What is a payment gateway anyhow? Simply put, a payment gateway is a smart tool that helps to process credit card transactions every time someone buys an item online. Online payment gateways give savvy business owners and e-commerce websites a way to bypass complex analytics and banking systems. Whether you’ve got an online website or a simple eCommerce shop selling hand-made items, you want the payment process to go as smoothly as possible. And an easy checkout is essential to good conversion rates.
But which WordPress payment gateway suits your specific online shop the best? This article is here to help you make the right choice. We’ll go through our top picks of payment gateways and explore their pros and cons. Let’s get started.
- PayPal – the Most Popular Payment Gateway
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The PayPal brand has a big following. And for a good reason. This popular payment gateway can accept payments in almost every currency and is available across the world. Plus, it offers a plethora of convenient features to its users. You can split the payments, submit checks using your smartphone’s camera, etc.
PayPal’s payment gateway services are used even by huge enterprises like Google Play and eBay. So they must be good. Processing almost 10 million payments a day, PayPal is also a trusted choice to thousands of small businesses.
The main obstacle to using the PayPal payment gateway for many small eCommerce enterprises has been the almost 3% of commission per every transmission. But luckily, once you start processing over $30,000 per month, the fees will get reduced. Of course, $30,000 is not the smallest sum, but it’s completely achievable even for a small business.
If you choose to add a PayPal button to your apps, it’s super easy. PayPal even provides you with a script to get started. The simple set up is why both android and iOS app developers often choose PayPal over other payment gateway providers.
- Braintree
Braintree has been so successful that PayPal bought the company already in 2013. It now provides an advanced payment gateway service in more than 35 countries.
One of the primary reasons why companies with some of the coolest apps (Airbnb, Uber, etc.) are integrating card payments via Braintree, is its speed. Almost every other payment gateway takes about 2-3 business days to process a credit card payment. Braintree does the same job in only two days. Plus, users love how easy it is to operate this gateway. It only takes a few taps to complete the payment.
As far as app integration goes, Braintree supports many programming languages, but the set up is a bit more complicated than PayPal’s. Before you can accept any payments, you need to initialize Braintree’s JavaScript file Braintree.jv.
Just like Paypal, Braintree charges 2.9% + €0.30 for each successful transaction.
But what type of company would benefit the most from picking Braintree? Well, Braintree’s state-of-the-art security system makes it especially suitable for online casinos. If you’re running a site offering entertainment like 50 free spins, you’d want a gateway that’s able to detect fraud and provide an extra layer of security. Braintree does all that.
- Stripe
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Check this out: Stripe now handles payments in over 90 different currencies. But that’s not all. It also supports Bitcoin transactions. Plus, Stripe simplifies API management, which makes it a favorite gateway among many developers.
Why should you choose over a more popular option like PayPal, for example? Well, Stripe comes with a unique advantage. If you should decide to go with another payment gateway at some point, then you can safely transfer the sensitive credit card data to the new gateway.
As most eCommerce payment gateways, Stripe takes a 2.9% + 30 cents for every transmission.
- Payline
Payline is famous for being a highly efficient WordPress payment gateway with online solutions connecting to over 150 shopping carts. And obviously, it also comes with mobile solutions to install on your smartphone apps. The cool thing is that Payline can also be integrated with QuickBooks to make your company’s finances simpler and manage the payrolls. In turn, you can configure QuickBooks to Google Sheets integration and keep your finance data management clean.
Payline’s gateway’s transaction fees are a bit unique. There’s a monthly fee of $20 for a month. Plus 0.3% plus 20 cents per every transaction.
- Adyen
Microsoft and Spotify trust Adyen to handle transactions between customers and their business. The software gives you tools to track your results and manage the possible risks. But the most impressive thing about Adyen is probably its ability to accept over 150 different currencies and over 200 ways of paying. This gateway also provides you with data for valuable insights into customer behavior. You can then tweak your products according to your customers’ buying patterns.
Adyen also comes with fraud protection and is fully certified for the European regulations for online payments.
A big plus for Adyen is that the transaction fees are pretty small (only $0.12).
Conclusion
With over $1 trillion of mobile payments made, it’s time to get in on this trend and integrate a payment gateway to your latest app. Use this article as a guide to figure out the most trustworthy and easy-to-use gateway for your specific business. Picking a service trusted by big companies like eBay or Facebook guarantees that the integration process will solve any payment challenges.
Another factor to consider when choosing a gateway is its design. If you’re in the middle of two good choices, you should opt for the one that looks the most similar to your app’s interface. A consistent style communicates trustworthiness. So take the next step and choose a payment gateway for your online enterprise. The right choice enhances the shopping experience for your customers and boosts your revenue. And what could be better?
Thomas Glare
Thomas Glare is a web developer and app designer. He has specialized in WordPress websites and has been building them for almost ten years now. He believes in a customer-centric approach and builds his sites around enhancing the experience for the visitors. Whether it's design elements, the content, or payment gateways, Thomas has been able to boost numerous companies' revenues by making their online presence more user-friendly.
