Payment Processors
- Helcim is cheapest in 20 of the 24 combinations this site models. PayPal Zettle wins 3, all card-present at a $15 ticket. Stax wins 1, online at a $25 ticket near $20,000 a month
- Helcim has no monthly fee. There's no volume you need to reach. It beats Square's Free plan above roughly a $9.23 card-present ticket and a $9.38 online ticket, at any volume. The old advice was to stay flat-rate until $20,000 a month. That came from an interchange assumption that turned out to be wrong
- Every claim above rests on an assumed interchange cost. Ours is published. 1.03% + $0.178 card-present, 1.50% + $0.172 online, derived at How We Compare Processor Costs. No vendor comparison states its own assumption. Stating it lets you check the maths
- No processor verified here publishes a minimum volume requirement. Not Adyen, not Checkout.com, not anyone. The "$10M a year for Adyen" and "$5M a year for Checkout.com" figures were invented
- Five rates that get reported as unpublished are published. Stripe and Shopify's US cards, Clover's full vertical rate card, both of Toast's processing percentages, and Lightspeed's 2.6% + 10c card-present. Where each one actually lives
- Every figure on this site now carries a confidence tier: VENDOR, REPORTED, DERIVED or NOT PUBLISHED. The source and its date sit next to the number. The system, and why
- Still genuinely unrankable: Checkout.com, Global Payments and Nuvei (nothing published, verified), Adyen (labels its own rates indicative), Stax above $250,000 a year ("$199+")
- Dispute costs vary more than processing rates do. The whole span is $0 to $30. Square charges nothing. Helcim charges $0 when you win. PayPal's $15 dispute fee and $20 chargeback fee hit different channels and never stack. On a dispute-prone business that spread outweighs the rate
Most businesses agonise over processor selection and then pick on brand. The arithmetic below isn't close in most cells. And the biggest single lever isn't the processor at all. It's whether your average ticket is above or below about $10. That's where fixed per-transaction fees stop dominating.
Every figure carries a source tier. VENDOR is from the vendor's own page, with the URL and access date. REPORTED is from a named third party, with who, when, and what kind of source. DERIVED is calculated from published figures, not a company disclosure. NOT PUBLISHED means the vendor doesn't publish it, and the page says what to ask for instead. The full system is here.
Every cost comparison uses one published interchange assumption, set out at How We Compare Processor Costs. You can't compare an interchange-plus processor against a flat-rate one without assuming what interchange costs. If you disagree with the assumption, the arithmetic is published. Redo it.
A blank isn't neutrality. Five rates here get reported as unpublished and aren't: Clover's, Toast's, Square's plan prices, Shopify's and Stripe's US cards, and Lightspeed's card-present rate. Every one is filled in below and tagged. What genuinely stays blank says what to ask for instead.
Quick Decision Tree
The first question is your average ticket, not your volume. Below about $10 the fixed fee decides everything. Above it, the percentage does.
Compare Them Yourself
Filter by what you run. Sort by what you care about. Every rate carries its source tier, so you can see which figures the vendor publishes and which somebody else reported.
Scroll horizontally to see all columns
| Processor | CP Rate ↑ | CNP Rate ↕ | Monthly ↕ | Fraud Tools | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal / ZettleFlat-rate | Vendor2.29% + 9c (Zettle in person) | Vendor3.49% + 49c (PayPal Checkout), 2.99% + 49c (standard card) | Vendor$0 | Seller Protection plus Fraud Management Filters. Filter pricing is not published. | PayPal wallet conversion |
| Clover (Fiserv)Flat-rate | Vendor2.3% + 10c restaurant and QSR; 2.6% + 10c retail and services entry plansClover-direct rates. A reseller can quote you something else entirely. | Vendor3.5% + 10cIdentical across every vertical and every plan Clover publishes. | Vendor$0 Starter, $29.95 Essentials, $84.95-$129.85 Growth by vertical | TransArmor tokenization plus basic filters. Pricing depends on the reseller. | Multi-industry POS, direct rates published |
| ToastFlat-rate | Vendor2.49% Traditional, 3.09% Pay-as-you-GoToast publishes the percentages only. The + $0.15 per transaction used for sorting is REPORTED, not published by Toast. | Reported3.50% + 15cNerdWallet only. Toast publishes no card-not-present rate. | Vendor$0 Starter Kit, $69 Point of Sale (restaurant), $90 (retail)New customers, single locations. First hardware terminal subscription included; more devices cost more. | Not published. | Restaurants, bundled POS and payments |
| Shopify PaymentsFlat-rate | Vendor2.6% + 10c Basic, 2.5% + 10c Grow, 2.4% + 10c AdvancedUS rates. The US card carries a 10 cent fixed component; the Canadian one carries none. | Vendor2.9% + 30c Basic, 2.7% + 30c Grow, 2.5% + 30c AdvancedPlus is "most competitive rates" with no number attached. | Vendor$39 Basic, $105 Grow, $399 Advanced monthly; $29 / $79 / $299 on annual billing. Plus from $2,300Sorted on the cheapest published entry price, Basic billed annually. | Fraud Analysis on orders, plus Shopify Protect on eligible Shop Pay orders. | Shopify stores |
| LightspeedFlat-rate | Vendor2.6% + 10cUS region, USD, shown identically on all three retail plans. No rate is published for the restaurant product. | Not publishedNo online, keyed or card-not-present rate appears anywhere on lightspeedhq.com. Ask for it in writing; this is the single biggest gap for any merchant selling online. | VendorRetail $89 / $149 / $289. Restaurant $69 / $189 / $399Kitchen Display System is $30 per screen per month on the restaurant product. | Not published. | Complex retail inventory |
