Best merchant services in 2024

Stripe’s payment services are a great fit for businesses that accept payment from or do business in a number of countries, or which generally have a strong international focus. Stripe is capable of processing payments in more than 135 global currencies and supports a number of local payment methods (like Alipay and iDEAL) so that your overseas customers can make payments through a platform they feel most comfortable with.

Stripe allows businesses in more than 25 countries to accept payments from customers all over the planet and allows clients to establish local accounts to try to reduce cross-border and conversion fees.

Beyond all the international support, Stripe has a comprehensive payment processing platform that’s highly customizable to suit your needs (especially if you have technical knowledge and are comfortable implementing code), making it a good match for developers running their own businesses. There’s a developer dashboard for monitoring API usage and support for over 450 platforms and extensions to automate almost any manual process.

Stripe offers a powerful, versatile and highly customizable payment processing platform, especially if you have the technical expertise to take advantage of it. It’s also one of the best merchant services for processing payments from overseas or to help support truly global businesses.

Value

Stripe doesn’t charge customers a monthly fee, nor does it leverage any setup fees or hidden costs. For its standard package, transactions are priced at 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful charge for domestic cards — fairly in line or slightly below similar fees at competing merchant services.

Stripe also offers a suite of affordable options for in-person payment processing. While the company does sell dedicated hardware for taking payments, like its S700 Stripe Reader for $349.00, it also offers in-person solutions that don’t require any additional hardware. You can accept tap payments on a mobile device without the need to purchase any additional devices as part of Stripe’s Terminal offerings.

Functionality

Stripe offers a tremendous amount of features and services to its customers, though some of them may require some fairly advanced technical knowledge to fully exploit. It starts with broad support for cards like Visa, Discover and Mastercard, as well as digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay so your customers can access a wide range of the most popular ways to pay online.

Beyond that, there are more niche payment options, including some that are more popular in other parts of the world, like Bancontact or Giropay, so your international customers can also access familiar payment options.

Stripe also offers great options for getting access to your money quickly and easily. The platform lets you choose a payout schedule (on a rolling basis, weekly or monthly), as well as access instant payouts for a 1% charge if you need to get your money right away.

There are also lots of great options for developers or the more technically-inclined to further wring advanced functionality out of the platform, like client libraries in nearly every language from Ruby to Go and Swift, as well as tons of extensions to automate manual processes.

Support

Stripe offers customers 24/7 customer support by way of phone, email and live chat through the official website. Furthering the perception of Stripe as the merchant services company for developers is the ability to jump on its Developer Discord server and solicit specific help from its technical team. Stripe also offers a large library of technical docs, as well as code samples in over eight languages.

Stripe offers a database of information about common support topics on its website, as well as guides designed to walk you through common e-commerce situations or issues. It also has a section dedicated to resources specific to its various products, to get you answers exclusive to the services you use the most.

Learn more: Read our full Stripe review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Square offers a wide variety of payment processing options designed to support a similarly wide variety of businesses and use cases. This means it’s a good match for many businesses, but particularly for those that are looking to mix online sales with in-person or phone sales, as Square provides systems to support processing for all of those scenarios.

Square is also a good match for companies looking to market through their payment processing company, which is a handy integration and could save your business money you would otherwise spend on external or third-party marketing solutions. Square offers email, text message and social media marketing opportunities as well as options for sending out coupons, selling gift cards or powering rewards programs.

Square is a very versatile platform that can power both online and in-person transactions (as well as things like phone or manually entered transactions) to suit a wide variety of businesses and to enable companies looking to sell across multiple channels simultaneously. It also comes with a welcome suite of extras to provide a broad commerce platform.

Value

Square offers a pair of pre-built packages for customers, as well as a custom tier that allows you to build a bespoke plan to suit your specific sales needs, though it requires you to contact Square’s sales team directly for pricing.

The basic plan, appropriately called Free, carries no setup fee or monthly fee outside of processing fees and gives you everything you need to get started selling online, in-person or over the phone. It’s a great value for businesses just getting off the ground with simple needs, though it lacks advanced features tailored to specific business types (like restaurants or retail businesses).

Those more-specific features are, however, included in the Plus plan, which does charge a $29 per month base fee but adds those custom tools as well as support for appointment-based businesses.

