The Best Merchant Accounts
(Credit Card Processing Companies)

The Absolute Best Credit Card Processors

Helcim
Best for Small Business
No setup fee.
No early termination fee.
Works with small businesses.
Month to month contract.
Works with merchants in the United States and Canada.

summary

4.8/5

Best for

Small businesses

Specializes in

Online, retail, service industries

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: $20

Swipe Rate: Variable

Keyed-in Rate: Variable

Early Termination Fee: $0

Contract Terms:

Month-to-month

Helcim is a great choice for smaller businesses that process less than $120,000/yr in sales.

They have no monthly fees, and they price by charging only a small markup on top of interchange (which is of course the wholesale cost of accepting credit cards – something that all merchant account providers must pay no matter what).

This makes Helcim a great choice for low volume businesses, since there aren’t any costs incurred if no payments are taken.

In addition to their simple, and low-volume friendly pricing structure, Helcim does an excellent job serving a wide variety of different types of businesses using (mostly) proprietary technology.

Since most of the things a merchant will need can be provided by the company itself, it means there aren’t additional 3rd party fees that will pop up for things like: invoicing systems, equipment fees, online payment gateways, etc.

If you are processing under $120,000 per year in sales, and fall into one of those categories, Helcim is a great choice for you.

Easy Pay Direct
Best Overall – Online Merchant Accounts + High Risk
Domestic accounts have zero early termination fees.
Variable contract terms.
High risk tolerance.
Single point of contact for multiple merchant accounts.
Public pricing is available.

summary

5/5

Best for

E-commerce companies, SaaS companies, "high-risk businesses", & established small/medium businesses ($500,000+ in annual sales)

Specializes in

Easy Pay Direct has unique gateway software and banking solutions to optimize payments for eCommerce, SaaS, information products, supplements, and CBD amongst other verticals.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee:  $99

Monthly Fee: $24.95

Swipe Rate: 1.59% + $0.17

Keyed-in Rate:  2.39% + $0.29

Early Termination Fee: $0 (domestic accounts)

Contract Terms:

1 Year 3 Years

Serving more than 60,000 merchants, Easy Pay Direct caters to eCommerce and ‘Card Not Present’ businesses (CNP).

Basically, they specialize in “high risk”, which simply means businesses that are in an industry (or operate with a business model and/or marketing model) that is traditionally associated with higher disputes, chargebacks, etc.

Risk isn’t a bad thing, but it’s important to know where your business falls on the spectrum of low, medium and high risk businesses.

In fact, Easy Pay Direct actually refers to these sectors as ‘special needs’ instead of ‘high-risk’ which we love – because it illustrates how these types of businesses have specific needs – but once met, can provide excellent growth advantages for them. Including lower fees, better growth opportunities, and tools to help you operate smoothly.

Their website also indicates that interchange plus pricing is available on request.

If you’re in the “high risk” category, Easy Pay Direct is your go-to choice.

PaymentCloud
Best Overall – Low Risk
No setup fee.
No monthly fee.
Every business has a dedicated account manager to serve them.
Merchants have access to around the clock seven day a week support.
Account setup within twenty-four hours.

summary

4/5

Best for

High-Risk Merchants

Specializes in

High Risk

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: None

Monthly Fee: None

Swipe Rate: Unknown

Keyed-in Rate: Unknown

Early Termination Fee: Unknown

Contract Terms:

Payment Cloud processes more than $4,000,000,000 in annual transactions through 3,000,000+ transactions each month.

Payment Cloud utilizes an “interchange plus” pricing model. Meaning, they charge a flat-fee for each transaction (based on your membership tier) on top of the base interchange fee that all merchant account providers have to pay to the Visa/MC associations no matter what. This flat-fee for each transaction is their markup.

With that they provide everything else you might need, like a merchant account, payment gateways, virtual terminals, etc.

Payment Cloud is kind of like Sam’s Club, or Costco, but for credit card processing. Their prices are lower than pretty much anywhere else you’re going to go – but you have to be a member to get access to them.

For this reason, we chose Payment Cloud as the best option for businesses that process a high-volume of smaller transactions, and the best overall (for non high-risk merchants).

