The UK's 10 best online payment options in 2022

These are the best online payment options for ecommerce this year

Finding the best online payment methods for your business should be an absolute priority. In 2022, small businesses have more online payment options than ever before, from credit card to PayPal.

By reading this guide, you can find out the best online payment options for your business. We cover the best on the market: their pricing, highlights and potential drawbacks.

The best online payment options in 2022

The best online payment options in 2022 are Sage Pay, Stripe, Worldpay, Braintree, Klarna, PayPal, Apple Pay, Shopify Payments, GoCardless, and Mollie.

• Sage Pay: Ideal for speedy payouts

• Stripe: Ideal for adaptability

• Worldpay: Ideal for versatility

• Braintree: Ideal for agility

• Klarna: Ideal to attract Millennials and Gen-Z consumers

• PayPal: Ideal for global shoppers

• Apple Pay: Ideal for “buy now, think later” purchases

• Shopify Payments: Ideal for drop-shipping

• GoCardless: Ideal for Direct Debits

• Mollie: Ideal for growth, reliability and simplicity

Sage Pay

Ideal for two-day payouts

Sage Pay (also known as Opayo) processes millions of payments for over 45,000 businesses monthly. Their accounting and business software background makes for a standardised onboarding process to set up as a merchant and establish PCI compliance.

Rather than paying for each transaction made, Sage Pay charges a flat monthly fee that covers up to 350 transactions per month, customer support and security tools. You can also use their other tools for business, including:

• Cloud-based reporting

• CRM system

• Accounting software

Sage Pay releases payments within two days instead of the usual seven days you have to wait for other providers.

Pricing

Sage Pay (Opayo) offers three different options:

• Flex: Up to 350 transactions per month, free fraud screening tools and 24/7 customer support

• Plus: Up to 500 monthly token purchases (so customers don’t have to resubmit their card details), free fraud screening tools and ‘Fast Pass’ customer support

• Corporate: Bespoke pricing for over 3,000 transactions per month, a dedicated account manager, priority support and premium fraud screening tools

Highlights & summary

• 24/7 customer support at varying levels depending on the pricing option your business is on

• Two-day payouts

• Expensive flat rate compared to paying per transaction

Stripe

Ideal for adaptability

Stripe is best if you have design experience in your team. Their variety of features provides plenty of room for customisation and a payment form that you can embed directly into your website. This helps customers pay easily without being redirected to a payment portal. And if you have design expertise in your team, you can make your branding consistent throughout.

Note that Stripe’s fees start at 1.45% plus 20p per transaction. You can accept over 135 currencies and niche payment types such as Bitcoin.

Pricing

Stripe offers volume or multi-product discounts, country-specific rates and interchange pricing.

Highlights & summary

• Accepts Bitcoin

• Fully customisable

• Low rated customer service

• Design resource required to integrate your branding and embed payment form on-site

Worldpay

Ideal for versatility

One of the world’s most well known online payment providers, Worldpay allows you to accept over 120 currencies with an online payment gateway that provides advanced protection from fraud. Once up and running, you can take payments online within 24 hours.

You can either host a Worldpay payment page on your website or have it integrated into your website, depending on your web development resources.

Worldpay takes a small percentage fee per transaction varying on what plan you choose. There is also a fee to become PCI-compliant.

Pricing

Worldpay offers a Pay as You Go and Monthly plans.

You can also contact Worldpay for a better rate if your website takes more than 1,000 card payments monthly.

Highlights & summary

• One of the most popular payment providers available in the UK

• Flexible pricing plans

• Expensive

• Takes over 24 hours to start receiving payments

Braintree

Ideal for agility

Backed by PayPal, Braintree is one of the fastest growing ecommerce payment providers in the UK. They offer a variety of ways to embed their checkout form on your website to suit all businesses. Whether you are a first-time small business owner looking to add payments to your site or an established enterprise with web development expertise, Braintree has something for you.

Braintree also has third-party integrations and tools to prevent fraudulent transactions. They also have no setup fees, perfect for small businesses.

Pricing

Braintree charges per transaction. They also have no monthly or setup fees involved.

Highlights & summary

• Low (and not transparent) fees

• Different ways to embed their checkout form

• Lengthy setup process

• Low average scoring in client reviews

Klarna

Ideal for attracting Millennials and Gen-Z consumers

Klarna is a Buy Now, Pay Later service that allows consumers to make purchases online and pay up to a month later or in instalments. The global payment and shopping service connects over 250,000 merchants and popular ecommerce stores such as ASOS, JD Sports, Nike, and Halfords to customers who can make purchases using three flexible payment options.

