6 Best ecommerce payment providers

Ecommerce payment providers can include payment service providers (PSPs) and payment gateways, which both offer tools to allow online businesses to take customer payments. Some offer an end to end service covering payment processing alongside anti fraud measures and other useful tools to make selling online frictionless. Others offer more niched products which look after only one part of the process.

Whichever model you prefer, finding the best PSP or payment gateway for your ecommerce business is crucial. This guide is here to help.

While you’re thinking about the best ecommerce payment providers in the UK, why not also check out Wise Business? Open a Wise Business account to receive payments from PSPs, marketplaces and directly by customers in 8+ currencies.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Best ecommerce payment providers - overview

In this guide we walk through some top UK ecommerce payment providers to help you decide if any suit your specific needs and preferences. We’ll start with a roundup of price and Trustpilot score, and then look at each in more detail later. Let’s dive right in.

Provider	Pricing	Trustpilot score
Stripe	1.5% + £0.20 for UK cards 2.5% + £0.20 for EU cards1	2.1 star out of 5, Poor, from 15,000+ reviews2
Shopify Payments	Monthly fees from £19 - £259 depending on plan Card payment fees up to 2% + £0.253	1.4 star out of 5, Bad, from 2,000+ reviews for Shopify Trustpilot account4
Square	Monthly fees from £0 - £29 depending on plan Card payment fees up to 2.5%5	3.9 star out of 5, Great, from 2,000+ reviews6
Worldpay	Not publicly available - make an appointment to talk to the sales team	4.3 star out of 5, Excellent, from 8,000+ reviews7
PayPal	Various processing fees, up to 2.9% + fixed fee depending on currency8	1.3 star out of 5, Bad, from 31,000+ reviews9
Skrill	2.5% processing fee for most major card brands10	2.6 star out of 5, Poor, from 21,000+ reviews11

Details correct at time of research - 18th February 2025

What are ecommerce payment solutions and how do they work?

If you’re operating an ecommerce business, you’ll need to use various ecommerce payment providers and solutions to be able to take customer payments through your website or app.

You might choose to use a payment service provider (PSP) like Stripe, which offers a payment gateway alongside many other solutions to create an end to end service to help you run your business. Or you might prefer to pick out a stand alone payment gateway provider yourself, and then use different services, or your own in-house team to set up all the other functionality needed to take customer payments smoothly and securely.

This guide looks at some top UK ecommerce payment processors and gateways to help you choose what may fit your unique business needs.

Best ecommerce payment providers in the UK

The good news is that there are many different ecommerce payment solutions in the UK, so you’ll be able to find one which fits your needs with a bit of research. To start you off, let's look at some of the top picks for payment gateway solutions for ecommerce, including who they may suit and how their pricing works.

Stripe

Stripe is a very popular global provider with a huge range of features including ways to take payments and manage ongoing billing, risk management tools and support with chargebacks and disputes. Stripe has no ongoing fees to pay, making this a solution for even smaller businesses, with a very broad range of services you can add on as you grow.

Best for: Businesses from startup to enterprise level, looking for an all in one payment processing solution

Billing model and pricing: Pay as you go model; 1.5% + 0.2 GBP for UK cards, 2.5% + 0.2 GBP for EU cards, 3.25% + 0.2 GBP for international cards - 2% currency conversion fee

Top features:

• Card payments, local payment methods, buy now/pay later options
• Prebuilt checkout tools
• Payment links
• Subscription billing and invoicing options
• Tax calculation support

Read our complete Stripe Payments guide here.

Shopify payments

Shopify Payments is the Shopify ecommerce platform’s built-in payments solution. This is the easiest way to take payments if you’re already using Shopify for your store, as Shopify will support your transaction end to end, and won’t charge the third party transaction fees which apply if you pick your own payment gateway. Shopify payments has several different plans with a monthly fee. The higher the monthly fee, the lower the payment processing costs you’ll pay.

Best for: Businesses using Shopify stores for ecommerce sales

Billing model and pricing: Monthly fees from 19 GBP - 259 GBP depending on plan - Card payment fees up to 2% + 0.25 GBP, check our complete guide on Shopify payment processing fees.

Top features:

• Get paid by card and using local payments, in GBP and other currencies
• Support with customer dispute resolution
• Lower processing fees for businesses on higher tier plans
• 3 day payout to get your money as quickly as possible

Read more: check our Shopify guide here.

Square

Square has several different plan options depending on your business needs. You can get a basic package which has no monthly fee and is fully pay as you go, or you can pay a monthly fee to unlock specialist tools such as appointment scheduling or inventory tools. These more advanced plans are aimed at specific business types, such as food and beverage businesses and retail stores. Processing fees are flat no matter which plan you pick

Best for: Particularly good for restaurant, retail and beauty businesses

Billing model and pricing: Monthly fees from 0 GBP - 29 GBP depending on plan, card payment fees from 1.4% + 0.25 GBP up to 2.5%

Top features:

• Payment processing options
• Invoicing tools
• Scheduling and booking options
• Custom products for restaurants, retail and other sectors

Read more: Stripe vs Square, comparison for UK Businesses.

