Incredibly easy to setup
Great payment gateway experience for your customers
One of the most trusted names in online retail
No contracts, termination fees
Incredibly easy to setup
Great payment gateway experience for your customers
One of the most trusted names in online retail
No contracts, termination fees
No shopping cart functionality
Transaction fees are quite high for low-volume merchants
Gateway is only customisable on most expensive version
Reports of delay in transferring funds from Paypal account to business bank account
Full suite of payment features
Excellent security
Transparent pricing
Lengthy contracts, termination fees
Not ideal for smaller businesses
Highly customisable payment gateway
No monthly fees
Competitive transaction fees
Transparent pricing
Get desktop and mobile payments UX
Extensive integration options
Fees not publicly disclosed
12-month contracts
Extensive payment gateway features
Fully customisable
No setup fee
No transaction limits
Fees not publicly disclosed
12-month contracts
Fully-featured payment gateway
No contracts, termination fees
Minimal fees
Funds can be held for lengthy periods
Customer support mostly limited to email
Simple to use
Provides all the basic payment services you would expect from an online gateway
Hidden costs
Currency conversions are expensive
Full-stack payment system, including your own bank-sponsored merchant account
A highly customisable and a powerful payment system
Braintree’s technical support team has a good reputation
Development work required to integrate Braintree
Braintree’s merchant account system involves a more stringent underwriting process
Funds can be held for lengthy periods
Customers don’t need an account to make payments
Nochex has a good online reputation
Customer support is praised by its users
Limited payment features
No hardware provided for face-to-face payments
Clear, simple pricing
Minimal fees
Great support for international merchants
No support for card-present payments
Application process not as easy as some competitors
Some reports account closures
Innovative payment solutions
Mobile is a clear priority for Secure Trading
Good technical support
Auto-renew contract
More expensive than many gateway providers
Probably not the best option for smaller businesses that only want a payment gateway
Checkout.com bundles its payment gateway with a merchant account as part of its all-in-one payment solution. The company supports payment in 159 countries for eCommerce brands with international customer bases and it prides itself on its unique pricing structure. Instead of the usual 2.9% + ¢20 transaction fees, Checkout.com charges 0.25% + ¢20 for European cards and 2.9% + ¢20 for non-European cards.
There are also discount rates for merchants who qualify for its Enterprise plan.
Aside from this, there are no contracts involve with Checkout.com – you simply pay on a month-to-month basis without any worries about early termination fees. Likewise, there are no setup fees, maintenance charges or other hidden costs that often catch merchants out.
10 different payment types. It aims to be the only merchant account provider a modern business needs and it makes a good case for itself.
In terms of pricing, things look very similar to the likes of PayPal with 2.9% +$0.30 fees per transaction. This is good for merchants with low transaction volumes although these payment models work out more expensive for high-volume merchants. BlueSnap says it offers discounts for high-volume clients but you can only get this information by speaking to its sales team.
Support for 180 different countries
Wide support for languages and payment options
Competitive rates vs PayPal and other gateway providers
Auto-renew contract
More expensive than many gateway providers
Probably not the best option for smaller businesses that only want a payment gateway
BlueSnap is another strong option for international merchants with support for 180 countries, online checkouts in 29 different languages and 110 different payment types. It aims to be the only merchant account provider a modern business needs and it makes a good case for itself.
In terms of pricing, things look very similar to the likes of PayPal with 2.9% +$0.30 fees per transaction. This is good for merchants with low transaction volumes although these payment models work out more expensive for high-volume merchants. BlueSnap says it offers discounts for high-volume clients but you can only get this information by speaking to its sales team.
Full payment services available
Shopping cart functionality
Excellent security features
Advanced payment gateway features
Contracts and termination fees
Not ideal for smaller businesses
We’ve looked at the best payment gateway providers for businesses in the UK that enable you to take card details online and they’re all highly capable options. In reality, the best choice for your business is going to come down to additional factors, such as the other payment services you need from a provider and the transaction fees you can expect to pay, based on the number of card payments you expect to process on a monthly basis.
If you’re a small or new business, then PayPal, Stripe and Cardstream are going to be the options to look at initially. Then it comes own to how much flexibility you need vs how simple you want to keep things – and then, of course, the transaction fees come into play once again.
On the other hand, if you’re a slightly larger merchant processing a lot of payment every month, you may be able to get the lower rates available with Worldpay and SagePay and the level of security that comes with these options is hard to beat. Something to keep in mind.
However, these lengthy contracts and termination fees involved with payment companies like these can be difficult to deal with for businesses close to that line between small and medium. Only you can make this call but PayPal also offers an option that kind of sits between the two with those tempting 1.0% transaction fees, if you can process enough payments every month – as long as you’re willing to accept it might take time for funds to reach your account at times.