| StripeFlat-rate | Vendor2.7% + 5c (Terminal)US figures, read from a US connection. Cards issued abroad add 1.5%. | Vendor2.9% + 30cUS domestic online rate, confirmed. | Vendor$0 | Radar Lite is included with Stripe Payments. Radar Standard, Plus and Pro are paid monthly subscriptions with an included screen allowance, or pay-as-you-go. US tier prices still unread. | Online, SaaS, developers |
| SquareFlat-rate | Vendor2.6% + 15c (Free), 2.5% + 15c (Plus), 2.4% + 15c (Premium) | Vendor3.3% + 30c (Free), 2.9% + 30c (Plus and Premium)Square Online and invoices. Through the Payments API it is 2.9% + 30c on every plan, including Free. | Vendor$0 Free, $49 Plus, $149 Premium - per locationPer location, not per account. Three sites on Plus is $147 a month, not $49. | Built-in machine learning screening, CVV and AVS checks, velocity rules. No separate fraud product is sold. | Retail, card-present, simple setup |
| MonerisCADFlat-rate | Vendor2.65% + 10c credit, Interac debit 12cCAD. Do not line these up against US rates without converting. Foreign cards add 0.80%, rising to 1.00% with assessments. | Vendor2.85% + 30c credit, Interac debit $1.00CAD. | VendorNo plan fee published for Flat Rate. Moneris Go terminal CA$34.95/mo; Moneris Online from CA$19/moCA$5 minimum merchant discount, CA$5 Moneris Go software fee, CA$2 paper statement. | Kount, 3DS and tokenization are stated as bundled at no extra cost. | Canadian businesses |
| AdyenInterchange-plus | Vendor$0.13 + Interchange++ + 0.60% (indicative)Adyen: "The fees outlined above are indicative." Same model in both channels. | Vendor$0.13 + Interchange++ + 0.60% (indicative)Amex Global $0.13 + 3.95%. Alipay $0.13 + 3%. Klarna US/CA $0.13 + 4.29% + $0.30. SEPA Direct Debit $0.13 + EUR 0.27. | VendorNo monthly, setup, integration or closure feesA minimum invoice applies "depending on industry or business model". Amount not published by Adyen. | RevenueProtect risk engine. Pricing for it is not published. | Enterprise and global acquiring |
| AirwallexFlat-rate | Not publishedNo card-present rate published on the US pricing page. | Vendor2.80% + 30c domestic, 4.30% + 30c international cardsSubscription and recurring card payments add a further 0.50%, stacked on top of the base rate. | Vendor$0 Explore, $12 per user Grow (plus a platform fee), Accelerate custom | Not published. | Cross-border online, published rate card |
| BraintreeFlat-rate | Not publishedNo separate in-person card is published. The 2.89% + 29c rate applies. | Vendor2.89% + 29c | Not publishedNo monthly fee or minimum appears on the fee page. Ask whether either applies to your account. | AVS and CVV checks, plus an optional advanced fraud add-on built on Kount, now part of Equifax. Add-on pricing is not published. | Cards plus native PayPal and Venmo |
| Checkout.comFlat-rate or Interchange-plus | Not publishedOnline processor. No card-present offering and no rate published. | Not publishedPriced on business profile and risk category. Attack the CATEGORY before the rate. | Not publishedNo setup or account maintenance fees are stated. No minimum is published; assume one exists and ask. | Not published. | Enterprise and scale-up, quote only |
| Global PaymentsNot published | Not publishedA real absence. Its US payments pages carry no pricing figure of any kind. | Not publishedSame. Typically quotes interchange-plus or membership pricing, though it does not say so publicly. | Reported$299/year account maintenance fee; $125/month PCI non-compliance feeSorted on the annual fee spread over 12 months. The PCI fee is avoidable and is not a processing charge. | Not published. | Large multi-location merchants, quote only |
| HelcimInterchange-plus | VendorIC + 0.40% + 8c, falling to IC + 0.15% + 6cFive published bands from $0-50K/mo up to $1M-5M/mo. | VendorIC + 0.50% + 25c, falling to IC + 0.15% + 15cSame five bands, measured on monthly card volume. | Vendor$0 | AVS and CVV checks plus basic filters. No separate fraud product is sold. | Cost transparency at any volume |
| NuveiNot published | Not publishedNo rate, fee or pricing page exists on nuvei.com. Only qualitative cost language. | Not publishedSame. Everything routes to "Contact us". | Not publishedNo minimum monthly invoice or platform fee published anywhere. | Not published. | High-risk and specialist verticals, quote only |
| StaxSubscription | VendorIC + 0% markup + 8cPer-transaction cents sit on top of the monthly subscription. | VendorIC + 0% markup + 15cPer-transaction cents sit on top of the monthly subscription. | Vendor$99, $139 or $199+ by ANNUAL volume$99 up to $150,000 a year, $139 for $150,000-$250,000, $199+ above $250,000. | Basic fraud filters. Pricing for them is not published. | Predictable volume, interchange at cost |
| WorldpayGBPInterchange-plus | Vendor0.0% markup + 4.5p authorisation feeUK only, indicative. 0.0% is a MARKUP of zero, not a total cost of zero. Interchange and scheme fees still apply on top. | Vendor0.0% markup + 4.5p authorisation feeSame card covers online and phone. No US rate card is published. | VendorGBP15 minimum monthly service charge, GBP5 PCI DSS fee, GBP20 per terminalGBP. Not sorted against USD rows. | Not published. | UK card-present and online, indicative card published |
How to read this table. Vendor is the vendor’s own published page, with the exact URL and access date in the Details panel. Reported is a credible third party: the source, its date and what kind of source it is are named, and where sources disagree we publish the range and say who says what. Reported figures are indicative and they do participate in sorting, because a dated, attributed number is more use to a merchant building a budget than an empty cell. They are shaded so you can see at a glance which half of the table you are trusting. Not published means the vendor doesn’t publish it, and the cell says what to ask for. It is never permission to assume a number.