Payment Cloud is used by big brands like Subway, Arco, Dominos, etc. and is such, great for businesses that process a high volume of transactions each month.

eMerchantBroker
Best for International
Works with any size high risk business.
No setup fee.
Variable rates depending on the merchant's volume.
Merchants are notified whenever a fraud or chargeback occurs.
Checks are allowed to be accepted from customers.

summary

4/5

Best for

eMerchantBroker is best for any size business that is considered high-risk. It's considered one of the top payment processors for high-risk businesses that would otherwise have difficulty finding a standard merchant account provider. 

Specializes in

eMerchantBroker specializes in credit repair, collections agencies, adult websites, travel and timeshare, firearms and guns, bankruptcy and bad credit, online and in-person smoke shops. They also work with electronic cigarettes and other companies that fit into the high-risk merchant account category.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: Undisclosed

Swipe Rate: 3.00% + $0.15

Keyed-in Rate: 4.00% + $0.25

Early Termination Fee: Up to $595

Contract Terms:

1 Year 3 Years

eMerchant Broker is our top recommendation for international & “cross-border” credit card processing. They are great with facilitating payments across the world, and will also work with / approve many “high-risk” business types.

If you’re having trouble getting a merchant account, or want to accommodate international sales, eMerchant Broker is a great option for you.

Fattmerchant
Best for Mid Sized Business
Setup fee is zero.
No early termination fee.
No contract required.
Works with businesses with a physical location, online and on the go.
Same day and next day funding options available.

summary

4.5/5

Best for

Low-to-Mid Risk Businesses, small & medium businesses, multi-location businesses, product developers, partners

Specializes in

Processing solutions for businesses in industries such as retail, healthcare & wellness, professional services, field services, and food & beverage

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: None

Monthly Fee: $99, $199, or other

Swipe Rate: 6¢+ per trans. & direct cost

Keyed-in Rate: 12¢+ per trans. & direct cost

Early Termination Fee: $0

Contract Terms:

No Contract Required

Fattmerchant is great all around for small businesses.

Fattmerchant uses an interchange plus pricing model, on top of their monthly membership fee, that includes virtual terminal, shopping cart, mobile, APIs, and a friendly team of support specialists that can bring valuable insights that make payment processing easy for small business owners.

Another benefit of Fattmerchant is their integrations.

Fattmerchant integrates with 90% of all third party POS systems, and will let you keep the one you’re already using if you’re looking to switch over.

Dharma Merchant Services
Best for Restaurants:
No early termination fee.
Month to month contract.
No annual fee.
Interchange plus pricing offered.
Discounted pricing for qualified non profit companies.

summary

4.5/5

Best for

Dharma's website caters its services to small-sized businesses with up to twenty employees, in verticals such as restaurants, non-profits, and e-commerce platforms.

Specializes in

Dharma Merchant Services provides mobile phone processing and tablet-based POS options for merchants courtesy of Clover. Moreover, Dharma offers the Clover Mini station, which includes Clover's PRO software set. The company also resells the Clover POS solution, including a full cash drawer, built-in fingerprint scanner, and printer.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: N/A

Monthly Fee: $20

Swipe Rate: N/A

Keyed-in Rate: N/A

Early Termination Fee: None

Contract Terms:

Month-to-month

Dharma Merchant Services is a merchant account provider headquartered in Vancouver, Washington.

Founded in 2007, “Dharma” is a certified eco-friendly “green” business. One of their big attractions is that they donate a percentage of their net profits to non-profit organizations.

Gotta love that!

As for a credit card processing option, Dharma falls under the category of low-cost payment processing, and specializes in the healthcare industry.

They aren’t only good for the healthcare industry, however.

Dharma also works with a lot of restaurants & bars, and has partnered with Clover to make POS transactions easy for these types of merchants.

They also provide lower rates for restaurants, bars, and quick-service eateries.

CDG Commerce
Best for Nonprofits
Zero setup fee.
No early termination fee.
No contract required.
Merchant support seven days a week twenty-four hours a day.
Value added services are provided.

summary

5/5

Best for

Merchants of all sizes and risks looking to lower their transaction costs and streamline their process while improving their customer’s experience.

