As most of you web designers know, payment processing and merchants that process online payments are a royal pain to set up. The main question is: Which merchants work best?
We’ve used several, and we’re going to show you some of our results.
2Checkout.com vs. Authorize.net vs. Paypal Website Payments Pro
| 2Checkout.com |
| Account Establishment Fees: |
|
To open an Account |
$49.00 |
|
To open each Additional Account |
$30.00 (Paid as $49 minus $19 refund or special adjustment after account review) |
|
| Transaction Fees: |
|
Each Transaction |
5.5% of the transaction total, plus $0.45 |
|
|
| Changes: |
|
Change URL or Domain Name |
$19.00 |
|
|
|
| Fees for Payment Options: |
|
U.S. Suppliers |
|
|
ACH deposit |
$0.00 |
|
|
Check |
$4.00 |
|
|
Canadian Suppliers |
|
|
Direct ACH/DEFT Deposit |
$0.00 |
|
|
Check |
$4.00 |
|
|
CAD Wire |
$6.00 |
|
|
USD Wire |
$15.00 |
|
| Paypal Website Payments Pro |
With no extra fees, Website Payments Pro is on average 16% less expensive than other credit card processors.1
- $30 monthly fee
- No downgrade fees
- No gateway fee
- No early termination penalty
- No monthly minimum
- No fees on refunds
Pricing
It’s important to look at the TOTAL cost of processing credit cards. Other companies often publish discounted “show” rates, but you still get hit with setup fees, cancellation charges, extra fees for accepting reward cards and corporate cards, and so on.
-
|
| YOUR MONTHLY SALES |
YOUR FEE PER TRANSACTION |
|
| $0 to $3,000 |
2.9% + $0.30 |
| $3,000+ to $10,000 |
2.5% + $0.30* |
| $10,000+ |
2.2% + $0.30* |
| $200,000+ |
Call 1-866-836-1648 |
|
|
|
*Merchant rate qualification required.
When your monthly sales exceed $3,000 and you’ve been a PayPal member more than 90 days, please fill out a one-time application, subject to approval.
The pricing table above applies to domestic payments in US dollars. There’s an additional 2.5% charge for any currency conversion and a 1% charge to receive payments from another country.
View Full List of Fees
If you’re using Virtual Terminal with the Website Payments Pro package, it has different transaction rates, but you still only pay a $30 monthly fee. Learn More
Micropayments
If your transactions typically average less than $10, you could save money with our “5% plus 5¢” rate. Here’s an example for a business that usually accepts $2 payments. The savings really add up.
The pricing table above applies to domestic payments in US dollars. There’s an additional 2.5% charge for any currency conversion and a 1% charge to receive payments from another country.
|
| Authorize.net |
| Gateway Setup Fee |
$99.00* |
| Monthly Gateway Fee |
$20.00* |
| Transaction Fee |
$0.10* |
| Batch Fee |
$0.25 |
Virtual Terminal
(to process phone orders) |
FREE |
| Customer Support |
FREE |
Fraud Prevention Tools
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Card Code Verification (CCV) |
FREE |
Connection Methods
Advanced Integration Method: customer pays on your Web site
Server Integration Method: customer pays on Authorize.Net Web site
Simple Checkout: customer pays on Authorize.Net Web site |
FREE |
Advanced Fraud Detection Suite™
(identifies suspicious online orders) |
$9.95 monthly
(optional) |
Automated Recurring Billing™ (ARB)
(subscription billing tool) |
$10.00 monthly
(optional) |
Customer Information Manager (CIM)
(simplifies storage of sensitive customer data) |
$20.00 monthly
(optional) |
eCheck.Net®
(to accept electronic checks) |
Contact Us*
(optional) |
|
Note: The information below has been taken from the merchant’s websites and is subject to change at any time. We do not guarantee any information shown.
So 2co is pretty much always more expensive for everyone, it’s basically only good for companies with really lousy credit and foreign companies. The above comparison thought isn’t really right, because while both 2co and paypal provide both the gateway and the merchant account – they are bundled together. Authorize.net actually requires you bring your own merchant account (they can refer you a merchant account if you like, but often their referrals are to lousy providers).
Whether paypal or auth.net is a better deal depends mostly on how good a deal you get on your merchant account, and there is a really wide range since merchant account pricing is always negotiated. It also depends on the mix of credit cards that you accept and your average transaction size.
I wrote some software, available at the above link, if you want to check out how auth.net and paypal compare to each other in your situation (the pricing algorithms behind the software are quite accurate). It’s free and pretty quick to use.