The 5 best payment gateway and online payment systems in 2026

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takepayments: Flexible payment structures

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Worldpay: International payments

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Our dedicated research team conducted 45 tests over a total of 22.5 hours in order to determine that takepayments is the best payment gateway solution. This is largely due to its flexible payment structure, which lets you negotiate your fees. takepayments also provides our favourite card machine for small businesses for 2026.

Retailers were hit with a wave of cyberattacks in 2025. While these were aimed at high-profile businesses like M&S, Harrods, and most recently Pandora, that’s no reason for small- and medium-sized businesses to become complacent. When choosing a payment gateway for accepting online payments, security should be a top priority.

For those new to this space, a payment gateway is software that collects your customers’ payment information and authorises transactions while keeping all card information protected.

Scroll down for our definitive roundup of the best payment gateways for ecommerce businesses

The best payment gateways: comparison table

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		Best for:	Overall score	Transaction fees from	Monthly costs	Payout time	Contract length
BEST OVERALL
takepayments	Stripe	Worldpay	Shopify	Revolut
A flexible payment structure	Strong security features	Selling high-value goods	An all-in-one solution	Affordability
4.8	4.6	4.6	4.2	4.1
Quote-based	1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards	1.3% + 20p	1.5% + 25p (Advanced plan)	1% + 20p
Quote-based	None	None for pay-as-you-go plans	From £19	None
Next business day	Up to three business days	Same day or next day	Two to five business days	Next day
12 months	None	18 months	None	None
Try takepayments	Get Quotes	Try Worldpay	Get Quotes	Get Quotes

We last updated this article on 24/12/2025

We regularly review and update this page to ensure all pricing and feature information is accurate. While no major changes have occurred since our last update, given the competitive nature of the payment processing industry, we recommend confirming any pricing directly with providers before making any financial decisions.

How do we test payment gateways for small businesses?

We tested 26 payment gateway providers, evaluating them against the criteria we found to be most important to our readers. This enables us to accurately recommend the right payment gateways for UK-based small businesses.

Each criterion was given an appropriate weighting to ensure the results are as relevant to your genuine needs as possible, and each provider was given a score for each criterion. These scores were then used to rank the top payment gateways.

The main criteria we test are:

Software

We analysed each payment gateway based on the payment types it accepts, whether it supports mobile payments, and payment times. We also assessed the security measures the provider has in place, including whether it’s PCI-compliant, holds an ISO 27001 certificate, and has fraud-prevention measures. We also looked at the data and reporting features available, whether the gateway can integrate with a POS, and more.

Help and support

Strong support can be critical for small businesses, especially new merchants. So, we evaluated the range and availability of each platform’s user support channels. We also tested the accuracy of each provider’s knowledge centre by examining responses to five different test queries.

Pricing

We assessed all the relevant financial considerations for a merchant seeking a payment gateway, including the cost of using each payment platform, the setup costs involved, whether you’ll need to agree to a contract, the length of the agreement, and whether you might incur an exit fee. We also analysed the transaction fees each provider charges, and whether it offers a free trial or plan.

takepayments

4.8

Try takepayments

• Starting software price: Quote-based
• Transaction fees from: Quote-based

• Custom, quote-based transaction fees
• Extensive reporting that provides actionable insights
• Next day payouts

Summary takepayments is a UK-based company offering payment solutions, including card terminals, online payments, and POS systems. It currently serves over 750,000 customers and is one of the fastest-growing card payment providers in the UK. We recommend takepayments to small businesses looking for an all-in-one setup.

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What are takepayments’ pros?

Top merchant service provider takepayments offers a hosted payment gateway, but you can tailor its secure checkout page with your site’s branding to create a seamless, professional-looking, and trustowrthy checkout experience.

Another plus point is takepayments’ fast next-business-day payouts, which give you quicker access to your takings and better cash flow control.

takepayments also provides you with extensive, actionable data via detailed reports, and you can view a live feed of your transactions in real-time.

Other pros include:

• Technical assistance from takepayments to get your gateway set up
• Integration with over 50 shopping carts
• Connection with PayPal and the ability to accept mobile wallet payments

What are takepayments’ cons?

• takepayments doesn’t transfer your funds over the weekend. If you need weekend payouts, you should consider Stripe or Revolut instead.
• Unlike Stripe, Shopify, and Revolut, you’ll have to sign up for a 12-month contract to use takepayments’ payment gateway.

Read next: find out more about the pros and cons in our full takepayments review.

How much does takeypayments cost?

takepayments has a quote-based fee structure, with negotiable transaction fees tailored to your specific business. Although you’ll have to contact takepayments to discuss your fees, the upside is that they will be tailored to your business needs, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach and potentially saving you money.