Specializes in

CDG Commerce specializes in full-service merchant accounts. With all aspects of the process under one roof, they can carefully monitor what is being provided to their customers.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: $10 (Support Fee)

Swipe Rate: 2.75% + $0.30

Keyed-in Rate: 2.90% + $0.30

Early Termination Fee: None

Contract Terms:

No Contract Required

CDGcommerce offers customized merchant account services for a variety of different industries, but in general is the best choice for nonprofits – as they don’t charge monthly fees or require monthly minimums for nonprofits organizations.

Pretty sweet.

Their rates vary based on transaction volume & specific product needs, but pricing for nonprofit typically starts at interchange plus 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction.

Square
Best for Retail / POS
No monthly fee.
No early termination fee.
No setup fee.
Month to month contract.
Predictable flat rate pricing.

summary

3/5

Best for

Small businesses

Specializes in

eCommerce, restaurant, retail, mobile businesses

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: $0

Swipe Rate: 2.6% + 10¢

Keyed-in Rate: 3.5% + 15¢

Early Termination Fee: $0

Contract Terms:

Month-to-month

Square is a great option for any business that accepts in-person payments at their physical location.

Square ranks #1 on our list of the best POS systems, so the fact that they also double as a credit card processor is a bonus.

Over 2,000,000+ businesses use Square for processing payments in person, largely due to the ease and compatibility of their POS card swiper.

Square also provides functionality for payment processing online, on the go, via recurring invoices, and manually – in case you want to take a payment over phone (card not present).

Another benefit of Square being able to get paid quickly.

Many credit card processors take a few business days for fund withdrawals, but Square gets your money into your bank account, next business day.

Square’s pricing is transparent & easy to understand. They utilize flat-rate pricing where you pay the same rate no matter what card a customer uses – including AMEX & Discover.

There are no startup fees, monthly fees, authorization fees, cancelation fees, terminal fees, statement fees, or other common industry-standard markups.

On the flip side, when merchant account providers don’t charge those kinds of fees it can be a signal that their base flat-rate fee is higher than you will pay with a more boutique provider.

One downside with Square is accessibility to customer support, which isn’t available 24/7. But chances are if you’re a mom & pop shop, or retail store, you probably won’t be open all night anyways.

Stripe
Best for Startups
No monthly fee.
Zero setup fee.
No early termination fee.
No contract required.
Multi currency support.

summary

4/5

Best for

E-commerce marketplaces categorized as medium and large firms of anywhere between 50-500 employees.

Specializes in

Stripe is a web app that allows merchants to accept credit card payments via e-commerce websites. Its capabilities include recurring billing, accepting bitcoin, and facilitating payments on marketplace-style platforms. Stripe tends to be very popular among digital businesses due to its ease of set-up with a wide variety of platforms such as Shopify and various plug-ins through WordPress.

Pricing Summary

Setup Fee: $0

Monthly Fee: $0

Swipe Rate: 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction

Keyed-in Rate: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

Early Termination Fee: None

Contract Terms:

No Contract Required

Stripe is our top choice if you need a quick & easy way to accept credit card payments online. Although not quite as easy to set up and integrate as Paypal, we’ve found Stripe to be much more reliable.

Both Stripe & Paypal fall into the category of “merchant account aggregators” – which basically means the companies have one huge merchant account, and when a new user “registers” with them they allow them to use it.

Like if you were to let someone borrow your bank account and store some of their cash in it.

Well what happens if that person starts doing weird stuff? You’ll probably cut them off. Same with merchant account aggregators.

For this reason, they are a great choice when you’re just getting started – but as you grow you need to leave your parents house and get out on your own.

Stripe’s pricing reflects that of an aggregator, and is higher than if you chose a merchant provider that specialized in your industry, field or risk category.

Aside from being “at risk” by leveraging someone else’s account (the way aggregators do) one of the big drawbacks of Stripe is that they don’t offer any retail or offline solutions. And, the customer service is very impersonal.

Although they have a large knowledge base and great resources for developers – if you don’t have someone on your team who can navigate that “techy” side of things you’re pretty “up a creek”.

Great for just getting started and accepting payments online, not great for when you’re growing and need more services and account stability to support that growth trajectory.

Choosing the right credit card processor will give you the peace of mind to know that your ability to accept alternative forms of payment won’t be shut down, frozen or restricted due to something out of your control.

