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Helcim
Best for Business software integrations
Payment processing fees
In-person:
0.4% + $0.08
Online: 0.5% + $0.25
Online: 0.5% + $0.25
Plus interchange
Monthly fee
$0
on Helcim's website
Pros
- Can access Helcim’s rates across different business software programs.
- Enables direct purchases on social media.
- Repeat customers can create accounts to save their payment info.
- Has a mobile-first design.
Cons
- Subscription payments cost an extra 0.4% per transaction.
- Payment methods limited to cards and digital wallets.
- Doesn’t let you use a custom domain name.
In January 2026, Helcim released a unique feature called Payment Extension. The browser extension lets you use Helcim’s payment gateway across different business software programs. Those include QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, Zoho, WooCommerce and Vagaro among other options. Ultimately, the tool gives you broader access to Helcim’s interchange-plus online processing.
The interchange-plus model passes interchange fees straight to the business as opposed to charging the same flat rate for every card. As a result, higher-volume businesses often save in processing costs.
Helcim also lets you create an online store in just a few steps. After syncing your product library, you can use its built-in payment gateway to complete sales. Customers can enter their info on your website’s checkout form, pay via payment link or even check out on Instagram.
Pros
- Can access Helcim’s rates across different business software programs.
- Enables direct purchases on social media.
- Repeat customers can create accounts to save their payment info.
- Has a mobile-first design.
Cons
- Subscription payments cost an extra 0.4% per transaction.
- Payment methods limited to cards and digital wallets.
- Doesn’t let you use a custom domain name.
In January 2026, Helcim released a unique feature called Payment Extension. The browser extension lets you use Helcim’s payment gateway across different business software programs. Those include QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, Zoho, WooCommerce and Vagaro among other options. Ultimately, the tool gives you broader access to Helcim’s interchange-plus online processing.
The interchange-plus model passes interchange fees straight to the business as opposed to charging the same flat rate for every card. As a result, higher-volume businesses often save in processing costs.
Helcim also lets you create an online store in just a few steps. After syncing your product library, you can use its built-in payment gateway to complete sales. Customers can enter their info on your website’s checkout form, pay via payment link or even check out on Instagram.
Square
Best for Built-in POS system
Payment processing fees
In-person:
2.6% + $0.15
Online: 3.3% + $0.30
Online: 3.3% + $0.30
Monthly fee
$0
for Free plan; $49 Plus plan; $149 Premium plan.
on Square's website
Pros
- Sells a variety of POS hardware devices, including registers, for in-person payments.
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Can sell directly on social media.
- Repeat customers can create accounts.
Cons
- Need a paid plan to connect with a custom domain and sell subscriptions.
Square is consistently one of our editorial team’s top POS system picks. Its free POS features and easy setup make for a low barrier to entry, whether you’re a retailer, service-based business or cafe.
Its free plan includes basic reporting, invoicing, social media integrations, Google Reviews monitoring and low-stock alerts. The plan also helps you build your own website for online selling. And you get access to Square’s payment gateway as a result.
Square excels when it comes to in-person payment options as well. You’ll find card readers, handheld terminals and countertop registers. A robust hardware selection is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses.
Pros
- Sells a variety of POS hardware devices, including registers, for in-person payments.
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Can sell directly on social media.
- Repeat customers can create accounts.
Cons
- Need a paid plan to connect with a custom domain and sell subscriptions.
Square is consistently one of our editorial team’s top POS system picks. Its free POS features and easy setup make for a low barrier to entry, whether you’re a retailer, service-based business or cafe.
Its free plan includes basic reporting, invoicing, social media integrations, Google Reviews monitoring and low-stock alerts. The plan also helps you build your own website for online selling. And you get access to Square’s payment gateway as a result.
Square excels when it comes to in-person payment options as well. You’ll find card readers, handheld terminals and countertop registers. A robust hardware selection is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses.
Stripe
Best for Customizable payment gateway
Payment processing fees
In-person:
2.7% + $0.05
Online: 2.9% + $0.30
Online: 2.9% + $0.30
Monthly fee
$0
on Stripe's website
Pros
- Superior customizability (if you have coding experience).
- Can sell in AI chats.
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Link accelerated checkout lets repeat customers save their payment info.
Cons
- $10 monthly fee to use a custom domain.
