What are the Best Payment Gateways for Ecommerce Store?

E-commerce has gained momentum to become a crucial part of the global retail framework. Having realized what they are capable of accomplishing with few clicks, people have become unstoppable. Whether an avid shopper or not, customers are constantly on the lookout for having an extraordinary shopping experience. Thus, the need for a smooth checkout cannot be compromised which calls for a high-quality payment gateway integration into a website. 

A payment gateway is the service software responsible for authorizing transactions done via credit and debit cards, digital wallets, UPI etc. It is mainly responsible for transmitting transaction information to acquiring banks and responses from issuing banks. As cashless economies are becoming mainstream, the ability to support multiple payment gateways for e-commerce websites has become a critical factor in determining the Point of Sales. Since high-value transactions are now a part of the day-to-day activity, the payment channel in place can greatly influence the success of any online business. 

Features to look for in a good online payment gateway

• Security – Assurance of secure payments is a pivotal factor for choosing a payment gateway. A reliable e-com business does not put its customer’s financial information in the wrong hands. Customers can shop confidently only when the risk of data theft is reduced to its minimum. Thus, it becomes of foremost importance that the transaction services must be tokenized, SHA-256 SSL data encrypted and PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant. Other fraud prevention tools further strengthen the security of the transactions.
• Customer Experience – Securing a seamless payment experience is incredibly important. The whole shopping experience can be ruined due to the lack of a swift payment processing and can directly impact the sales by driving customers away from your site. If shoppers don’t trust your payment methods or if the checkout looks suspicious, their wallets are likely to stay closed. To corroborate a positive experience, the payment gateway must be optimized such that customers shop hassle-free from their respective gadgets.

• Multi-currency Support – A payment gateway that facilitates worldwide payment acceptance is very likely to be chosen over others as we live in a world where the global market is open to trade. E-commerce businesses may be required to settle international transactions in their local currency making multi-currency support an indispensable factor for selection.
• Merchant Onboarding – Cost and speed matter when considering merchant onboarding. The setup and processing cost should be competitive enough to fit in the merchant’s budget. The Onboarding process is necessary to ensure the authenticity of the participating merchants which involves checking for KYC compliance, determining creditworthiness and finally completing the activation process. However, the payment gateway service must allow a digitized onboarding and verification offering to begin transacting with the customers sooner.
• Payment Options – Gone are the days when cash on delivery used to be the most popular choice for making payments. The world has now shifted to cashless payment methods necessitating the need of multiple payment options for shoppers. Limited payment options can lead to cart abandonment at checkout causing the business to lose customers.

Now that you know the parameters to consider while choosing a payment gateway, the next task calls for picking the best one among the plenty of names you have probably been hearing of.

Wouldn’t your efforts be reduced if someone handed you a list of the most popular online payment gateways?

Hang on! We have it right here for you.

Check out the below curated list of top payment gateways that can add to the convenience of your customers while minimizing the risk of cybersecurity failures.

1. PayPal

Established in 1998 by Max Levchin and Peter Theil, PayPal was formerly known as Confinity. This digital payment platform became popular back in 2002 when eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5bn. Since the year 2015, it has been operating as an independent company which is well-known for its secure services and ease of use. PayPal payment gateway lets you set a default payment option which will be used automatically every time you make a payment unless you choose otherwise. In cases when the default option is unavailable, PayPal will suggest the preferred payment option determined on the basis of frequency of use. PayPal’s pricing policy can be a bit complex to understand at first due to the charging structure it follows while dealing with international payments. It proves to be simpler to set-up for e-commerce, but more expensive if you want to build it on your website.

Charges

• Account set-up fees and annual maintenance charges are zero.
• Charge per transaction is 5.4% + 0.30 USD + currency conversion charges (if any) up to 3.5 %.
• Special pricing packages like preferred rates and micropayment rates are available based on the transaction amount involved.
• There’s no fee to withdraw part or all of your PayPal balance to your bank account for most of the countries. However, in India, if the withdrawal fails, there’ll be a withdrawal return fee.

Highlights

• A spectrum of payment methods includes PayPal Cash or PayPal Cash Plus account balance, a bank account, PayPal Credit, debit or credit cards and rewards balance.
• Transfers to bank accounts usually take 1-5 days depending on the bank’s clearing process.
• Account verification process time varies according to the country you live in. In the US it takes 2-3 business days while in other countries it may take a bit longer.
• Allows international settlements by supporting 26 currencies for use with payments and as currency balances.
• PayPal offers customer care services through FAQs, chat support and call.

2. Razorpay

Razorpay is a widely used Indian payment gateway founded by Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur in 2013. Headquartered in Bangalore, it caters to over 3,50,000 merchants that include unicorn start-ups like OYO, Zomato, Swiggy as well as large enterprises like Airtel and IRCTC. Merchant accounts can start receiving payments immediately after the verification process gets completed. What attracts people to use the Razorpay payment gateway is the transparency it maintains. It charges no hidden fees and lays out clear pricing policies. Razorpay is the only converged payments solution company in India that allows your business to accept, process, and disburse payments via its product suite. 