Sorting uses the effective rate on a $100 sale, which is nothing more than arithmetic on the published percentage plus the fixed cents. Interchange-plus and subscription processors publish a markup over interchange rather than a headline rate, so they can’t be ranked on that axis and they sort last. That isn’t a verdict on cost: on a steady card mix a markup model often beats a flat rate, but you need an effective-rate statement to know. Currency badges mark the rows quoted in something other than US dollars; those rates are shown for structure, not for ranking against the USD rows.
Your real cost depends on card mix, ticket size, volume and dispute rate. Confirm every figure with the provider before you sign. This site sells nothing and takes no vendor money.
At-a-Glance Comparison
The same data as a static table, if you'd rather scan than filter.
| Processor | Online | Card-present | Chargeback | Monthly | Ranked on cost here? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim | IC + 0.50% + $0.25 down to IC + 0.15% + $0.15 | IC + 0.40% + $0.08 down to IC + 0.15% + $0.06 | $0 if you win, $15 if you lose | $0 | Yes |
| Square | 3.3% + $0.30 Free | 2.6% + $0.15 Free | $0 | $0 on Free | Yes, Free plan only |
| PayPal | 3.49% + $0.49 wallet, 2.99% + $0.49 card | 2.29% + $0.09 Zettle | $15 wallet ($0 if you win), $20 card, $30 above a 1.5% ratio | $0 standard | Yes |
| Braintree | 2.89% + $0.29 | Not separately published | $15 | Not published | Yes, online |
| Stax | IC + 0% + $0.15 | IC + 0% + $0.08 | Not published. $25 protection add-on | $99 to $199+, by annual volume | Only to $250K/year |
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 | Terminal 2.7% + $0.05 | $15 to receive + $15 to counter | $0 | Yes |
| Shopify Payments | 2.9% + 30c Basic | 2.6% + 10c Basic | Not published | $29 to $2,300+ | Yes |
| Clover direct | 3.5% + 10c | 2.3% + 10c restaurant, 2.6% + 10c retail entry | Not published | $0 to $129.85 | Yes, at direct rates only |
| Toast | 3.50% + 15c reported | 2.49% Traditional, 3.09% Pay-as-you-Go. Cents reported at 15c | Not published | $0 to $90 | Yes, with a reported input |
| Lightspeed | Not published | 2.6% + 10c retail | $15 | $69 to $399 | Card-present only |
| Moneris | 2.85% + $0.30 CAD | 2.65% + $0.10 CAD. Interac $0.12 | CA$25 plus CA$80 handling | CA$5 software fee | No. Canadian, CAD |
| Adyen | Not published. IC++ plus $0.13, indicative 0.60% | Not published. Same model | Not published | No monthly fee. Undisclosed minimum invoice | No. Rates are indicative |
| Checkout.com | Not published | None. Online only | Not published | Not published | No |
Tier key: unmarked figures are VENDOR, from the vendor's own page. Italicised figures are REPORTED by a named third party, and the source sits on that vendor's page here. "Not published" means the vendor doesn't publish it.
Toast's card-present cell is the one to read carefully. The percentages are Toast's own. The "+ 15c" is reported by NerdWallet and two content sites, not published by Toast. Don't quote the two as a single vendor rate.
Square Plus and Premium are $49 and $149 a month per location, now confirmed. All three Square tiers can be modelled. Per location matters: three sites on Plus is $147 a month.
Every processor above was checked for a published volume floor. None of them has one.
Adyen publishes no annual minimum. Nor does Checkout.com. Square publishes only an upward threshold. It invites custom pricing conversations above $250,000 a year, a much lower bar than most merchants assume.
You'll find claims that Adyen requires $10 million a year and Checkout.com $5 million. Both are invented, and neither appears on either vendor's site. If you think you're too small for an enterprise processor, ask. Don't assume.
What $100 Actually Costs
One transaction, $100, on the blended card mix described at How We Compare Processor Costs. Pass-through is $1.67 online and $1.21 card-present. Every processor pays it. Only the markup differs.
Online, $100 transaction:
| Processor | Model | Fee on $100 | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stax | IC + 0% + $0.15, plus subscription | $1.82 plus your share of the subscription | 1.82%+ |
| Helcim, $100K-$500K band | IC + 0.35% + $0.20 | $2.22 | 2.22% |
| Adyen, indicative | IC++ + 0.60% + $0.13 | $2.40 | 2.40% |
| Helcim, first band | IC + 0.50% + $0.25 | $2.42 | 2.42% |
| Braintree | 2.89% + $0.29 | $3.18 | 3.18% |
| PayPal, standard card | 2.99% + $0.49 | $3.48 | 3.48% |
| Square, Free plan | 3.3% + $0.30 | $3.60 | 3.60% |
| PayPal, wallet | 3.49% + $0.49 | $3.98 | 3.98% |
Card-present, $100 transaction:
| Processor | Model | Fee on $100 |
|---|---|---|
| Stax | IC + 0% + $0.08, plus subscription | $1.29 plus subscription |
| Helcim, $100K-$500K band | IC + 0.25% + $0.07 | $1.53 |
| Helcim, first band | IC + 0.40% + $0.08 | $1.69 |
| Adyen, indicative | IC++ + 0.60% + $0.13 | $1.94 |
| PayPal Zettle | 2.29% + $0.09 | $2.38 |
| Square, Free | 2.6% + $0.15 | $2.75 |
| Clover Direct, restaurant | 2.3% + 10c | $2.40 |
| Shopify, Basic | 2.6% + 10c | $2.70 |
| Stripe Terminal | 2.7% + $0.05 | $2.75 |
| Lightspeed, retail | 2.6% + 10c | $2.70 |
| Moneris (CAD) | 2.65% + $0.10 | CA$2.75 |
The Moneris row is in a different currency. It isn't comparable to the USD rows above it. It's there so the structural difference shows, not so you can rank the column end to end.