- Subscription payments cost an extra 0.7% of each transaction.
- Advanced fraud detection costs $10 and up per month.
If you don’t already have a website, Stripe isn’t going to help you build one. But its payment gateways are a solid choice for businesses with existing websites. That’s because Stripe’s gateways are meant to be customized and embedded. This gives you lots of creative control (if you want it).
Some of its solutions, like payment links, don’t involve any coding. Others, like embeddable checkout forms and checkout pages, require more effort. But if you already have a website you’re proud of, it can be worth hiring someone to do the coding work for you.
Pros
- Superior customizability (if you have coding experience).
- Can sell in AI chats.
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Link accelerated checkout lets repeat customers save their payment info.
Cons
- $10 monthly fee to use a custom domain.
- Subscription payments cost an extra 0.7% of each transaction.
- Advanced fraud detection costs $10 and up per month.
If you don’t already have a website, Stripe isn’t going to help you build one. But its payment gateways are a solid choice for businesses with existing websites. That’s because Stripe’s gateways are meant to be customized and embedded. This gives you lots of creative control (if you want it).
Some of its solutions, like payment links, don’t involve any coding. Others, like embeddable checkout forms and checkout pages, require more effort. But if you already have a website you’re proud of, it can be worth hiring someone to do the coding work for you.
Shopify Payments
Best for Built-in e-commerce tools
Payment processing fees
In-person:
2.6% + $0.10
Online: 2.9% + $0.30
Online: 2.9% + $0.30
Monthly fee
$39
Basic plan; $105 Shopify plan; $399 Advanced plan.
on Shopify's website
Pros
- Shop Pay lets repeat customers save their payment and shipping information.
- Payment methods include cards, PayPal, Cash App, digital wallets and buy now, pay later.
- Lets you sell directly on social media and in AI chats.
- All e-commerce plans include a custom domain name.
Cons
- Monthly subscriptions start at $39.
Shopify is an online-first POS system, payment processor and payment gateway provider. If you own an e-commerce business and haven’t built your website yet, it’s a great choice. The platform lets you choose from more than 1,000 website themes — all with built-in payment gateways.
Shopify doesn’t have a free monthly e-commerce plan, but the $39 option is packed with features. You’ll find shipping discounts (up to 87%), Shop Pay accelerated checkout, social media selling, more than 200 reports and inventory management in up to 10 locations.
Pros
- Shop Pay lets repeat customers save their payment and shipping information.
- Payment methods include cards, PayPal, Cash App, digital wallets and buy now, pay later.
- Lets you sell directly on social media and in AI chats.
- All e-commerce plans include a custom domain name.
Cons
- Monthly subscriptions start at $39.
Shopify is an online-first POS system, payment processor and payment gateway provider. If you own an e-commerce business and haven’t built your website yet, it’s a great choice. The platform lets you choose from more than 1,000 website themes — all with built-in payment gateways.
Shopify doesn’t have a free monthly e-commerce plan, but the $39 option is packed with features. You’ll find shipping discounts (up to 87%), Shop Pay accelerated checkout, social media selling, more than 200 reports and inventory management in up to 10 locations.
Finix
Best for High-volume businesses
Payment processing fees
In-person:
0% + $0.08
Online: 0% + $0.15
Online: 0% + $0.15
Plus interchange
Monthly fee
$250
and up; NerdWallet readers pay $79.
on Finix's website
Pros
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Can customize embeddable checkout for an existing website (if you have developer experience).
- Subscription pricing model can help high-volume businesses save.
Cons
- Monthly subscription fees start at $250 (or $79 for NerdWallet readers).
- Charges 0.3% extra for American Express transactions.
- Subscription billing costs an extra 0.4% per transaction.
Finix is one of my top picks for high-volume businesses because of its subscription pricing model. Its monthly fees are steep, but you get lower interchange-plus fees in exchange. This can be worth it for businesses processing $25,000 to $30,000 or more per month.
Finix has its own payment gateway, but it’s best for businesses that already have a website. Similar to Stripe, one of its only no-code options is payment links. Online checkout pages and embedded checkout forms may require developer experience.
Pros
- Payment methods include cards, digital wallets, Cash App and buy now, pay later.
- Can customize embeddable checkout for an existing website (if you have developer experience).
- Subscription pricing model can help high-volume businesses save.
