Choosing a Payment Processor
- Your processor sets your fees, your cash flow, and how much work lands on you when something breaks
- Launching now? Square or Stripe. Both are free to set up, no monthly fee, live in under an hour
- Square publishes 2.6% + 15c in person and 3.3% + 30c online on the Free plan. Note the 15 cents, not 10
- Stripe reads 2.9% + $0.30 online and 2.7% + $0.05 on Terminal from a US connection. Their pricing page resolves by your IP, so check it from where you sit
- All-in-one fits most businesses under $1M a year. A gateway plus your own merchant account gets cheaper above that, and more complicated
Your payment processor is one of the bigger calls you'll make. It sets your fees. It sets your cash flow. And it decides how much work lands on you when something goes wrong.
Launching now and want to take payments today? Sign up for Square or Stripe. Both are free to set up with no monthly fee. You can be live in under an hour.
Square publishes its rates plainly. 2.6% + 15c in person, 3.3% + 30c online on the Free plan (squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees, verified 2026-08-02). Note the 15 cents. Plenty of comparison content still says 10 cents. It's wrong.
Stripe reads 2.9% + $0.30 online and 2.7% + $0.05 Terminal from a US connection (stripe.com/pricing, verified 2026-08-02). stripe.com resolves country by request IP, not by URL path, so a non-US connection serves Canadian numbers. Check the page from where you sit. Read the rest of this page when you're ready to optimize.
What You Need to Sign Up
Before you pick a processor, have these ready:
- Business name. Or your legal name if you're a sole proprietor.
- Bank account and routing number for deposits.
- Tax ID (EIN), or SSN for sole proprietors.
- Business address.
- Estimated monthly sales volume. A rough guess is fine.
- Website, online store, or a description of what you sell.
Most all-in-one providers approve you instantly. A small share get flagged for manual review. That takes 1-3 business days.
Which Setup Is Right for You?
Use this flowchart to find your starting point:
Bottom line: unsure? Start with an all-in-one provider. You can switch or add processors later, once your needs are clearer.
All-in-One vs. Gateway + Merchant Account
Two main ways to set this up:
| Setup | Pros | Cons | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-in-One flat rate (Stripe, Square, Shopify Payments) | Fast setup, single contract, predictable pricing | You overpay on cheap cards to underpay on expensive ones | Anyone who values a predictable number over the lowest number |
| All-in-One interchange-plus (Helcim) | Transparent pricing, published volume bands, no monthly fee | Statement is more complex to read | Most merchants with a debit-heavy or standard-credit card mix, above about a $9 card-present ticket. No volume threshold to reach first |
| Gateway + Merchant Account (Authorize.net + bank) | Most control over routing and pricing structure | Complex setup, multiple contracts, and nobody in this category publishes a rate, so you can't compare before you ask | High-volume businesses over $100K/month, and only if a quote actually beats a published interchange-plus band |
The old rule: stay on flat rate until you're doing $25-50K a month, because interchange-plus carries a monthly fee. Helcim's interchange-plus has no monthly fee, no setup fee, no PCI fee, no statement fee and no cancellation fee (helcim.com/pricing, verified 2026-08-02). There's no fixed cost to amortise.
That changes the question from volume to card mix and average ticket. Square Free is 2.6% + 15c in person. Helcim's entry band is interchange + 0.40% + 8c. They cost the same when your interchange alone averages 2.06% + 5c. Make it 2.20% + 7c if the figure you're reading already includes the 0.14% + $0.02 of network assessments this site models. Those assessments are unverified.
A debit-heavy retail mix sits well below that line. Interchange-plus wins from day one, with no volume to reach first. A premium-rewards or commercial-card-heavy B2B mix sits above it. There the flat rate wins at every ticket size.
Ticket size is the other variable. It's the one most comparisons drop. On this site's blended card-present mix the two are equal at a $9.23 ticket. Above it Helcim is cheaper. Below it Square is. And below about $19.53, PayPal Zettle's 9-cent fixed fee beats both. Pull your last statement. Check your average ticket as well as your card mix. See Cost Model Assumptions for how the blend is built.
