What Payment Processor Does Shopify Use?

When looking into what website builder to use for your online store, you’ll be sure to come across Shopify. It is one of the most popular website builders out there with the precise purpose in mind of producing an attractive online store.

But when deciding which website builder, you need to take every factor into account, not just cost and ease of use. Your decision should also touch upon what payment processors the site will allow.

This is important because the payment processor you use could require a fee, which has implications for the profitability of your business.

And similarly, which payment processor you use could also influence whether you can apply a cash discount program, which could secure you more sales. 

So, in this article, we’re going to cover what payment processor Shopify uses as standard, before going into several of the other payment gateways that can be easily integrated into your Shopify store.

Please feel free to scroll ahead to any section that jumps out at you. Here goes!

What Payment Processor Shopify Uses As Standard

One of the great things about Shopify is that you can skip lengthy third party activations by using Shopify’s very own payment processor facilities, known simply as Shopify Payments.

Although it comes automatically included as part of your Shopify account, once you turn it on, you will be expected to pay an additional fee.

There are 3 pricing plans for Shopify Payments to choose from. When this article was written, it cost just under $30 a month for a basic plan, $79 for the middle option, and just under $300 for a plan with advanced features.

With Shopify Payments, your customers can pay with Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more. 

Shopify Payments is PCI-compliant, supports 3D Secure checkouts, and features payment data encryption.

What’s more, you get an integrated dashboard which details your total sales and all your payment transactions.

The Best Third-Party Payment Gateways That Can Be Integrated To Your Shopify Store

As we made reference to earlier, the payment processor that comes with your online Shopify store as standard is not your only option.

There are many third-party payment processors that will integrate perfectly with your Shopify store. And we will take this opportunity to discuss some of the best ones here.

That way, if you decide that Shopify Payments is not 100% to your liking, you will at least know what the best alternatives are. Here goes.

PayPal

If you’ve already heard of a few online payment gateways, PayPal is sure to be one of them. The reason being, it is one of the oldest and most trusted names in online payments.

It is easy to set up, integrates seamlessly with your Shopify store, and allows you to accept credit cards and bank transfers.

However, it costs money to use PayPal. You have to pay a monthly subscription fee, as well as a transaction fee for every sale. This means that you’ll have to charge extra fees to your customers, which may not sit well with some of them.

But if you’re happy to go down this route, then PayPal is certainly worth considering.

Stripe

Another popular choice among ecommerce stores, Stripe is another service that offers simple integration with Shopify. It works by taking care of everything related to processing card payments.

You don’t need to worry about setting up anything yourself, or having to deal with merchant accounts. All you need to do is create your Stripe account, link it to your Shopify store, provide a secret key, and you’re good to go.

Like PayPal, however, there are monthly charges. However, these are much lower than those charged by PayPal. In fact, when this article was written, they were coming out at little over $10 a month.

This makes Stripe even cheaper than PayPal, although you still have to pay a small amount per transaction.

Braintree

Similar to Stripe, Braintree is also a great alternative to PayPal. Like Stripe, it takes care of everything related to accepting card payments.

Unlike Stripe though, Braintree has its own API (Application Programming Interface) which allows developers to build their own apps using the platform.

So, if you want to add any additional functionality to your store, you can always build something custom using Braintree.

There are no monthly fees, but there is a transaction fee of 2.9%, plus VAT.

Authorize.net

Authorize.Net is yet another popular gateway that integrates easily with Shopify. It is similar to PayPal in that it handles everything related to card payments.

Just like PayPal though, you have to subscribe to the service and pay a monthly fee. But unlike PayPal, Authorize.Net doesn’t charge a transaction fee. Instead, it charges 5% on each sale.

The downside to this is that you won’t get access to the full range of APIs available through PayPal.

Square

Square is an interesting choice because it’s free to use. It’s also very flexible, allowing you to customize how your app looks and behaves.

The only drawback is that it requires you to download an application onto your mobile device. And while it’s possible to integrate it into your Shopify store, it’s not quite as straightforward as other options.

Still, if you’re looking for a quick way to accept card payments without needing to sign up for a merchant account, Square could be just what you’re after.

Wrap Up

So, as you can see, there are several different ways to process card payments on your online Shopify store.

I guess the choice comes down to which payment processors your customers are most likely to trust. Most online shoppers won’t hesitate to use a PayPal payment processor, but this would require that the customer have a PayPal account, and not everyone does.

The simplest and easiest option to go for would be Shopify’s own payment processor, Shopify Payments. But to be perfectly honest, this works out at a much higher cost than some of the other options available, such as Stripe.

But, now you know what your best options are, you’re well-placed to start making money on Shopify.