Best Online Payment Processing Services of 2022 - Digital.com (2024)

The Best Online Payment Processing Services of 2022

Payment processing services are necessary for online business. The best payment processors boost your sales and revenue while offering a simple experience for you and your customers.

We researched 10 leading providers, testing each using mock accounts, watched demos, and evaluated real user reviews. Also, we’ve compared their transaction fees, features, and support options.

We recommend you consider online payment services on the below criteria, your business sales volumes, and overall payment needs.

Why You Should Trust This Review

About Digital.com’s expert reviewer, Elsier Otachi:

I’m a professional B2B writer covering business strategy, marketing, and tech. I have over eight years of experience in corporate communications and new media. My expertise is writing for global clients and industries, particularly business, e-commerce, and technology, including e-commerce platforms and online payment processing services.

How I Rated the Best Online Payment Processing Service Providers

I rated online payment processing service providers based on transaction costs, pricing structure, customer support, integrations, payment and customization options, and security and compliance.

Whether you’re starting a new venture from the ground up or expanding your brick-and-mortar business to accept online payments, there are a few essential things to consider so you’re fully equipped to meet your customers’ needs.

Here are the five key factors I considered for ratings.

Transaction costs

I look at the overall costs of the processing service, which includes setup costs and fees for transactions (interchange, assessment, processor/acquirer, merchant), monthly subscription, charge-backs, membership, cancellation, and payment card industry (PCI) compliance.

Each player in the payment chain takes their cut, which raises the total cost per transaction. That’s why I dig deeper to pick out any hidden fees in the processor’s fine print, which can include batch processing fees, merchant-to-bank fund transfer fees, statement fees, and more. Some processors might “waive” some fees to get your business, then sneak them back in after the promotional period.

Pricing structure

I also consider the pricing structure or model to go with when choosing a payment processing service. Pricing models typically fall within the following categories:

• Interchange plus: This model includes fees paid to the card issuer — like Bank of America — who gets paid a percentage per sale. You’ll pay an additional fee plus the interchange amount; for example, you’d pay a 2% interchange rate plus 30 cents per transaction. This is typically more cost-effective than the flat-rate model, but the costs vary significantly per transaction owing to monthly fees and volume minimums.
• Flat-rate: The credit card processing service charges a flat rate for all credit card transactions, regardless of the interchange rate. For instance, you could pay 3% plus 25 cents for online purchases. While this model ensures predictable costs, you may pay higher than the Interchange Plus model for high sales volumes.
• Tiered: This structure combines aspects of the Interchange Plus and Flat-Rate models, categorizing them into tiers or buckets, then assigning costs to each tier. For instance, on a $55 purchase, the fees could range from 2% to 3%, depending on the tier. Tiered model rates are predictable and easier to understand since they’re bundled into categories, but the overall costs can be higher than other pricing structures.
• Subscription: Pricing models based on subscriptions are often the best choice for merchants. These are automatic payments on a monthly or annual schedule in exchange for the direct cost of interchange and are charged until you withdraw permission or cancel your subscription. So, no matter how much you process, you’ll only worry about the flat membership and direct cost of the cards you process.

Customer support

A payment processing solution is of no use if it’s unreliable or difficult to understand for me and my customers. For this reason, I looked for processors that provide strong merchant support for quicker issue resolution.

Payment, integration, and customization options

I also gave more points to a payment processor that supports a wide range of payment methods and currencies.

Some options I considered include whether the processor supports all major debit and credit cards, digital wallets, and online payments, payment links, QR code payments, invoicing, and recurring billing options, which help serve even more clients.

I also included service providers with modern Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) for fast, seamless integration with existing business apps. When making this decision ask yourself:

• Can my business leverage the provider’s third-party integrations?
• Does the platform have robust analytics reporting features to check customer activity, volumes, and residuals?
• Can the provider onboard merchants in-app via customizable enrollment flows?

Finally, I looked at the level of customizations available, which would give me full control over the branding elements of my business, like logos, fonts, color schemes, and more. For instance, some of the online payment services I reviewed allow white-label payment options, making it easier to create or use my brand images and colors instead of the providers’ logos.

Security and compliance

Online payments must be secure and compliant with industry security standards to cut our list to protect customers against card fraud and data breaches.

As I evaluated the best online payment processing services, I considered secure, reliable options compliant with applicable security and safe regulations in the industry or country I’d want to work with, such as:

• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): Set of security standards that ensure credit card payment processing companies maintain a secure environment.
• SSAE 18 SOC 1: Informs your customers about the controls in place to protect customers’ financial data and statements.
• SSAE18 SOC 2: Reports on the credibility and accuracy of the system’s design and how effective their controls are to safeguard customers’ financial data.
• SSAE18 SOC 3: Assures customers about the service’s security, availability, privacy, and processing integrity confidentiality controls.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS): Combines cryptographic processes to offer secure communication over the internet.
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) compliance: Adherence to NIST best practices and security standards for data protection, particularly for the government and its contractors.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Facilitates the use of at least two verification factors before users can access your application or their online accounts, rather than just asking for usernames or passwords.
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): Uses ciphers of 128 192, or 256 bits, to encrypt sensitive data and protect classified or electronic information.
• Tokenization: Replacing sensitive data like credit card numbers, with tokens while storing them securely in a centralized location for subsequent reference.

I also checked whether the provider supports tokenization to avoid handling customers’ sensitive payment data directly, along with anti-fraud and charge-back prevention controls.