Top 5 Payment Gateways globally in 2021

In today’s time, we have all encountered multiple e-commerce websites. These websites range from some selling just a particular item to the mega online stores covering every aspect of a consumer's need.  A few good examples of such are Myntra, which just sells clothing-related items, while the e-commerce giants such as Flipkart, and Amazon sell everything from a syringe to even a spacesuit (although the one for a fancy dress competition).  

Although at varied levels, but every e-commerce platform plans and executes the best strategy available to attract as many customers as they can, starting from providing the best and authentic product, making an attractive and easy-to-use website, to strategizing their marketing techniques.

And when a willing customer steps in on your e-commerce store you should be ready with the last piece of the puzzle, i.e, providing a secure and easy-to-use payment gateway.  The customer should have a sense of security while paying through your portal, and using the world’s best payment gateways can surely help with any anxiety your customers have while sharing their valuable data. 

Before listing out the best payment gateways to choose from, let’s understand what a payment gateway is and how it works. 

What is a Payment Gateway? 

A payment gateway is an online payments’ service that, when integrated with the e-commerce platform, is devised as the channel to make and receive payments. 

The procedure to receive payments includes the customer being required to fill in some details, like credit/debit card number, expiry date, and CVV.  

Post this, the customer proceeds to make a payment, which then gets transferred from the buyer’s account to the seller’s (merchant’s) account. 

Here are the top 5 Payment Gateways around the world:

1.Paypal  

Paypal is a widely used e-Commerce payments platform. It enables individuals and companies to send and receive payments without providing any personal information.  

It is one of the highest-rated payment gateways around the world. You can send and receive money to and from anyone, by just using email addresses.  

Paypal makes it very easy to buy and sell using this payment platform like the UI is very straightforward and in case of any issues regarding your transaction, a complaint is registered very easily and solved within a period of 24-hours. 

Paypal provides its services in 203 countries and supports all major credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, Citibank American Express, etc. 

Features: 

• PCI compliance
• Inventory tracking
• Shopping cart
• Virtual terminal
• Credit card read
• Express checkout
• Mobile card reader
• Barcode scanning
• Online invoicing
• Bill me later 

2. Stripe

Stripe is rigorously used by companies around the world. Stripe is a cloud payment gateway platform that helps in managing online transactions to and from around the world.  

It is a complete pack of all the solutions required by an e-commerce website. It also offers other great features like a custom UI toolkit, consolidated reports, and much more. 

Stripe ensures a smooth and instant transfer of funds of your business while integrating with the application interface to prevent any kind of fraud.  

It offers great security, whilst managing revenue and driving sales up globally. It offers an open API to help integrate Stripe with your business.  

Features: 

• Mobile customer interface
• Multi-currency payouts
• Clean canvas
• Collaboration notes
• Payment option
• Embeddable checkout
• Authorization
• Custom UI toolkit
• Dispute handling
• Open-source plugin
• Consolidated reports
• Accounting integrations
• Unified payout
• Financial reporting
• Roles and permissions 

3. Authorize.net  

Authorize.Net is a worldwide known payment gateway that gives a solid framework and security to guarantee smooth, quick, and secure exchange of transaction data.  

It handles the steering of transactions, but in a web-based setting without installing any software, very much like the card swiping machine.  

It has a user base of more than 370,000 throughout the planet. It assists with receiving payments safely, giving a smoothed out encounter, empowers scaling, and the number of other features worth adding highlights.  

It's a completely coordinated electronic check payment framework that acknowledges and cycles payments from other ledgers through the client's site or the Authorize.Net's virtual terminal. 

Features: 

• E-check processing
• Retail payment
• Virtual terminal and batch upload
• Mail/phone payment
• Recurring billing
• Customer information manager
• Sync for Quickbooks
• Advanced fraud detection Suite 

4. 2checkout

2Checkout is one of the best payment gateway, which provides services all around the globe. They enable businesses to accept online payments from buyers around the globe.  

2Checkout payment gateway provides several features and localized payment options that streamline the transfer of funds for both, i.e, the businesses and users. 

It is a US-based payment gateway, supporting multiple payment methods and transactions worldwide.  

The gateway is very secure and reliable, thus resulting in more than 50,000 merchants using it worldwide. It supports 8 different payment methods, 15 languages, and 87 different currencies in global markets.

Features:

• Level 1 PCI data security standard
• Multiple payment options
• Recurring billing
• Customized checkout options
• Integration with 100+ online carts and systems 

5. Skrill 

Skrill is the last entry in the world’s top 5 payment gateways. It is well known around the world and is widely used by more than 50,000 merchants around the world.  

Skrill recognizes the modern demands of users and makes the transferring of the funds very easier. Skrill was launched in 2001 and has various top companies as their customers. 

It has been awarded by many top organizations including Deloitte technologies. the B2B EGP Award and others. It is UK’s most profitable firm and supports more than 30 unique monetary standards. 

Features: 

• Email transactions
• Quick access
• One place data
• Free account
• Supports 30 currencies
• Credit card transactions 

The article is authored by Dhananjay Pratap Singh, Manager- Web Development, Yugasa Software Labs