Functionality

While Square doesn’t have a lot of the in-depth, developer tools that Stripe boasts (like Stripe’s developer dashboard or huge extensions library), it does offer a robust set of core features and useful extras that will be a boon for small business owners.

Square’s plans all offer baseline support for selling online, in person or by phone so you can take payments wherever your customers find you. Beyond that, Square offers payroll services, so you can pay your employees and manage tax files through the same platform where you process payments.

There are also the marketing tools we mentioned above for social media, email or text message — a feature set you’d normally have to pay extra for another company to furnish. Square even offers options for opening credit and savings accounts or obtaining a business loan to finance your company’s growth.

Support

Square offers a library of support topics on its website, aimed at addressing common customer issues and concerns with the platform. It includes articles on things like how to set up your Square Online Platform, how to use Square for contracts and how to manageAfterpay, the service that allows customers to pay for products in installments.

You can also reach Square customer support by phone or by live chat through the website between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PDT, Monday through Friday. Alternatively, you can send Square support an email or open a thread in the Community section of the website to discuss issues with other Square clients and staff.

Learn more: Read our full Square review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

PayPal is a trusted and widely recognizable payment and processing platform that offers a variety of merchant services for small businesses.

Beyond the standard in-person and online processing options, PayPal also offers supporting services, like its risk management analysis powered by machine learning algorithms, designed to detect fraud and help resolve (or avoid) disputes. Additional services like these make PayPal a good partner for small businesses that are looking for a single solution to a wider array of business challenges than just payment processing.

PayPal can assist with shipping, securing a loan for your business or setting you up with a credit card or debit card to fund your purchases while you’re getting established (or to provide foundational capital for growth).

PayPal is also suitable for companies that want to accept some relatively non-standard payment methods, including cryptocurrency, digital wallets or Pay Later.

PayPal is an excellent solution for several common business quandaries for companies looking to condense multiple solutions into a single platform. This means you have a single point of contact for resolving issues across a number of facets of your business, and PayPal also offers everything you need to process payments from a wide variety of sources.

Value

PayPal’s per-transaction fees can be a little high, though the company does go some way toward offsetting that cost by not charging cancellation fees or fees for things like accepting rewards cards or corporate cards. It also adds value to its platform by allowing your customers to pay with PayPal itself for free (though there is a 4.5% charge for currency conversion).

Whether PayPal represents a good value for your business will depend in large part on how many and which of its services you avail yourself of. If you’re looking for a single solution for risk assessment, financing and reporting, PayPal is a good fit.

Functionality

PayPal’s payment processing options include online checkout so that you can accept payments on your e-commerce website or online storefront as well as integration with top platforms like WooCommerce and GoDaddy.

There’s also PayPal Zettle, the company’s POS system, which lets you take payments on your phone through an app, through a physical card reader or terminal or by way of a QR code. These can be a boon to small businesses with limited space in a physical setting for accepting payments or those that sell their goods at events or other scenarios that require a mobile payment solution.

PayPal also provides options for processing invoices or manually processing payment information that comes in by phone or mail so that you can also service remote customers who prefer not to pay for things online.

Support

PayPal has a fairly sprawling help section on its website dubbed the Business Resource Center. It’s a good place to start if you want to do a deep dive on everything PayPal offers, or if you’re looking for tips on how to build out your business with the support of PayPal’s tools. There’s also a fair amount of prognostication on the future of the e-commerce sector and how best to market to different demographics.

You can contact PayPal customer service by phone any day of the week between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT. PayPal also has a resolution center for disputes, and hosts a community section where you can search for advice from others facing similar issues.

Learn more: Read our full PayPal review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Clover is primarily known for its POS hardware, which several other processing companies use to power their own POS solutions. However, Clover also offers a number of other processing options, including a no-hardware option, and also offers several additional merchant services. It’s a great option for businesses looking for a single umbrella under which to package different business needs, and Clover offers competitive processing fees and pricing, though the best rates are gated behind the more expensive subscription tiers.

Those tiers come in three varieties, including a basic package carrying no monthly fee but lacking a number of additional services beyond basic payment processing. Also, none of the subscription plans include hardware by default, so you’ll have to pay extra for any of the company’s POS terminals or accessories.

Clover offers a wide gamut of services, from payment processing to employee management and inventory tracking. The convenience of packaging a number of essential services in one place can save your business precious time and may also end up saving you money when compared against paying multiple companies for all of those services independently.