With over 1,000+ credit card processing options available, all specializing in a certain type of business – how do you know which is best for your business?

Our team of merchant service industry experts has researched & analyzed every single one – and in this guide we’ve done all the hard work for you by hand-picking the top payment providers for any business looking to accept credit card payments.

Why should you spend more than a split-second choosing a credit card processing company?

“38% of small business customers have been unable to make a purchase at a physical store because their form of payment wasn’t accepted.” 1

Wow. Maybe that’s part of the reason why:

“70% of the United States population carries a credit card, with 34% of Americans carrying 3 or more cards.” 2

People want to buy things, and if you’ve done all the hard work to get them to buy from YOU, but you can’t accept their payment at the last second – you’re in big trouble.

Although, for most business owners, this isn’t even their primary concern.

The biggest reason for choosing a good merchant account provider comes from a concern from other side of the coin – the fees they pay by giving consumers all these different payment options to ensure the sale, like: point of sale card swiping, ipad terminals, chip readers, ecommerce functionality, online payment gateways, accepting credit cards, recurring/subscription billing, split payments, etc.

So, without further ado, here are the best merchant service providers to help you collect payments – broken down by the most important factors you should consider.

The Best Credit Card Processing Companies & Merchant Account Providers

Let’s break down the pricing, pros, cons and considerations for each merchant service provider.

But first – is there any difference between the two? Why do we keep saying “credit card processing companies” AND “merchant account providers”?

Well, for all intents & purposes that you need to be concerned with – the answer is that there is no difference.

Merchants (aka business owners, aka YOU) know that they need the ability to accept credit cards. But for the most part, that’s pretty much where their interest stops. “Credit card processing” and “payment processing” is the most colloquial term for this.

A “merchant account” is really the specific type of bank account where these payments go, and the merchant account provider normally refers to the organization that provides access to this account, and other “merchant services” that you (the merchant) might need – like a card swiping machine, payment gateway, ecommerce shopping cart, etc.

As far as your needs go – they are synonymous, but we are saying both of them just to make sure business owners know they are in the right place!

Alright, now that that’s taken care of, let’s get to looking more in-depth at the best credit card processing companies – aka merchant account providers

Considerations for Choosing The Best Merchant Account Provider & Credit Card Processing Services for Your Business

There’s a lot of options when it comes to merchant accounts and credit card processing, and choosing the right one can have a hugely positive (or negative) impact on your business.

They each have their areas of expertise, and can offer better options for a specific type of business by focusing on that category. Conversely, they will give up features, functionality, and other rate-based advantages to businesses that fall outside of their bailiwick.

For the most part, these factors all orbit around where your business falls on the “risk spectrum”.

Why? Because if a business messes up and doesn’t have enough money to refund its unhappy customers – that financial burden falls on the merchant account provider. Therefore, depending on the type of business you run (selling coffee vs. selling male enhancement pills on auto-bill) there will be a much bigger chance of credit card disputes, chargebacks, etc. from your customers.

Merchant account providers know this. And they charge fees, and prepare/specialize, to accommodate this accordingly!

Typically when you’re just starting out you’ll want to get setup fast with a merchant account aggregator, like Stripe or Paypal. Or an all-around POS system like Square.

Then, as your business grows, you will want to branch out from your initial choice and consider a more specialized provider – one that can give you better rates, protect your account from closure, and provide more advanced equipment and features that will help you grow.

Conclusion & Summary

Let’s recap.

Which credit card processing companies are best for your businesses?

Here are our recommendations for the top merchant accounts:

  • Easy Pay Direct: If you’re a high-risk business doing over $100,000/mo, they are the best overall.
  • Payment Cloud: If you’re a low-risk category business, they are the best overall.
  • Stripe: If you’re just getting started, or process low transaction volume & size.
  • Helcim: If you’re a small business, processing less than $120,000 per year.
  • Fattmerchant: If you’re a small to mid-sized business doing less than 100,000/mo in revenue.
  • Square: If you’re needing POS & mobile transactions only.
  • Dharma Merchant Services: For restaurants, bars, and healthcare.
  • eMerchantBroker: For International.
  • CDGcommerce: For nonprofit organizations.
chevron-down