WooCommerce Payment Gateways

5 Best Payment Gateways for your E-Commerce Website

March 23, 2015

Every online purchase get’s processed with a payment gateway. To accept payments online, I’ve compiled a list of the five best payment gateways for your ecommerce website.

For this list, I look at companies providing service in Toronto with three key factors: price, support and ease-of-use.

 Stripe

 The Good:

  • Set up your merchant account and payment gateway in just 10 minutes.
  • Simple straightforward fees.
  • Great user-interface to view and access payments received.
  • AmEx fees are same as Visa and Mastercard
  • No contract.

The Bad:

  • Same 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction fees for everyone, no matter how much you process monthly. Look somewhere else if you process more than $7000 every month.
  • No phone support.

Paypal

The Good: 

  • Fees start at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, but are lowered the more you process every month.
  • No contract.
  • Phone and email support.

The Bad:

  • Confusing pricing model and packages.
  • Must manually set up auto-withdrawal to deposit payments to bank account.
  • Must pay $35/month to keep payment processing on your website. Free version will direct paying customers to Paypal’s website.

Authorize.net

The Good:

  • One of the oldest payment gateways.
  • Many software’s, like Quickbooks or Freshbooks sync directly with Authorize.net

The Bad:

  • Additional fees and surprising exchange rates for AmEx.
  • $49 set up fee and $25 monthly gateway fee.
  • Same 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction fees for everyone, no matter how much you process monthly.

Moneris

The Good:

  • Great transaction rates (2.1% per transaction).
  • Phone and Email support.
  • Available through most major Canadian banks.

The Bad:

  • Must negotiate to receive a good rate.
  • Must sign a lengthy contract.
  • Confusing additional fees:
    • $20/month fee (waived if processing over $20/month)
    • $80 compliance fee
    • $2.95/month deposit fee

PSI Gate:

The Good:

  • 2 tier packages for small to large businesses.
    • Starter package fees include 2.99% plus $0.25 per transaction
    • Growth package includes $19.95 monthly fee and 2.5% plus $0.20 per transaction
  • Receive custom quote if processing over $100k/year
  • Phone and email support.

The Bad:

  • Very confusing user interface. It’s challenging to perform necessary merchant tasks, like viewing payments and recurring profiles.
  • Lengthy registration process with contract.
  • Many additional fees that will add up, (like a $5 compliance monthly fee).

If you open a new online web store in Toronto and process under $7000 per month, I recommend using Stripe. You can start accepting payments immediately and there are no surprise costs.

Once your ecommerce website has gained traction, I would recommend moving away from Stripe and to either Paypal or Moneris where you will get slapped with a monthly merchant fee but a much lower processing fee. If you feel comfortable signing a contract, Moneris can offer you the best rate.