Cons
- Monthly subscription fees start at $250 (or $79 for NerdWallet readers).
- Charges 0.3% extra for American Express transactions.
- Subscription billing costs an extra 0.4% per transaction.
Finix is one of my top picks for high-volume businesses because of its subscription pricing model. Its monthly fees are steep, but you get lower interchange-plus fees in exchange. This can be worth it for businesses processing $25,000 to $30,000 or more per month.
Finix has its own payment gateway, but it’s best for businesses that already have a website. Similar to Stripe, one of its only no-code options is payment links. Online checkout pages and embedded checkout forms may require developer experience.
Jump to
What is a payment gateway?
How we selected the best payment gateways
How do you set up a payment gateway?
Are payment gateways safe?
What’s the difference between a payment processor and a payment gateway?
How to choose the best payment gateway for your business
What is a payment gateway?
A payment gateway lets shoppers make online purchases. It kicks off this process by providing online checkout modules for customers and encrypting their data to keep it secure.
Then, the gateway passes card data to your payment processor. After some back-and-forth between your processor and banks, the payment gateway lets you know whether the transaction was approved or denied.
I like to think of a payment gateway as the online alternative to a POS terminal. If you sell online, you absolutely need one. Lots of payment processors have built-in payment gateways that require little to no extra work to set up.
How we selected the best payment gateways
To find the best payment gateways, I started with the pool of payment processing companies I review. Most have built-in payment gateways for accepting payments online.
I narrowed the list down to options that meet the following criteria:
- Skip the long-term contracts. If you choose the right gateway for you, contract lengths technically shouldn’t matter. Ideally, you’ll want to stick with that provider and avoid the hassle of transferring your data elsewhere. But I still tend to trust solutions that bill you on a monthly basis more than ones that lock you in for a year or more. In my experience, they also tend to be more transparent about additional fees.
- Don’t charge PCI compliance fees. It’s already more expensive to accept online transactions versus in-person ones. So, every extra fee counts. Payment gateway providers should help you maintain PCI compliance without charging extra. If your business becomes non-compliant, that’s a different story. Fees are fair in that case.
- Include fraud detection. All of the choices on the list meet modern security standards. They flag suspicious transactions, require customers to enter CVV codes and cross-reference billing addresses. They also use up-to-date encryption practices to protect customers’ card data.
- Offer no-code or low-code options. Not all businesses have access to someone with developer experience. That’s where plug-and-play payment gateways come in. Most of the options above help you set up an e-commerce site that already includes a checkout form (or redirects customers to one). Others, like Stripe and Finix, let you send payment links if you want to avoid coding.
Since the payment gateway providers in the list are also processors, I took other payment features into account too. Those include in-person payment options, POS software plans and pricing structure.
How do you set up a payment gateway?
Payment gateway setup depends on whether you redirect customers to a hosted checkout page or embed a customized checkout module.
Most of the payment gateways I chose have fully hosted options. That means the gateway provider handles software updates, PCI compliance and the overall payments infrastructure. This makes for a simple and straightforward setup process.
For example, if you want to enable online payments through Shopify, you enter your business’s tax ID and bank account information in your account settings. From there, you can choose which payment methods you’d like to let customers use. Aside from standard card payments, that could include digital wallets and buy now, pay later options.
The downside to hosted options is that they often redirect customers away from your website. However, this often takes just a second or two. And you can usually add your business’s logo and colors to the checkout form to maintain branding.
Providers like Stripe offer a larger variety of checkout options with varying complexity. You’ll find hosted checkout pages as well as embeddable checkout forms. The latter requires more coding. But it can also create a more seamless checkout flow, since customers don’t have to leave your online shop to pay.
Are payment gateways safe?
The short answer is yes. Most reputable payment gateways follow similar safety protocols.
Still, it’s important to understand what each security feature entails. You should also check to make sure your payment gateway automatically activates these measures. This is typically the case, but you can sometimes change your preferences in the gateway settings.
Here are the security measures to know:
- Transport Layer Security (TLS): This protocol encrypts customers’ information so that the payment gateway can safely pass it along to the processor.
- Card verification value (CVV) input: Online customers must enter the CVV code on the back of their card to make a purchase. Even if a customer opts to create an account on your site, the payment gateway should never save their CVV.
