The best payment apps for ecommerce services represent the top payment methods that online merchants can accept online. Online shoppers have plenty of choices when they visit an online store, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Google checkout, and Amazon Pay. To help you choose the right payment method for your ecommerce business, here’s a list of top ecommerce payments you can use to accept online payments.
The right payment method or gateway is vital if you want to optimize your ecommerce business. We’ve put together a list of what we consider to be the best payment apps for accepting payments on the go. Whether you’re a small retailer or working with larger volumes, using an optimal payments app will help you run your business smoothly and make sure you get paid fast.
Whether you’re an online beginner who’s just getting started in eCommerce or any other business, you would always doubt to choose the right payment app for your business. Online payment apps are the best option to keep your customers satisfied and always happy. It helps in getting orders anytime and anywhere. The hassle-free, easy and lightning fast payment apps make shopping more pleasurable than ever before.
Choosing the best payment gateway for your new ecommerce store is one of the most important business decisions you’ll make. If a certain payment method isn’t supported by your ecommerce platform, it can be time-consuming and expensive to integrate after the fact. We’ve gathered together some of the best payment apps to help you get up and running quickly, while keeping costs low.
What Is a Payment Gateway?
At its core, a payment gateway is software that encrypts a customer’s credit card information and sends it to the issuing bank for approval when they make a purchase online or in a store. This transaction determines whether a customer’s purchase is approved or declined.
A payment gateway is not a merchant account, however. A merchant account is what a business or merchant needs in order to be able to accept credit cards or digital wallet payments (like PayPal). Although some payment gateway providers also offer a merchant account as part of their services, most payment gateways are standalone products.
PayPal
PayPal established in 2002 is currently the most used payment gateway across the US. It accepts International and Multi-currency payments. Brand recognition, Security and Easy setup steps are some of the reasons that Businesses opt for PayPal. Even though it is considered the costliest Gateway service, PayPal is considered most widespread amongst small businesses and startups. The major features of PayPal are that it is available in 203 countries; there are no startup costs, monthly fees (It works on as per transaction service charges). PayPal has a strong antifraud team and it is reported to have frozen multiple suspicious accounts based on their transaction evaluations.
Stripe
Stripe is considered a tough contender and a fast-growing company soon to catch up with PayPal. Started in 2010, Stripe is valuated to be around $20Billion in such a short span of time. Stripe offers a trial period with delayed payments. There are no refund fees. It is considered to be one of the easiest to setup, integrate and maintain, by the web developers. Unlike PayPal, Stripe payment gateway allows the customers to stay onsite while making the payment, without being redirected to the payment website, hence providing a seamless customer experience. In addition to being compatible with most payment methods, it also accepts cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. As it is still currently growing, Stripe is available in 21 countries.
Amazon Pay
Backed by the huge brand name, Amazon Pay is quickly catching up as the go-to option for Small and Medium Enterprises for hosting payment gateways. The amazon pay merchant account gives you access to a sophisticated fraud protection service. This service is only available in the US, UK, and Germany. It facilitates an onsite checkout option, which enhances the customer experience. Amazon Pay is a simple API driven and has provided multiple solution provider e-commerce platforms with free plugins. Amazon provisions the use of Alexa to engage your shoppers further providing recommendations and improved customer service.
Stax — Best For Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
- TRANSPARENT FLAT-FEE PRICING
- 0% MARKUP ON INTERCHANGE
- NO CONTRACT
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Stax is ideal for any small to medium-sized business, or a business with a high volume of sales. Not only does it accept all payment types and integrate with most terminals and point-of-sale (POS) systems, but it is also a subscription-based pricing model with a flat monthly fee.
This means Stax can save you money per transaction, especially once you factor in the 0% markup on interchange fees. More sales does not mean higher fees from Stax.
For your ecommerce store, Stax has flexible options so you can integrate it with the shopping cart plugin or function you already use or use one of Stax’s pre-built templates (or design your own) to create your own custom shopping card quickly with no coding skills required.
Stax’s one-click shopping cart integrates with all of the top payment gateways, such as BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce, and more.
Stax’s ecommerce tools include:
- Heatmaps to keep track of staff and sales trends
- Inventory tracking for online and in-person stock
- Reporting and analytics to get real-time reports on customer behavior and patterns
- Integration with QuickBooks and Google My Business
Stax’s pricing is very straightforward. It is a monthly subscription with no long-term contract and transparent fees. All three subscription tiers come with wholesale interchange pricing (0% markup), $500,000 in annual processing, a large knowledge base, and 24/7 customer support.
By having a flat-fee monthly subscription, your ecommerce business knows exactly what you’ll pay each month, and if you have a lot of transactions, you’ll pay less per transaction, making it very affordable. Many ecommerce merchants mark up their per-transaction pricing. Stax does not.
Pricing starts at $99 per month, including a free terminal or mobile card reader, ACH processing, analytics, and more.
PayCafe — Best Payment Method for Detecting (and Fighting) Fraud
- EASY TO SETUP
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
- ALL-IN-ONE ECOMMERCE SOLUTION
- IN-DEPTH REPORTING
PayCafe offers some of the best fraud and chargeback protections we’ve seen out there.