A $100 ticket is one point on a curve, not a ranking. Each of these carries a condition.
- PayPal Zettle publishes the lowest flat card-present rate verified here, at 2.29% + $0.09. That's the opposite of PayPal's reputation. Its 9-cent fixed fee is the lowest of any US flat rate on this site. At small tickets that fixed fee decides it. Zettle beats Helcim's entry band below a $19.53 ticket, and Helcim's $500K-$1M band below $13.96
- Helcim beats Zettle above those tickets, with no subscription to earn back. At $100 it's $1.69 against $2.38
- Stax's $1.29 excludes the subscription, and the subscription is the whole question. Against Zettle at a $100 card-present ticket, Stax saves $1.09 a transaction. So the $99 tier is earned back at about 91 transactions a month, or $9,100 of volume. Against Helcim the advantage is $0.40 a transaction on the entry band. That needs 248 transactions, or $24,750 a month. And $297,000 a year is not the $99 tier. See Stax for why that matters
- Shopify's US in-person rate is 2.6% + 10c. Its fixed fee is the lowest of the flat rates that charge one. Against Helcim's entry band at 1.43% + $0.258, the crossover is
0.026A + 0.10 = 0.0143A + 0.258, so A = $13.50. Below a $13.50 ticket Shopify Basic is cheaper in person. Above it, Helcim is. The zero-cents claim you'll see for Shopify in person is Canada only. It would push the crossover out to $22.05. That's why using the Canadian card on a US merchant matters
The debit point is the one people miss. These tables use a blended card mix. Regulation II caps regulated US debit interchange at 0.05% + $0.21, plus a $0.01 fraud-prevention adjustment. On one of those cards Helcim's entry band costs about $0.91 on a $100 card-present sale. Zettle costs $2.38. On a premium rewards credit card Helcim costs about $2.84, which is worse than Zettle. Flat rate is insurance against your card mix. Interchange-plus is a bet on it.
Cost by Volume
Online, $100 average ticket, on the pass-through assumption of 1.50% + $0.172. Your card mix will differ. Trust the ranking more than the absolute numbers.
$150,000/Month, 1,500 Transactions
Pass-through is $2,508 for everyone. The table shows total cost.
| Processor | Markup | Total | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim ($100K-$500K band) | $825 | $3,333 | 2.22% |
| Braintree | flat rate | $4,770 | 3.18% |
| PayPal, standard card | flat rate | $5,220 | 3.48% |
| Square, Free plan | flat rate | $5,400 | 3.60% |
| PayPal, wallet | flat rate | $5,970 | 3.98% |
| Adyen (indicative, not rankable) | $1,095 | $3,603 | 2.40% |
| Stax at the "$199+" floor (not rankable) | $424 | $2,932 | 1.95% |
$1,500,000/Month, 15,000 Transactions
Pass-through is $25,080 for everyone.
| Processor | Markup | Total | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim ($1M-$5M band) | $4,500 | $29,580 | 1.97% |
| Braintree | flat rate | $47,700 | 3.18% |
| Square, Free plan | flat rate | $54,000 | 3.60% |
| Adyen (indicative, not rankable) | $10,950 | $36,030 | 2.40% |
| Stax at the "$199+" floor (not rankable) | $2,449 | $27,529 | 1.84% |
The italic rows are arithmetic, not verdicts.
Stax publishes "$199+" for everything above $250,000 a year. $1.8 million and $18 million a year both sit in that band. The plus sign has no ceiling. Computing Stax at exactly $199 assumes the friendliest possible answer. This site won't rank a processor on its own best case. If Stax gives you a written number, put it in the table yourself. It may well win.
Adyen captions its own rate table: "The fees outlined above are indicative; please get in touch to discuss pricing options." It also has "a minimum invoice depending on industry or business model", with no amount published. An indicative rate plus an undisclosed floor isn't a price.
The indicative figure still deserves an honest read, and it gets read wrong in both directions. No published number supports Adyen rates of 1.2 to 2.2%, or a 0.8 to 1.5 point saving for merchants over $10 million a month. Nor is the reverse claim true, that Adyen's 0.60% + $0.13 is higher than Helcim's markup in every band. Card-present it's higher than every Helcim band on both components. Online it's lower than Helcim's entry band below a $120 ticket, because Adyen's 13 cents undercuts Helcim's 25. See Adyen for the full crossover table.
Where that leaves it: single-market, comparing on cost, Helcim wins on published numbers. Adyen has to prove otherwise with a written quote. Multi-market with real cross-border volume, Adyen's case is strong. It's a local-acquiring case, not a markup case. That saving lands in the interchange line, which is identical across every row above.
When to Use Each Processor
Helcim: Cheapest in 20 of 24 Modelled Scenarios
Choose Helcim if:
- Your average ticket clears roughly $9.23 card-present or $9.38 online against Square Free. Against PayPal Zettle the bar is $19.53 card-present, which is the harder test. No volume threshold, because no monthly fee
- You have real dispute volume. Helcim charges $0 for a chargeback you win, which nobody else here does
- Your volume moves month to month, so a subscription would be dead weight
Pricing: five published monthly bands. Card-present runs from interchange + 0.40% + 8c down to interchange + 0.15% + 6c. Online runs from interchange + 0.50% + 25c down to interchange + 0.15% + 15c. No monthly fee, no setup fee, no PCI fee.
Where it loses: card-present at a small ticket, to PayPal Zettle. That's below about a $19.53 ticket in the entry band, $13.96 in the $500K-$1M band. It also loses online at a $25 ticket, to Stax, between roughly $11,000 and $20,800 a month. There's a gap in the middle. From about $12,500 to $15,400 Stax's subscription steps up to $139 and Helcim retakes the lead. So the interval sawtooths rather than running straight. Ticket size creates it, not volume.