Charges

• No set-up charges, no withdrawal fees, no annual maintenance charges.
• For domestic cards, net banking and wallets the payment gateway fee charged is always 2% along with 18% GST on the fee. For international, Diners and Amex cards the payment gateway fee charged is 3% along with 18% GST on the fee.

Highlights

• Razorpay provides an abundance of payment options like Credit and Debit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Rupay, AMEX, Diners), Net Banking from top 50+ banks, UPI (Web Collect & UPI Intent), Online Wallets, EMI and NEFT/RTGS payments.
• It does not have multi-currency support. All settlements are done in INR.
• The standard settlement cycle for international payments is T+7 and for India it is T+3 working days (where T is the date of transaction capture). Working days do not include second and fourth Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.
• Post document submission, it takes up to 4-5 business days for the KYC review process.
• Customer Care services via email and live chat, call support-receive callback, dashboard guide-grievance ticket and FAQs are available.

3. Stripe

Stripe is a US-based payment gateway founded by the Irish brother entrepreneurs John and Patrick Collison in 2010. Its former name was /dev/payments. This is the first payment gateway that made everything so simplified by offering a set of technologically sophisticated APIs and UI toolkit to developers. Stripe can be difficult for its non-technical users but due to its platform flexible APIs, it can be easily used to integrate payment processing into web or mobile applications. 

A stripe is an affordable option that besides card payments, provides a facility of setting recurring billing and direct debit services. But it comes with limited in-person payment options.

Charges

• No charges for account set-up, maintenance, monthly minimum usage or cancellation.
• Flat rate transaction charges of 2% for Indian cardholders and 3% for International card holders. The international charge goes higher than 3% depending on the country.

Highlights

• Comes with payment method APIs that allow accepting a variety of credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets including Mastercard, Visa, JCB, UnionPay, Discover, and American Express, which are popular worldwide. Alternate options like the American Express Checkout, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Masterpass, ACH transfers, etc. are also available.
• The ownership verification time involved after account creation and document submission takes 1-3 business days to complete.
• Stripe payment gateway supports processing charges in 135+ currencies which helps in charging customers in their native currency while receiving funds in merchant’s currency easing out the whole process of settling payments globally and driving sales. 
• Considering the settlement cycle, Stripe’s first payout for a new account is intentionally delayed to mitigate certain risks inherent in providing credit services. It can take 7-14 business days for successfully receiving the payment.

• Stripe used to attend user queries only through email support for a long but now it has included 24*7 phone and chat support.

4. Braintree

Payment gateway provider Braintree is a PayPal company thus, it also allows its users to pay using PayPal. Braintree is available only for merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR China, Malaysia, and New Zealand but it covers the buyers all across the globe. The programming of Braintree payment gateway is different, and can integrate with a large network of e-commerce platforms, invoicing software, analytics apps and plugins. 

Charges

• No monthly fees or transaction processing amount charges involved.

• Standard price of 2.9% + $.30 per card or digital wallet transaction is applicable and an extra $0.15 fee per AMEX transaction.
• Large enterprise businesses processing more than $80K per month can avail their volume pricing option. 

Highlights

• Most US merchants can accept payments through PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and most credit and debit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and Diner’s Club.
• Verification process begins immediately after account creation but it is likely to take at least a day to receive any update on the review status.
• Payment for US merchants, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover transactions are usually settled into a bank account within 2-3 business days. American Express transactions are typically deposited in 3-5 days or less.
• Braintree has the availability of integrating both single and multi-currency setups. It accepts payments in over 130 currencies which is great for accepting payments from a huge international customer base.
• Issue resolution is provided through a detailed FAQ, multiple support articles, guides, calls and emergency/normal emails. Extended support of a working Friday is available only for US and Canada customers. 

5. Authorize.Net

Since 1996, Authorize.Net has been the most versatile payment gateway for e-commerce business due to its ability to work with nearly any merchant account. It has the trust of more than 4,00,000 merchants. The major benefit offered by Authorize.Net payment gateway is the dedicated fraud detection suite and fraud support team. It is much more expensive than Stripe as it charges a lot of overhead costs.

Charges

• $49 set-up fee and a $25 monthly gateway fee.
• Chargebacks through Authorize.Net cost $25 each.
• Processing fee of 2.9% on transactions with an additional $0.30 per transaction.

Highlights

• Presents a variety of payment options ranging from debit cards, credit cards and eChecks to digital payments like Apple Pay, PayPal, and Visa.
• Authorize.Net claims to settle the transaction within 24 hours of capture.
• Provides multi-currency support.
• Customer queries are addressed through common questions list, chat, call and submission of online support cases.

