No matter your e-commerce offering, your online business requires a merchant account to accept debit and credit card payments. It’s important that your merchant provider is convenient for both your customers and your business needs. With so many providers with various options available, it can be hard to decide which merchant service to choose.

Related: Cheapest card payment providers – for businesses looking to scale and keep transaction fees low

The basics

To take payments online, you need a way to authorise transactions securely and a way to receive the funds. In some cases, that means a separate payment gateway and merchant account, while other providers bundle those services together. A payment gateway encrypts your customers’ payment details for security. Once approved, the money is transferred into your merchant account for processing.

A merchant account serves as the connection between your money and your bank account. Once a sale has taken place, money is transferred into your merchant account and is then transferred to your bank account. Many payment gateway companies provide recommend and ‘sell’ merchant accounts; alternatively merchant accounts can be opened with high-street banks that provide such services.

But before deliberating over the above, you’ll need to establish a business bank account if you don’t have one already. You won’t get too far without one.

Compatibility and usability

When choosing a merchant services provider, compatibility should be one of the first things you check. Your payment setup needs to work smoothly with the systems you already use, whether that is your e-commerce platform, your website, your invoicing tools or your point-of-sale software.

For growing businesses, the key things to look for are:

• Easy integration with your existing systems
• A smooth checkout experience for customers
• Support for the ways you take payment, whether online, in person or over the phone
• Flexibility to handle recurring billing if needed
• A checkout that works properly across desktop, mobile and tablet

A provider may offer competitive rates, but if it is difficult to connect to your setup or creates friction at checkout, it could end up costing you sales. The payment journey should feel as seamless as possible, with minimal steps between a customer deciding to buy and completing the transaction.

It is also worth considering how your business may grow. Some providers are better suited to online-only businesses, while others are stronger for firms that sell across multiple channels. The best option will fit the way your business operates now, while still giving you room to scale.

Your options

Some providers are built for fast, straightforward card acceptance both online and in person. Others are better suited to recurring payments, international sales or businesses that want banking and payments under one roof. Stripe and Square are popular with businesses that want flexibility and relatively quick setup. Worldpay and takepayments are more traditional merchant-services providers, often appealing to businesses that want a broader service offering or a more tailored package. GoCardless is especially useful for recurring payments and bank-to-bank collections, while Tide and Revolut may appeal to businesses looking for integrated business finance and payment tools in one place.

As well as choosing a provider that fits your current needs, it is worth thinking about the customer experience. A payment process should be simple, secure and work smoothly across desktop and mobile. Even small points of friction at checkout can lead to abandoned baskets, so ease of use matters just as much as headline fees.

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See also: 11 of the best payment processors for UK small businesses

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The best merchant services providers for growing businesses

GoCardless

• Bank-to-bank payments for one-off and recurring collections
• Integrates with 350+ tools including Xero, Sage and QuickBooks
• Advanced and Pro plans add intelligent retries, payer verification and fraud tools

Best for: Businesses that rely on recurring payments or want an alternative to card processing.

GoCardless is ideal if you need to collect recurring or one-off payments without the hassle and costs of card transactions. Its Standard plan starts at 1% + 20p per transaction, capped at £4 for domestic payments, while Advanced starts at 1.25% + 20p and adds payment-recovery features such as intelligent retries. That makes it especially appealing for service businesses, memberships and instalment billing.

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Square

• Takes payments online, in person and by invoice
• Simple flat-rate pricing with no need for a bespoke quote
• Free entry-level POS tools, with paid upgrades for growing retail businesses

Best for: Small businesses that want to get started quickly and sell across multiple channels.

Square’s main selling point is how easy it is to understand and deploy. In the UK it charges 1.75% for in-person transactions with UK cards, 1.4% + 25p for online UK card payments, and 2.5% for manually keyed transactions. There is also a free retail POS tier, with a paid Plus plan from £49 per month per location for more advanced inventory features.

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Worldpay

• Offers card machines, online payments and hosted checkout tools
• Next-business-day settlement is available on its small-business proposition
• Hosted payment pages reduce PCI burden and support Apple Pay and Google Pay

Best for: Established businesses that want a more traditional provider with online and in-person capability.

