Payments & acquiring
Merchant acquiring, payment orchestration, and checkout infrastructure for mid-market sellers.
Top three
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1
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Stripe
Firms that sell online, SaaS companies and platforms at any scale that want a full payments stack with listed prices and excellent tools for developers.
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2
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Adyen
Enterprises and large platforms selling online and in store in several countries, seeking one acquirer that holds its own licences.
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3
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Braintree
Merchants whose buyers use PayPal or Venmo heavily and who want both cards and wallets via one published-rate integration.
All rated companies in this sector
Stripe
Software and APIs for taking payments online and in person, covering billing, marketplace payouts, screening for fraud and card issuing on one platform. A private company. Headquarters in both San Francisco and Dublin.
Built for: Firms that sell online, SaaS companies and platforms at any scale that want a full payments stack with listed prices and excellent tools for developers.
ShortlistAdyen
One payments platform that holds its own banking licences, accepts, processes and settles online and face-to-face payments in many countries, and also offers embedded finance for platforms. The firm is public. Headquartered in Amsterdam.
Built for: Enterprises and large platforms selling online and in store in several countries, seeking one acquirer that holds its own licences.
Shortlist with caveatsBraintree
A PayPal gateway and merchant-account product, offered as PayPal Enterprise Payments, that takes wallets, cards, PayPal and Venmo on websites and in apps from a single integration. It is a PayPal service.
Built for: Merchants whose buyers use PayPal or Venmo heavily and who want both cards and wallets via one published-rate integration.
Shortlist with caveatsCheckout.com
Global payments platform that works as acquirer, processor and gateway. Payouts, identity verification, card issuing and fraud screening run through one API. It is private, with headquarters in London.
Built for: Enterprise merchants in travel, fintech, e-commerce and gaming that want one provider covering global acquiring, payouts and fraud tools.
Shortlist with caveatsCriteria for this sector
Four criteria measure buyer needs in this sector. The other four remain identical from sector to sector and cover the vendor and its commercial terms.
| Payment methods and markets Sector criteria | Supported countries and currencies, along with local methods, cards and wallets. |
|---|---|
| Acceptance and reliability Sector criteria | Tools for higher approval rates, and the openness of uptime reporting. |
| Developer experience Sector criteria | Quality across test environments, documentation, SDKs and APIs. |
| Fraud and risk tools Sector criteria | Built-in risk controls, fraud screening and dispute handling. |
| Product depth and roadmap Vendor criteria | Coverage of the job by the product, and how active development is. |
| Onboarding and support Vendor criteria | Implementation aid, documentation and support channels offered by the company. |
| Pricing transparency Vendor criteria | How much pricing a buyer can view before any sales conversation. |
| Contract terms Vendor criteria | Exit terms, minimums and commitments, to the extent the company publishes them. |
Reports on this sector
Online card processing fees at five US providers, September 2026
Six online card-payment products, five providers, priced on matching sales of $20, $100 and $500.