Seriously, the only other one we consider a contender to their level of protection is PaymentCloud.
That’s because they offer an automated, machine-learning algorithm that scans each transaction for fraud. Once it detects it, you’ll be notified and the troublesome transaction will be blocked. Of course, if there’s a mistake you’ll be able to undo it and put the transaction through.
They also have tools in place to handle credit card disputes. From their early warning dispute alert system to their highly-detailed records of each transaction, they’ll arm you with the tools you need to tackle pesky chargebacks and win.
Some of their other features and benefits include:
- Recurring bills. PayCafe automatically bills your customers daily, weekly, monthly, or annually depending on how you set it up.
- International card and currency. This allows you to accept payments for all major credit cards in every country across 135+ currencies.
- Flexible payment methods. Accept payments from places like PayPal, direct deposits, and even cryptocurrencies.
- In-depth reporting. Dive into the crunchy analytics of your business. That way, you can improve your numbers over time.
On top of all that they even give you 24/7 customer support every single day of the year. That’s a must have when it comes to ecommerce payment processing. You never want to be in a position where something breaks and you can’t immediately address it. Learn more at PayCafe.
Square — Best Payment Method if You Have a Brick-and-Mortar Too
- ABILITY TO GET PAID FAST
- FRAUD PREVENTION
- STRAIGHTFORWARD PRICING
- NO MONTHLY FEE
Square is a great choice for those of you who have physical retail locations and plan to start selling online.
Why? It’s simple: they’re known for their stellar POS system that seamlessly integrates with their payment method solutions. That makes them a great option if you’re planning to open retail locations in addition to your ecommerce shop.
Don’t have a shop yet? Square offers a fantastic ecommerce website builder too. They don’t skimp on the builder either, offering you tons of great looking drag-and-drop themes that allow you to create the ecommerce store of your dreams—no coding knowledge needed.
Square is priced competitively compared to the other methods on our list.
There is no monthly fee for adding the Square payment gateway to your website. They charge you 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, just like Stripe and PayPal.
Integrating Square to your ecommerce platform is easy. Some of their ecommerce partners include:
- Wix
- WooCommerce
- GoCentral Online Store
- Ecwid
- 3DCart
- OpenCart
- Magento
- Miva
- Drupal Commerce
- X-Cart
- Zen Cart
- ShipStation
- Mercato
- Unbound Commerce
- WordPress
- nopCommerce
- WP EasyCart
- Sociavore
Authorize.Net
Established in 1996, Authorize.Net is one of the oldest payment gateway providers around. Today it serves over 430,000 merchants and manages over one billion transactions every year. We chose it as the best overall because it’s easy to set up and use, works with nearly any merchant account, and accepts transactions from customers all over the world.
Due to its longevity, Authorize.Net has partnerships with most merchant account providers, allowing its users to accept payments from major credit cards, debit cards, and digital payments, as well as e-checks and foreign payments from most countries.
Authorize.Net’s platform is straightforward and easy to use, making it a great choice for new sellers and experienced users alike. In addition to accepting more payment types than most other payment gateways, it is also one of the very few to accept PayPal.
Authorize.Net makes it easy for its customers to use their existing merchant account with its payment gateway. However, the company also offers an all-in-one package that includes both a merchant account and a payment gateway. Both options offer users a host of other features, including recurring payments, invoicing, fraud prevention filters, customer information management, mobile payments, a virtual point-of-sale (POS) system, and an optional card reader.
In addition to the features listed below, both Authorize.Net plans offer the option to add an account updater for recurring payments and the ability to accept electronic checks for additional costs. There are no setup fees for either plan.
Payment Gateway Only
- $25 per month
- $0.10 per transaction
- $0.10 daily batch fee
- Fraud prevention
- Customer information manager
- Recurring payments
- Invoicing
- Simple checkout
All-in-One Option
- $25 per month
- 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction
- All Payment Gateway Only features
How We Chose the Best Payment Gateways
We looked at over a dozen payment gateways for this review. At the top of our list were providers that offered support for the most payment types. We balanced these features with cost since not every business needs to offer its customers every type of payment option.
Integrations were also important in our review, and we made sure to choose software that worked easily with major e-commerce and POS systems. Finally, since the benefits a payment gateway provides to a merchant can be negated if a customer doesn’t feel safe sharing their payment information, we made sure to choose gateways with strong reputations and security features. As customers look for easier ways to pay and businesses seek easier ways to sell, payment gateways will provide the security and opportunities both need.
Conclusion
Online payment platforms have been a revolution for online businesses in the past decade. Ever since ecommerce has become a mainstream consumers no longer want to walk into a store and buy something. They would rather buy products off your website, or mobile apps. It’s much more convenient, they don’t have to deal with crowds and you can even offer special deals that would be impossible otherwise.
The best payment apps for ecommerce let people make purchases and receive money quickly, easily and securely. There are also many options available that allow you to accept payments from around the world. This makes an e-commerce business more viable to a wider customer base.