Worldpay

Worldpay’s tools cover taking online and in person payments, disbursing funds, safeguarding, analysing payments and performance, and building customer loyalty through schemes and offers. Worldpay markets itself to businesses of all sizes, with custom made packages and pricing. This means you need to call their sales team directly to learn more about the costs for different services you might be interested in for your business.

Best for: Large target market from online and digital businesses through to physical retail, restaurant and travel businesses

Billing model and pricing: Not disclosed

Top features:

• Take online and in person payments
• Omnichannel support
• Embedded solutions for software platforms
• Loyalty and gift schemes for customers

Check our comparison between Stripe and Worldpay.

PayPal

PayPal is a trusted name in ecommerce which means that customers are happy to select this payment method at checkout. You can take payments online and in person, with many low or no code options to use PayPal on your website. PayPal also offers a very good selection of additional services like seller protections, risk management, working capital and debit cards for customers.

Best for: Ideal for online sellers, and hybrid businesses which may need to take occasional in person sales

Billing model and pricing: No ongoing fees, processing up to 2.9% + fixed fee depending on currency, 3% currency conversion fees

Top features:

• Online and in person payment options
• Easy integrations with more or less any ecommerce site
• Hugely popular and trusted name which can increase customer conversions
• Working capital and debit cards available

Read our guide on how to accept payments on Paypal.

Skrill

Skrill offers multi-currency digital payment options for commerce businesses in the UK. You can take card payments and 100+ local payment methods, with competitive fees and no ongoing charges as long as you use your account regularly. Accounts also offer chargeback protections and built in fraud prevention tools.

Best for: Ecommerce businesses which want to take card, local and crypto payments

Billing model and pricing: No ongoing fees, 2.5% processing fee for most major card brands, high foreign transaction fees apply

Top features:

• Hosted checkout solution
• Ways to take bank payments
• Multi-currency holding wallets
• Partners with all major ecommerce sites to allow for simple integrations

How to choose ecommerce payment solutions?

Now you have some providers to think about, let’s close out with a few things to consider when choosing a payment provider for ecommerce.

• Does your service offer a hosted or integrated payment gateway? - and which suits your business better
• What are the overall costs? - thinking about ongoing fees and individual payment processing fees
• Can you take international card and bank payments? - and what are the fees
• Is the provider well known and well liked? - look for customer reviews to get a feel for the service you can expect
• Is the service secure? - reputable payment providers are safe to use, but it always pays to check through the details before you sign up
• How quickly can you get money out of your merchant account? - usually you will need to wait several days before funds can be moved to your bank to be reused
• Does the provider offer tokenisation? - handy if you want to charge a saved card for example, for subscription services

FAQs - ecommerce payment providers

What are the common payment methods for ecommerce?

Ecommerce businesses typically offer customers ways to pay using debit, credit and prepaid cards on a broad range of networks. Digital wallets and bank transfers are also commonly supported in a range of currencies. You may also get more conversion if you offer local payment methods like Klarna, or buy now, pay later options which can appeal to customers looking to spread the costs of a purchase over a few months.

Can you use more than one ecommerce payment provider?

In most cases you can use more than one ecommerce payment provider. However, each payment provider will have its own terms and conditions so you’ll need to check what the situation is depending on who you select. Third party fees may apply if you don’t use the payment provider offered by your ecommerce site hosting service for example.

Payment gateway vs payment processor: what is the difference?

A payment gateway is where your customer will enter their card details when they get to the checkout. The gateway will securely pass these details to a payment processor, which is the next step in the chain to manage the payment. The payment processor will authorise and clear the transaction and then pass the money from the customer’s account to the business.

Receive payments in multiple currencies with Wise Business

Wise can help UK businesses to receive payments in multiple currencies, with low fees and the mid-market exchange rate.

A Wise Business account comes with local account details to get paid in 8+ major foreign currencies like Euros and US Dollars just as easily as you do in Pounds, these payments can come directly from your customers, from PSPs like Stripe and Amazon.

All you need to do is add the relevant currency account details to the platform you need to withdraw the funds. Once you receive the payment in Euros, Dollars or other supported currencies, you can hold this money into your multi-currency account, send with Wise Business debit card or convert back to Pounds with low fees and the mid-market exchange rate.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

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Managing a UK business, on or offline, means you have a lot on your plate. Picking the right payment provider can mean you and your customer both get a seamless experience when taking and making payments, cutting down on admin and hassle. Use this guide to get a feel for which payment provider might work for your business - and don’t forget to also check out Wise Business for smart, simple multi-currency business accounts you can open and operate with just your phone.

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Sources used in the article:

1. Stripe pricing
2. Trustpilot - Stripe
3. Shopify Payments pricing
4. Trustpilot - Shopify Payments
5. Square pricing
6. Trustpilot - Square
7. Trustpilot - Worldpay
8. PayPal pricing
9. Trustpilot - PayPal
10. Skrill pricing
11. Trustpilot - Skrill

Sources last checked February 18, 2025