Top Payment Gateways in the United States 2023 Edition

Any US-based business seeking online payments must select appropriate payment gateways in the United States to incorporate into their checkout flow. The right payment gateway for your business offers a range of your target market’s preferred payment methods and currencies, a high level of security compliance, and an affordable price point.

However finding the right fit for your company can be a complicated task, especially for subscription-based businesses dealing with the added complexity of recurring payments in diverse markets.

Studies show the unavailability of preferred payment methods at checkout is the leading cause of checkout abandonment. Additionally, when local currency options are not available, the complications of currency exchange can also lead to abandoned sales.

In the boundless market of the United States, the most popular payment methods include credit and debit cards, ACH, wire transfers, PayPal etc. The top payment gateways in the United States offer all these payment options and more.

Also Read: A Guide to Payment Gateways for Dummies

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Moreover, all leading payment gateways in the world operate in the United States, which means you have a whole lot of options. However, this may further complicate your journey to find the best fit. That is why, in this blog, we’ll explore the top payment gateways in the United States in the year 2023.

Also Read: Online Payment Processing for Recurring Payments—A Definitive Guide About The Payment Gateways for Subscription Management

Best Payment Gateways in the United States

Here is the list of our top picks of the payment gateways available in the United States in alphabetical order:

PayPal

As the industry-leading payment service provider, PayPal is the most recognized payment gateway across the world, including in the United States. So, Statista predicts that the number of active users on PayPal will top 500 million by the end of 2023.

PayPal is also one of the most reliable and fastest ways to receive recurring payments. It supports 25 currencies across 200 markets all over the world. Merchants in the US can take advantage of lower PayPal charges with its micropayments feature, and large-volume clients are offered attractive discounts.

Supported Payment Methods: Merchants can receive payments from all major credit and debit cards, PayPal balance, and credit among many alternative options, and utilize incremental sales by offering PayPal and PayPal Credit payment options to your customers at no extra cost to the merchant.
Security: PayPal offers enhanced PCI-DSS compliance, HTTPS connections, and strong TLS configurations.
Payouts: PayPal payouts in 24 hours only however it may take up to a week or more depending on the banking and clearing process.
Fee: PayPal has no cancellation fees, monthly minimums, or other hidden fees. Transactions cost up to 3.49% + fixed fee. International fees are at an additional 1.50% rate.

Stripe

Stripe is second only to PayPal. A big share of online merchants in the United States power digital payments through Stripe. Accepting payment for recurring billing with Stripe is smart, easy, and fast.

Stripe supports more than 135 currencies from more than 25 locations, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, Australia, India, China, and more. Stripe can be used to accept several debit/credit cards for international payments.

Supported Payment Methods: It accepts payments from all the leading credit and debit cards and mobile wallets like Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Microsoft Pay, Click to Pay, and WeChat Pay. Additionally, it supports ACH transfers as well.
Security: Stripe has a dedicated vault that instantly encrypts and stores payment information in a vault. Adding an extra layer of security, Stripe also offers Radar—a trademark anti-fraud system that combines machine learning with customizable frameworks that secure sensitive data through encryption and tokenization.
Payouts: For most countries, including the USA, Stripe payouts take a maximum of 7 days.
Fee: The primary version of Stripe is free. It offers instant transfer to the main account against a fee of USD 2.9% + 0.3. With Stripe, you are not bound by the contracts.

2Checkout

2Checkout is one of the top 3 payment gateway options in the United States with support for more than 45 payment methods from 20 plus countries. For most online merchants, e-commerce retailers, freelancers, and subscription businesses, 2Checkout is unarguably the most lucrative payment gateway with many features that support recurring payments.

Supported Payment Methods: It supports all the leading credit card payments including MasterCard, Visa, Discover, Diner’s Club, American Express, etc., and PayPal. It also supports digital wallets including PayPal, Alipay, Apple Pay, Webmoney, WeChat Pay, Skrill Wallet, and Neteller.

Security: It is also a PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant, PSD2, BBR Accreditation, and SSAE 18 compliant payment gateway. With advanced fraud protection features, including a 3-tier defense strategy that helps detect fraud in a real-time and two-way authentication, security is bullet-proof.

Payouts: 2Checkout automatically process payments in the merchant accounts depending on their account type and business model as weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payments within some minimum transfer limits.
Fee:2Checkout offers a flat-rate pricing model with transparent pricing and no hidden charges.

It has separate charges for eCommerce extensions, currency conversions, and others. Its three main ways of charging the merchant for the payment processing services include:

2Monetize Plan—for the digital items to be sold internationally with a successful transaction rate of USD 6% + 0.6.
2Subscribe Plan—this is for selling subscriptions. It comes with a successful transaction rate of USD 4.5%+0.45.
2Sell Plan—this plan can be subscribed to sell products or services worldwide with transaction charges of USD 3.5% + 0.35.

Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay is a mobile wallet and is part of the Amazon Web services (AWS) secured by industry-specific Level-1 PCI-DSS Compliance. It is one of the most used mobile payment wallets in the United States.

Supported Payment Methods: It supports all credit and debit cards including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, and JCB payments along with Amazon.com store cards for selected merchants.
Security: It is PCI-DSS Compliant along with HTTPS secure, TLS, and SSL with 128-bit encryption for login security.
Payouts: Getting paid through mobile payments is easier than most of the payment gateways. This is why Amazon Pay automatically deposits funds into the merchant account on the next scheduled settlement date right after capturing the payment.
Fee: Amazon Pay charges based on the number of transactions along with $0.30 authorization, and applicable taxes. Furthermore, it also has a different processing fee for domestic (USD 2.9% + 0.3) and international (USD 3.9% + 0.3) transactions.

Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net is another highly popular payment gateway choice in the United States.

Authorize.Net is offering its payment processing services to all types of small to mid-sized businesses and enterprises, including the eCommerce subscription market, recurring payments businesses, SaaS, cloud, data center and managed services businesses.

Supported Payment Methods: Net as a leading payment gateway accepts payments from almost all the payment methods including leading card networks, e-checks, and many alternate payment methods. These include Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB, PayPal, Visa SRC, Apple Pay, Chase Pay, E-check, etc.
Security: Net is also a PCI-DSS Compliant payment gateway with a robust fraud detection and prevention suite.
Payouts: Net takes 24 hours to settle the transactions and the merchant can access funds fast.
Fee: It charges a $25 monthly gateway fee along with USD 0.1 per transaction and a USD 0.1 daily batch fee. For international transactions, it also charges an additional 1.5%.

Braintree

Braintree is also one of the most preferred e-commerce payment processors and payment gateway that offers a dedicated merchant account and supports third-party merchant accounts as well. Braintree charges the subscription merchants nothing when they want to switch to another payment gateway or cancel the Braintree subscription.

Braintree has a firm customer support system days a week via phone and round the clock throughout the year via email. Braintree offers support to more than 130 currencies from 45+ merchant locations.

Supported Payment Methods: Braintree supports most of the card payments and e-wallets including Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, PayPal, Venmo, Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Bitcoin. It also supports cryptocurrency wallets in addition to card payments and e-wallets.
Security: Braintree also offers PCI-DSS level 1 Compliance with vault and fraud protection that includes 3D Secure and advanced anti-scam options.
Payouts: It usually takes 2-5 days to payout; however international merchants might experience delays of up to 3 to 5 working days.
Fee: Braintree charges no monthly fee with USD 2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction and an additional 1% per successful transaction with currency conversion.

GoCardless

GoCardless is the best way in the US to collect direct debit payments. Merchants can automatically accept payments from customers’ banks to their location with FX dealt. It is also compliant with EU-VAT for every transaction.

GoCardless enables subscription and SaaS service providers to accept recurring payments in the form of direct debits from all over the United States and Canada with support for ACH and PAD.

Supported Payment Methods: GoCardless is the best way to receive direct debits from the UK via BACS, the EU via SEPA, and Sweden via Autogiro. GoCardless supports multi-currency payments.
Security: GoCardless is the payment gateway to receive direct debit through the financial centers and is protected by regulatory bodies. GoCardless is fully protected by the ‘Direct Debit Guarantee’ for a full and immediate refund of any payments taken from their account in error.
Payouts: GoCardless direct debit payments are processed and received in accounts within 5 to 6 working days.
Fee: GoCardless has no setup costs. However, an additional fee of 0.1% applies to transaction values above $1,000 in addition to 1% + $0.25. Max $2.50.

PaySimple

PaySimple is a one-stop payment services provider for merchants in the United States. It can be used to accept payments from credit and debit cards and ACH payments. It also supports recurring payments and email invoicing.

PaySimple is an ideal payment gateway for small-scale merchants with a low monthly fee, no, and no cancelation fees.

Supported Payment Methods: It supports MasterCard, Visa, American Express, ACH, and e-checks.
Security: Payment Vault and Level-1 PCI-DSS Compliance.
Payouts: It processes all the credit card payments, e-checks, and ACH on the same day, and funds are made available to the merchants in 24 hours only.
Fee: PaySimple charges 2.49% plus $0.29 for credit card transactions whereas 0.10% plus $0.60 for ACH and E-Check transactions. It also charges some other additional fees that include:
- PCI compliance fee—$4.95
- On-file fee—$5.00
- A batch fee—$0.29

PaySimple offers two pricing for subscriptions:

PaySimple Pro starts at $39.95 per month.
PaySimple Enterprise starts at $99.95 per month.

Worldpay

Located in the United States, WorldPay is a budgeted, safe, and robust payment gateway that provides potential online payment processing solutions to serve businesses of all sizes, types, and resources. Worldpay operates in over 40 countries worldwide, supporting more than 120 currencies.

WorldPay is a leading choice for payment gateway services for small businesses due to some of the most considerable WorldPay-supported payment options including card payments, alternative payments, integrated point-of-sale, mobile & tablet point-of-sale, virtual terminal, recurring payments, hosted payment pages, shopping carts, and multi-channel payments.

Supported Payment Methods: It supports all the major payment options including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, UnionPay, and Diner’s Club credit and debit cards, PayPal, e-checks, and alternate payment methods (APMs) like ApplePay, Google Pay, and more.
Security: It is a PCI-DSS-compliant payment gateway with exceptional security measures, encryption, tokenization, and EMV. The fraud prevention tools of WorldPay alert against any suspicious activity and prevent any attempt for a fraudulent transaction.
Payouts: WorldPay transfers funds to your bank account twice a week.
Fee: It offers three plans in the private sector.
- GATEWAY Standard starts from £19 per month for up to 350 transactions.
- GATEWAY Advanced starts from £45 per month for up to 700 transactions.
- GATEWAY Enterprise— bespoke pricing

Final Remarks

Selecting the right payment gateway is crucial for any business seeking to thrive in the online market. The list of top payment gateways in the United States presented here offers a comprehensive overview of the best options available in 2023.

With each gateway catering to various needs and preferences, you have an array of choices to suit your business model. Take the time to weigh the features, costs, and benefits to make an informed decision that aligns with your specific requirements and paves the way for a seamless payment experience, fostering customer trust and boosting conversions.