11 Best Payment Gateway Providers in UK [2024]
By Storeplum Editorial
Posted | 3 min read
Although the core of payment processing hasn't changed much since the last two decades, a majority of payment gateway providers have undergone a transformation with their offerings.
From a simple credit card offering to digital wallets, buy now, pay later and even cryptocurrencies in some cases, payment gateways have come a long way.
If you run a simple online store or a full fledged direct to consumer (DTC) brand, it's important to understand what payment methods are widely adopted by your customers.
Many customers these days like a seamless offering. Customer convenience precedes over everything when it comes to online shopping. That makes it imperative to make an informed decision while choosing a payment gateway for your business.
Our team has evaluated several popular payment gateways in the UK based on factors like pricing, security, payment options offering, international reach and others to come up with a list of best payment gateways in 2022. Here's the list-
Best Payment Gateway Providers in UK
Mollie
Mollie is Europe's fastest growing payment services provider company. It is used by more than 130,000 merchants in Europe and processes about 10 billion euros in transactions annually. Headquartered in Belgium, the company offers its payment gateway service for most of the ecommerce merchant accounts all over Europe.
Current payment options supported by Mollie-
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Bank transfers
- Digital wallets
- Paypal
- Buy now pay later
Overall, Mollie charges about 2.5% plus 0.20 euros per transaction as their fees. There are no additional monthly fees besides this. For merchants with higher volumes (over 50,000 euros per month) the company offers discounted pricing.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quick and easy to set up | Not widely supported outside Europe |
| Simple integrations with ecommerce platforms | Higher transaction fees for cross border ecommerce merchants |
| 1 page checkout pages | Additional costs for instant deposits |
| Supports subscriptions for recurring payments | - |
Opayo
Opayo was formerly known as Sage Pay and is one of the most popular gateways in Europe. Over 50,000 merchants in the UK trust Opayo as payment provider for their ecommerce business. The company offers secure payments and also supports international payment options for its cross border merchants.
Payment methods supported by Opayo
- Credit and debit cards
- Paypal
- Digital wallets
- Major Visa and Maestro cards
Opayo starts with 32 euros per month as a flat monthly fee. With this plan, the company offers 350 transactions, fraud detection, PCI compliant gateway and other features.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quick settlements without additional fees. | Monthly fees with an upper cap on transactions get expensive soon |
| PCI compliant | Not suitable for low volume businesses. |
| Plug and use UX plugins | Longer settlement duration |
Checkout.com
Checkout.com is headquartered in London, United Kingdom and is one of the biggest payments processing companies in Europe. The company offers reliable payment options in 150 currencies according to their website. Checkout.com prefers global merchants with very high volumes unlike most of the other gateway providers in the UK.
Payment options supported by Checkout.com-
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Bank transfers (EPS)
- Paypal
- Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc
Checkout.com offers a flat pricing of 0.9% plus 0.2 euros per transaction for all European cards
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Developer friendly APIs | Suitable for high volume merchants. |
| Affordable pricing for European merchants | Longer settlement duration |
| Support with user account management | Dashboards are not as intuitive compared to others. |
2Checkout
2Checkout, also known as 2CO, is a payment gateway service provider for online merchants that was founded in 2000. According to their website, they help merchants to quickly scale into international markets. Many high volume merchants prefer 2Checkout as it provides enterprise ready features and account level support.
Payment methods supported by 2Checkout-
- Credit cards
- Digital wallets
- Bank debit
2Checkout offers a flat pricing of 3.5% + 35 cents per transaction. Their offerings are expensive compared to other gateway providers in the UK on this list. The entire pricing can be found here.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Simple integration and quick start | No complete support for popular ecommerce platforms |
| Provides fraud detection | Expensive compared to others |
| Dashboard insights | Steep learning curve |
| Support for recurring billing | Developer APIs are outdated |
Paypal
Since its acquisition by eBay, Paypal has become the most widely used digital payment platform in the world. In 2020 alone, PayPal processed over 15 billion transactions. As of 2021, there are over 29 million active PayPal merchant accounts.
Paypal supports the following types of payment options-
- Credit cards
- Digital wallet
- Loan
- Bank redirect
- Deferred payments
- Buy now pay later
Using an online payment service like Paypal will cost you 1.2% + fixed fee per transaction for domestic transactions if you are in the EEA (European Economic Area) market. Additional percentage fee of 1.99% is charged for international transactions.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely easy to integrate. | High transaction fees. |
| Developer friendly API | Longer settlement duration |
| A de facto standard for a long time to accept donations, fundraisers, etc. | Easy target for phishing and scams |
| Easy to send and receive money from friends and family | - |
| Supports currencies from almost all countries. | - |
Stripe
Stripe is a top payment gateway services provider from California, United States with another office in Dublin, Ireland. The company provides payment processing software and application programming interfaces (APIs) for online stores and mobile apps. Stripe's payment system is used by over 3.1 million websites globally.
Stripe supports the following payment options by default-
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Wallets (Google pay, Apple pay, etc)
- Bank redirects
- Cash vouchers
- Buy now pay later
Stripe also offers a fraud protection tool at an additional fee per transaction. High volume merchants (those processing over $5000 per month) benefit greatly from tools which help them manage chargebacks and credit card fraud liabilities.
Stripe payment gateway charges a flat 2.9% + 30 cents as transaction fee
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| PCI Service Provider Level 1 compliant. Best in class security | Not available in all countries |
| Built in fraud detection and resolution | Instant deposits at an additional costs |
| No monthly fee. | Does not support popular payment methods outside North America |
| Developer friendly API | Longer settlement duration |
| Plug and use UI components for non-tech teams. | Longer settlement duration |
Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay is Amazon's payment gateway solution which gives users the option to pay using their Amazon accounts on other ecommerce platforms. The service was launched in 2007 and primarily serves the USA, most of Europe and select other countries.