Quick Comparison: Popular Providers
| Square | Helcim | PayPal | Shopify Payments | Stripe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-Person | 2.6% + 15c (Free plan) | IC + 0.40% + 8c ($0-50K/mo band) | 2.29% + 9c (Zettle) | US Basic 2.6% + 10c (0c in Canada) | Terminal 2.7% + $0.05 |
| Online | 3.3% + 30c (Free plan) | IC + 0.50% + 25c ($0-50K/mo band) | 3.49% + 49c Checkout; 2.99% + 49c standard card | US Basic 2.9% + 30c | 2.9% + $0.30 domestic |
| Keyed / card on file | 3.5% + 15c | Billed as online | 3.49% + 9c keyed | Not published | +0.5% on manual entry |
| Chargeback fee | $0, stated outright | $0 if you win, $15 if you lose | $15 wallet ($0 if you win), $20 card, $30 above a 1.5% ratio | $15, returned if you win | $15 to receive + $15 to counter |
| Monthly Fee | $0 on Free | $0 | $0 standard commercial | US Basic $39/mo, or $29/mo billed annually | $0 stated |
| Instant payout | 1.95% per transfer | Not published | 1.50%, $0.50 min | Not published | 1.5% (US), 1% (CA/EU/UK/SG) |
| Contract | Month-to-month | Month-to-month | Month-to-month | Month-to-month | Month-to-month |
| Best For | Retail + online, non-technical, the strongest POS here | Lowest published cost for a standard card mix above about a $9 card-present ticket, with no monthly fee to earn back | Customer trust, PayPal and Venmo buyers. Zettle is also the cheapest in-person option this site can rank below about a $19.53 ticket, on its 9-cent fixed fee | Already on Shopify (see the gateway fee note below) | Online, tech-savvy, SaaS, broadest product surface |
| Sign Up | squareup.com | helcim.com | paypal.com/business | shopify.com | stripe.com |
Sources, all read on the vendor's own page and verified 2026-08-02: Square and Square Instant Transfer, Helcim, PayPal, Shopify, Stripe disputes and Stripe instant payouts.
Both Stripe and Shopify resolve country by request IP, not by URL path. So a rate you find quoted online may be another country's card with the dollar sign swapped, and there's no US-specific URL to check it against. Open stripe.com/pricing and shopify.com/pricing from where you sit and confirm the currency before you budget. One number to drop entirely: the widely repeated Stripe Terminal figure of 2.6% + $0.10 matches no Stripe geography at all.
"Lowest published cost" in that Helcim column is a conditional claim, not a slogan. It holds card-present above roughly a $9.23 ticket. It comes from modelling these processors across two channels, three ticket sizes and four volume levels. Helcim is cheapest in 20 of those 24 cells. PayPal Zettle takes 3, all of them $15 card-present tickets. Stax takes 1, a $25 online ticket at around $20,000 a month. All of it runs on one pass-through assumption: 1.03% + $0.178 card-present and 1.50% + $0.172 online. That's set out in Cost Model Assumptions.
Three things in that table are worth more than the headline rates:
- A dispute you win is free at three of these five. Square charges $0 outright. Helcim charges $0 on a win. Shopify returns the $15. Stripe doesn't. PayPal stops once your dispute ratio passes 1.5%.
- PayPal's two dispute fees don't stack. The $15 covers PayPal-account and Guest Checkout transactions. The $20 covers card transactions that went through neither. One dispute, one fee. The $35 you'll see quoted is those two added together, and they can't both apply. Watch the 1.5% line instead. There the $15 becomes $30 and stops being refunded on a win.
- Shopify's in-person rate carries 10 cents in the US, and nothing in Canada. The zero gets quoted as true in every market. It isn't. Shopify also charges a gateway fee on every order if you don't use Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. That fee is the real lock-in on that platform.
Braintree publishes 2.89% + $0.29 for cards and digital wallets (paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees, page stamped "Last Updated: May 7, 2026", verified 2026-08-02). Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30. That's 0.01% and one cent apart. Call it 1.25 cents on a $25 order, 1.5 cents on a $50 order.
Braintree is cheaper on both components. So there's no crossover ticket to find and no breakeven worth publishing. Seen a breakeven analysis saying Braintree wins above a certain ticket size? It was built on an older Braintree rate card of 2.59% + $0.49. That card no longer applies. Choose on features. Braintree gives you native PayPal and Venmo in one integration. Stripe gives you a broader product surface and better documentation.
See Processor Comparison for 50+ processors across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America - with pricing tables, regional picks, and recommendations by business type.
Test to Run
Before you commit, run a small test:
- Sign up for a free account with your top 2 choices. Most are free to create.
- Process a real $1 transaction on each, using your own card.
- Check your dashboard. Can you find the transaction? See the fee breakdown? Export data?
- Submit a support ticket. How fast do they respond? Is it helpful?