Value

How much value you extract from Clover’s platform will depend on how you use it and which services you’re paying for. For instance, if you don’t process a large volume of transactions per month and aren’t interested in some of the add-on services, the basic package (Payments) is a good option as there’s no set monthly fee and the higher per transaction fee won’t impact you as much.

On the other hand, if you do process a larger quantity of transactions — and if you’re also looking for peripheral features like the ability to track inventory and real-time sales or to offer promotions, a reward program or gift cards — the higher tier is probably a better value. It carries a higher monthly fee, but the per-transaction cost is lower and it bundles a large number of extra services.

Functionality

With Clover, the payment processing functions are just the tip of the iceberg. The company offers its well-known POS terminals, including touchscreen devices with card readers of both the portable and fixed variety, along with e-commerce processing solutions and a Clover Go app and card reader to take payments on your phone. The features that really set Clover apart, however, are its additional merchant support services.

There’s payroll through partner services and employee management, inventory creation and tracking, sales analytics and the gift card/promotions/loyalty programs previously mentioned. Beyond that, Clover offers text, email and social media marketing tools, an app customers can use to order and pay ahead or track reward points and other useful tools that will help you run your business and ensure its success. Packaging them all together with Clover means easier management and one source of truth for several facets of your business.

Support

Clover has a help section on its website that includes some basic information on setting up a Clover device or accessing your Clover account. Beyond that, it doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of online resources, but there is a live chat feature to contact sales or customer service.

You can also reach customer support by logging into an existing Clover account and either selecting Help from the top of the page, tapping the Help button on the home screen of a Clover device or through the Clover Go app. Current customers can also contact the support team through the direct support phone number listed on your statement.

Learn more: Read our full Clover review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Merchant One offers a comprehensive suite of payment processing options across a number of contexts, with solutions for online payments, in-person, different POS scenarios, processing on mobile phones or tablets and a key-in application when the credit card isn’t physically available.

Its fees are competitive, and it offers both traditional and interchange pricing. The company also has a speedy approval process and approves 98% of applicants, even those with poor credit, so it’s a great match for customers with a lot of debt or who may be recovering from a financial setback.

Merchant One is also generally a suitable fit for any business looking for core payment processing services, especially when you add the company’s extra services, like text message marketing and support for reward/loyalty programs. It may specifically suit your business better if you’re in certain industries, like a restaurant that needs an advanced terminal and check services or an e-commerce business that wants to offer gift cards and a loyalty program.

Merchant One offers a full toolset for businesses looking to process payments online, in-person or over the phone, and it also throws in some welcome bonus features. Its rates match up well to its competitors, and the company offers 24/7 customer support through a variety of channels.

Value

Merchant One offers both traditional, flat-rate-per-transaction pricing as well as an interchange plus alternative so customers have options where pricing is concerned. While the swiped and keyed-in rates on the company’s website are competitive (listed as 0.29% to 1.55% for swiped transactions and 0.29% to 1.99% for keyed-in), it’s important to note that these are qualified rates.

Full rates, fees and terms are only available to individual customers through their merchant processing agreement and thus may vary significantly, making it more difficult to evaluate Merchant One’s offering for total overall value.

Functionality

Merchant One’s core services include two POS options. There’s a retail terminal with a 14” touchscreen that allows customers to swipe their cards or a more complete POS system with a touchscreen and an independent card reader that allows for tapping or inserting a card which also gives retailers the option to take cash.

Offering both systems means Merchant One can accommodate a larger number of businesses at different price points, whether you want a simple solution or a more-robust, complete terminal.

There are also mobile options that allow you to take payment on a phone or tablet for even more mobility and versatility, which is great for business owners that sell at events or travel with their products. Key-in functionality is also helpful if you want to take payments over the phone or even by mail.

For e-commerce, there are over 175 shopping cart integrations and the option to add “buy now” buttons on your site. Merchant One also offers text message marketing to get the word out about your business and loyalty/reward programs, which can be a boon to small businesses because of how they incentivize return customers.

Support

Merchant One offers 24/7 customer support. You can reach Merchant One by mail at its physical address in Florida, through an email contact form on its website or by phone or direct email. The company doesn’t offer any additional informational resources or community features on its site — issues will have to be resolved with customer service directly.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Paysafe is a good fit for high-risk businesses that may have difficulty finding a payment processing service elsewhere. While Paysafe does prohibit a number of business types based on risk, the list is significantly less broad and prohibitive than many other merchant services companies, so they may be one of few options (or perhaps the only option) for some business types.

