10 Safe and Popular Gateways for Online Payment Processing

One big question for any online seller is “How do I process payments from customers?”. Most online businesses use a solution known as an “Online payment gateway”. If you want to provide the best buying experience for your customers, you will definitely need one that is good and reliable..

There are many payment gateways available, so to help you decide which one to use, I did some research and came up with a list of the 10 most popular gateways along with a comparison chart. This will help you pick the best payment solution for you and your customers, more easily.

What is a Payment Gateway?

In short, a payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, and ‘bricks and clicks’. Payment gateways allow you to list your merchandise or services online and automatically process credit cards, debit cards or other forms of payment without so much as lifting a finger.

instantShift - Online payment gateway processing
Online payment gateway processing

Comparison Chart

 Payment GatewayDetails
01Paypal
  • Accepts: MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express and more.
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: 1.9% + $0.3 to 2.9% + $0.3 each.
  • Countries supported: 190+countries. (List)
  • Setting up Paypal on your website
022Checkout
  • Accepts: MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, Diners , JCB, Debit cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo, PIN debit cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo, PayPal
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: $0.45 + 5.5% each.
  • Additional fee: Monthly fee – $10.99
  • Countries supported: 200+ countries worldwide (List)
03Google Wallet (Google Checkout)
04Authorize.net
  • Accepts: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diner’s Club, JCB
  • Sign up fee: $99.00 *
  • Transaction fees: $0.10 each *
  • Additional fee: Monthly Gateway fee – $20 * and Batch fee – $25 *
  • Countries supported: 190+ countries. However, just U.S citizens can create an account with this payment gateway.
  • Getting started with Authorize.net

(*) Suggested retail price only. Actual retail fees vary according to prices set by Authorize.Net resellers (details).

05Amazon Payment
  • Accepts: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, and JCB.
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: 1.9%+$0.3 to 5%+$0.05 each.
  • Countries supported: 28 countries (List)
  • Getting started with Amazon payment
06Worldpay
  • Accepts: Visa Credit and Debit, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Diners, Laser, ELV, PayPal
  • Sign up fee: £75
  • Transaction fees: From 1.9% + 10 pence
  • Additional fee: Monthly fee – £15
  • Countries supported: 36 countries (List)
  • Getting started with Worldpay
07Skrill (Moneybookers)
  • Accepts: Credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Diners Club), Debit card (Maestro, Visa Electron) and more.
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: 1.9% + €0.25 to 2.9% + €0.25 each (for European Merchants, it is different with other regions (details)
  • Countries supported: 200+ countries
  • Getting started with Skrill
08Payza
  • Accepts: MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, Diners, JCB, Debit cards with the Visa or MasterCard, PayPal
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: 2.50 % + $0.25 each.
  • Countries supported: 190+ countries (List)
  • Getting started with Payza
09Quickpay
  • Accepts: MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Discover, American Express, Diners, JCB and more (List)
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: €0.015 – €0.067 each.
  • Additional fees: Monthly fee: €25
  • Countries supported: All European countries.
  • Getting started with Quickpay
10Sagepay
  • Accepts: MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Discover, American Express, Diners , JCB, PayPal and more.
  • Sign up fee: 0
  • Transaction fees: ₤25 per month (0 – 1000 transactions) / 10 pence each (1000+ transactions).
  • Countries supported: United Kingdom and Ireland
  • Getting started with Sagepay

Paypal

instantShift - Paypal

What I can say about Paypal is that it is truly “worldwide. Paypal is a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made over the internet, and is one of the most popular.. With only an email address needed to sign up, you can begin sending and receiving payments. In addition, PayPal offers a “merchant services” division that allows businesses of all sizes to accept credit card payments much like a normal merchant account, with low transaction fees.

Official Link

2Checkout

instantShift - 2Checkout

The second candidate is 2Checkout, also called “2CO”. 2Checkout is a merchant account alternative founded in 2000 that allows online merchants to accept credit card payments from their customers. 2Checkout could help your business go worldwide easily with 8 payment methods, 15 languages, and 26 currencies.Your international customers will feel confident if your website uses this gateway.2Checkout partners with dozens of the most popular online shopping carts and invoicing systems to allow simple integration, including Joomla shopping cart extensions such as redSHOP and VirtueMart.

To start selling with 2Checkout, you just need to sign up with 2Checkout by submitting an application. Wait for the application to be approved, then your site is up and running.

Official Link

Google Wallet

instantShift - Google Wallet

Google Wallet, superseded Google Checkout and is a mobile payment system developed by Google. It allows its users to store debit cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards among other things, as well as accessing sales promotions on their mobile phone. More and more people use smartphones and other mobile device, so they will increasingly use this type of payment service to shop anytime and anywhere they want. If you get Google Wallet, I think the number of your customers will also increase.

