We’ll help you narrow down your search for a payment processor by highlighting the best payment processors for small businesses in 2024. We’ve made sure to feature a broad range of payment processors to provide options for all types of small businesses.
What to look out for when choosing a payment processor for your small business?
When choosing a payment processing solution for your small business, there’s several things you should keep in mind.
The first factor that most small businesses owners should consider is the payment processing service’s costs. Check how much the payment processor charges per transaction, and whether it charges a monthly fee. Some payment processors might even charge a setup fee when you start using them.
You also want to make sure that the payment processor you choose supports a variety of payment methods, which will make your goods and services more accessible to a broader range of customers.
If you choose a payment processor with a limited number of supported payment methods, you might lose a significant amount of customers simply because they won’t be able to pay with their preferred payment method.
It’s also important to ensure that the payment processing solution you opt for can be easily integrated with the services you use for accounting and your point of sale system (if you already have one). If your small business is also involved in e-commerce, make sure that the payment processor is compatible with your website.
The best payment processors for small businesses
Now, let’s take a closer look at the best payment processors for various types of small businesses:
- Square – Best payment processor for small businesses overall
- Stripe – Best payment processor for small businesses with an international customer base
- Shopify Payments – Best payment processor for online stores using Shopify
- Helcim – Best payment processor for high-volume small businesses
- Coinbase Commerce – Best crypto payments processor for small businesses
- Clover – Payment processor for small businesses that predominantly accept in person payments
1. Square – Best payment processor for small businesses overall
Square is a very popular payments processor that allows small businesses to easily accept contactless payments, mobile payments, as well as chip and PIN payments. Square offers an all-in-one solution which also includes point of sale systems with a variety of hardware options. Square even makes it possible to accepts payments offline when you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection available.
Square’s pricing is fairly competitive, but not the cheapest on the market. For in person payments, Square takes a 2.6% fee + $0.10 per transaction. Online payments are more expensive, as Square charges a 2.9% fee + 0.30% per transaction.
Businesses that process more than $250,000 in payments per year can get a custom pricing plan from Square to better fit their needs.
2. Stripe – Best payment processor for small businesses with an international customer base
Stripe is a leading payments processor that supports over 100 payment methods in total, including a variety of buy now, pay later solutions. Stripe is mostly known for its online payments processing, but the company also offers services and hardware systems for in person payments.
If you have customers from many different countries around the globe, Stripe is a great payment processor to use. It supports payments in more than 135 currencies, and has a truly impressive number of payment method integrations which means almost any customer will be able to use their preferred payment method when shopping at your store.
To get the most out of Stripe, you’d likely need a software developer. Stripe’s checkout flow offers deep customizability, but requires some programming knowledge. However, Stripe still offers a lot of value even if you don’t have a developer on your team.
Stripe has a transparent pricing model, charging 2.7% + $0.05 for in person transactions, and 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions.
3. Shopify Payments – Best payment processor for online stores using Shopify
Shopify Payments is a payment processor that’s integrated with Shopify. You get access to Shopify Payments automatically if you have an e-commerce plan with Shopify.
Depending on the type of small business you have, migrating your e-commerce operations over to Shopify could save you a lot of headaches by bringing your online storefront and payment processing under one roof.
The Shopify Payments payment processing solution is compatible with popular payment options such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as a wide range of credit cards.
The payment processing fees charged by Shopify Payments depend on the type of plan you have with Shopify:
| Online payment fee | In person payment fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic plan | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.7% |
| Shopify plan | 2.6% + $0.30 | 2.5% |
| Advanced plan | 2.4% + $0.30 | 2.4% |
4. Helcim – Best payment processor for high-volume small businesses
Helcim offers a fully-featured payment processing solution and a relatively unique interchange plus pricing model instead of the flat rate pricing model adopted by most competitors. When Helcim processes a payment for your business, you pay the interchange rate plus a fee charged by Helcim.
For in person payments, the fees start at the interchange rate + 0.40% + $0.08. Meanwhile, online payments come with a fee of the interchange rate + 0.50% + $0.25. Helcim provides volume discounts, so you’ll be paying less for payments processing as your business scales further.
While Helcim can be a great option, its pricing model makes it less suitable for small businesses that have a low sales volume. If you’re handling a lot of sales, however, it’s definitely a payment processor worth considering.
5. Coinbase Commerce – Best crypto payments processor for small businesses
Coinbase Commerce is a payments processing solution offered by leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. This payment processor is geared towards businesses who would like to give their customers the option to pay with cryptocurrency. Coinbase Commerce charges a 1% fee on all cryptocurrency payments.
The cryptocurrency payment made by your customer is automatically converted by Coinbase to USD Coin, a crypto token that’s designed to maintain a price of $1. This means that you don’t need to deal with the volatility of cryptocurrencies, which has traditionally been a major pain point for businesses that accept cryptocurrency payments.
Coinbase Commerce provides integrations with WooCommerce, Primer and Jumpseller, which can make it very simple to set up.
6. Clover – Payment processor for small businesses that predominantly accept in person payments
Clover is a payments processor that’s especially suitable for businesses that primarily accept in person payments, especially restaurants. Clover offers a variety of hardware point of sale devices that are specialized for various in person payment scenarios.
In addition to payment processing, Clover also offers solutions for inventory tracking, staff management, customer loyalty programs and more.
Clover’s pricing model is quite complex and can vary significantly on which plan you choose. When it comes to in person payment processing fees, Clover starts at 2.3% + $0.10. Meanwhile, a 3.5% fee + $0.10 is charged on online payments.
The bottom line
Hopefully, our roundup of the best payment processors for small businesses helped you find the optimal solution for your payment processing needs. The payment processing market is quite competitive, and we’re seeing more specialized payment processors emerging which are aiming to provide the most effective solutions for specific types of small businesses.
If you’re looking to learn more about payments, make sure to check out our article on how to choose the best second credit card.
Source: https://coincodex.com/article/38152/best-payment-processor-for-small-business/