This takes 30 minutes and tells you more than any sales call.
Going Deeper: What to Look For
This is what separates a good processor from a bad one. Already picked a provider and want to start processing? Skip to the checklist and come back later.
Security and PCI Compliance
If you use Stripe, Square, or PayPal's checkout page, PCI compliance is handled for you. You can skip this section.
PCI DSS is a set of security requirements for anyone handling card data. The initials stand for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Get breached while non-compliant and you're liable for fines and fraud losses.
What to ask:
- "Are you PCI Level 1 certified?" (This is the highest level)
- "Do I need to fill out a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), or does your integration handle that?"
- "What fraud protection is included?" (Look for: 3D Secure, tokenization (replacing card numbers with secure tokens so you never store actual card data), fraud scoring)
All-in-one providers handle most PCI compliance for you. Use their hosted checkout or payment elements and you never touch raw card numbers. That cuts your compliance burden hard.
Your integration choice determines your compliance burden:
Payment Methods
Cards aren't enough anymore. Customers expect options.
| Payment Method | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Apple Pay / Google Pay | 2x faster checkout, higher mobile conversion |
| PayPal | Trust signal for new customers who don't know you |
| Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) (Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay) | Increases average order value 20-30% |
| ACH / Bank Transfer | Lower fees for high-ticket items |
| Local methods (iDEAL, Bancontact, PIX) | Essential if selling internationally |
What to ask:
- "Which wallets and Buy Now Pay Later providers are included vs. extra cost?"
- "Can I add new payment methods later without re-integrating?"
Settlement Speed
Cash flow matters. The gap between a sale and the money landing can make or break a small business.
| Provider Type | Settlement Speed |
|---|---|
| PayPal, Square | Next business day (sometimes instant for a fee) |
| Stripe | 2 business days standard, next-day available |
| Traditional merchant account | 2-3 business days |
| High-risk processors | 7+ days, often with rolling reserves |
How money moves from customer to your bank:
What to ask:
- "What's the standard settlement time?"
- "Is next-day or instant payout available? What does it cost?"
- "Will you hold a reserve? For how long?" (See holds and reserves)
Uptime and Reliability
If your processor goes down, you can't accept payments. Every minute of downtime is lost revenue.
What to ask:
- "What's your uptime guarantee?" (Look for 99.9%+)
- "Do you publish real-time status?" (Good sign: a public status page)
99.9% uptime = ~8.7 hours of downtime per year 99.99% uptime = ~52 minutes of downtime per year 99.999% uptime = ~5 minutes of downtime per year
Contract Terms
Some processors lock you into multi-year contracts with expensive exit fees. Others are month-to-month.
What to ask:
- "Is this month-to-month or a fixed term?"
- "What's the early termination fee?" (Can be $300-500+)
- "Can I take my stored payment tokens if I leave?" (Important for subscriptions)
- Contracts longer than 1 year for a new business
- Early termination fees based on "projected revenue"
- Vague language about "rate adjustments"
- No clear answer on token portability
Chargeback Handling
Every business gets chargebacks eventually. How your processor handles them affects both your costs and your win rate.
What to ask:
- "What's the chargeback fee, and do I get it back if I win?" The second half of that question is what separates these processors. Helcim charges $0 when a case is resolved in your favour and $15 if you lose. Stripe charges $15 to receive the dispute, and you never get that back. Countering costs another $15, refunded only on an outright win. A partial win returns neither, so fighting costs $30. PayPal charges $15 on wallet and Guest Checkout disputes, waived if you win. Card chargebacks are $20, charged either way. Above a 1.5% dispute ratio it's $30 on everything, wins included. Square charges $0 and says so outright.
- "Is it in writing?" Square's silence isn't the same as a written $0. Its Payment Terms still reserve the right to recover "the amount of any Chargeback and any associated Fees, fines, or penalties listed in the Fee Schedule." Ask support. Get the answer in email. Keep it.
- "Do you provide tools to help me fight disputes?"
- "What happens if my chargeback rate gets too high?" (See network monitoring programs.)
Dispute fees verified 2026-08-02: Helcim, Stripe, PayPal, Square.
