How to Choose and Integrate a Payment Gateway in 2026

A high functioning and efficient gateway is the backbone of each transaction. Mike Strawhecker, President of TSG.

Your payment gateway is the last thing a customer touches before they become revenue. Get it wrong and you watch carts empty in real time. Get it right and the sale closes in two seconds without anyone thinking about it.

Global e-commerce sales are on track to reach about $6.88 trillion in 2026, up roughly 7% year over year, according to Shopify's global commerce report. And the way people pay has shifted under everyone's feet. Digital wallets now drive 56% of global e-commerce transaction value, per the 2026 Worldpay Global Payments Report. Cards still matter, but a gateway that only does cards is already behind.

Here is the cost of getting checkout wrong. Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.19% in 2025, and the single biggest reason people bail is unexpected costs at checkout, cited by 48% of US shoppers. A further 18% leave because the checkout is too long or complicated (Baymard). The gateway sits right at that pressure point.

This guide covers what a payment gateway actually does, how to integrate one, how it differs from a payment processor, and which providers are worth a look in 2026. We in Brocoders have integrated gateways for clients in North America, Africa, and Europe, so the last section is what we learned doing the work.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the service that lets a merchant accept card and digital payments online, then authorizes and processes each transaction securely. It collects the customer's payment details, encrypts them, and passes them down the chain to get the money moving.

Think of it as the consumer-facing front door of a payment. It captures the information, locks it down with encryption and tokenization, and hands it off to the systems that actually charge the card.

The term covers two settings:

• Physical card readers in stores: the retail point of sale (POS) terminal that reads a card or a phone tap.
• Online payment portals: the checkout page, order form, or shopping cart where a customer types in card details or logs into a wallet.

The gateway sits between the payment page (or the cash register) and the merchant account at the bank.

How the e-commerce payment process works

When a customer pays online, several institutions verify the transaction in a couple of seconds. Here is the path the money takes:

1. The customer enters their card number, CVV, and expiration date on your checkout page.
2. The gateway encrypts those details and sends them to the payment processor the moment the customer hits submit.
3. The processor routes the data through the card network (Visa, Mastercard) to the customer's issuing bank for authorization.
4. The bank approves or declines, and the response travels back through the processor and gateway to your site.
5. Checkout completes. Over the next day or two, the funds settle from the issuing bank into your merchant account at the acquiring bank.

The whole approval loop happens in seconds. The settlement, where money actually lands in your account, takes longer.

Payment integration for SaaS

Subscriptions are the lifeblood of SaaS, and billing them by hand stops working the moment you have more than a handful of customers. Recurring payments need to run on their own. To deliver a subscription cleanly, you need three pieces working together:

• Payment gateway. Where the customer picks a plan, chooses a payment method, and enters their details.
• Merchant account. Where the funds land after the payment is processed. Many gateway providers include one.
• Subscription management. Where you store plan details and handle recurring charges, upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations.

Combining all three into a single billing system gives you the cleanest user experience. You can also mix and match separate tools for each piece if you have a reason to.

How to integrate a payment gateway

There are three common ways to integrate a gateway. Your choice comes down to one question: do you want to carry PCI DSS compliance yourself, or push it onto the provider? Your audience and the checkout experience you want for them matter too.

A note on PCI DSS. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was created in 2004 by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. If you store or process card data, compliance is mandatory. The current version is PCI DSS v4.0.1, and as of March 31, 2025, every requirement is now in force, including multi-factor authentication for all access to the cardholder data environment and stricter payment-page security (PCI Security Standards Council). This raises the bar for anyone choosing to store card data on their own servers.

Non-hosted (integrated) payment gateway

You integrate the gateway through an API, and the customer stays on your checkout page the entire time. The full transaction happens on your servers, so you collect and process the payment on-site. That means you need PCI DSS compliance, and you need a team of engineers plus solid API documentation to build and maintain it.

Pros

• Full control over transactions on your site.
• You can customize the payment flow to your business.
• One uninterrupted checkout experience for the customer.
• With a white-label build, the gateway becomes your own proprietary technology.

Cons

• You must meet PCI DSS compliance, now under the stricter v4.0.1 rules, because you store card tokens.
• Adding custom features can get complicated.
• Maintaining the infrastructure costs money and engineering time.

Best for: medium and large companies that care about branding and a controlled user experience.

Self-hosted (direct post) payment integration

The customer buys on your site, and the payment details get posted to the gateway and processor for handling when they click the purchase button. The data passes through without sitting on your servers.

Pros

• No PCI DSS compliance burden.
• No card data stored on your machines.
• The customer experiences the whole flow on your site.
• You can brand the page with your logo.