Paysafe is also a good option for companies that do a lot of volume overseas. It offers more than 260 alternative payment methods, some of which are more popular internationally, and also provides its clients access to more than 120 markets for accepting payments.

Paysafe also explicitly supports a number of industries that are rarely surfaced in other companies’ marketing and literature. These include crypto, petroleum and video games, and merchants in those industries may find a better fit with Paysafe than some of its competitors.

Paysafe offers services to some underserved categories, including high-risk businesses that may face challenges trying to find a payment processing platform elsewhere. The company also has a solid global focus and partners with third-party providers to fill some of the gaps in its base offerings.

Value

Paysafe attempts to offer its clients a solid value proposition through Interchange Plus pricing, similar to Helcim. The company attaches a flat 0.50% plus $0.10 fee on top of interchange pricing for transactions, which means that prices may fluctuate but clients will pay a rate based on actual transaction cost rather than a flat total fee that’s detached from real pricing.

However, unlike some of its competitors, Paysafe does charge monthly fees on top of its transaction fees. For that money, you get access to a full, if basic, set of payment processing options fueled by Clover’s POS system and SwipeSimple’s solution for accepting in-store, online and over-the-phone payments.

Functionality

Paysafe offers Clover hardware for in-person POS systems, including the Clover Station which includes a card reader and touch screen, the Clover Mini, a more compact touch screen interface and the Clover Flex, which packs POS functionality into a portable device with a 6-inch touchscreen and built-in printer, barcode scanner and camera.

This means you’ve got a range of options depending on your business setting and how it is most cost convenient for you to accept in-person payments, whether you prefer a static point of sale or need something mobile to be as agile as your business itself.

Paysafe also offers e-commerce functionality to power your online store, SwipeSimple’s blend of online and in-person sales options and access to tons of local payment options in various global markets to ensure you’re not locking out potential customers overseas.

Support

Paysafe has a solid resource center on its website where it offers educational materials sorted by industry, product and content type. Here you can read up on a variety of topics ranging from compliance to tips for online merchants. There are blog posts, whitepapers, webinars and even stories detailing the journeys of other Paysafe clients.

Paysafe customer support can also be reached by online chat through the website, through an email request form or by mail.

Learn more: Read our full Paysafe review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Helcim is a merchant services company that puts a premium on transparent pricing. It uses a system called interchange pricing to set transaction fees. This means the company takes the actual, wholesale cost of a transaction and then adds a set margin to determine a transaction fee, instead of a flat fee that may not reflect the actual cost.

On top of Helcim’s sliding price scale, where transactions get cheaper the larger volume you process, this means that Helcim is a good fit for companies that process higher quantities of transactions.

Bear in mind, however, that Helcim restricts a fairly lengthy list of business types from doing business with its platform, including debt resolution companies, drop shippers and many other “high risk” businesses. Be sure to check that your business model isn’t one prohibited by Helcim’s terms of service.

Helcim boasts transparent pricing and very few additional fees (including no monthly fees), as well as tools for circumventing credit card fees and other surcharges, in an attempt to provide an affordable payment processing platform for its clients.

Value

Helcim puts a lot of emphasis on delivering value to its clients. This starts with the elimination of some common fees. Helcim doesn’t charge monthly, setup, cancellation, deposit, PCI or user fees, so you’ll primarily only be responsible for paying transaction fees.

As described above, Helcim uses an interchange, wholesale transaction system to attempt to keep transaction fees low as well and also offers a method of circumventing credit card fees and other surcharges. Called Helcim Fee Saver, it passes credit card processing fees on to your customers and also allows them to pay through ACH payments — the fees for which are typically lower than for credit card transactions.

Functionality

Of course, it doesn’t matter how inexpensive a service is if you’re not getting the services you need. Helcim provides a couple methods for accepting online payments, including standard online checkout to fuel your e-commerce site and a virtual terminal so you can take credit card payments on any device with an internet connection.

It also supports in-person POS systems and offers free invoicing software, solutions for subscriptions and other recurring payments and dedicated payment pages.