What security measures does takeypayments have in place?

• Takepayments is PCI-compliant and uses tokenization, Address Verification System (AVS), and Credit Verification Value (CVV) to keep online payments secure.
• takepayments’ payment gateways have 3D secure technology built in to prevent fraud. They are also all SSL-certified.
• Using its Security+ package, takepayments can conduct quarterly secure transaction reviews, and you’ll receive regular cybersecurity updates directly in your inbox.

Worth knowing – What is an API?

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is software that allows two separate applications to interact with each other. With payment gateways, an API lets you integrate and host your own checkout experience, giving you greater control how it works and looks. Just be aware that advanced technical knowledge is needed to implement it.

Stripe

4.6

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• Monthly fees: None
• Transaction fees from: 1.5% + 20p

• Advanced fraud detection
• Option for weekend payouts
• 24/7 customer support

Summary Stripe is an Irish-American software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that currently supports over 135 currencies and payment methods. Stripe is well-suited to security-conscious startups thanks to the built-in fraud radar in its payment flow.

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What are Stripe’s pros?

Security is Stripe’s strong suit – its advanced fraud feature, Radar, is built directly into the payment flow and uses machine learning to detect unusual patterns in your payments. Just keep in mind it can cost up to 6p per screened transaction.

There’s also a suite of payment APIs, enabling you to quickly add secure, scalable payment features without needing specialised developers or complex infrastructure (just be aware that each integration will incur its own costs and fees).

And for small- and medium-sized businesses operating on Saturdays and Sundays, Stripe offers weekend payouts via its Instant Payouts feature.

Other pros include:

• Stripe Checkout, an easy, pre-built, customisable payment form to embed onto your site (or have hosted by Stripe)
• Stripe Checkout supports over 30 languages and more than 150 currencies
• Stripe Checkout includes Link by Stripe, which auto-fills your customers’ information for a faster checkout

What are Stripe’s cons?

• Stripe charges you an additional 1% per transaction to use Instant Payouts, unlike other providers (such as takepayments) that do next-day payouts at no extra cost. Without Instant Payouts, it can take up to three working days to receive your funds.
• Some of Stripe’s APIs require technical know-how to implement, which isn’t ideal for less experienced business owners.

How much does Stripe cost?

Stripe doesn’t charge monthly fees, and there are no contracts or setup costs.

However, although Stripe’s standard transaction fee of 1.5% + 20p is highly competitive, its other tiers could sting you in the long run. For example, payments made with EU cards are subject to a much higher 2.5% + 20p fee, so keep this in mind if you take international payments.

What security measures does Stripe have in place?

• Stripe is PCI-compliant and can even provide its own Stripe PCI wizard, which analyses your setup and advises you on how to reduce your own compliance burden.
• A variety of Stripe’s integrations, including Stripe Checkout, use tokenization so you don’t have to handle sensitive card data directly.
• Both Stripe Checkout and Stripe Elements handle all customer payment data in a payment field that is sent directly from Stripe’s PCI DSS-validated servers.

Worldpay

4.6

Visit Worldpay

• Monthly fees: From £10 with terminal hire (or £1 with special offer)
• Transaction fees from: Worldpay eCommerce payment gateway: 1.3% plus 20p

• Low transaction fees, depending on your processing value
• Wide range of help and support options, including a forum
• Worldpay Dashboard gives you insights into your sales

Summary Worldpay is a comprehensive online payments service that lets you accept payments directly from your website or app. We would recommend Worldpay to businesses that primarily handle infrequent but high-value sales. This is due to its fee structure, which includes minimum amounts.

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What are Worldpay’s pros?

If you handle high-risk, high-value transactions and need peace of mind, Worldpay has excellent security measures in place. Specifically, you’ll get access to FraudSight, the company’s proprietary multilayered fraud protection solution.

Worldpay’s payout times are the same or next day – great for those who rely on quick cash flow. But you can also customise your deposit schedule to choose when you’ll receive your funds.

Other pros include:

• Worldpay Dashboard, which allows you to see payment activity and source insights for sales strategies
• Customisable, hosted payment pages that fit your branding
• Wide range of plugins, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and OpenCart

What are Worldpay’s cons?

• There’s an 18-month contract and an early exit fee. If you don’t want to be locked in, check out Revolut instead.
• Due to the fee structure (and contract), we wouldn’t recommend Worldpay to newer businesses, or those with an annual revenue under £75k.

How much does Worldpay cost?