PayPal Zettle: The Small-Ticket Card-Present Answer
Choose Zettle if:
- You're in person with an average ticket under about $19.53, or under $13.96 once Helcim reaches its $500K-$1M band
- You don't need a POS ecosystem
- You want one flat rate you can predict, with no interchange statement to read
Pricing: 2.29% + $0.09 card-present. That 9-cent fixed fee is the lowest published by any US flat rate here. At a $15 ticket it beats Helcim by $52 a month on $20,000 of volume.
Where it loses: above about a $19.53 ticket, and at higher volumes where Helcim's bands step down. PayPal's dispute pricing is also the most expensive verified here.
Stax: One Cell, and It's a Narrow One
Choose Stax if:
- You're online at roughly a $25 ticket, doing $11,000 to $12,500 a month on the $99 tier, or $15,400 to $20,800 on the $139 tier. That's where its 15-cent online charge and zero percentage beat Helcim. In between, the subscription steps up and Helcim is cheaper again
- Your annual volume is under $250,000, so the subscription you'd pay is a published number
Pricing: interchange + 0% + $0.08 card-present, interchange + 0% + $0.15 online, plus $99 to $199+ a month set by annual volume.
Two things everyone gets wrong. First, the volume bands are annual. $99 covers up to $150,000 a year. So a merchant doing $20,000 a month is at $240,000 a year, which is the $139 tier. Second, fixing that error doesn't make Stax cheapest. Helcim charges the same 8 cents card-present with no subscription. Stax never beats Helcim card-present at a volume where Stax still publishes its price.
Square: Best Card-Present Default If You Want a POS
Choose Square if:
- You're primarily in person and need POS as well as payments. The POS is the reason, not the rate
- You need to start today with no technical work
- You want a price you can check completely before signing anything
Pricing: 2.6% + $0.15 card-present and 3.3% + $0.30 online on the Free plan. Plus and Premium publish lower rates, at $49 and $149 a month per location. Only Free is ranked here.
Note the 15 cents. Square's card-present fixed fee is 15 cents, not the 10 cents that circulates widely. On a $10 ticket that's the difference between 3.6% and 4.1%.
On cost, Square Free loses to Helcim above a $9.23 card-present ticket and a $9.38 online ticket. At $20,000 a month card-present with a $50 ticket the gap is $190.80 a month, or $2,290 a year. That's larger than most comparisons show, and the difference is the interchange assumption, not the rates.
Braintree: Cards, PayPal, and Venmo in One Integration
Choose Braintree if:
- You want cards, PayPal, and Venmo in one integration
- You need the full Venmo checkout, which PayPal Checkout alone doesn't give you
- You take large ACH payments. 0.75% capped at $5 is cheap
Pricing: 2.89% + $0.29 for cards and digital wallets, 3.49% + $0.49 for Venmo, $15 per dispute.
Don't choose between Braintree and Stripe on price. Stripe's confirmed US online rate is 2.9% + $0.30. Braintree's is 2.89% + $0.29. One hundredth of a point and one cent, about a penny on a $50 order. There's no breakeven ticket to compute. Choose on features.
PayPal Online: Two Rates, and Most Comparisons Show the Wrong One
Choose PayPal online if:
- Your customers ask for it, as a second method alongside cards
- You invoice large amounts. ACH at 1% capped at $10 is excellent
Pricing: 3.49% + $0.49 through the PayPal wallet, but 2.99% + $0.49 for standard card payments. Most comparisons only show the first.
The catch is disputes, but only above a 1.5% ratio. The $15 dispute fee and the $20 chargeback fee cover different channels. They never both apply to one dispute. Below 1.5% PayPal is mid-pack, and a dispute you win costs $0. Cross 1.5% with 100+ sales in the prior three months and every dispute costs $30, wins included.
Stripe: Best Developer Experience, and Now a Readable Price
Choose Stripe if:
- You have developers and are building custom checkout
- You need subscription billing with real complexity
- You're expanding internationally
Pricing: 2.9% + $0.30 online and 2.7% + $0.05 on Terminal, US figures confirmed from a US connection on 2 August 2026. No setup or monthly fee. Keyed adds 0.5%. Cards issued abroad add 1.5%, and currency conversion adds 1%. Both are roughly the inverse of Stripe's Canadian card. Check which country any Stripe rate you read came from.
Against Square card-present, 2.7% + 5c crosses Square Free's 2.6% + 15c at exactly a $100 ticket. Stripe below, Square above, by cents either way.
Watch the disputes. $15 to receive a dispute, never returned, plus $15 to counter it, returned only on an outright win. A partial win costs $30, the same as losing.
Shopify Payments: Mandatory If You're on Shopify
Choose Shopify Payments if:
- You're on Shopify. Use anything else and Shopify charges a third-party gateway fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. That fee is the real lock-in
- You take in-person payments. The fixed fee is 10 cents in the US and zero in Canada, lowest of the flat-rate options either way. That's real money at a low ticket
Pricing, US: Basic 2.9% + 30c online and 2.6% + 10c in person, at $39 a month or $29 billed annually. Grow 2.7% / 2.5% at $105 or $79. Advanced 2.5% / 2.4% at $399 or $299. Plus from $2,300 with rates described only as "most competitive rates".
Watch the geography. "Shopify charges no per-transaction cents in person" is Canada only. The US charges 10 cents. US online rates run 0.1 points above Canadian at every tier. shopify.com/us/pricing 404s because there's no US path. Shopify resolves country by connection.
Read full Shopify Payments profile
Moneris: Canadian, and Interac Cuts Both Ways
Choose Moneris if:
- You're a Canadian business with heavy in-store volume
- Interac Debit is a big share of your in-store baskets. At $0.12 flat it beats credit on essentially every purchase
But check your online mix. Online Interac Debit is $1.00 CAD flat. It only beats credit above about a $25 order. Below that it's your most expensive method.
