by Plamena, Project Manager at Flat Rock
Choosing the right payment method for your mobile app might be a confusing and frustrating task. The first thing you need to decide is whether to handle and store payment data directly or implement a payment gateway.
If your organization is PCI certified, you can accept and store the payment data yourself. Although this option has certain advantages, it exposes you to an additional risk. A lot of time and effort is needed in order to ensure that the payment is safe and secure. That`s why most companies decide to implement a payment gateway.
Choosing a payment gateway is not an easy task either. There are many things to consider such as security, monthly and transaction fees, country and currency support, and accepted card types. The large number of options make the choice even harder.
To help you with the decision, here are our top 10 choices:
1. Braintree
Braintree is a global payment solution, processing $10 billion annually, of which more than $2 billion on mobile devices.
It is in 40 countries with 130 currencies and has SDKs in six programming languages (Ruby, Python, PHP, Node.js, JAVA and .NET) along with support for iOS, Web/JavaScript and Android. Braintree supports Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal, Credit cards and One touch payments. Other perks include fraud protection, live customer support and a system of automated notifications indicating that an event has occurred in your gateway.
Braintree offers no fees on transactions for the first $50,000, then charges a fairly small fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
2. Stripe
Stripe is described as ‘a set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables businesses to accept and manage online payments’.
It is directed at developers, offering seven server-side languages (Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, Node, Go, curl) and providing a Checkout feature for desktop and mobile.
Stripe provides authorization, analytics, recurring billing and many more features, which makes it attractive for both developers and end customers.
Stripe’s fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
It is available in 9 countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden) and supports 6 different card types (Visa, American Express, MasterCard, JCB, Discover, Diner`s club).
3. PayPal mobile
PayPal is one of the most popular payment gateways in the world. It has definitely earned its place on our top 10 list with the processing of 4 billion payments last year, of which 1 billion were made on mobile devices. It has over 173 million active accounts in 203 markets, 57 currencies around the world and supports 5 different card types.
Registering is free, but PayPal charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
PayPal mobile will allow your customers to make purchase on mobile shopping app via both credit and Visa card safely and quickly. Other PayPal advantages include accepting checks through the phone`s camera, mobile card reader and allowing customers to make purchases without ever leaving your site.
4. Amazon Payments
Amazon Payments is a safe, easy and convenient way to process payments within your mobile app using Amazon’s API.
For the most commonly used programming languages (C#, Java and PHP) Amazon provides SDKs including libraries and examples for easier integration.
The standard Amazon fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. If you process more than $3,000 per month or use micro-transactions (less than $10), Amazon gives you a discount.
Some advantages of this payment method include recurring payments and fraud protection.
Amazon supports payments from the US as well as international customers, but bank account and Amazon Payments account are available for US based customers only. The biggest restriction is that all transactions are in US dollars.
5. Authorize.net
Authorize.net is one of the most trusted payment gateways for mobile and online payments.
It offers on-form payments, recurring billing, fraud detection, information management and PCI DSS compliance.
Authorize.net is a little more expensive than the other payment gateways as the fees include a $25 monthly fee, $99 set up fee and 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction.
It is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and it supports 6 payment currencies and 5 card types (Visa, American Express, MasterCard, JCB, Discover, Diner`s club).
Contact us for more information on how to integrate mobile payment gateways to your new mobile application.
