What’s the secret behind a successful online business? A payment system that’s not only secure but also enables an easy and fast checkout experience.
When it comes to managing online stores, there are many things to consider: from determining your target audience to setting up your products and starting to sell. Most importantly, you have to establish a trustworthy relationship with your customers.
And the only way to do that is by ensuring a safe payment method.
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So, have you already made up your mind on what payment gateway you will use on your Magento 2 store?
This article can help you decide which one is most suitable for your needs.
But first…
A short reminder: how do payment gateways work?
A payment gateway protects customers against identity theft by encrypting their credit card numbers. You can think of it as a middleman between the merchant and the bank.
In other words, the payment gateway provides a safe way of processing credit card data between the customer and the merchant, but also between the merchant and the payment processor.
Why choose a payment gateway for Magento 2?
Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce CMS. Luckily for you, it provides an easy integration of major payment gateways.
Magento 2 comes with three default integrated payment gateways:
PayPal
The number one reason why over 7 million businesses are using PayPal is its simplicity. It can be used anytime, regardless of the device. It offers a quick checkout and accepts international payments.
Features:
- Enables website payment using credit cards
- Allows you to create and send customized invoices
- Easy to use, as customers can pay with just a few clicks
- It doesn’t require setup or monthly fees
- It takes 2.9% +$0.30 for every transaction
- Available in 200 countries
- Uses an exchange rate for transactions that need currency conversions
One of the disadvantages of PayPal lately has been its relatively high commission rates. For business transactions, PayPal can charge you a lot of money.
Is it worth it (because of the platform’s safety) or would you choose a different payment system? If so, read below…
Pros:
- You can use it for more that just paying via your PayPal account
- You can process credit and debit card payments
- Extremely easy to set up
- Account authorization is almost instantly
- It’s quick and secure
Cons:
- The easy setup makes it a target for fraudulent sellers
- Unlocking your account can take very long
- Poor customer support services
- PayPal may freeze your account without contacting you
- Transaction fees may be large (if you have an increased monthly sales volume)
Authorize.net – AIM version
With over 440,000 merchants, customers and thousands of business partners, Authorize.Net has been a trusted payment gateway partner since 1996.
The AIM version is a regular payment gateway, the most common integration for Authorize.net. However, it does not allow you to create recurring payments or save credit card information. It is only used as a one-time payment.
Customers have to enter their credit card details every time they make a purchase.
Features:
- $25 monthly gateway fee
- It charges 2.9% + $0,30 for every transaction
- Provides solutions for online purchases, as well as face to face transactions or mobile
- It has a free mobile app
- You can benefit from free tools that can help you fight fraud
- Free 24×7 support is available
Pros:
- Stores customer information in a simple to find way
- The customer support team is extremely helpful
- It serves both online and mobile payments
- Accepts a wide variety of cards
- Helps you prevent fraud and store data securely
Cons:
- The mobile apps are not so well developed
- You have to create a merchant account in addition to the Authorizze.net gateway
Braintree
Braintree provides multiple outlines, settlement currencies, global fraud protection and local payment proficiency in one integration.
Did you know…? Users like Airbnb and LivingSocial are well known for using this payment gateway, as it offers great tools to create a smooth checkout for websites and apps.
Braintree is used in 44 countries and features over 130 currencies.
Features:
- 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
- No monthly fees
- Available flat rate and interchange plus pricing options
- Optimized acceptance rates
- Ready-made UI to create a secure checkout for your website or app
Pros:
- Well designed and secure
- You only pay for what you use
- Supports 3D Secure and global payment methods, such as China UnionPay
Cons:
- Braintree doesn’t return fees on partial refunds
Other payment gateways you can use with Magento 2 are:
Authorize.net – CIM version
If you want your customers to spend less time at checkout, this is the solution you were looking for.
The CIM (Customer Information Manager) version provided by Authorize.net allows you to store customers’ payment information. It is time saving and efficient. Unlike the AIM version, CIM ensures that returning customers don’t have to re-enter their credit card information.
Save time and increase conversion rate
CIM supports customer profiles including billing, payment and shipping information.
