Payment Gateways for Magento 2: How to Choose & What to Consider

Online payment gateways work by providing a secure, integral link between a webshop server and a bank. When customers make purchases with credit or debit cards, they provide their pertinent data.

The payment gateway process works in the following way — it takes the submitted data and presents it to the processing bank that replies with a response, either accepted or declined. The expected payment gateway transfers this response back to the server when the relevant message is displayed to the customer.

• ✔ Cart compatibility;
• ✔ PCI-compliance;
• ✔ Payment gateway cost;
• ✔ Countries and currencies supported;
• ✔ Types of credit/debit cards supported;
• ✔ Virtual terminals;
• ✔ Hosted or shared payment gateway;
• ✔ Recurring payments;
• ✔ Fraud screening tools;
• ✔ Level of customer support.

Magento comes with a series of integrated secure payment gateways that can be activated by entering some data you can find out from your provider.

Nowadays, Magento allows out-of-the-box integrations with PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.Net payment service providers.

Magento 2 default payment methods

Anyway, the first thing to do is to define what markets you are going to work with and what payment methods and providers will work best at those markets.

Invest some time into research on which ones are preferred in your markets. This investment will pay for itself in the long run. It’s also a good idea to ask your customers directly what options are most suitable for them.

Apart from the above-listed prominent gateway providers, there are many other excellent ones for Magento out there. They can be integrated with your online shop by various extensions available on Magento Marketplace or a custom extension coded by a Magento development company if you use an existing payment gateway that Magento does not support.

Some payment gateways are international — cover many countries and support multiple currencies when others concentrate on specific regions like Europe or Asia.

Which one to choose depends on your business needs and your target audience. Let’s have a look at some of the most popular payment gateway providers.

PayPal

It’s one of the most popular and top-tier payment acquirers that constantly works on improving its services.

It currently has more than 377 million accounts worldwide with $21.4 billion of annual revenue in 2020. PayPal’s payment volume amounts to $936 billion and features 40 transactions per one user account.

Fee: 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction).

Business benefits:

• ✔ Internationally recognized payment type, which is currently a must-have for any online business;
• ✔ Robust prevention measures that ensure fewer chargebacks, less fraud, and customer complaints;
• ✔ A reliable security system that protects your purchasers’ financial and personal data;
• ✔ High conversion rates since your customers can place orders confidently knowing that they can return their order for free within 180 days of a dispute window.

Authorize.Net

Authorize.net is an unbelievably popular US payment gateway after it went primetime in 1996.

More than 430K merchants have already chosen the services of this company. Since then, the service provider has already accommodated billions of transactions. Its annual transaction volume is almost $150 billion.

Pricing plan #1 fee: $25 (monthly gateway) + 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction);

Pricing plan #2 fee: $25 (monthly gateway) + $0.10 (per transaction) + $0.10 (daily batch).

Business benefits:

• ✔ Perfect match for small, medium, and enterprise-sized businesses;
• ✔ Flexible automatic payment options, including monthly recurring and installment payments;
• ✔ Simple checkout functionality;
• ✔ Custom digital invoicing feature that makes it possible to send invoices by an email address.

Braintree

Braintree is an American payment service provider that enables merchants to accept online payments without a merchant bank.

Entrepreneurs in more than 45 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia can accept Braintree payments.

Fee: 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction). There is also an option of custom pricing based on your volume and business model.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Dedicated merchant account, which ensures safety and stability;
• ✔ Robust development tools that enable creating any sophisticated and customized checkout experience you’re dreaming of;
• ✔ Almost endless multi-currency options as the PSP supports more than 130 currencies worldwide.

Stripe

Stripe is an online payment processing infrastructure for retailers, subscription-based businesses, online marketplaces, etc.

Almost 2 million websites have already integrated Stripe that is available in 43 countries worldwide. In 2020, payments via Stripe achieved $350 billion, which is 7 times more than in 2017.

Fee: 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction). There is also an option of custom pricing based on your volume and business model.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Illimitable customization opportunities that allow creating a solution that completely meets your business needs;
• ✔ Excellent customer support;
• ✔ Easy-to-use solution.

Extension: Stripe Payments

Amazon Pay

Amazon offers a flexible and secure gateway to its merchants. The products are added to the shopping cart, and online customers can pay for the purchase at checkout with their Amazon account.

Fee: Amazon Pay fees for merchants

Business benefits:

• ✔ Must-have solution for businesses of any size that will result in the improved shopping experience and reduced cart abandonment rate;
• ✔ General usability and optimized checkout process;
• ✔ A rich toolset of features;
• ✔ Mobile-friendly user experience.

Extension: Amazon Pay

Fondy

It’s a comprehensive one-stop payment solution for cross-border commerce, marketplaces, and platforms that works both locally and internationally.

