Compare Payment Gateways for Ecommerce
Your gateway is a conversion lever as much as a cost line. We weighed all five on what actually decides ecommerce profit: transaction cost, checkout conversion, fraud exposure, settlement speed and integration overhead.
The cost shows up on your statement. The damage you don’t see is the mobile basket abandoned at an unexpected 3DS prompt, or the Tuesday after Black Friday when stock needs reordering and settlement still hasn’t landed.
| Provider | Setup | Settlement | EU / intl cards | BNPL | Fraud tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | API or no-code Checkout | T+2 | 2.5% + 20p EU; 3.25% intl | Klarna, Clearpay built in | Radar free; Adaptive 3DS |
| PayPal Checkout | Button embed or API | Minutes to PayPal | Higher cross-border rate | Pay in 3 / Pay Later native | Seller Protection (limited) |
| Shopify Payments | One-click in Shopify admin | Plan-dependent | 2% surcharge on intl cards | Shop Pay instalments | Built-in Shopify fraud analysis |
| Worldpay Online | Account + integration | T+3 | IC+ tunes by card mix | Via third parties | Granular exemption control |
| Checkout.com | Sales-led; engineer needed | T+2 (02:00 UTC) | Local acquiring in key markets | Via third parties | Auth-rate optimisation |
Settlement timing for UK accounts; bank holidays shift payouts to the next business day. EU card rates reflect post-Brexit cross-border surcharges. Verified May 2026.
Best Payment Gateways for Ecommerce
For most UK stores your answer is Stripe plus a second button. The other four earn their place only when your volume or platform makes the case. We rank on the levers that decide profit, not the rate, and flag when to switch so you are not guessing.
Best Overall for Ecommerce: Stripe
Stripe. 1.5% + 20p per UK card transaction online, no monthly fee, no minimum contract. An ecommerce founder can be taking live transactions before lunch on day one, where Worldpay’s onboarding runs two weeks. We rate that speed gap, not the rate, as the real reason to start here.
It supports over 50 payment methods including Klarna, Clearpay and Apple/Google Pay, all configurable from the dashboard, with Adaptive 3DS handling SCA exemptions automatically. EU cards attract 2.5% + 20p and international 3.25% + 20p following post-Brexit fees.
Not right if: you sell on Shopify (the surcharge makes it expensive) or you are above roughly £1M/year on a UK-debit-heavy mix, where Worldpay IC+ starts to win.
Visit StripeBest for Customer Trust and BNPL: PayPal Checkout
PayPal Checkout. At 2.9% + 30p it is dearer than Stripe at any volume: on a £100 basket the gap is £3.20 versus £1.70. The case for PayPal is conversion, not cost: we rate it the one checkout brand UK shoppers recognise without thinking.
A customer who would not enter card details on an unfamiliar site will often complete through PayPal instead. Pay Later is native with no extra integration, which can be the difference between completion and abandonment on a £50 to £250 fashion or home-goods order.
Not right if: you run it as your only gateway. That means handing over roughly an extra percentage point on every order. Run it as a second checkout button alongside your primary gateway.
Visit PayPalBest for Shopify Stores: Shopify Payments
Shopify Payments. We make it the Shopify pick for one structural reason: it is the only gateway that avoids the third-party surcharge. Use Stripe, PayPal or Worldpay and Shopify adds up to 2.0% on top of your gateway’s own fee, taking a Basic-plan store to 3.5%+ on a UK card.
Online rates run by plan on annual billing: Basic 2.0% + 25p, Grow 1.7% + 25p, Advanced 1.5% + 25p. The Advanced rate only pays back over Grow at around £45,000 to £50,000 in monthly card sales, so model your volume before jumping for the rate.
Not right if: you might migrate platforms. Shopify Payments doesn’t work outside Shopify, so you would start gateway evaluation and underwriting from scratch.