Worldpay eCommerce offers a pay-as-you-go plan with a competitive transaction fee of 1.3% plus 20p per transaction for Mastercard and Visa consumer cards. There’s also a non-pay-as-you-go plan, for which fees are worked out based on merchant type and other factors.

Worldpay’s pricing tends to favour high-value transactions rather than large numbers of small-value payments because of the minimum amounts imposed by its fee structure.

What security measures does Worldpay have in place?

• In addition to FraudSight and 3DS Flex basic, which we cover above, there’s also the Worldpay SaferPayments program. This offers 24/7 support to manage your PCI DSS compliance and payment security.
• Worldpay complies with high security and privacy standards, including PCI DSS Level 1, NACHA, CMMI Level 2, FISMA, and NIST.

Shopify

4.2

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• Starting software price: £5
• Transaction fees from: 1.5% + 25p (only on the Advanced plan)

• Plans starting from as low as £5 per month
• 24/7 support
• Forum to get advice from other merchants

Summary Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, Shopify is the second-largest publicly traded Canadian company. It hosts 5.6 million active stores across more than 175 countries. We recommend Shopify as an all-in-one solution for combining your in-store and online sales.

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What are Shopify’s pros?

If you’re looking to launch an online shop, Shopify is one of the best ecommerce website builders. You can build a website with Shopify and take payments through it with Shopify’s native payment gateway – Shopify Payments – all under one roof.

By signing up for even the Basic tier, you’ll get access to an impressive range of ecommerce tools to help increase your sales. This includes the ability to send automated emails to customers who leave your online store without completing checkout.

Other pros include:

• One-click checkout for customers
• Custom reporting and real-time analytics
• Discount codes and gift cards for your online shop

What are Shopify’s cons?

• It can take anywhere from two to five working days for funds to arrive in your bank account. If you rely on quick cash flow, consider a faster payout provider like takepayments or Revolut.
• Transaction fees can be high, especially on the lower pricing tiers.

How much does Shopify cost?

Shopify Payments is only available to Shopify merchants – those who’ve built their online store with Shopify using one of the three plans we’ve listed above.

The Basic plan is best for one-person bands, while small businesses with a handful of core staff are better suited to the Grow plan. The Advanced plan is suitable if you make enough sales that the cheaper transaction fees would justify the considerable monthly charge.

What security measures does Shopify have in place?

• In addition to being PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, Shopify has SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 reports. This stands for Service Organization Control, and is an independent assessment of risks.
• Shopify also provides fraud analysis to help identify fraudulent orders and prevent chargebacks. You can also use Shopify Flow to help manage high-risk orders.

Revolut

4.1

Get Quotes

• Monthly fees: None
• Transaction fees from: 1% + 20p

• Next-day settlements
• No contract and low transaction fees
• Customisable checkout process

Summary Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. We recommend Revolut to businesses looking for an affordable payment gateway solution.

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What are Revolut’s pros?

Revolut is an API-based payment gateway that integrates directly into your website, meaning customers never have to leave your site to check out.

The customisable widget lets you tailor the entire checkout experience for your customers, and Revolut provides dedicated engineering support to guide you through the more complex aspects of getting started.

For healthier cash flow, Revolut also does fast next-day payouts, including on weekends.

Other pros include:

• One-click checkout through Revolut Pay
• Failed payments are re-processed through smart payment retries
• 99.99% platform uptime

What are Revolut’s cons?

• Although Revolut is the cheapest payment gateway in this ranking, this comes at the expense of detailed sales reporting. If you want to use extensive sales data to strategise future plans, opt for takepayments instead.

How much does Revolut cost?

Revolut’s rock bottom transaction fee of 1% + 20p, plus the fact that it doesn’t charge any monthly fees, makes it the cheapest payment gateway on this list – provided most of your sales come from UK consumer cards.

The transaction fee jumps up to 2.8% for any international or commercial card, so if your business takes a large number of payments from overseas or operates B2B, you’ll feel the pinch.

What security measures does Revolut have in place?

• Revolut’s API and integrations are PCI compliant, and the company also complies with Strong Customer Authentication procedures.
• Revolut provides an automated security system that monitors your transactions for signs of potential fraud and triggers an in-app warning when suspicious activity is detected.

How do I choose the right payment gateway for my business?

When choosing between payment gateways, it’s important to compare security measures, data portability, accepted payment methods, and fees. You should also decide whether you want a hosted or integrated gateway.

A payment gateway acts as a bridge between your customer’s sensitive card information and your business bank account. It provides a checkout page and safely encrypts the payment information entered into it, playing an essential role in accepting credit or debit card payments online.

What security measures should I consider?