Official Link

Authorize.net

instantShift - Authorize.net

Authorize.net is the fourth option . Since 1996, Authorize.Net has been a leading provider of payment gateway services, managing the submission of billions of transactions to processing networks on behalf of merchant customers. Authorize.net is a solution of CyberSource Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Visa. There are many people using Authorise.net, although less than Paypal.

Official Link

Amazon Payment

instantShift - Amazon Payment

Amazon payment is a service launched in 2007 by Amazon. I’m sure one thing everyone knows is Amazon is one of the biggest retailers on the Web. This powerful and flexible payment engine allows users who are already familiar with and trust the Amazon brand to purchase goods from your web site using their Amazon customer ID. You and your customers may well feel more secure as a result of an association with the prestigious Amazon brand.

Amazon provides 2 products for business: Checkout by Amazon (CBA) and Amazon Simple Pay (ASP). You can choose which one best suits your business’ size.

Official Link

Worldpay

instantShift - Worldpay

WorldPay provides a globally connected, locally coordinated payment processing service for all sorts of businesses, big and small in over 40 countries. They offer Business Gateway which is a smart, affordable solution for small to medium sized businesses wanting to accept online payments. It accepts more payments by offering all major card methods as well as PayPal, set up subscriptions and much more. For small and medium businesses worldwide, you can use Business Gateway Plus. It includes merchant accounts which helps you to trade online, access to multi currencies and world-class fraud-screening.

Official Link

Skrill (Moneybookers)

instantShift - Skrill (Moneybookers)

Skrill helps online business websites accept credit and debit cards. It’s a very basic payment gateway – a simple solution for small businesses. Skrill is used by over 120,000 merchants with more than 100 payment options and 41 currencies covering 200 countries and territories. Skrill processes payments in such a way as to help your customers feel secure, since they do not give personal payment information to the seller. It does not require the sender to register an account, only the recipient.

Official Link

Payza

instantShift - Payza

Payza is yet another quick and convenient method to receive funds from customers. With over 9 million members, Payza offers its services in 197 countries and in 21 different currencies. Payza offers foreign exchange services, fraud screening services, email invoicing, mass and single remittances and business management tools. If you use Payza it means you will have access to many great tools such as checkout payment buttons, shopping cart integration, merchant marketing kits, online invoicing and payouts.

Official Link

Quickpay

instantShift - Quickpay

QuickPay is another safe choice for online payment transactions. QuickPay works with all common credit and debit cards as well as other popular payment methods such as Paypal, Sofort Banking and other e-banking facilities. With QuickPay payment solutions, there are no sign up fees and you can access all common payment types within the one solution. Also, they have a great API to code with.

Official Link

Sagepay

instantShift - Sagepay

Last but not least, Sage Pay delivers secure and efficient payment services processing millions of payments each month for over 40,000 businesses.
Payments are processed securely online and over the phone with streamlined integration to your website or e-commerce platform. There are no contracts or hidden fees, however, the merchant account application process can take quite a long time, about 5-10 working days.

Official Link

Conclusion

This list is just for reference, but all of them are popular and used by many online stores and people all over the world. Consider this list when deciding what your options are. Feel free to tell me your thoughts about these options by leaving a comment right here.

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39 Comments

  1. Most of these providers I’ve come across and would recommend SagePay, mainly for the outstanding support. Worth looking into SecPay also.

  2. More discussion re “safe” and “popular.” How about ethics, integrity, global responsibility?

    Name-wise, you’ve gotta love Skrill. How did they come up with that?

    krill = a small shrimplike planktonic crustacean of the open seas + shrill = high-pitched and piercing

  3. Thank you very much it is a very interesting article. I am myself trying to start up an online shop and I had to read a lot about how the hole system of online payments works. There are a lot of options, some of them are better than others, some just better known.
    As a customer my self, I use mostly paysafecard. Since there is absolutely no connection to my account I feel that it is saver. I wish I would have the option to use it in more websites.

  4. thanks for sharing the post..can you suggest one which is good in terms of security?

  5. Really ! This is very nice post and very usefull terms of security.

    Thanks for the shearing.

  6. Indeed a nice post and I really like reading High Risk and Off Shore Merchant Accounts, Payment Gateway Services related stuff on the web. You have beautifully explained the importance and updated news on the Payment Gateway Services. Keep up the nice posting as I have subscribed to your blog.

    • Hi! where did u get information on High risk and offshore merchant accounts? Thanks in advance!!

  7. Even if those payment gateways have fraud detection built-in, they are usually add-on features which require you to pay extra.

    You can always go for a fraud screening service like fraudlabspro.com/ which has a FREE Micro license that allows you to screen up to 500 orders per month.

    This would be most suitable for those small business owners due to the small number of orders they process each month.

  8. Indeed a nice post and I really like reading High Risk and Off Shore Merchant Accounts, High risk merchant account, Third Party Payment Process, Payment Gateway Services related stuff on the web. You have beautifully explained the importance and updated news on the Payment Gateway Services. Keep up the nice posting as I have subscribed to your blog.