Worldpay offers card machines, online payments and more tailored payment solutions for businesses selling across multiple channels. Its hosted payment pages are a useful feature for companies that want a ready-made checkout, while its wide range of solutions makes it a practical option for businesses with more complex payment needs. Pricing is typically quote-led, so it is likely to suit firms that are comfortable discussing a more tailored setup.

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Takepayments

• Tailored pricing rather than a one-size-fits-all tariff
• Next-day settlement, £0 set-up fee and UK support 7 days a week
• 12-month contract promoted for small-business customers

Best for: Small UK businesses that want a more guided, service-led relationship.

Takepayments is designed for businesses looking for something tailored to their exact needs. You need a quote to get exact rates, but the company does promote no set-up fee, next-day settlement and a relatively short 12-month contract. That combination is perfect if you want support and some room to negotiate, even if it makes direct comparison harder.

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Tide

• Combines payment acceptance with a Tide business account
• Offers card readers, Tap to Pay on iPhone and payment links
• Lower transaction rates are available through its Sell In-Person subscription

Best for: Small businesses that want banking and payments in the same ecosystem.

Tide’s card readers work with a Tide business account, making it an attractive option if you want the simplicity of everything under one roof. On a pay-as-you-go basis, card-reader fees start at 1.39% + 5p with hardware from £159 + VAT; with the Sell In-Person subscription, fees start at 0.79% + 3p, and device pricing starts at £99 plus a monthly fee. Next-business-day settlement is an optional extra at £2.99 + VAT per month.

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Revolut

• Combines merchant payments with business account features
• Supports online card payments, open banking and in-person card machines
• Offers 24-hour settlement, multi-currency acceptance and built-in Revolut Pay on some devices

Best for: Growing businesses with international customers or multi-currency needs.

Revolut combines payments with broader business-finance tools rather than treating payments as a standalone product. Its UK pricing for online card transactions starts at 1% + 20p for UK consumer Visa and Mastercard payments, while open banking is also 1%, capped at £5. It also offers decent tools for international businesses, with multi-currency accounts and low FX rates.

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Stripe

• Strong online payments platform with no-code and developer tools
• Supports payment links, recurring billing and international checkout
• Includes extras such as adaptive pricing and optional custom-domain links

Best for: Online-first businesses that want flexibility and room to scale.

Stripe is a great option for digital businesses because you can start with a simple setup and gradually enhance it over time. It is particularly well-suited to merchants that care about checkout design, subscriptions or international selling, even if some smaller firms may find a more service-led provider easier to navigate.

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Merchant accounts and the fees involved

Fees are a deal breaker when it comes to choosing your merchant provider. All providers will charge a fee for every transaction you make. Depending on the average sale price of each transaction taken on your site, you should decide between paying:

• A flat fee
• A fee based on a percentage of the transaction value
• A flat fee plus a percentage of the transaction value

As well as transaction costs, you should consider the volume of sales that you take. If you know you’ll be taking a high volume of sales you should find out whether your potential provider offers discounts for high volume sales, which usually comes in the form of lower fixed monthly costs.

If you’re predicting a low volume of sales you’d benefit from a service plan where you pay a high fee per transaction, which will likely be offset by a low fixed monthly fee. A merchant broker will be able to advise you on the best route to take.

Security and technical support

When choosing a merchant account, a key feature is security and support. If things go wrong, what response time will your provider offer? Will they be contactable 24/7 via telephone? This may not be as important as the price in the short term, but if you experience teething problems with your provider you may be wishing you negotiated better technical support.

Look out for SSL certificates and CVV2 verifications. The more secure your site, the more secure your customers’ details. As a large business can you afford to put a huge amount of customer data at risk?

Think ahead

There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a lengthy contract that’s proving unproductive for your company. So don’t settle for the cheapest gateway provider if you know you’ll be accepting large volumes of transactions in the near future. Think long-term for long-term profits.

Conducting a thorough examination of the payment terms, features, charges and contract commitments of your merchant provider will ensure you choose the right service for your ecommerce business.

Libby James is the co-founder of Merchant Advice Service.