Given the number of high-profile cases of buyers’ personal data being stolen, you should check that the gateway has:

• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): guaranteed security controls on cardholder information
• Card Verification Value (CVV): checks a customer card’s CVV code to provide an additional layer of security
• Address Verification Service (AVS): verifies the billing address provided by the customer
• Encryption: scrambles all cardholder details so that bad actors can’t access the original information
• Other advanced fraud protection tools: most providers have their own ways of detecting fraud for additional reassurance

What is data portability, and what should I look for to ensure it?

Who owns your customers’ data if you choose to leave your gateway provider? It’s very important that you can properly store, access, and download the data you need to sustain your merchant services without violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Here are the key features to look for to ensure data portability:

• Ensure the provider adheres to PCI standards for secure data exchange
• Check that the provider has documents explaining how to manage and export data
• Look for a provider with reporting functions; this will make it easy to view data
• Be aware of export fees – some providers will charge you to download data

What’s the difference between hosted and integrated gateways?

Hosted gateways redirect customers to the provider’s checkout page to complete their payment. They’re quick to set up and require minimal technical know-how, but the downside is that customers will have to leave your site to pay, which could lead to cart abandonment.

Integrated gateways, on the other hand, connect directly to your ecommerce site via the provider’s API. This keeps the entire checkout experience on your site and allows for a more consistent, branded experience. However, implementing and maintaining an integrated gateway can require some technical knowledge.

Hosted vs. integrated gateways: security and compliance differences

With a hosted gateway, the provider typically manages encryption and fraud checks, and they often come with built-in safety tools. Because your website never directly handles card details, PCI DSS requirements are much lighter. This makes hosted gateways easier for most small businesses, especially those without technical support.

An integrated gateway keeps the checkout on your website. Although they provide a more professional shopping experience, they also place more responsibility on the business owner. Even if card details are only on your site for a few seconds, you must meet higher PCI DSS requirements, including secure hosting and robust security controls. As such, these are best suited to businesses that can manage the extra technical and compliance duties.

What payment methods will I need to accept?

It’s standard for payment gateways to accept all major credit and debit cards, but other payment methods that customers may expect from your store include:

• Bank transfer
• Gift cards
• Regional e-wallets
• Pay by Link
• PayPal or Amazon Pay

What fees will I need to pay?

Each payment gateway charges a different fee for credit, debit, and overseas transactions. Be sure to read up on what credit card processing fees you’ll be charged, to avoid a nasty surprise on your next invoice.

Examples of hidden fees that some providers charge include:

• Statement fees – A charge for accessing transaction reports.
• Non-qualified transactions – A charge for incorrect card information being submitted.
• Batch fee – A charge for processing a batch of transactions.
• Chargebacks – A charge for handling a customer-initiated payment reversal.
• Security fees – A fee for carrying out security checks.
• Termination fees –  A charge if you terminate your agreement early.

Fee negotiation and flexibility

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t realise they can negotiate payment gateway fees. The amount of flexibility usually depends on the provider and your sales numbers.

takepayments, for example, offers tailored pricing, making it one of the most flexible providers, pricing-wise. It bases your fee on your business type, monthly turnover, and the types of cards used. As your sales grow, you can request a lower rate.

Traditional payment gateway providers have been known to adjust their fees, especially if you process a high number of transactions or sell expensive items. They may offer better rates if you agree to a longer contract, or meet a minimum monthly sales amount.

Before you choose a provider, always ask for a full breakdown of the costs. Check for minimum monthly fees, refund charges, contract lengths, and early exit fees.

Step-by-step: how to get your payment gateway set up

Most small UK businesses can set up a payment gateway in one to five working days. The process is usually pretty straightforward. Here are the key steps:

1. Compare providers and check requirements

As with any financial decision, it’s wise to compare as many products as possible when choosing a gateway.

Look at fees, payout times, and contract requirements. Also, check that the provider covers your business type, as some industries, such as gambling, may face extra scrutiny in certain regions.

2. Submit your application

You’ll typically need to fill in a short form containing your business details and expected sales. Some providers approve applications within minutes, while others take up to two days to run extra checks and confirm your business is safe to work with.

3. Set up your dashboard

Once you’ve set up your gateway, you’ll get access to an online dashboard where you can set payment schedules, enable security checks, and connect tools such as invoicing or accounting software.

4. Run test payments

Before going live, run trial payments with test card numbers. Doing so ensures that payments, emails, and refunds work correctly and helps avoid problems down the line.

5. Go live and accept real payments

Once you’ve run the relevant checks, you can switch to live mode, allowing users to pay straight away. Most providers send payouts within one to three working days, although the first transaction may take slightly longer.