Payment Gateway Index

Authorize.Net

Veteran US/Canada payment gateway for merchants who already have (or want to bring) their own merchant account

Verdict: Pick Authorize.Net when you already have a favourable merchant-account relationship and need a battle-tested gateway with ARB and CIM — skip it if you want Stripe-tier developer experience or native 3DS2.

Checkout.com

Enterprise-grade global acquiring with custom-quote pricing — built for high-volume merchants, not first-time builders.

Verdict: Pick Checkout.com when you process meaningful volume (low-millions+ ARR), need local acquiring across UK/EEA/MENAP/APAC, and want negotiated interchange++ rates plus white-glove account management. Pick Stripe or Adyen Express otherwise.

Coinbase Commerce

Flat 1% crypto payment gateway — sunset March 31, 2026 and folded into Coinbase Business (US & Singapore only)

Verdict: As of April 2026, only pick Coinbase Commerce if you are a US- or Singapore-based merchant who can migrate to Coinbase Business; everyone else has been cut off and should use BitPay, NOWPayments, MoonPay, or Request Network instead.

FastSpring

Veteran Merchant of Record for SaaS, software, and digital goods with 20+ years of payments, tax, and subscription plumbing

Verdict: Pick FastSpring when you want a mature, enterprise-grade MoR with deep subscription tooling, localized payment methods in 200+ regions, and PCI Level 1 + SOC 2 Type 2 compliance — and you can stomach quote-based pricing that's meaningfully higher than transparent competitors like Paddle.

Flutterwave

Pan-African payment infrastructure — 34+ African licenses, card/bank/mobile-money/USSD in one API, plus US/UK/EU collections

Verdict: Pick Flutterwave if you're running cross-border across Africa (especially countries Paystack doesn't cover — Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Francophone, Ethiopia) or need mobile-money collections alongside cards; trade-offs are a noisier support experience, higher fees than Paystack in NG/GH/KE, and a track record of high-profile security incidents in 2023–2024.

Gumroad

Creator-focused Merchant of Record for digital products — fastest zero-to-first-sale, steep price at scale

Verdict: Pick Gumroad to validate a digital product in a weekend — migrate off before you scale. Not the right tool if you need a white-label checkout, reliable high-ticket economics, or responsive support.

Lemon Squeezy

Merchant of record platform for selling software, SaaS, and digital products with built-in global tax compliance

Verdict: Pick Lemon Squeezy when you want zero tax headaches and a fast setup for selling digital products or SaaS — it handles VAT, sales tax, and compliance as merchant of record so you don't have to, but expect higher effective fees and limited support if anything goes wrong.

Mercado Pago

Latin America's dominant fintech — Pix-native in Brazil, multi-country LATAM coverage (AR, BR, MX, CL, CO, PE, UY), Checkout Pro / Bricks / Transparent APIs, with deep e-commerce reach via parent Mercado Libre

Verdict: Pick Mercado Pago if you sell into Latin American consumers and need first-class Pix (Brazil), boleto, OXXO/Rapipago cash, and local card-installments — no other gateway combines that local-rails depth with 72M MAU brand recognition; trade-offs are an automated-risk system that closes accounts without human review, support-quality complaints across all markets, and per-country dashboards/pricing that fragment the integration story.

Mollie

Dutch PSP purpose-built for European e-commerce, with native iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA, and 30+ local methods in a single integration.

Verdict: Pick Mollie when you sell to European consumers from an EEA/UK/Swiss company and want clean per-method pricing, fast iDEAL/SEPA/Bancontact support, and a simpler API than Stripe — as long as you can tolerate an opaque risk team and plan a second provider as backup.

NOWPayments

Non-custodial crypto payment gateway with 350+ coins, flat 0.5% service fee, and the broadest altcoin list in the market — Seychelles-registered, explicitly closed to US residents.

Verdict: Pick NOWPayments when you are a non-US merchant who wants funds to land directly in your own wallet, needs to accept long-tail altcoins other gateways don't support, and is comfortable with a Seychelles entity, English-law ToS, broad discretionary account-freeze clauses, and support that is inconsistent on weekends.

