Best Credit Card Processors for E-commerce
E-commerce processing is dominated by flat-rate (Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal) because the developer experience and integrations are unmatched. The trade-off is cost: every dollar above ~$20K/month in card volume could be saved by switching to interchange-plus. The right choice depends on your platform: Shopify users effectively must use Shopify Payments to avoid penalty fees, while standalone stores have wider freedom.
- 1Stripe8/10
Developer-first online payments with transparent flat-rate pricing.
Pricing: 2.9% + 30¢ (online)Contract: month-to-month✓ Best-in-class developer documentation and APIs✗ Flat-rate is expensive once you cross ~$15K/mo in volume - 2Shopify Payments7.2/10
Bundled with Shopify storefronts — penalty fees if you use anything else.
Pricing: 2.4%–2.9% + 30¢ (online, varies by plan)Contract: month-to-month✓ Native to Shopify — zero setup friction✗ Effectively forced — third-party processors get penalty surcharge - 3
PayPal's developer-focused gateway — Stripe alternative for online businesses.
Pricing: 2.59% + 49¢ (cards)Contract: month-to-month✓ PayPal + cards in a single integration✗ Same account-hold risk patterns as PayPal - 4Helcim8.7/10
Interchange-plus pricing with no monthly fee — best-kept secret in SMB processing.
Pricing: Interchange + 0.4% + 8¢ (in-person)Contract: month-to-month✓ Interchange-plus pricing with PUBLIC rates — extremely rare✗ Smaller hardware lineup than Square or Clover - 5Authorize.net7.7/10
Veteran payment gateway — almost always paired with another processor.
Pricing: $25/mo + 10¢ per transaction (gateway only)Contract: month-to-month✓ Massive integration library — works with virtually everything✗ Adds $25/mo + 10¢/txn ON TOP of your processor's fees - 6PayPal (Braintree)6.5/10
Ubiquitous checkout — convenience at a premium rate.
Pricing: 3.49% + 49¢ (PayPal Checkout)Contract: month-to-month✓ Trusted brand boosts checkout conversion✗ 3.49% + 49¢ standard rate is the highest among major processors - 7Adyen7.5/10
Enterprise-grade global payments — built for companies, not SMBs.
Pricing: Interchange + €0.11 + processor fee (custom-quoted)Contract: varies✓ Single platform for global multi-channel processing✗ Designed for enterprise — high minimums
Bottom line
If you're on Shopify, use Shopify Payments — the third-party penalty fee makes shopping pointless. If you're on WooCommerce, Magento, or custom, Helcim or Stax beat Stripe on cost above $20K/month. For high-fraud verticals, Braintree's tokenization + Kount integration is worth the switch from Stripe Radar.
Fees that affect this category
Definitions, typical ranges, and how to negotiate them.