Each customer profile can include up to 10 payment profiles and 100 other shipping profiles. This means reducing the time your customers spend and checkout. There’s no need for them to re-enter all the payment and shipping info every time they purchase something from your store.
Wondering if it’s secure enough? It is, as each customer profile is stored on a secure server and assigned an ID – a secret code this will be used for each customer profile.
All this leads to an increased conversion rate, of course. Your customers will be able to enjoy a hassle-free checkout process and they will love every second of it!
Authorize.net CIM extension by CreativeMinds provides functionality and convenience. (tweet)
To sum up, the CIM version is flexible and easy to use – the best solution for recurring payments (the main reason why so many online stores use it). Payments can be made on different dates, for different amounts each time, without the need of going through a long process of entering personal information each time.
Read more about the CIM extension by CreativeMinds here.
Stripe
The idea behind Stripe is to make it easier for companies to do business online. The company brings to the table a set of tools that make it almost effortless to handle in-app payments and marketplace transactions.
Stripe’s processing services are available in 25 countries and it accepts over 100 types of currency.
Features:
- It requires no setup
- There are no hidden or monthly fees
- Provides integration for Android and iOS for in-app payments
- Unlimited options for plan types
- Offers coupons and free trial periods
- Provides advanced reporting
- Allows you to create teams and assign permission levels
- Bitcoin integration: pay 0,8% per transaction
- Instant debit card transfers
Pros:
- If you are tech savvy, you can do cool things with Stripe
- Provides numerous development opportunities
- You are free to play with every little detail of your payment gateway
Cons:
- It does not provide 3D secure services
- The more you try to adjust its functionalities, the more you will be charged
Worldpay
According to its testimonial page, Worldpay services more than 150,000 businesses in the U.S alone. If we add up the customers from the other parts of the word, the number increases considerably. This only proves that Worldpay provides high quality services.
One of the biggest advantages provided by the company is that it is a direct processor. In other words, Worldpay processes all transactions in-house. No third party is processor is involved.
Features:
- Merchant accounts
- Mobile payment
- Integrated cash register/POS options
- ATM services
- Reporting and analytics
- Different fees apply:
- Signature debit transactions: 0.99% + $0.20 per transaction
- Standard credit transactions: 1.99% + $0.20 per transaction
- Rewards credit transactions: 2.60% + $0.20 per transaction
- Corporate/T&E/keyed credit transactions: 3.30% + $0.20 per transaction
Pros:
- Worldpay provides 3D secure services, thus ensuring full security for your customers
- Partake in fraud screening in order to protect your from fake payments
Cons:
- Large transfer delays (up to four weeks to access the money)
- Larger fees for smaller businesses
- Prices are different for businesses in different industries
Amazon.com
First launched in 2007 by Amazon, Amazon Payments allows you to send (through ACH) and receive money using its own Application Program Interface (API). It is known as a flexible payment gateway. It offers two business services: Checkout by Amazon (CBA) and Amazon Simple Pay (ASP).
Amazon Pay allows you to create an amazing shopping experience for your customers, thus enabling them to spend more time searching the catalog and less time checking out and placing the order.
Features:
- Allows you to control the entire shopping experience
- All transactions are completed on your site
- It integrates with your existing CRM systems
- Price starts at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
- For payments under $10, the pricing is 5.0% + $0.05 per transaction
- Fraud detection system
- Customer protection system
- Verify and validate customers with a familiar login
- Numerous merchant tools, such as payment marks and buttons, logos and marketing guide
Takeaways
When choosing a payment gateway for your online business, make sure you pick the one that meets your short-term objectives as well as the long-term ones.
Although we only talked about five payment gateways, there are many other available. Make sure to take a closer look at each of them and compare the pros and cons. Decide which one ticks all your boxes and go for it.
Looking for a Magento extension for your ecommerce order and payment processing?
Creative Minds has developed several plugins to help you approve and manage orders, assist your clients in saving their payment information to use in future purchases, as well as plugins to help you get admin control over order processing and tracking with custom payment.
Click here for additional information on our Magento extensions and customer support.