Visit Shopify PaymentsBest for Mid-Market and Enterprise: Worldpay Online
Worldpay Online. One of the UK’s largest acquirers. Its PAYG rate is 1.3% + 20p, cheaper than Stripe on the percentage, with a £15/month minimum above £75,000/year. The bigger lever is interchange-plus pricing above roughly £1M/year.
IC+ separates the actual interchange cost, typically 0.2 to 0.3% for UK debit, from Worldpay’s mark-up. The saving depends on your card mix: a debit-heavy book saves more than a rewards book. Settlement is T+3, and we’d get the rate and exit fees in writing before signing the 18-to-24-month deal.
Not right if: you need to be live in a week. The integration is heavier and the contract longer. It fits businesses with engineering resource and the volume to justify modelling.
Visit WorldpayBest for Global Expansion: Checkout.com
Checkout.com. A UK-based enterprise platform with direct acquiring in the UK, EU and key international markets. All pricing is negotiated, with no published rate, and it is not realistic to evaluate until you are processing at least £5M/year.
What it sells at that scale is authorisation-rate optimisation: routing each transaction through the best acquiring relationship per market. For a DTC brand running 30% of revenue from US and EU cards, in our assessment that uplift is real money, though it hinges on your decline rate.
Not right if: you are under £5M/year or lack a dedicated payments engineer. It competes with Adyen, not Stripe, and the negotiated rate gets eaten by operational overhead below that scale.
Visit Checkout.comEcommerce Payment Gateway Providers Reviewed
What to Look for in a Payment Gateway for Ecommerce
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3DS2
UK rules require SCA for online card payments, enforced by the FCA under PS20/6 and delivered via 3DS2. Not every transaction needs it: low-value exemptions (under roughly £25), Transaction Risk Analysis, and recurring-payment exemptions all reduce how often the prompt fires.
For most merchants, Stripe Adaptive 3DS handles exemptions automatically. The practical test is whether 3DS prompts fire on a £14 repeat purchase from a regular customer. If they do, your exemption configuration needs attention; that is a TRA failure, not a regulatory requirement.
Buy-now-pay-later integration
Klarna and Clearpay are available via Stripe with no separate application. You receive the full amount upfront minus fees, and Klarna carries the credit risk. The per-transaction fee is higher than a card payment, so the conversion uplift has to be net of that gap to move profit.
BNPL drives the most uplift in fashion, electronics, home goods and furniture with order values of £50 to £500. On a £12 phone case it won’t move the needle; on a £1,200 sofa it can’t stretch far enough. Run the category test before enabling.
Checkout conversion
UK ecommerce loses an estimated £38 billion a year to abandoned baskets, with mobile abandonment at 75.5%. Three changes move the needle: enable Apple Pay and Google Pay, implement guest checkout (26% abandon when forced to create an account), and reduce 3DS2 friction for returning customers.
Chargebacks and fraud liability
Customers can dispute a transaction up to 120 days after purchase, and ecommerce disputes are more frequent than in-person ones. Of the fraud tools on offer, we rate 3DS2 as the only control that actually shifts liability to the card issuer; Radar, AVS and CVV reduce fraud but leave it with you.
Payment Gateway Fees for Ecommerce
EU and international card surcharges
Post-Brexit, EU-issued cards attract a cross-border surcharge. Stripe adds 1.5%, taking an EU card to 2.5% + 20p. On £100,000/month with 25% EU customers, that premium adds around £375/month, enough to erase the margin on low-value goods with a large EU base.
Currency conversion
Settling in the same currency as the sale avoids conversion charges. If you sell in EUR but settle in GBP, Stripe charges 2% for conversion on top of any cross-border fee. Holding a EUR balance removes this exposure if you have costs in EUR.
Refund fee handling
Stripe doesn’t return the processing fee when you refund; the 1.5% + 20p is retained. PayPal does the same. On a 2% refund rate on £50,000/month, that is around £170/month in non-recoverable cost. It is the fee we see stores forget when they model a fashion return rate.
Platform surcharges
Shopify charges up to 2.0% (Basic plan) if you use a third-party gateway, stacked on top of the gateway’s own fee. WooCommerce and Magento have no platform-level transaction fee, though plugin and hosting costs apply.
