The best payment processing companies

Payment processors are key for every business that takes payments. We have touched on how to choose the right payment processor for your business, so now it’s about seeing what are the best options on the market. There is an overwhelming number of payment processors to choose from, each with their own set of functionalities.

We have put together a list of some of the best payment processing companies. You can connect to any of these companies through Imburse in a matter of just a few weeks:

• PayPal

PayPal is a distinguishable brand with more than 295 million PayPal customers worldwide. It allows merchants to accept one-off online payments as well as “Pay in 3” split payments, Recurring Payments and invoices.

You can also take card or contactless payments in person. For Card-Present transactions, merchants can either use a Zettle card reader or a QR code scanner. Besides the standard pricing, PayPal charges additional fees depending on currency conversion rates, where your business is based and where the payment was sent from (cross-border transactions have a separate fee).

• Stripe

Just like PayPal, Stripe also includes both payment gateway and payment processor. The company was founded in 2010 and it now powers a considerably long list of renowned brands including Lyft, Pinterest and Deliveroo. Stripe allows merchants to accept a wide range of debit and credit cards, mobile wallets and bitcoin wallets. Its “radar” feature uses machine learning software to monitor data, detect fraud patters and predict fraudulent activities.

In terms of pricing, Stripe offers a fixed fee per transaction of 1.4% +20p for European cards and 2.9% + 20p for non-European cards. You can choose between a fixed or customisable pricing plan that takes into account your volume of payments and country-specific rates, amongst other factors.

• GoCardless

GoCardless focuses exclusively on offering recurring payments for businesses. So, if your company deals with recurring payments on a regular basis, this may be a processor to look out for. Merchants can customise a pre-built hosted payments page or integrate it with their website checkout and allow customers to choose their own collection dates.

GoCardless promises to deliver 97.5% of successful collections and offers a Success+ features that collects an average of 76% of payments that initially fail. They also offer a bookkeeping feature that allows merchants to record and monitor all transactions in real-time. Because it’s a direct debit payment method, this naturally solves the issue of late payments and slow cash flows.

• Worldline

Worldline is a leading payments company in Europe and processes around €1.5 billion in transactions per annum. It operates in 29 countries and its clients come from a range of sectors, including health, transport, retail and finance. Besides the typical online payment methods, it offers a unique “Pay by Link” feature that lets merchants take payments through a link that can be sent via message or email to their customers. This may be a good additional feature to have if your company sells products via social media channels.

Wordline also offers customer support features such as video interaction tools and an omnichannel customer interface to optimise customer care, alongside more traditional monitoring features and risk management. Its fees are not published online, so companies have to contact Worldline directly for pricing information.

• Bottomline

Bottomline is a UK-based company that provides electronic payments, invoices and automation solutions to banks and corporations worldwide. It allows businesses to accept Bacs, Faster payments, cheques, international payments, direct debits and one-off payments between bank accounts. The payment processor comes with a range of features that include payment management, fraud detection and data analytics. Bottomline’s fees are not available online so, just like with Worldline, you would have to contact the company directly.

• Braintree

Braintree is owned by PayPal and promises to deliver higher conversion rates, larger customer reach and streamlined operations. It aims to be just as easy-to-use as PayPal itself and it holds a lot of additional features besides its processing service. Braintree supports credit or debit cards and mobile wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, which may be a good advantage if your customer base is mobile-driven.

Braintree’s standard pricing is a 1.9% + 20p fee per transaction, dependent on factors such as currency conversion and type of card. For American Express card payments, the fee changes to 2.4% + 0.20p, unless merchants have an Amex account themselves. Merchants also have to pay 1% more for transactions from cards issued outside the EU/EEA.

• Adyen

Adyen covers 18 payment methods including debit and credit card networks and mobile wallets. It has 24 offices around the world and processed €303.6 billion in volume in 2020- making it one of the most popular payment processors worldwide. Besides the processing services, Adyen offers a Point-of-Sale terminal range for physical branches and shops to take Card-Present payments, along with dashboards for data reporting and AI-based fraud protection tools.

In terms of pricing, the processing fee is fixed at €0.10 for Europe, Africa and Middle East, and $0.12 for Latin and North America. There is also a percentage per transaction fee that depends on the payment method used and can vary substantially.

How Imburse can help

Each payment processors have unique features and services that may be very valuable to your company. In order to fully optimise and scale your payments system, you may want to connect to various payment processors that offer all the features your customers are looking for.

Imburse offers connectivity to all payment processors worldwide, including those discussed above. This way, you can connect to the ones that best suit your business’s needs and add as many as you’d like to ensure best-in-class customer service at all times. Connecting to payment processors through Imburse takes a few minutes and is a cost-effective, hassle-free process. Reach out to us below if you would like to know more or request a free demo.