Cons

• You give up control over the full payment experience.
• The method carries more security risk than a fully hosted option.

Best for: most kinds of business.

Hosted payment gateway (redirect)

The gateway works as a third party. It redirects your customer to its own page to enter card details, then sends them back to your site to see the confirmation. The provider handles all the processing.

You connect through an API, often as simple as a payment button: a snippet of HTML that drops the provider's gateway onto your checkout page.

Pros

• The vendor collects the card data, so you carry no PCI DSS burden.
• Easy integration with documented guides and ready-made plugins for online stores.
• A stable, trusted checkout reduces abandonment and lifts sales.

Cons

• It does little for your branding, since the customer leaves your site.
• You have no control over the hosted page or that part of the experience.
• Some customers distrust third-party payment screens.

Best for: small companies that want the security and ease of a specialized platform.

Payment gateway vs payment processor

People mix these up constantly, so here is the clean version. A payment gateway and a payment processor are two halves of one transaction.

The gateway collects payment information, encrypts and tokenizes the card data, and passes it along. The processor takes that data and does the actual money movement: it talks to the customer's issuing bank and your acquiring bank, debits one and credits the other, and routes the transaction through the card network like Visa, Mastercard, or American Express.

A payment processor is the company that enables financial transactions and the real money transfer. It connects to both the merchant account and the gateway and moves data in both directions.

Some providers, like PayPal, bundle both the gateway and the processor into a single service.

How to choose a payment gateway provider

The right gateway depends on your business, your customers, and where they are. Here is what to weigh before you commit.

Pricing and fees

Every provider has its own fee structure, and the headline rate rarely tells the whole story. Read the pricing docs for hidden commissions. If you sell across borders, check how each provider handles international and currency-conversion fees, which change by country and currency.

Transaction limits

Providers set minimums and maximums on transaction size, plus daily and monthly caps. If you sell items at $0.40 and a provider's minimum is $0.50, that provider is out. Match the limits to your actual order values before you sign anything.

Payment methods

Offering a range of payment methods is basic hygiene now. Cards remain the most common method, so make sure the gateway accepts every card network you need. The core cashless methods in e-commerce are:

• Debit and credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, UnionPay).
• Mobile and wallet payments.
• Bank transfers.
• eWallets.
• E-checks.

Alternative and wallet payment methods

This is where the market has moved hard. Digital wallets now account for 56% of global e-commerce value and 39% in the US, while buy now, pay later (BNPL) makes up about 6% of US e-commerce and is growing roughly 13% a year. A gateway that supports the wallets your customers already use removes friction at the exact moment it costs you sales. Common options include:

• Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• PayPal and Venmo.
• Amazon Pay.
• BNPL services such as Klarna and Afterpay.
• Stripe, Square, and 2Checkout (Verifone) as broader payment platforms.

Payment methods for SaaS companies

SaaS billing usually leans on a few payment types for recurring charges:

• Credit and debit cards. Customers pay per their plan, or the processor stores card details on file to automate renewals.
• Direct debits. A pre-approved mandate lets you pull regular payments from a customer's bank account.
• Digital wallets. Wallets like PayPal connect to a bank account and support subscription payments.
• Local alternative methods. Cartes Bancaires in France, Giropay in Germany, and similar region-specific options.

Subscription management and analytics

If you run SaaS, check whether the provider offers subscription management and analytics. You want to track recurring revenue, handle plan changes, and give customers easy control over how and how often they pay.

Security and compliance

The provider must protect your customers' financial data and run a secure payment process. With PCI DSS v4.0.1 now fully mandatory, confirm where the provider sits on compliance and what that offloads from you.

Platform compatibility

Make sure the gateway integrates cleanly with your stack and your design. The integration should be smooth on both the technical and the visual side so customers get a consistent experience.

Best payment gateway providers in the USA for 2026

Below are some of the most widely used payment providers among online merchants. This is a starting shortlist, not the full universe of options.

PayPal

Founded in 1998 and now an e-commerce veteran, PayPal carries serious trust with customers. It reported around 439 million active accounts and $1.79 trillion in total payment volume across about 26 billion transactions in 2025 (PayPal earnings).

PayPal is best known as a redirect/hosted gateway, and it processes all major credit and debit cards plus PayPal balances. Its main offerings:

• PayPal Payments Pro, for integrated checkout directly on your site.
• PayPal Express Checkout, which adds a PayPal button.
• Payflow gateway, with a free hosted checkout page (Payflow Link) and a paid, more customizable option (Payflow Pro).

Braintree, a PayPal company that operates as a separate solution, bundles a merchant account, gateway, and subscription management. That combination makes it a strong fit for startups, SaaS companies, and mobile apps.