Pricing: 2.65% + $0.10 CAD in person, 2.85% + $0.30 CAD online, all CAD. Chargebacks are CA$25 plus a separate CA$80 authorization chargeback handling fee. That's the most expensive dispute structure verified here.
Adyen: Global Acquiring, and the Markup Claim Needs Splitting by Channel
Consider Adyen if:
- You sell across many markets and want local acquiring rather than cross-border routing
- You want online, in-store, and mobile on one platform
- You have developers and months of runway
Pricing: not published. Adyen publishes a model: Interchange++ plus a $0.13 processing fee, with an indicative 0.60% card markup. Then it caveats that the figures are indicative. No monthly fee, but a minimum invoice with no published amount. No annual volume floor.
On the indicative figure: card-present, Adyen's markup is higher than every published Helcim band, on both the percentage and the cents. So it costs more at every ticket. Online it depends on ticket size, because Adyen's 13 cents undercuts Helcim's 25. Adyen is lower than Helcim's entry online band below a $120 ticket, higher above it.
Ask for: the minimum monthly invoice in dollars, the full method-by-method schedule, whether the $0.13 applies to declined attempts, and the chargeback fee.
Checkout.com: Quote-Only, Online Only
Consider Checkout.com if:
- You need global acquiring with Stripe-quality developer tooling
- You're prepared to run a sales process to find out what it costs
Pricing: nothing published. It offers a flat-rate model and an Interchange++ one, priced "based on your business profile and risk category." It states no setup fees and no account maintenance fees. No volume floor is published.
Read full Checkout.com profile
Clover: The Reseller Sets Your Price
Consider Clover if:
- You need the widest POS hardware range in the SMB market
- You're prepared to negotiate a reseller contract properly
Pricing, Clover Direct: 2.3% + 10c card-present for restaurants and quick service, 2.6% + 10c on entry retail and services plans, 3.5% + 10c keyed and online. Software $0 to $129.85 a month. Rapid Deposit 1.75%.
What's still true: the reseller sets your actual rate. Clover says so on its own pricing page. Treat the published direct rates as your anchor. Anything above them is markup.
Ask for: who the merchant of record is, the effective rate on your card mix, the chargeback fee (the one figure Clover doesn't publish at any tier), the contract term and termination fee, and whether hardware is subscribed or bought. Clover publishes both prices per bundle. Its own arithmetic puts the 36-month subscription premium at $227 to $3,622, with no ownership at term end. That's where the cost hides. Now you can check it.
Toast: Restaurant-Specific, Bundled, Quote-Only
Consider Toast if:
- You run a full-service restaurant and would genuinely use kitchen displays, tableside ordering, and commission-free online ordering
Pricing: 2.49% on Traditional and 3.09% on Pay-as-you-Go, both published by Toast on its shop pages. The + $0.15 fixed component is reported, not published. Never quote the two as one vendor rate. Software $0 Starter Kit, $69 Point of Sale.
The plan choice is arithmetic. The 0.60 point gap breaks even at about $11,500 a month ignoring hardware, or about $25,300 including an illustrative $2,000 of hardware over 24 months. Below that, Pay-as-you-Go, which Toast says includes hardware you own from day one. Above it, Traditional.
Sanity check any quote against 2.58%, Toast's own blended gross take on $195.1bn of volume across 164,000 locations, from its FY2025 10-K. A quote above 3.09% is above Toast's most expensive published plan.
Ask for: the fixed cents component. The card-not-present rate, which Toast publishes nowhere and is reported at 3.50% + $0.15. Whether the rate can rise mid-contract. The term, which Toast's own filing puts at 12 to 36 months, so push for 12. The chargeback fee and the hardware price. And whether payments are contractually locked to Toast. That last one is still the critical term.
Lightspeed: Inventory Depth, Card-Present Priced, Online Still Dark
Consider Lightspeed if:
- You need matrix inventory, purchase orders, or serialised tracking. That's the reason to buy it
Pricing: card-present is 2.6% + 10c and the chargeback fee is $15, both published. Retail software is $89, $149 and $289 a month; restaurant is $69, $189 and $399, plus $30 per kitchen display screen.
The bare "1.5%" that turns up for Lightspeed appears nowhere on Lightspeed's page. It's an artefact. The real rate matches Shopify Basic exactly in person. So the choice between them is a software decision, not a rate one.
Still not published: the online, keyed and card-not-present rates, on either product line. Nor the processing rate for the restaurant product at all. Lightspeed's own filing shows a blended take of about 1.90% against a 2.6% + 10c list price. Its payments page lists "negotiate a competitive rate" as a bullet. There's headroom.
Ask for: the online rate, a card-present rate below 2.6% + 10c, confirmation that $15 is the whole dispute cost, the contract term, hardware cost, and the restaurant rate specifically.
Disputes Cost More Than People Model
Processing rates cluster within a point of each other. Dispute pricing doesn't.
| Processor | Dispute you win | Dispute you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Helcim | $0 | $15 |
| Square | $0 | $0 |
| Authorize.net | $0.00 on cards, $25.00 on eCheck.Net | Same. Gateway fee only |
| Braintree | $15 | $15 |
| Shopify Payments | $0, the $15 is returned on a win | $15 |
| Toast | $15 | $15 |
| Stripe | $15 outright win, $30 partial win | $30 |
| PayPal | $0 on a wallet dispute, $20 on a card chargeback | $15 wallet, $20 card |
| PayPal above a 1.5% dispute ratio | $30 | $30 |
| Moneris | CA$25 plus CA$80 handling | Same |
| Lightspeed | $15, described as a single fee covering the defence | $15 |
| Adyen, Checkout.com, Clover, Worldpay, Global Payments, Nuvei, Stax | Not published | Not published |
All read 2 August 2026. Lightspeed's payments page states "the only thing you can expect is a $15 chargeback fee". It also says "you will be charged a single $15 fee and we will fight tooth and nail to dispute the claim on your behalf." That wording implies no separate representment charge. It would put Lightspeed between Helcim and Stripe. Confirm it in writing.
