9 Best Payment Gateways of 2026

Stripe is the most complete toolkit on this list for selling online. One integration gives you hosted Checkout pages, no-code Payment Links and Elements components for a custom card form, and Stripe says it supports 100+ payment methods and 135+ currencies. Radar screens payments with machine learning trained across its network, and Link fills saved details for returning buyers. Standard US card payments cost 2.9% plus 30 cents with no monthly fee; cards typed into the Dashboard or taken by phone cost 3.4% plus 30 cents because they carry more fraud risk. Payouts run on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, and Stripe documents Instant Payouts and next-day settlement as options. The cost of that breadth is complexity: Billing, Tax and Invoicing are separate products with their own fees, and a fully custom checkout needs a developer. For a team that sells online and expects to grow into subscriptions or new countries, it is the safest default.

Square suits businesses that sell in more than one place. The Free plan includes an online store or ordering site, invoices, payment links and a point of sale app, so a market stall, a booking business and a web shop can all run from one account. Online card payments cost 3.3% plus 30 cents on Free and 2.9% plus 30 cents on Plus and Premium, while payments through its Payments API cost 2.9% plus 30 cents on every plan. Invoices can be paid by ACH at 1% with a $1 minimum, and Afterpay lets shoppers pay in four installments while you are paid in full, at 6% plus 30 cents. Square transfers funds to an outside bank free the next business day or instantly for a fee, and sales land instantly in a Square Checking account. It is less suited to complex international selling than Stripe or Adyen, and keyed cards cost 3.5% plus 15 cents.

Helcim is the value pick for a business with real card volume. Instead of a flat rate, it passes through the interchange cost set by the card networks and adds its own margin, which for keyed and online payments starts at 0.50% plus 25 cents under $50,000 a month and steps down at $50,000, $100,000, $500,000 and $1 million. The pricing page lists $0 account monthly fees, $0 PCI fees and $0 cancellation fees, with next-business-morning deposits on credit and debit transactions at no charge. Tools cover online checkout, payment pages and links, a virtual terminal, invoicing, a card vault and recurring payments, which cost an extra 0.4% per transaction. Chargebacks are free when resolved in your favor and $15 if lost. The trade-off is predictability: interchange varies by card type, so each sale costs a slightly different amount, and the platform has fewer global payment methods than Stripe or Adyen.

PayPal earns its place through checkout reach rather than price. Adding PayPal Checkout puts PayPal, Venmo and Pay Later buttons on your store, and guest checkout lets buyers pay by card without an account. Fees depend on how the buyer pays: standard credit and debit card payments cost 2.99% plus a fixed fee, PayPal Checkout and Venmo cost 3.49% plus a fixed fee, and Pay Later costs 4.99% plus a fixed fee. The US dollar fixed fee is 49 cents. Merchants who integrate Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments pay 2.89% plus the fixed fee, and charities get lower rates. International transactions add a percentage on top of the domestic rate. Funds can be moved instantly to an eligible bank or debit card for 1.50% of the amount, or by standard transfer. PayPal is easy to add through almost any store builder, but at 3.49% for wallet payments it is one of the costlier ways to take money online.

Braintree is the gateway PayPal sells to businesses that want to build their own checkout. One integration handles credit and debit cards, third-party digital wallets, PayPal and Venmo, and the fee table on Braintree's US page lists 2.89% plus 29 cents for cards and wallets for standard merchants. ACH direct debit costs 0.75% capped at $5 on the standard schedule, or 1.5% plus 10 cents for same-day processing, which makes it attractive for higher-value orders. Venmo transactions cost 3.49% plus 49 cents and PayPal transactions follow PayPal's merchant fees. Charges presented in a non-USD currency or on cards issued outside the US each add 1%, and chargebacks cost $15. Established businesses can ask for custom flat rates or interchange plus. Use requires an application and approval by PayPal, and the product is aimed at teams with developers rather than owners clicking through a store builder.

Adyen is built for merchants that sell at scale across borders. Its pricing page explains the model plainly: every transaction carries a fixed processing fee of $0.13 plus a fee set by the payment method, and there are no setup or monthly fees. Card payments use Interchange++, so you see the interchange and scheme costs passed through rather than a blended rate, which usually suits high-volume businesses with a mix of card types. The payment method explorer lists local options by country, from card schemes and wallets to installment and buy now, pay later methods such as Affirm. Adyen also offers flexible payouts, letting you pick when and in which currency you settle. The platform covers online, in-app and point of sale payments in one contract. For a small store it is overkill: onboarding runs through sales, and the $0.13 fixed fee plus percentage adds up on small baskets.

Paddle is not a gateway in the narrow sense: it acts as merchant of record, so it sells to your customer, collects sales tax and VAT, files and remits it, and pays you the balance. For a software or digital product company selling worldwide, that removes the need to register for tax in many countries. The pay-as-you-go plan costs 5% plus 50 cents per Checkout transaction with no monthly, migration or hidden fees, and includes checkout, subscriptions, multiple currencies, fraud protection, chargeback handling and support for buyers asking about charges or cancellations. Paddle also sends international invoices for B2B sales. High-volume businesses can ask for custom pricing. The headline rate is roughly double a plain card gateway, so the math works when tax compliance and support would otherwise cost you time or fees. It is designed for SaaS, apps, games and digital goods, not physical ecommerce.

Checkout.com competes with Adyen for large online merchants. Its Unified Payments API connects cards, wallets and local payment methods, and the pricing page lists processing in 150+ currencies with domestic coverage in 45+ countries, which matters for approval rates on cross-border sales. Checkout options include a Hosted Payment Page for a low-code start and Flow components for a custom checkout, and the platform adds machine learning fraud detection, authentication, network tokens, a real-time account updater and payouts to bank accounts and cards. Pricing is not published as a rate card: you choose between a fully flat rate set by your business profile and risk category or interchange++ with granular scheme and processor costs, and you get a quote from sales. The page lists no setup fees, no account maintenance fees and free processing for registered charities. Small businesses will find the sales-led onboarding slow, and there is no self-serve price to compare.

Authorize.net is the established choice for businesses whose cart or billing software expects it. The All-in-one plan bundles a merchant account and gateway for $25 per month plus 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, with no setup or early termination fees; gateway-only and eCheck plans are also offered for businesses that already have a merchant account. Features include a Virtual Terminal for phone orders, digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, Automated Recurring Billing, digital invoicing, a Customer Information Manager for stored cards and an Advanced Fraud Detection Suite with custom rules. Live support is available 24/7 by phone, which many processors on this list do not offer to small accounts. The drawback is cost: the card rate matches Stripe while adding $25 a month, and the checkout tools feel dated next to Stripe or Square. Pick it when an existing integration or a reseller relationship already points you there.