What Is the Right Payment Gateway For Your B2B SaaS Business

With the plethora of payment gateways, SaaS and B2B business needs payment gateways that can help their business rise and shine with seamless payment collection.

SaaS and B2B businesses work in different billing and pricing models, therefore having the right payment gateway can be challenging sometimes. Not only this but having payment gateways and payment processors play a crucial role in payment routing to provide your customer with a seamless transactional experience.

In this article, we are first going to discuss the elements that distinguish payment gateways from payment processors and then a holistic difference between payment gateways.

Payment Processor vs Payment Gateway

This is one of the most asked questions as these two terms seem to overlap with one another. Payment Processor vs Payment Gateway—let’s study the difference between them.

A payment processor is a financial institution or company that is responsible for relaying the payments between issuing bank and acquiring bank. The payment processors are used for both online and brick-and-mortar payments or transactions. The payment processor acts as a payment facilitator and the role of payment processing is an important fact that without payment processors any sort of transaction can be halted.

The working principle of payment processing is taking the information from a credit card or debit card and transmitting the information over to the other end. It is used for communicating the payment details to ensure that transaction is successful and the payment has been deposited.

A payment gateway is a technology that performs payment encryption and transfers the payment as soon as the point of entry is completed by a payment processor. Payment gateways are integral to the performance of payment routing. In case payment fails, the payment gateways communicate the errors found while making the transaction.

Detailed overview of payment gateways: Braintree, CardConnect, & Authorize.Net

Now you have read about payment processors versus payment gateways, let’s dig deeper into the three payment gateways i.e., Braintree, CardConnect, and Authorize.Net.

Braintree

Braintree is one of the most used payment gateways in B2B and SaaS businesses. It allows businesses to process eCommerce payments and provides merchant accounts with the features required for eCommerce and SaaS merchants.

The pricing of Braintree is as follows:

Credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets are charged 2.59% plus 49 cents per transaction.
59% plus 49 cents for Venmo (U.S. only), non-U.S. currency transactions, or transactions outside the U.S.
75% for ACH (maximum fee of $5). Discounts are available for large businesses.
Payment processing is free, but a Braintree gateway costs $49 per month plus 10 cents per transaction, and third-party merchant accounts cost $10 per month (along with any fees charged by their merchant account provider).
Braintree charges $15 in case of chargebacks.

Braintree operates in different countries and they are:

The United States
Canada, Australia
Europe, Singapore
Hong Kong SAR China
Malaysia
New Zealand.

Pros of Braintree

Braintree has very straightforward pricing as they charge mostly flat fee prices mentioned on the website.
They do not have additional hidden charges and neither deduct heavy charges per transaction. Braintree does not charge heaving prices for PCI or an additional monthly fee.
Braintree does not charge termination fees as they operate every month

Cons of Braintree

If you run a brick-and-mortar business, then Braintree is not a suitable option. Therefore, retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses that primarily accept in-person payments are recommended to look for other payment gateways.

Also Read: Authorize.Net Vs Braintree: Which One’s Better?

CardConnect

CardConnect is another leading payment gateway that provides its facilities to SMEs along with value-added solutions and different tools for merchants. It has been in the industry for around 10 years providing its solutions to ERP, SaaS, and cloud computing software. For eCommerce, CardConnect is one most viable payment gateways for merchants and clients as they can process debit card transactions, credit card transactions, and ACH payments.

The most notable features of CardConnect are as follows:

P2PE (Point-to-Point Encryption): secure and fast payment transactions on the basis of end-to-end encryptions
Interchange Optimization
Recurring Billing

Interchange optimization entails getting the best payment rates that merchants incur from each deposit by the customer. It includes security fees, transaction fees, and other related charges.

CardConnect Pricing

CardConnect has various options when it comes to offering pricing structures to B2B or B2G merchants. The pricing features of CardConnect enable merchants to select the pricing structure that suits them the best.

Here are four pricing models that CardConnect offers:

Interchange Cost Plus (IC+) Pricing and Interchange Optimization
Flat-fee pricing model
Tiered pricing model
Enhanced Recover Reduced (ERR) or Bill back Pricing

Pros of CardConnect

Merchants who run merchant-to-merchant businesses (B2B) or B2G, can achieve interchange optimization for their businesses. This can save merchants from heavy costs and heavy charges that might not be available in other payment gateways.
For SaaS and recurring billing, CardConnect provides a seamless experience and suitable pricing that benefits SaaS merchants.

Authorize.Net

Authorize.net is one of the pioneers when it comes to payment gateways and B2B Payment Processing platforms. It operates on a very wide spectrum when it comes to SaaS and eCommerce markets. It provides the option for multiple transactions including Visa, Visa Click to Pay, PayPal, AmEx, Mastercard, Discover, etc. As far as the area of jurisdiction is concerned, it can accept payments from merchants who are located in the United States, Australia, and Canada.

It offers two payment plans for payment prices that are written below.

All-in-one for payment processing

It is appropriate for small businesses that require only a payment gateway system and a merchant account with limited services and no additional add-ons. It allows you to automate recurring billing. E-check payment processing is not free.

Payment getaway

Small businesses that already have merchant accounts can also get a payment gateway. Payments are processed in batches based on transactions from the previous 24 hours. The plan includes automated recurring billing, but e-check payment processing is extra.

Authorize.Net Pricing

The monthly fee of Authorize.net is $25 and for a merchant account, the merchant has to pay 2.9% + 30c per transaction. There is a daily fee of 10c as well as a daily batch fee of 10c. ACH transactions are more expensive, as is e-check processing.

Talking about the payment methods, Authorize.net offers payment transactions from the following payment methods:

Visa
AmEx
Discover
Mastercard
PayPal
Apple Pay
JCB
Visa Click to Pay
E-check payments

Pros of authorize.net

It offers several payment methods that are well-profiting on the side of the merchant. This can boost sales as customers can make transactions using different payment methods.
Dozens of third-party Points of Sale (POS) are pre-integrated with the software, and a Virtual Point of Sale (VPOS) solution is also available. Both of these options can be used for retail locations.
It has an advanced PCI suite that provides security layers and lessens the chances of fraud detection to the maximum.
It has an online knowledge base and provides a 24/7 customer base excluding holidays. It offers live chat and customer support.

Cons of authorize.net

net only accepts US and Canadian currency for businesses in the US and Canada. It supports eight currencies for businesses in the United Kingdom and Europe, and three currencies for businesses in Australia.
Depending on your monthly sales volume, the $25 monthly fee could wash away any savings you might get elsewhere.

Also Read: Authorize.Net vs Amazon Pay

Who’s the winner?

Considering the features of CardConnect, Braintree, and Authorize.net – we have one winner i.e. Authorize.Net. For Enterprise Payments Processing, authorize.net has won the game. However, the decision is entirely upon you – the one that fulfils your business needs.

Integrate Payment Gateway Through SubscriptionFlow

SubscriptionFlow is a subscription management platform priding its services for SaaS, e-commerce, and B2B companies. We offer multiple payment gateway integrations for businesses that make your business scale with multiple payment gateways.

Schedule a demo with us now and avail Integrated Payment System for your business.