Beyond the wealth of payment options to ensure you can accept payment from your customers in nearly any context, Helcim offers some useful extras, like inventory and customer management software. This means you have a secure place to track and store customer data, which is crucial for quickly processing returning customers or for getting data on who’s buying your products. The software can also help you keep tabs on the product itself, synced across all of your sales channels.

Support

Helcim has a Business Resources section on its site with a bunch of resources for customers, either existing or prospective, to learn about the platform or get their support questions answered.

There’s a learning center with tutorials on using Helcim and dealing with payments and operating hardware as well as a database of information about security and compliance features. Helcim also hosts a blog where its staff writes about news affecting the company and provides guidance on business and payment topics.

You can reach customer service by phone Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT, or on Saturdays between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT, or by email or standard mail.

Learn more: Read our full Helcim review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

ProMerchant offers a very standard selection of core payment processing services. These start with Clover POS systems, including: the Station, with a card reader and touchscreen; the Mini, a touchscreen and card reader incorporated into the same, compact device; and the Flex, a hand-held POS solution.

There’s also a virtual terminal that enables clients to take payment information by phone, mail, text or email. You can store customer information for future orders and leverage e-commerce solutions that include shopping cart integrations and a Pay Now button option.

While none of these services stand out from those offered by ProMerchant’s competitors, one area where the company is distinguished is its service offerings for high-risk businesses. The company partners with a variety of banks and promises to offer fair and effective processing to merchants in a number of high-risk sectors not often supported by other merchant services companies, including payday loan companies, ticket agencies and game credit sellers.

ProMerchant offers a very standard selection of payment processing options that may suit your business if you’re exclusively looking for standard processing. It may be a good choice for those operating in a number of high-risk sectors where chargebacks or fraud are a greater risk and which can significantly limit the number of payment processors willing to service your account.

Value

Because ProMerchant operates on a per-quote basis and doesn’t supply any of its specific pricing details online, evaluating the overall value of its services is difficult. However, the company does offer two core plans to give customers a bit of flexibility in terms of cost and fees.

The first plan is called Interchange Plus Fixed Rate, which takes the standard interchange rates established by credit card companies or banks and adds a fixed fee on top that goes straight to proMerchant. It may be best for companies that don’t want to pass additional fees on to customers.

The second plan, Zero Cost Processing, is available to retail businesses and restaurants and removes processing fees for your business by shifting them onto your customers. It may be suitable for companies that offer their customers low base rates and thus can afford to inflate those prices by adding processing fees.

Functionality

ProMerchant offers a pretty standard suite of payment processing services. The aforementioned Clover processing systems through physical terminals are perfect for businesses with on-site premises or that want to take payments from customers at events, conventions or in other in-person settings.

E-commerce is handled by way of shopping cart integrations and a Pay Now button you can include on your website, and proMerchant also offers mobile processing options. These pair an app with a Bluetooth credit card reader that works with your phone or tablet to take payments anywhere you can carry a mobile device.

Finally, there’s key-in functionality through a virtual terminal so you can take email, text, phone or snail mail orders. Beyond that, proMerchant offers very little in terms of additional merchant services or add-ons.

Support

Beyond a few FAQs on the website addressing common questions about ProMerchant’s services, the company doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of online resources. However, you can reach out to customer support by an email form on the proMerchant website or by phone.

ProMerchant also claims that it will assign a team of experts to help assist every client, though the client contact information listed on the website is identical to the standard customer support contact info.

Learn more: Read our full ProMerchant review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Elavon is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank and has been providing payment processing services for more than 30 years. It offers a standard (though broad) suite of processing options that includes in-person, online and mobile solutions. Elavon empowers businesses to accept all major credit cards and mobile wallets, and it includes contactless options for in-person payments as well as tools for complete e-commerce support.

The primary way that Elavon stands out from some other merchant services companies is its WorksWith Elavon program, a large library of supported third-party gateways and integrations. These integrations provide a huge variety of POS and processing solutions on top of Elavon’s core offerings and open up industry-specific functionality like parking management, room inventory for hotels and healthcare payment systems.

Ultimately, this library of integrations means Elavon is the best solution for businesses that either need broad functionality across a lot of different use cases or very specific features required by a single niche industry.

Elavon wisely expands on its fairly standard core services by offering a plethora of integrations through partnerships with other companies. This takes a fairly standard payment processing business and expands it into a comprehensive platform that can service a massive range of needs and specific businesses.