- Address Verification Service (AVS): When a transaction is being authorized, banks check to make sure the billing address matches the one that’s on file for that card.
- Fraud detection tools: These vary somewhat from product to product. Some use machine learning, and others let you create your own security rules. Regardless, they provide an extra layer of security by flagging suspicious transactions. And these systems don’t just flag transactions for failing CVV or AVS checks. They may also flag transactions that are unusually large, have an unfamiliar shipping address or come from an IP address that doesn’t match the billing address location.
All of the choices in the list meet each of these standards. Some, like Stripe, offer more advanced security tools on top of them. For example, you can pay extra for features like 3D Secure, which asks customers to authenticate potentially suspicious purchases. This isn’t necessary for all businesses. But you might consider it if you do a lot of international transactions or sell expensive items.
What’s the difference between a payment processor and a payment gateway?
A payment processor communicates with banks and card networks to help finalize transactions. It works almost entirely in the background. Payment gateways interact more directly with customers by providing a secure place for them to enter their card data.
Once that happens, the payment gateway passes that data to the payment processor. The processor essentially takes over from there. The payment gateway doesn’t come back into play until the processor lets it know whether the transaction was approved or denied.
How to choose the best payment gateway for your business
Follow these steps to find the right payment gateway for your business.
1. Assess fees
Unlike setup or hardware fees, payment processing costs don’t go away. They’re ongoing. So, it’s important to choose the right pricing model for your business.
For example, options with interchange-plus pricing, like Helcim and Finix, are better for higher-volume businesses. To compare fees across interchange-plus and flat-rate providers, use our credit card processing fees calculator.
Also consider monthly subscription fees. Square, for example, has both free and paid plans. The choice will depend on which features you need. If you’d like to connect your payment gateway to a custom domain, you’ll need the $49-per-month Plus plan. Same goes for if you’re selling subscriptions.
2. Decide whether you need to sync with in-person payment options
All of the solutions listed have in-person payment options, but they vary. Square and Shopify, for instance, have the largest POS hardware selections. You’ll find card readers, handheld terminals and countertop registers.
Helcim, Stripe and Finix focus more on card readers. These can be sufficient for service-based businesses and solopreneurs. But businesses with a brick-and-mortar location will likely need at least one countertop register.
3. Choose between a plug-and-play or coded option
This decision impacts two factors:
- Ease of setup.
- Checkout form customizability.
Plug-and-play, or built-in, options (e.g., Square, Helcim, Shopify) are simple to set up. And they do the job for most small businesses. That said, if you sell almost entirely online, I’d go with Shopify over Square or Helcim, because it has more customizable templates.
You don’t have to do much more than you would already to set up your processing service. And plug-and-play options help you build your e-commerce site using templates. These providers typically let you adjust your brand colors and upload your brand logo too. But the creative control often stops there.
If you’d like to custom build your checkout form and embed it on an existing website, you’re in for more work. Stripe and Finix are best in this case. Just know you’ll need to do some coding (or hire someone who can). This involves a larger time commitment and, if you hire it out, more money.
4. Consider your preferred sales channels and payment methods
All of the choices in the list let you accept most credit cards and some digital wallets. If you want to sell on social media, though, your options are limited to Square, Shopify and Helcim.
If other payment methods, like Afterpay, appeal to you, don’t forget to check corresponding transaction rates. Finix, for example, charges 6% plus 30 cents per Afterpay transaction.
» MORE: Cheapest payment gateways
Methodology
NerdWallet independently reviews payment processing companies before determining our top picks. We collect the data for our software ratings from products’ public-facing websites and from company representatives. Our editorial team reviews information on a regular basis for consistency and accuracy.
We also periodically update our scoring system to reflect changing industry norms and business needs. For instance, in 2026, we dropped the “free trials” category from our rubric. Payment processing systems can be time-consuming to set up. Testing out multiple products isn’t an ideal approach. Instead, we recommend taking cost and features into consideration.
NerdWallet’s ratings of payment processing providers reward companies whose products and services are priced well and work in a variety of payment scenarios, among other criteria.
Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including overall cost, hardware and software options, system capabilities, customer service, contract requirements and integrations. Learn more about how we rate payment processing providers.
These ratings are a guide, but fees, hardware, software and contract requirements can vary widely from business to business and provider to provider. We encourage you to shop around and compare several providers.
NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