PayPal works as gateway, processor, and merchant account at once, which makes it a practical choice for online businesses and new startups.

Amazon Pay

Launched by Amazon in 2007, Amazon Pay lets Amazon's hundreds of millions of account holders check out on your site without re-entering payment details. You can drop in an Amazon Pay button in minutes, or integrate more deeply through APIs and SDKs to keep the experience inside your own branding.

The service handles recurring payments and subscriptions, works well across devices (mobile especially), and supports most payment methods and major cards. Amazon also runs Amazon Payment Services, a local gateway in the MENA region.

Authorize.net (a Visa solution)

Authorize.net is one of the oldest gateways around, founded in 1996 and now a Visa subsidiary. It focuses on small and medium businesses and has served hundreds of thousands of merchants. You need a merchant account to connect; if you have one, you can sign up for the gateway only, and if you don't, Authorize.net can set up both.

It accepts major credit cards, signature debit cards, phone payments, e-checks, and mobile payments, with an Advanced Fraud Detection Suite for protection. Since it has no built-in merchant account, it suits SaaS companies that already have a merchant account and just need a gateway.

Stripe

Stripe, launched in 2010, is the developer's gateway of choice. Through its APIs, engineers integrate payments into sites and apps with deep flexibility, and it handles high transaction volumes for large platforms. Its standard US online rate in 2026 is 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge, with no monthly fee and no charge for failed payments (Stripe pricing). International cards add 1.5% and currency conversion adds 1%.

Stripe also offers Checkout, a low-code hosted payment page you can customize for desktop and mobile. It doubles as a merchant account and subscription platform, which makes it a strong SaaS option.

2Checkout (Verifone)

2Checkout is a global payment platform founded in 2006 and acquired by Verifone in 2020, so it now operates under the Verifone brand. It supports international sales across many markets, with fraud prevention, merchant accounts, and packages for different product types. It is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and complies with GDPR, PSD2, and SSAE 18.

Pricing runs about 3.5% + $0.35 per online sale on the 2Sell plan, and 4.5% + $0.45 on the 2Subscribe plan built for subscription businesses, which includes subscription management and a merchant account (2Checkout/Verifone pricing). That makes it a fit for SaaS and cross-border sellers.

WePay

WePay started in 2008 as a peer-to-peer payment platform and has been the integrated payments business of JPMorgan Chase since 2017. It is built for platforms: marketplaces, crowdfunding sites, and SaaS companies with multiple vendors or sub-accounts. Standard pricing is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction with no setup or monthly fees.

WePay supports subscriptions and offers its Core product, which integrates directly into Chase's infrastructure to manage merchant accounts.

Payment gateway comparison (2026)

Pricing varies by provider and plan, so treat this as a guide and confirm current rates on each provider's site.

Features and reach also differ:

Brocoders experience: finding the right payment solutions worldwide

The theory is one thing. Here is what integration looks like in practice, across three markets where we in Brocoders did the work.

Canada: integrating multiple payment systems

We built CondoGenie, a Canadian platform that helps condominium residents work with their board and manages buildings in shared ownership at scale. Payments had to be secure, so we integrated three ready-made systems: Stripe, Rotessa, and Xero. Using existing systems instead of coding from scratch cut development time and cost. The integration phase still took real work, fixing bugs and closing gaps to keep everything running smoothly.

Africa: integrating the Paystack payment system

We worked on Gokada, a ride-sharing app that reshaped taxi services in Africa. Enabling cashless payments meant finding a platform that supported local methods in Nigeria, and that turned into a real challenge: most local systems lacked the functionality and compatibility we needed. After studying the Lagos e-payment market closely, we found Paystack, which had the reliability and the specific features the project required. We implemented it successfully.

USA: payment integration for a SaaS product

For a US client's SaaS product in construction management, we implemented PayKickstart payment integration with:

• Trial plans, subscription plans, and one-time payments.
• Plan upgrades and downgrades, with prorated charges when a plan changes mid-cycle.
• Plan cancellation and adjustable charge dates from the admin panel.
• Custom logic to store payment info and handle charge dates when updating an active trial.

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Final thoughts on choosing an online payment solution

The right payment provider comes down to the specifics of your business: who your customers are, which methods they prefer, how the solution fits your site, and how much security you need to carry yourself.

If you are just starting out, the simplest path is a hosted provider that handles the payment process and the compliance for you, with no extra bank accounts or special software to manage. As you grow and want more control over branding and experience, integrated and self-hosted methods become worth the engineering investment.

Whatever you choose, a clean checkout pays for itself. With 70% of carts abandoned and unexpected costs and clunky checkout among the top reasons, the gateway you pick and how you implement it directly shape how many of those carts actually convert.