The whole published span is $0 to $30. Nothing here reaches the "$100 a chargeback" you'll read elsewhere. That figure traces to one unsourced sentence in a vendor marketing article. Two caveats on the zeros. Authorize.net is a gateway, so the merchant account behind it charges its own fee. That one isn't on Authorize.net's schedule. Shopify says the returned fee is charged by "your bank", not by Shopify.
Clover is now the interesting absence. It publishes a full rate card and no dispute fee, at any tier. Toast turned out to publish one after all, at $15, on its support site rather than its pricing page.
At 20 disputes a month with a 60% win rate, the annual dispute fee bill runs $1,440 on Helcim and $0 on Square. On PayPal it's $1,440 on wallet traffic, $4,800 on card traffic, and $7,200 if you're over the 1.5% line. For a merchant with $2 million of annual volume, that spread is larger than a 0.15 point difference in processing rate.
Two specifics:
- Stripe never returns the dispute received fee, and returns the countered fee only on an outright win. Winning partially costs the same as losing
- Square charges $0 per dispute and states it outright. Its Payment Terms separately reserve the right to recover network fines and penalties, which is a different thing from a dispute fee
If your business runs disputes, model this before you model the rate. See Chargeback Prevention.
Common Processor Combinations
1. A Published-Rate Processor Plus a PayPal Button
Best for: online businesses that want PayPal's conversion effect without PayPal's cost as a primary
How it works: run cards through Helcim or Braintree, and offer PayPal as a second method.
Cost at $150,000 a month, $100 average ticket, 20% of customers choosing the PayPal wallet:
| Volume | Rate | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cards via Helcim ($100K-$500K band) | $120,000 | IC + 0.35% + $0.20 | $2,666.40 |
| PayPal wallet | $30,000 | 3.49% + $0.49 | $1,194.00 |
| Blended | $150,000 | $3,860.40 (2.57%) |
Compare all-Helcim at $3,333.00. The PayPal button costs you $527.40 a month. So the question is whether it adds more than $527 of margin in incremental sales. Measure that, don't assume it. The answer also moves with your primary processor. On Braintree the same button costs about $240 a month, because Braintree's own rate is closer to PayPal's.
2. Square In Store, Something Else Online
Best for: omnichannel merchants where in-person is the bulk and the POS is the reason to be on Square
Why: Square's POS is strong. Its Free-plan online rate at 3.3% + $0.30 is the worst on this page. Splitting channels avoids paying it.
The honest caveat: you're paying for the POS, not the rate. Above a $9.23 card-present ticket Helcim is cheaper in store too. At $20,000 a month with a $50 ticket the difference is $190.80. If you'd genuinely use Square's POS, that's a fair price for it. Decide it as a software purchase, not a payments one.
3. Braintree Alone for Multi-Method Checkout
Best for: online merchants who need cards, PayPal, and Venmo without three integrations
Why: one SDK. The saving is engineering time, not processing cost. Braintree costs about $1,437 a month more than Helcim at $150,000 a month with a $100 ticket.
4. Interchange-Plus From Day One
Best for: anyone whose average ticket clears about $10
Why: Helcim has no monthly fee. There's no volume at which you "graduate" to it. The old advice here was to stay flat-rate until $20,000 a month. It came from an interchange assumption that overstated pass-through by 79 basis points card-present. Corrected, the saving at $20,000 a month card-present with a $50 ticket is $190.80. Not the roughly $10 the old model implied.
Switching Costs Reality Check
Switching costs include development, testing, downtime risk, team training and card data migration. None of it is free. A saving has to clear it.
The calculation:
Monthly saving = (current effective rate - new effective rate) x monthly volume
Switching cost = (developer hours x your rate) + testing + training
Payback months = switching cost / monthly saving
Get the switching cost scoped by whoever would do the work. Don't use a number from an article. A plugin swap and a custom integration are nothing alike.
Rules of thumb that survive the corrected arithmetic:
- At $20,000 a month card-present with a $50 ticket, Square Free to Helcim saves $190.80 a month, or $2,290 a year. That pays for a plugin swap immediately and a modest custom job inside a year
- At $20,000 a month online with a $25 ticket, Square Free to Helcim saves $162.40 a month. Braintree to Helcim saves $72.40. The second one is close enough that a painful migration probably isn't worth it
- At $150,000 a month online with a $100 ticket, Square Free to Helcim saves $2,067 a month and Braintree to Helcim saves $1,437. That pays back most integrations inside a year
- At $1,500,000 a month, the same moves save $24,420 and $18,120 a month. At that point the switching cost is a rounding error. Staying on flat-rate is the expensive decision
Worth it for reasons other than cost: better dispute economics, better support, better developer tooling, or getting off a contract you can't audit.