Payment methods supported by Amazon Pay
- Debit and credit cards
- Digital wallets
- QR code based payments
- UK based Maestro and Solo cards
Amazon charges a flat fee of 2.7% + 0.30 euros per transaction. The pricing for cross border transactions is an additional 1%. Click here to know more about pricing for Amazon Pay.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quick and easy to set up | Less customizations available |
| Built in fraud detection | More favourable to merchants who are already selling on Amazon |
| Predictable settlements | No PayPal support. |
| Familiar dashboard | Risk of account freeze for non-compliance |
Worldpay
Worldpay offers smart payment processors and related solutions to small businesses and merchants. The company also offers strategic partnership and online payment systems to enterprise and high volume retail businesses globally.
Payment options supported by Worldpay
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Digital wallets
- Bank transfers
Worldpay takes a monthly subscription fee of 19 euros per month for a standard online payment gateway with 350 transactions included. There are no additional fees for set up.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Support for enterprise retailers | Complicated pricing |
| Analytics and dashboard included | Monthly subscriptions and limited transactions does not work well with high volume merchants |
| PCI compliant | - |
| Fraud protection included | - |
Paysafe
Paysafe is one of Europe's oldest payment processing companies founded in 1996. Headquartered in London, UK, the company offers a payment gateway solution for merchants and enterprise retailers and is used by more than 500,000 merchants worldwide. In recent times, Paysafe also started supporting cryptocurrency processing.
Payment options supported by Paysafe
- ACH transfers
- Credit and debit cards
- Digital wallets
Just like Worldpay, Paysafe also charges a monthly subscription fee between 20 - 50 euros per month for starter plans with additional transaction fees based on the plans.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely easy to integrate. | Not to the mark dashboard |
| Billing and invoicing | Poor integration options with external tools |
| Gift card integrations | Customer service has been a problem with many customers |
| PCI compliant | - |
Klarna
Klarna is a Swedish payment services provider for ecommerce merchants in Europe and USA. The company started with its customer friendly Buy Now Pay Later model, popularly known as BNPL which allows shoppers the flexibility to pay for a purchase immediately or later after checking the item.
Klarna offers various payment options such as-
- Credit and debit cards
- Bank debit
- Buy now pay later
- Digital wallets
Klarna charges merchants a variable percentage fee between 2.49% plus 0.20 euros for each transaction. Based on the number of transactions, you can find the complete pricing information for Klarna here.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Customer preferred payment options | Very high charges for RTO (return to origin) orders |
| Offers multiple ways to pay for a purchase | Late fees incur additional charges |
| Built-in rewards program to increase conversions | Support in limited countries |
| Options for built in shopping cart | Defaulting payments can affect credit score |
| Data shows decrease in cart abandonment rates for merchants using Klarna | - |
| Makes online shopping easy for shoppers | - |
Clearpay
Clearpay is another payment gateway services providing company which offers buy now pay later offerings for shoppers. Its parent company is Afterpay. Headquartered in Australia, the company provides its services in The USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. There are over 150,000 merchants using Afterpay worldwide.
Payment options supported by Clearpay-
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
Similar to Sezzle, Clearpay charges a variable fee between 4-6% per transaction. In general, a majority of BNPL services will charge in the same bracket as their offerings are free for shoppers if they pay back on time.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Inherent pros of buying now and paying later | No provisions for rescheduling payments |
| Improved store conversions | Refund process is time consuming |
| Multiple custom integrations. | High transaction fees. |
| Developer friendly API | Longer settlement duration |
How to choose the best payment gateway for your business
Your decision making of choosing the best payment gateway for your business will be highly dependent on the fact that if you sell online only as a direct to consumer brand or you sell both online and offline. Although your use cases may vary, we feel that the below factors cannot be ignored.
Secure payment processing
One of the important factors while choosing a payment gateway for your business is the transaction security and peace of mind for both your customers and you. It's imperative to select a PCI compliant payment gateway which manages 3D secure 2 or 3DS secure credit card transactions.
Easy to integrate
Apart from being secure, the next thing that you should be looking out while integrating a payment gateway is the ease of use and time needed to integrate it with your ecommerce platform. Most of the modern payment gateway providers have an option of readymade UX components or payment pages which you can add to your online store with just a few steps.
High conversions
According to Statista, over 51% of European shoppers are going to prefer the buy now pay later or BNPL payment option while checking out. Research has shown that online stores providing this option have seen great improvement in conversions compared to other stores.
Just keep an eye on refunds and related chargebacks. If you have a higher rate of order returns then offer the BNPL option with caution.
What is a payment gateway?
A payment gateway is an online payment service that authorizes payment for e-commerce and traditional payment in-store transactions. It serves as the front-end system that securely processes payment transactions between customers, merchants, and acquiring banks.
How do I choose the best payment gateway for my UK business?
When selecting a payment gateway for your UK business, consider factors such as the payment processing fee, payment experience, and the range of payment options offered. Look for payment service providers that cater to UK businesses and offer a secure and preferred payment solution.
Is Stripe a popular payment gateway in the UK?
Stripe is indeed a widely used payment gateway in the UK. Its robust features, ease of integration, and support for various online payment methods have made it a popular choice for small businesses and online stores in the UK.
What are the best online payment gateways for small businesses in the UK?
For small businesses in the UK, the payment gateways that offer a seamless payment experience, competitive payment processing fees, and an array of payment options are considered the best. Look for payment providers that cater to small businesses specifically in the UK.
Can I use an international payment gateway for my UK business?
Yes, you can utilize an international payment gateway for your UK business. Many payment service providers offer solutions that support online transactions internationally, allowing UK businesses to cater to a global customer base.
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