Online Payment Gateways: Best Options

Choosing the right option should depend on your particular business .

In one of our articles last month, we discussed some of the best online payment practices to follow and integrate into your web apps. One of the important steps we presented was choosing a Payment Gateway that was best suited to your own business, goals and customers.

We promised to cover some of our favorite Payment Gateways in a future article. So today’s article is going to do just that.

But first of all, what is a Payment Gateway?

Well, the answer is kind of simple: a Payment Gateway is a piece of software, usually provided by a trusted company, that processes your customers electronic payments either on your website, in your brick and mortar store, or both.  

Today, we’re going to be explaining the benefits – and potential downsides – of three of the most popular gateways out there: PayPal, Stripe and Square.

The Most Popular PayPal

Undoubtedly one of the most famous and widely-adopted payment gateways out there, PayPal offers a range of benefits for e-commerce checkouts. These include:

• Speed of installation (it takes just minutes to have a PayPal checkout button integrated into a website),

• Scalability: PayPal offers a competitive rate of around 3%-5% for each checkout, plus a small fee, depending on your location. PayPal also offers different plans and variations on their checkout options that you can choose from, depending on your sales volumes. It is also highly stable and can be used by all kinds of businesses.

• PayPal is also a highly trusted and reliable provider that offers protections against fraud, and has been proven to boost companies’ online sales by upwards of 40% after adoption.

Stripe for BtoB Web Application

Stripe is another payment gateway that has taken the world of e-commerce by storm, and is especially suited for companies with an international focus on their customer base. Unlike PayPal, which also offers money transfer services for customers, Stripe is more directly focused on its B2B service to online businesses.

Some of the key benefits of Stripe include:

• The ability to access real-time and comprehensive analytics on your sales,
• Strong fraud protection,
• Easy installation,
• The ability to accept of a wide range of currencies and payment methods, including AliPay and even some cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin,
• A large range of customizability and plans available to choose from
• Competitive rates of around 3% plus a small fee per transaction, depending on your location.

Square for Smal Businesses

Square has emerged as a payment gateway option favorite among small businesses, mostly due to its ease of use and transparent, flat-rate pricing – and no sneaky monthly fees.

With flat rate pricing, it becomes a lot more easy to predict how much of your revenue will be going towards rate payments, and combined with Square’s rich suite of different products and options for card processing, it becomes clear why it’s such a favorite.

Square’s key benefits are:

• Competitive flat rates of around 3% and no monthly or other hidden fees, which makes it a winner among start-ups and companies with relatively modest sales volumes,
• Highly effective and efficient mobile POS system and analytics,
• Seamless integration of brick & mortar and online sales processing,
• Options for fast deposits into merchants’ accounts.

However, a downside to Square is that it has been reported that by some customers that they have had their accounts deactivated without warning if the Square team finds their business activity to be a liability or risk.

So, as with any choice of a payment gateway, it’s important to first do your research and understand whether the gateway you are choosing is the one best suited to your business.

The main point to take away regarding your business’ choice of payment gateway is that you should find an option that works best for your particular situation. This will involve an analysis of costs, benefits, and ease of use, so that you can then focus on the important parts of your business: how you are going to make people want to buy your services or products.

Do you have an e-commerce project you would like to launch? Get in touch to find out how Bocasay can be your partner on the journey.