focus on the payment experience. Payline also offers a gateway payment processing where its web solutions are designed to integrate with 175 and over online shopping carts. Additionally, it integrates with QuickBooks as it is easy for payroll management.
The pineapple payment company provides pricing according to the service used. Payline Start has a swipe under it with a small additional charge and a monthly charge per transaction. The pricing for any brick-and-mortar store includes a monthly fee and a certain percentage fee per transaction fee. As far as online stores are concerned, the transaction and monthly fees are a little higher.
Adyen
Adyen is a popular mainstream payment gateway used by major multinational companies like Uber, Spotify, eBay, and Microsoft. Companies can accept payments from customers from a single platform using the Ayden payment gateway. It gives you tools that help in managing and tracking results.
Adyen accepts over 250 payment methods and 150 global currencies, due to which it is one of the most sought-after payment gateways. It has a built-in risk management tool enables companies to browse through data to identify and fight fraud cases. Additionally, it helps analyze transaction data and provides insights to understand customer behavior.
Understanding customer behavior with the help of Ayden allows businesses to create or change products or services accordingly. Ayden uses interchange pricing along with an extra transaction charge. The processing fees are different based on the mode of payment. A merchant bank account is mandatory to avail of the benefits of interchange pricing.
Conclusion
The best payment gateway differs from business to business. Many factors, like transaction fees, come into consideration when choosing an effective gateway. However, certain terms and conditions are available in each of the mentioned payment gateways, which should be considered before making the final decision.
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