Value

Unfortunately, Elavon is another merchant services company that’s extremely evasive about pricing on its website. Specific pricing details require clients to reach out to the company directly, provide some information and request a quote tailored to their circumstances.

An Elavon customer service representative informed us that the key deciding factor in determining things like fees and processing costs will be transaction volume, particularly monthly credit card transactions, and that the company offers various plans based on that and other factors. However, none of that information is available on the company’s website.

With that said, the aforementioned WorksWith Elavon suite of integrations and third-party tools do go some way for making a case for Elavon as a solid value proposition when taken in conjunction with a complete set of standard processing options.

Functionality

Elavon offers a number of ways to accept payments through its core services. These include in-person payments through touchscreen smart terminals with card readers, point of sale software and countertop as well as wireless hand-held terminals for processing credit cards either in a fixed location or on the go, wherever your business moves.

The company also has e-commerce solutions including online payment options as well as in-app mobile payment options, and it boasts a huge variety of payment gateways to try to ensure you can accept whatever payment option your customers prefer.

Of course, as mentioned, the star of Elavon’s functionality is the WorksWith Elavon program and all of the included integrations. There are more than 200 tools available that can offer a range of features, meaning you’re likely to find solutions that are specifically tailored to your business needs.

Support

Elavon hosts a resource center on its website, with numerous articles addressing business strategies, security concerns, payment processing and recounting customers’ success stories with Elavon. There’s also an FAQ section for quick answers to common questions and a news tab that primarily covers happenings directly affecting Elavon and U.S. Bank. You can also find a modest Community page under the resource center umbrella with some stories focused on outreach and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Elavon customer service is available 24/7 by phone, including dedicated support for activating your Elavon equipment or PCI compliance. There’s also a self-service portal where customers can manage their accounts and payments.

Learn more: Read our full Elavon review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Stax is a great fit for high-volume businesses processing large quantities of credit card transactions every month. This is due to its unique pricing structure. Unlike traditional payment processing companies, Stax doesn’t charge a flat transaction fee that approximates the cost of the current interchange rate plus an additional fee that the company takes itself, nor does it use the actual current interchange rate and then add a set fee on top of that (Interchange Plus).

Instead, Stax charges a flat monthly fee that depends on the volume of transactions your company processes, starting at $99 a month for companies processing up to $150,000 a year. Then, it only charges the base interchange fee, without adding any additional markup at all, meaning that large-volume companies can end up saving money.

Stax distinguishes itself largely through its interesting pricing structure, though it also offers some additional features that make it stand apart. While StaxPay is the core service for payment processing, the company also has tools like StaxBill for automated billing and payments and CardX for surcharging and compliance.

Value

Stax offers excellent value for companies that process a large number of transactions. Its entire pricing structure is predicated on the idea that you can actually save money by paying Stax a larger monthly fee but then paying less per transaction, though Stax does note that this model likely won’t work for businesses that don’t process in excess of $5,000 worth of transactions per month.

Generally speaking, the more transactions you process, the better value Stax provides (though bear in mind that the flat monthly fee does increase across three thresholds, up to $139 at the $150,000 per year mark, and $199 and over after $250,000 per year.)

Functionality

Stax offers in-person payment processing through customizable smart terminals and mobile readers as well as online payments through various gateways that it partners with as well as through links, QR codes or payment buttons. It also offers a mobile app that can connect to a Bluetooth card reader for taking payments on your phone.

Those are all fairly standard payment processing options you’d expect from a service like Stax, though it does offer some additional features that distinguish it. For example, there’s Stax Connect, which is mostly targeted at SaaS companies. If you fit the bill, Connect can help simplify the payment process for your platform and help you expand by providing a complete end-to-end experience for your merchants and their customers.

There’s also Stax Bill for automated/recurring billing, with handy features designed to recover lost revenue through automatically retrying failed payments and by automating collections.

Support

Stax hosts a blog on its website where contributors write about common terms from the payment processing space as well as offer tips to help grow and optimize your business. In the same vein, Stax offers webinars to help you take full advantage of its tools and services. There’s also a Payments Dictionary, if you’re looking to improve your merchant services lexicon.

You can reach out to Stax customer service through the live chat option on its website, through an email support request form or by phone.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.