Which Payment Gateway Is Best for Ecommerce?
For most UK ecommerce businesses, we land on Stripe as the default: 1.5% + 20p, no monthly fee, no contract, and live the same day. Start here unless you have a specific reason to look elsewhere, and add a second option for conversion.
If you sell on Shopify, use Shopify Payments. Any third-party gateway stacks Shopify’s surcharge of up to 2.0% on top of its own rate. Add PayPal as a second checkout button for customer trust and native Pay Later.
Above roughly £1M/year with a UK-debit-heavy card mix, model Worldpay IC+ before assuming Stripe is cheapest; that is the one case where we move off the default. Checkout.com competes with Adyen above £5M/year and a dedicated payments engineer, not with Stripe. The rate is rarely the whole decision.
The bottom line: default to Stripe; use Shopify Payments on Shopify and add PayPal Checkout for trust and BNPL; move to Worldpay IC+ or Checkout.com only once your volume and engineering resource clearly justify the contract and onboarding.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest payment gateway for a UK ecommerce business?
It depends on your platform and volume. For a WooCommerce or Magento store processing under £1M/year, Stripe at 1.5% + 20p with no monthly fee is typically the cheapest self-serve option. For a Shopify store on any plan, Shopify Payments is cheapest, because any other gateway triggers a surcharge of up to 2.0%. Above £1M/year with a high proportion of UK debit cards, Worldpay IC+ or Checkout.com negotiated rates are worth modelling against your actual card mix, not a generic blended rate.
Do I need a payment gateway if I use Shopify?
Shopify includes Shopify Payments as its native gateway, and for most UK Shopify merchants it is the right choice. If you use a third-party gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Worldpay), Shopify adds an extra fee of 2.0% (Basic), 1.0% (Grow) or 0.5% (Advanced) on top of whatever your gateway charges. Shopify Payments isn’t available in every country, and some functionality (multi-currency settlement, a particular method) can require a third-party gateway. Outside those cases, a third-party gateway on Shopify is rarely cost-effective.
How does 3DS2 affect my checkout conversion?
3DS2 adds an authentication step that a proportion of customers don’t complete, typically those without their banking app to hand. The impact depends on how your gateway applies exemptions. Low-value exemptions (under roughly £25) and TRA exemptions for recognised low-risk customers mean a well-configured 3DS2 rarely triggers for returning customers. Stripe Adaptive 3DS applies these automatically. If prompts fire on routine low-value or repeat purchases, review your exemption configuration rather than disabling 3DS2, which would remove the fraud-liability protection it provides.
Can I offer Klarna on my ecommerce site?
Yes. Enable Klarna through the Stripe dashboard with no separate application or underwriting. Your customers get Pay Later, Pay in 3 and Pay in 30 at checkout, and you receive the full amount upfront minus fees while Klarna takes the credit risk. Klarna’s per-transaction fee is higher than a standard card rate, so confirm the current rate before enabling. Klarna is also available via direct integration for WooCommerce or Magento merchants who prefer not to route through Stripe.
How we reviewed ecommerce payment gateways
Ranking criteria. We weighed each provider on the levers that decide ecommerce profit, not the headline rate alone: all-in transaction cost (rate, monthly fee, and post-Brexit EU and international surcharges), checkout conversion, SCA/3DS2 handling, settlement speed and integration overhead.
Data sources. Every rate, settlement timing and platform requirement was checked against each provider’s own UK pages (stripe.com/gb, paypal.com/uk, shopify.com/uk, worldpay.com, checkout.com) and the FCA Register in May 2026.
Protection. Payment gateways are not deposit-takers, so funds are not FSCS-covered; e-money providers safeguard customer funds under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011.
Disclosure. BusinessExpert is reader-supported, but none of the five providers here has an affiliate relationship with us; every link on this page is direct. Affiliate relationships on other pages never affect our assessments. See our editorial policy.