  9. Hello,
    Thank you for the detailed article. It is very interessant to see the different offers and advantages and drawbacks of the different online payment providers. Of course there are not all listed here but that is a very good start and it helps to try to find one that would fit your company. And above all it makes clear that Paypal is not the only online payment service in the world.

    • I agree with you as well on the PayPal issue. They are trouble as far as I am concerned!!

  10. Indeed a nice post and I really like reading High Risk and Off Shore Merchant Accounts, Payment Gateway Provider, Third Party Payment Process, Payment Gateway Services related stuff on the web. You have beautifully explained the importance and updated news on the Payment Gateway Services. Keep up the nice posting as I have subscribed to your blog.

  11. Dears Sirs;
    Ineed create some gateway payment in my new web page ; can you help me.
    Best regards
    Jose

  12. hi, thanks for the post. Yes option seem to be very popular and reliable. I would consider also Paymill as one of them. It works well for me, accepts payments in 100 currencies and I pay only for transactions that are sucessfully closed and fees are affordable.

  13. Huyen, thank you very much for article! But as i see you only considered solution for low and mid risk. For merchants that need high risk payment gateway i can reccomend RegularPay solutions – this guys can open direct merchant bank account in european countries

  14. Thanks for sharing this information this information is really helpful me because I want to make a new advertisement for my new online business.

  15. Really nicely explained information on payment gateway.. Thanks for sharing.

  16. Hey Huyen,

    thanks a lot for putting together such a brilliant post, I would like to suggest one more Online Payment Gateway – http://www.paymentz.com which I think you should check.

    thanks again, keep up the good work.

  17. it will be “Not Correct” to say Paypal is truly worldwide because they still have not launched their services in Pakistan A Country of 188 million peoples and already now in Pakistan many freelancers working online having problems in receiving payments for their online work.if Payza,Payoneer Can launch their services in Pakistan then why not Paypal ?

  18. Same comments with “Adil”.

    Am From Bangladesh we also feeling PayPal. In Bangladesh there have many many Freelancer but there have no PayPal access. For this we are really in great problem.

  19. Hello i wanted to ask how can i use the pay pal service in my website so clients can pay through it?

  20. Thank you very much. Very informative. I learn many idea from this blog

  21. Hey! nice selection of gateways.
    Few ore options that perhaps deserve some attention are Stripe (as it is now expanding to Europe), Paysera, Braintree. As options mentioned in the list, they have their cons, but I think they also have a lot of nice things on offer and should be mentioned.

  22. Since I got into online trade, PayPal has been the best online payment gateway and one of the reasons for this is because I was unaware of other service providers. The only thing I am concerned about is the security of the transaction details and processing fees. Thus I would like to sugget another good payment gateway – atomtech.in which is really secure for transactions.

  23. The major stumbling block for micro-businesses is the gateway monthly fees. I am looking for an alternative to Paypal on my website, since they keep messing around with my BuyNow buttons. I was going to sign up with Skrill because it’s based in my country, but then noticed they charged 20 euros a month just for gateway access ( a fact that you don’t list at number 7). That might not sound much, but for us table-top micro’s, that can sometimes be an entire week’s income. Personally I don’t think there’s anything very suitable for really small-sized folk except cash!

  24. Nice article with lots of good suggestions. I personally think that Paypal is the most popular, Paypal is without doubt the best and the most reliable payment gateway.

  25. I must say great experience so far however I would also like to add.. Please put some content regarding the legitimacy criteria or may be the procedure to get the merchant account.. Thanks

  26. Thank you so much for the article I was looking for.

  27. Very good article it helps to find out your best payment gateway. I am looking for high risk payment for my website bestfaremate.com, if any one have any idea please suggest.

  28. Which gateway is best If I am from UK but I would like to charge US customer only for technical support????

  29. I had wonderful experience and great collaboration with AlternativePayments.com. I offer CC alterantives, local payments on my webshop andfor last few months, everything works perfect!

  30. I am satisfied with Cardinity.com. Though it works if your business is located in Europe, so far I found it as a lowest cost payment gateway, perfectly satisfying my needs. I would definitely recommend including Cardinity to the list.

  31. Excellent List! thanks for sharing the details of all these payment gateways. This is really useful information.

  32. Excellent article!! In want to implement payment gateway. It has to support for
    India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Russia &
    West Indies

    Please advice me

  33. I would also add Cardinity.com to the list, as someone mentioned here. They accept even high-risk businesses, and they are a cost-effective alternative to other payment gateways functioning in the EU.

  34. 2checkout is not safe but a scam. They have locked our account with over 1000$ for no reason, just because we stopped selling with them (no single complaint!). – Stay far away from 2checkout!

  35. Could you name some of the payment processors?

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