Blank Checklist
Use this when comparing other processors:
| Question | Processor A | Processor B |
|---|---|---|
| PCI Level 1 certified? | ||
| Hosted checkout available? | ||
| Apple Pay / Google Pay? | ||
| Buy Now Pay Later available? | ||
| Settlement time | ||
| Contract length | ||
| Early termination fee | ||
| Chargeback fee |
Processor Profile Pages
Want a deeper look before deciding? Each profile covers pricing details, common gotchas, and when to use (or avoid) each provider:
- Stripe - Online, SaaS, developer-led businesses
- Square - Retail, card-present, service businesses
- Shopify Payments - Best if you're already on Shopify
- Helcim - Interchange-plus transparency, six published volume bands that apply automatically
- Stax - Subscription pricing at interchange + 0% markup + 8c in person, 15c online. The volume bands are annual, not monthly. $99/mo up to $150K a year, $139/mo for $150-250K a year, $199+/mo above that. Helcim's bands key off monthly volume, so the two don't compare without converting. Against Helcim the maths tips to Stax above $58,000-$70,000 a month card-present, depending on ticket size. Online it happens far earlier, from about $11,000 a month at a $25 ticket. That online answer isn't a single threshold. It flips to Stax, back to Helcim when the subscription steps from $99 to $139, then back again. Read Stax for the actual windows. Above $250K a year Stax stops publishing a subscription and says only "$199+", so anything modelled up there is the earliest point Stax could win, not a price
- Clover - Best POS hardware for restaurants and retail. Clover Direct publishes 2.3% + 10c card-present for restaurants and quick service, 2.6% + 10c on entry retail and services, and 3.5% + 10c keyed and online. But Clover is distributed by Fiserv through banks and ISOs, so your actual rate depends on the reseller. Clover says as much on its own pricing page. Benchmark any quote against the direct rate
- Toast - Restaurant-specific POS and processing. It publishes 2.49% on Traditional and 3.09% on Pay-as-you-Go, on its shop pages rather than its pricing page. The "+ 15c" that every comparison attaches is reported by third parties, not published by Toast. Ask for the fixed cents in writing
- Lightspeed - Complex retail with advanced inventory. US retail plans are $89/$149/$289 a month. Card-present on X-Series is 2.6% + 10c and the chargeback fee is $15. The online rate isn't published on either product line. Ask for it first and hardest
- Braintree - Cards + PayPal + Venmo in one integration, 2.89% + $0.29. Effectively the same price as Stripe
- PayPal - Brand recognition and buyer trust, at the highest dispute cost on this list
- Moneris - Canada's largest processor. All figures CAD: 2.65% + $0.10 in person, 2.85% + $0.30 online, CA$25 chargeback fee plus a CA$80 authorization chargeback handling fee
- Checkout.com - Mid-market global, developer-friendly. No published rates. It offers both flat-rate and Interchange++ models, priced per business profile
- Adyen - Enterprise, global processing. No published SMB rate card. Expect Interchange++ plus a $0.13 processing fee, with an indicative card markup of 0.60%. It has no $10M/year volume minimum, whatever you may have read. Adyen says only that it has "a minimum invoice depending on industry or business model." No amount is attached. Ask for that number in writing
All figures verified 2026-08-02 against each vendor's own pricing page.
That's most of the market. It isn't automatically a bad sign. It just moves the burden to you.
- Clover: effective rate including all markups, monthly software plan cost per device, chargeback fee, contract term, early termination fee, and whether the hardware is leased or bought. Leased hardware on a multi-year term is where the cost hides.
- Toast: blended effective rate, whether payments are contractually locked to Toast, hardware cost and financing, software cost per terminal, and termination terms. The lock-in is the one that matters. A Toast contract typically means you can't switch processors without replacing the POS.
- Adyen and Checkout.com: which pricing model applies, how scheme fees are treated under Interchange++, and the monthly minimum.
- Everyone: the chargeback fee, in writing, and whether you get it back when you win.
See all processor profiles for the full list and the 50+ Processor Comparison for National Processing, Payment Depot, Payline Data, and more.
Where This Breaks
This guide assumes you're running a standard retail or e-commerce business. It doesn't fully apply if:
- You're high-risk (CBD, adult content, gambling, firearms, cryptocurrency). Most all-in-one providers will reject you. You need a specialized high-risk processor. Been rejected already? Search for "high-risk payment processor", or see the guide on buying payments.
- You're a marketplace. Splitting payments between sellers needs specific features, like Stripe Connect or PayPal for Marketplaces.
- You process over $1M/month. The economics change, though less than people assume. Helcim publishes its $1M-5M band openly at interchange + 0.15% + 6c in person. So you can benchmark any quote against a public number before you pay anyone to negotiate. Custom pricing genuinely starts above $5M/month.
- You're heavily international. Local acquiring in each country often beats cross-border processing.