Fee: Fondy fees for merchants

Business benefits:

• • ✔ Flexible payments, such as pending purchases, invoices, past & split payments, refunds, recurring payments;
  • ✔ Customizable payment checkout to match your brand identity and image;
  • ✔ Multicurrency & multiparty payouts;
  • ✔ Instant settlements.

Extension: Fondy

2CheckOut

It is one of the most popular payment services globally, supporting transactions in 211 countries through 45 payment methods, 87 currencies, and 33 languages.

Fee: starting from 3.5% (per transaction) + $0.35 (per transaction). There is also an option of custom pricing based on your volume and business model.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Multiple localized payment options and recurring transactions available;
• ✔ Checkout options, including standard and inline;
• ✔ Robust security that protects from any kind of fraud for merchants and customers.

Extension: 2Checkout

Ingenico ePayments

Ingenico payment service (formerly Ogone), a France-based company, is a payment solution provider that offers its services in payment processing, mobile payments, security and fraud protection, multi-currency services to more than 170 countries, including 80 countries mainly in Europe.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Fast integration methods & custom APIs available;
• ✔ Strong customer support and deep expertise in payments;
• ✔ Stable work of service and excellent uptime.

Extension: Ingenico ePayments

Worldpay

It is one of the leading payment processors in Europe that offers small and medium-sized business solutions and corporate solutions. Besides standard payment gateway options like fraud detection, local transfers, and others, WorldPay also provides banking services.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Multiple and simpler payment processing options that can be easily tailored to meet customers’ needs;
• ✔ Powerful security methods, including encryption and tokenization options;
• ✔ Expert guidance.

Extension: Worldpay Payment

Klarna

Klarna is one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies based in Sweden. About 20% of all ecommerce sales in Sweden go through Klarna. Klarna currently serves 90 million consumers and works with 250,000 merchants in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, etc. Every day more than 2 million transactions are made by using Klarna Group.

Fee: check out a separate webpage with different pricing plans.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Regular exclusive discounts for customers offered in collaboration with certain retailers;
• ✔ Buy now pay later feature that enables customers to pay for the purchase within a specific time.

Extension: Klarna Checkout

Dwolla

Dwolla is an American ecommerce company that provides an online payments network. Dwolla is notable for its popularity among users of the Bitcoin digital currency.

In July 2021, Dwolla raised $21 million to develop customizable payment opportunities and money transfer services for brands.

Fee: check out a separate webpage with different pricing plans.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Easy to use and implement with an intuitive user interface;
• ✔ Instant bank transfer processing.

Extension: Dwolla

Opayo (formerly Sage Pay)

It is the UK-based and Irish largest independent payment service provider that processes millions of secure payments every month for over 33,000 businesses. There are now 250 employees working across Europe, serving over 50,000 customers.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Simple online payment collections and a payroll feature;
• ✔ Card and virtual terminal options;
• ✔ Secure transactions with an automated mechanism to invoice payments.

Extension: Opayo Payment & Subscriptions

eWAY

eWay is an omnichannel payment system provider that features integrations with more than 250 software and shopping cart solutions. The payment gateway is popular not only in the Australian market but also in American and Canadian ones.

Fee: 1.9% (per transaction) + $0.20 (per transaction).

Business benefits:

• ✔ Complete flexibility and agility for improved transaction experience;
• ✔ Powerful and extensive fraud protection toolset;
• ✔ Fast payments processing within 3 business days.

Extension: eWAY Payments

Pin Payments

Pin Payments is an Australian all-in-one programmable multi-currency payment system and one of the best payment gateway for small businesses.

Pricing plan #1 fee: 1.75% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction) for domestic cards;

Pricing plan #2 fee: 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction) for international cards.

There is also an option of custom pricing based on your volume and business model.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Recurring payments with custom payment plans;
• ✔ Multi-currency and localized payment options;
• ✔ Easy and quick card authentication.

Extension: Pin Payments

SecurePay

SecurePay is Australia’s leading payment gateway. Since 1999, the company has specialized in payment-based technologies. SecurePay has earned the trust of more than 30,000 businesses and processes over $8 billion in payments every year.

Pricing plan #1 fee: 1.75% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction) for domestic cards;

Pricing plan #2 fee: 2.9% (per transaction) + $0.30 (per transaction) for international cards.

There is also an option of custom pricing based on your volume and business model.

Business benefits:

• ✔ Multiple payment options for any customer segment;
• ✔ Easy integrations with different shopping carts available;
• ✔ Secure payments that ensure robust customer data protection.

Extension: SecurePay

Which of the payment gateways to choose depends on your business needs and the required costs. With such a great variety of companies that provide payment services, you will find the one that completely meets your expectations.

If you have any questions about conсerning payment gateways for Magento or are also interested in Magento implementation in general, extensions integration, or Magento custom development, please feel free to contact us.