6. Paytm

Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010 and is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Having the well known tagline ‘Paytm Karo’, it is the most widely used payment method among Indian small business owners. Well that doesn’t mean it is confined to micropayments. Paytm payment gateway handles a huge volume of high-value transactions on a daily basis. It offers several services like recharges for mobile, DTH, toll and data card as well as purchase of movie tickets, bus tickets, hotel reservations, flight tickets and amusement parks tickets to name a few. This service is used by Uber, Bookmyshow, Domino’s Pizza, Food Panda and many big companies.

Charges

• Zero set-up, account maintenance and withdrawal amount needed.
• Transaction Charges-Paytm pricing is based on the size of your business. For example, in case you run a medium-sized business, transaction charges applicable will be 1.99% plus GST.
• International payment charges are set at 2.9% excluding taxes.

Highlights

• Payment options supported are Paytm Wallet, Paytm Postpaid, Paytm Payments Bank, domestic debit and credit Cards(Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Rupay, Diners), NetBanking from top 50+ banks, UPI and EMI.
• It provides limited support in terms of International credit cards and multi-currency payments.
• Paytm KYC review process involves in-person verification by an authorized representative. Thus, it can take a minimum of 4-5 days to complete. 
• Transaction settlements get completed in a span of 1-3 days if no technical glitches are faced from the bank’s side.
• Customer support is provided in English and Hindi languages only. They provide 24*7 supports via email, chat and calls. 

8. Instamojo

Instamojo payment gateway came into existence in 2012 and has managed to acquire a huge customer base including companies like UrbanClap, Dunzo, Alt news, Adani Realty. With an active user base of more than 1 million, Instamojo is viewed as a distinct payment gateway due to its ease of merchant bank account creation without a website, payment processing speed and excellent level of security. 

Charges

• No set-up charges, annual maintenance or withdrawal fees involved.
• Flat-rate fee of 2% + Rs 3 + 18% GST applicable per transaction.
• International and American Express Cards will incur a transaction charge of 3% + Rs 3 + 18% GST.

Highlights

• Payments can be made through UPI, Debit/credit cards, net-banking support of over 60 banks, pay later, wallets and EMI options.
• At present, there is no provision of multi-currency support. All payments are processed in INR.
• Manual account verification takes only 2 days if the KYC documents match the details provided during signup.

• Payouts are processed regularly and settled to the merchant’s bank account in the next 3 days.
• Sending queries via email is the only way they offer customer support which is not something very impressive.

9. CCAvenue

Launched in the year 2001, CCAvenue is a reliable payment gateway of South Asia, especially India. It is easy to use, secure and provides web and app integration as well. The major advantage of using CCAvenue payment gateway is that it allows maximum of the payment modes and provides multilingual support. Placing it at a lower position on the list doesn’t make it any lesser than other Indian payment gateways.

Charges

• Zero set-up fees for Startup Pro Plan and Rs. 30,000 for Privilege Plan.
• Annual Maintenance Charges of Rs.1200.
• Transaction fees of 2% on domestic transactions and 3% on international payments. Taxes are also applicable.
• Minimum balance of Rs 1000 is to be maintained.

Highlights

• Offers over 100 payment options that include all domestic credit cards-MasterCard / Visa / Rupay, 58+ netbanking, 100+ debit cards, 10+ prepaid cards, wallets, 14+ bank EMI, UPI, International debit and credit cards.
• Even though the account becomes active after a few hours of sign-up, completing all the formalities and going live will take up to 4 days.
• The default settlement cycle takes T+2 or T+3 days where T stands for the day payment is captured. Apart from this, there is express settlement which is done within a few hours or you can choose early settlement but that is subject to additional charges.
• CCAvenue provides multi-currency support in 27 currencies. The accepted currencies (apart from rupee) include USD, Pound Sterling, Riyal, Dinar, Franc, Baht, Ringgit, Taka, Yen Shilling, Peso and South African Rand. 
• Customer grievances are handled through email, chat and calls on weekdays only.

Also, Read- Why Do you Need to Redesign your Existing Website?

Summing It Up

The discussion by far has made it clear how vital it is to have a quality payment gateway in place for raising your online business. The market has a hell lot of choices to offer in terms of payment gateway providers. Still, if you find none as capable to fit your business needs, the best solution would be to go for custom ecommerce development.

Unless you are a non-profit organization, it is always profitable to invest either in integrating a suitable third-party payment gateway or building your own payment portal for your e-commerce website. Reaching out to professionals will aid in investing in the right direction and help realize higher returns faster. If you are reading this, you have already found the best team with the needed domain expertise. Maven Cluster is a leading e-commerce development company in India that has delivered top-notch payment portal development and integration for various online businesses over the years. Together with our consultation and e-commerce website development services, we provide a complete payment gateway solution that will inspire trust, support multiple payment methods, and ensure security against fraudulent actions. Waiting any longer can shrink your opportunities, so call us now.