Test to Run
Processor decision audit, whether you're choosing or reconsidering:
Week 1: Usage analysis
- Calculate your transaction mix: card-present ____%, online ____%, keyed ____%
- Calculate monthly volume and monthly transaction count
- Calculate your average ticket. It matters more than volume. It decides whether fixed fees or percentages dominate
- Pull your blended interchange from your statement. If your processor won't give it to you, that itself is informative. If you can't get it, use this site's assumption and mark the result an estimate
Week 2: Cost modelling 5. Model at least one flat-rate processor and both interchange-plus options (Helcim and Stax), all from published rates 6. Include the subscription for Stax and the plan fee for anything that has one. If Stax quotes you "$199+", get the real number before modelling it 7. Add your annual dispute cost to each. This line frequently reorders the ranking
Week 3: Feature comparison 8. List must-haves: subscription billing, multi-currency, API depth, POS features, specific payment methods 9. Eliminate anything that fails a must-have, regardless of price
Week 4: Close the unpublished gaps 10. For any quote-only vendor still in the running, get the missing numbers in writing: rate, minimum, chargeback fee, contract term, termination fee 11. If a vendor won't put those in writing, remove them
Decision matrix:
| Factor | Helcim | Stax | Square | PayPal | Quote-only option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effective rate | __% | __% | __% | __% | __% |
| Annual dispute cost | $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |
| Monthly fees | $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |
| Switching cost | $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |
| Has must-haves? | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N |
| Total annual cost | $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |
Success criteria: a total annual cost for at least four options, built from published rates and your own statement. Every figure carries the ticket size and volume it assumes. And the winner wins on arithmetic, not on brand.
Recommendations by Ticket Size and Volume
Volumes are monthly. Every line carries its channel and ticket, because a recommendation without them isn't one.
Card-present, ticket under about $19.53
Recommended: PayPal Zettle at 2.29% + $0.09.
Why: its 9-cent fixed fee is the lowest published US flat rate here. At a small ticket the fixed fee is most of the cost. At a $15 ticket Zettle beats Helcim at $5,000, $20,000 and $100,000 a month, by $13.00, $52.00 and $43.33. The gap narrows as Helcim's bands step down. At $500,000 a month Helcim takes the lead.
Watch for: the crossover. It's a $19.53 ticket in Helcim's entry band, $15.64 in the $100K-$500K band, $13.96 in the $500K-$1M band. If your average is drifting up, recheck.
Card-present, ticket above about $19.53
Recommended: Helcim, with no volume threshold to reach first.
Why: it wins every card-present cell above a $19.53 ticket in the model, from $5,000 a month to $500,000. At a $50 ticket and $20,000 a month it's $389.20 against Square Free's $580.00 and Zettle's $494.00. There's no monthly fee to earn back, so there's nothing to wait for.
Also: Stax never beats Helcim card-present at a volume where Stax publishes a price. In the entry band both charge 8 cents. The only difference is Helcim's 0.40% against Stax's subscription. Above $50,000 a month Helcim drops to 7 cents and takes a cent-per-transaction advantage too. Above roughly $58,000 to $70,000 a month, depending on your ticket, get a Stax quote. Stax would overtake Helcim there at its published $199 floor. But above $250,000 a year that floor is "$199+" with no ceiling. So it's the earliest possible crossover, not a price. The crossover falls as the ticket rises: about $70,200 at a $15 ticket, $60,300 at $50, $58,500 at $100 and $58,000 at $150.
Online, ticket under about $10
Recommended: Braintree or Square Free.
Why: below a $9.38 ticket Square Free's 30-cent fixed fee beats Helcim's combined 42.2 cents. Below $14.83 Braintree's 29 cents does. At a $10 ticket Braintree is $0.58 against Helcim's $0.62 and Square's $0.63.
Online, ticket around $25, volume $11,000 to $20,800 a month
Recommended: price Stax against Helcim. This is the one modelled cell Stax wins.
Why: Stax's 15-cent online charge undercuts Helcim's 25 cents by enough to pay a $99 or $139 subscription at that transaction count. At $20,000 a month it's $696.60 against $737.60. The window closes at $20,833 a month, where Stax's subscription becomes "$199+".
Caveat: it's ticket-sensitive, and it sawtooths with the subscription tiers. Treat it as two windows, not one range. On the $99 tier Stax wins from about $11,000 to $12,500 a month. From $12,500 to about $15,400 the subscription is $139 and Helcim is cheaper again. From $15,400 to $20,833 Stax wins again. Then the subscription becomes "$199+" and Helcim leads until about $22,100. At a $50 ticket the only window is about $19,900 to $20,800 a month. At a $100 ticket there's no rankable window at all.
Online, ticket above about $15, most volumes
Recommended: Helcim.
Why: it wins every online cell modelled at $75 and $200 tickets, and every $25-ticket cell except the Stax window. At $100,000 a month with a $75 ticket it's $2,346 against Braintree's $3,277.
Over $5,000,000/Month, or Multi-Market at Any Volume
Recommended: run two processes in parallel.
- Negotiate with Helcim. Its pricing genuinely goes custom above $5 million a month, so anchor on the published $1M-$5M band
- Get quotes from Adyen and Checkout.com. Judge them on local acquiring in your markets, not on headline rate
The deciding question isn't volume, it's geography. A large single-market merchant is usually better off with a transparent domestic processor. Real cross-border volume is where the global platforms earn their integration cost. They earn it in interchange, not in markup.
Next Steps
Choosing your first processor?
- Work out your average ticket first. It decides more than your volume does
- Use the decision tree above
- Read the full profile for your top choice
- Check the interchange assumption against your own statement
Reconsidering your current processor?
- Run the processor decision audit
- Model Helcim and Stax from their published schedules. Neither needs a sales call
- Add your dispute costs to the comparison
- Read Processor Switch Checklist if you're switching
Want to optimise what you've already got?
- Auth Optimization - improve approval rates, which is usually worth more than a rate cut
- Chargeback Prevention - reduce disputes, which is worth more than winning them
- Fraud Detection - better screening
See Also
- How We Compare Processor Costs - The interchange assumption behind every number here
- Buying Payments - Full processor selection framework
- Processor Comparison - Detailed comparison table
- Processor Switch Checklist - How to switch
- Payment Ecosystem - Processors versus acquirers
- Provider Types - PayFac, ISO, and acquirer
- Gateway Basics - Gateway versus processor
- Interchange Reference - The cost every processor passes through