Paddle

Merchant of Record platform handling payments, tax, and compliance for SaaS businesses globally

Verdict: Pick Paddle when you want to sell software globally without handling tax compliance, VAT filings, or chargeback disputes — the higher fee buys complete peace of mind for solo founders and small teams.

PayPal

The world's most recognized online payment platform with 430M+ active accounts across 200+ countries

Verdict: Pick PayPal when buyer trust, global brand recognition, and broad consumer adoption matter more than developer experience or low per-transaction fees — it's the default choice for e-commerce, digital goods, and businesses targeting mainstream consumers worldwide.

PayU

Prosus-owned India-focused payment aggregator with 130+ currency acceptance and a Turkey/SEA footprint

Verdict: Pick PayU if you're an India-registered merchant that needs the widest cross-border currency coverage of any local gateway and is willing to navigate a heavier KYC/onboarding process — but plan for support that's slower than Razorpay and a track record of long settlement holds.

Payhip

Simple creator storefront with low fees and a partial-MoR for EU/UK VAT only

Verdict: Pick Payhip if you want the cheapest beginner-friendly storefront for digital products, courses, or memberships — especially outside the US/UK/EU Stripe belt. Not the right pick if you need a full global Merchant of Record, a first-class REST API, or a white-label checkout.

Paystack

Africa's Stripe — clean API, Stripe-owned, regionally licensed across NG, GH, KE, ZA, CI (+ Egypt/Rwanda in rollout)

Verdict: Pick Paystack if you're an African business (especially NG/GH/KE/ZA/CI) that wants Stripe-grade developer experience for local payments — cards, mobile money, USSD, and bank transfers in one API; the trade-off is that merchant account reviews and settlement holds are a recurring complaint on NG accounts.

Polar

Open-source Merchant of Record billing built for developers selling SaaS and digital products

Verdict: Pick Polar when you want the cheapest Merchant of Record option (4% + 40¢) with the best developer experience in the category — ideal for indie hackers and small SaaS teams who value clean SDKs, open-source transparency, and global tax compliance over a long track record.

Razorpay

India's full-stack payments platform — UPI-native, RBI-regulated, with 100+ currency acceptance

Verdict: Pick Razorpay if you're registered in India (or Malaysia/Singapore via Curlec) and need native UPI, Autopay, and local payment methods — it's the default for Indian SaaS and D2C, but account-stability complaints are common enough to plan around.

Stripe

Developer-first payment infrastructure powering millions of businesses worldwide

Verdict: Pick Stripe when developer experience, API quality, and ecosystem breadth matter more than the lowest per-transaction fee — it's the default choice for SaaS, marketplaces, and subscription businesses.

Tap Payments

MENA payment gateway with full GCC licensing — local schemes (mada, KNET, Benefit, OmanNet, NAPS/QPay), wallets (Apple/Google/Samsung Pay, STC Pay), and BNPL (Tabby/Deema) under one integration

Verdict: Pick Tap Payments if your business is based in the GCC (KSA/KW/UAE/BH/QA/OM) and you need deep local payment-method coverage in one API — nobody else has full CBK/SAMA/CBUAE/CBB/QCB/CBO licensing plus KNET+mada+Benefit+OmanNet+NAPS+STC Pay in a single checkout; the trade-off is quote-based (opaque) card pricing and a consistent complaint pattern of settlement holds and slow support on Trustpilot/Sitejabber.

Whop

All-in-one creator commerce: communities, courses, and digital products

Verdict: Pick Whop if you sell access-based products (Discord/Telegram communities, courses, software licenses) and want a built-in marketplace plus an optional Merchant-of-Record mode — but be ready for strict risk controls and reserves.

Xendit

Southeast Asia's single API for cards, virtual accounts, e-wallets, QRIS/QRPH/PromptPay/DuitNow, retail OTC, BNPL, and cross-border payouts — built for Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore

Verdict: Pick Xendit if you sell into Indonesia or the Philippines and need virtual accounts, QRIS/QRPH, and every local e-wallet (OVO, DANA, GCash, Maya, ShopeePay) behind one SDK — trade-offs are a weaker static-token webhook model (vs HMAC elsewhere), heavy negative tail in merchant support reviews, and default T+7 settlement unless you pay for Early Settlement.