Best Payment Gateway For Small Business
The million dollar question that all internet entrepreneurs and online business owners want to know the answer to before they start on the journey of a lifetime by scaling their internet business to the moon is…
“What is the best payment gateway for my business?”
Before we get into what one the best one is, let’s elaborate a little on what exactly a payment gateway is.
What is a payment gateway?
A payment gateway is the vehicle that sits on your website to enable your customers to pay by debit or credit card under the relevant compliance protocol of acquirers. It’s vital that you pick a well tried, tested and respected gateway to ensure that your customers are protected whilst spending money on your website. Most payment gateways have an API that you can integrate into your website, Or if you are working with website builder types of sites such as Shopify, or Six then then you should have a selection of plug in shopping carts that will suit your business as standard that are available to connect through via them – however those that are savvy on pricing will want a more agnostic approach to the gateway so they can choose the acquirer that sits on the payment gateway. That is where Modern World Business Solutions can come in.
With the emergence of internet business throughout Covid this has correlated with a period of innovation around the online payments space, with market leading products and services being provided to internet entrepreneurs. This revolution is being headed up by the likes of Stripe who have built out an amazing proposition and SDK kit for developer’s that is backed up by a very strong acquiring solution. It’s difficult for anyone to argue with what Stripe has done over the last few years as they become a powerhouse within the online payments space, BUT as great a solution as it is, just like all solutions they have their negative points.
So below we have conducted a small independent report that outlines our opinion on the plus and minuses of the major gateways available to internet entrepreneurs at the moment and gives our own take on that all important question of – What is the best payment gateway for my business?
There are many things to consider when picking your solution…
Fees
Most gateways have the following fees:
Click fee
This is a per pence transaction fee that is attributed to each transaction that runs through the gateway. This fee can be as little as 9p and go up to the region of 25p per transaction.
Transaction fee
This fee is usually taken care of by the acquirer and is a % of each transaction that travels through the gateway, depending on who you use the fee can be as little as 0.35% for a debit card or if you choose the likes of Stripe or PayPal they will charge a higher fee of around 1.75% for all transactions.
Gateway rental
The gateway rental fee is just a monthly fee that you pay to the acquirer or gateway provider to allow you to use the gateway on your website.
Integrations
The complexity of integrations and certifications of acquirers and payment gateways is often something that stumps people on the regular.
Let’s try and explain this as fluidly as we can.
Each Payment gateway needs to be certified with an acquirer in order for them to process through. There are hundreds of gateways and then hundreds of acquirers, so this alone makes it a very complex integration when you start to throw in risk appetites and the like, so for instance you might have found an acquirer to help you take payments for your business for your high risk merchant account but then you will end up with your head in your hands when you can not find a gateway that will accept that particular acquirer. Oh NO!
Add to that the integration requirements that a gateway must have to be compatible with the relevant website platform and you have a pretty complex situation regarding your requirement for a payment gateway for your business.
The integration piece is where Stripe has nailed it! From a developers perspective it is gold, it’s easy to integrate, it has all the functionality you could ever wish for, and it has Apple Pay and Google Pay. So where is the downfall? Well, what it does not have is the ability to be agnostic as you scale. So where Stripe might be perfect for your developer and you at this point in time. If you have aspirations to scale your business to the moon, you are always at the peril of Stripe to negotiate the best fees for your business.
At Modern World we are proud to be an agnostic broker, meaning we will always advise the best solution for your particular solution.
This could be us matching up a gateway to an acquirer that we know will service your business model, it could be pointing you to an acquirer who has the perfect payment gateway for your business in house or it could be to advise you that the likes of Stripe is the best choice for you. We have an experienced team that will look over the aspects of your business and deliver you a solution that is best matched.
Below is a small guide to the gateways that we work with at Modern World Business Solutions.
Cardstream
Cardstream is one of the UKs favourite payment gateways. This is a gateway that is very flexible, with a wide accreditation list of acquirers that can be housed on the gateway. Cardstream offers a white label product which means lots of payment gateways offered by companies in the UK are powered by the Cardstream gateway.
Price Point
Opayo by Elavon
Opayo by Elavon, you might hear this gateway referred to as the legacy “Sage Pay” payment gateway, a payment gateway trusted by large tier one acquirers. The Opayo payment gateway is agnostic amongst what we would describe as tier one acquirers but not so much the high risk sector. Opayo by Elavon has a flexible API with Apple Pay and Google Pay certified with several of the banks that are certified to sit on the platform with useful API documentation allowing for an easy integration.
Price Point
NMI Gateway
NMI payment gateway is a long-standing payment gateway originating from the States that is super agnostic with lots of acquiring partners to support a range of acquiring with different risk appetite. An innovative solution under a white label model the NMI gateway is a brand that you can trust to process your payments. With innovation at its core the NMI gateway is always developing new and alternative features.
Price Point
The three payment gateways that are listed above are all independent gateways that you need to find an acquiring solution for separately.
We at Modern World Business Solutions can help you with that and guide you to the correct acquiring solution from our panel of over 15 acquiring banks.
An alternative to the above 3 gateways are banks and PSPs that have developed their own payment gateway to support their payment offerings.
Trust Payments
A very good example of an innovative Fintech is Trust Payments who have a fantastic gateway that is jammed packed with innovative features. The Trust Payment gateway can operate Apple Pay, and Google Pay as well as giving you a robust acquiring solution and a fully managed merchant solution that keeps the merchant at the core of everything that is happening within their business. The reporting and integration guides that link it all together is in depth and impressive.
Trust Payments is an innovative acquiring bank that is placing software first. They have an elevated risk appetite and deal in Crypto currency and other high risk sectors. As the world is changing to accept payments by crypto currency and bitcoin, Trust Payments will be in the middle of innovation to allow consumers to pay for goods by crypto currency.
What questions should I know the answers to in order to get the best payment gateway for my business?
Now you have a little bit of information on what the best payment gateway would be for your business, it’s important that you know the answers to the questions that you will be asked by any prospective provider so below we have written out a few questions that we feel you will be asked in order for a company to finds out what the best payment gateway would be for your business.
You should be well placed now to make a start on the best payment gateway for your business. But, as always our friendly team is on hand to help you make the right choice should you need it.
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