Klarna has three different payment methods for consumers to choose from:

• Pay Now

• Pay Later

• Slice It

Klarna has over 90 million active consumers that make up to 2 million transactions per day. Primarily targeting Millennial and Gen Z consumers through its aesthetic branding, it is one of the best payment methods online if your consumers are in these age ranges.

Pricing

Klarna’s different payment methods have pricing tiers dependent on the country of purchase.

Highlights & summary

• The Pay Later and Slice It methods reduce friction for consumers, allowing them to get what they want sooner and encouraging higher-value purchases

• Attracts the Millennial and Gen Z target markets

• Efficient checkout process for consumers

• Hassle for you if the consumer does not pay what they owe

• If consumers don’t meet their payment plans, they are penalised (e.g. negative credit score)

PayPal

Ideal for global shoppers

PayPal is one of the world’s most popular online payment methods and is trusted by 17 million businesses worldwide. You can accept payments in over 25 different currencies via your website, subscriptions, invoices or recurring billing.

Small businesses can use their Web Payments Standard with hosted payment pages that redirect back to their websites. If you already have your own shopping cart set up on your site, you can also embed PayPal Checkout.

You don’t have to worry about PCI compliance with PayPal either, as they handle all payments.

Pricing

You might need to pay additional fees depending on where consumers make their purchase:

• 0.5% per transaction within Europe

• Up to 2% per transaction in the US or Canada

Highlights & summary

• Household name that consumers trust

• Consumers are often redirected away from your website to make a payment

• Consumers need to have (or create) a PayPal account to complete transactions

Apple Pay

Ideal for “buy now, think later” purchases

Apple Pay is Apple’s payment method, available in more than 35 countries. It uses the Wallet app, where a consumer places their payment cards. The actual payment method depends on the credit cards placed in the Wallet app as it stores all details and preferences of the various payment cards it holds.

Payments are completed with a fingerprint or face scan. This means that Apple Pay complies with the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regulations required under the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2).

Apple Pay is one of the best payment methods options available, given Apple’s market share on smartphones and consumer technology. Its quick, safe and simple payment service also helps to reduce friction when a customer buys something from your store.

Pricing

You pay no extra costs when you add Apple Pay to your website with Mollie. Only the regular rates of the credit card that the consumer used to pay.

Highlights & summary

• Easy payment for millions of Apple users in over 35 countries

• Reduced friction at point of purchase

• Only available for Apple users

• Ideally should be incorporated with other payment methods

Shopify

Ideal for direct to consumer

Shopify is the ideal online payment provider for businesses looking for a simple platform that works well with direct-to-consumer offerings and drives rapid growth. Their online store builder is well-matched for teams with minimal or no coding, design or development expertise, as you can create ecommerce experiences via drag and drop elements.

Third-party integrations? Shopify has over 100 payment gateways, including its own Shopify Payments.

Pricing

Shopify has three different payment plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify and Advanced Shopify. Note that there are foreign transaction (FX) fees involved.

Highlights & summary

• Drag and drop elements make designing your payment portal easy

• Expensive

• Does not offer Shopify prices in pounds

• If you migrate to a different ecommerce platform, you will need to pay a fee to back up your website design and settings

GoCardless

Ideal for Direct Debits

GoCardless is the best online payment option if you take payment via Direct Debit. Its online platform allows you to set up payment instalments, subscriptions, and invoices. They have recently introduced Instant Bank Pay for one-off payments, but this product is still in its infancy. The platform is also compatible with Sage Pay (Opayo).

Pricing

GoCardless has four different payment plans: Standard, Plus, Pro and Custom.

Highlights & summary

• Specialists in recurring payments

• One-off payment product is still in its infancy

Mollie

Ideal for growth, reliability and simplicity

You can add all major ecommerce payment methods with Mollie through one simple integration and contract. Quickly add credit card payments, PayPal, or other payment methods suitable to your market or industry. You can also transform checkouts from a simple, standard payment form into a professional, on-brand experience that inspires trust and drives conversions – all without having to write a single line of code.

Mollie is fully PCI-DSS level 1 certified and complies fully with the European Banking Authority’s Guidelines on the security of internet payments. With our 99.9% uptime too, you can trust us as a reliable payment provider that can help your business grow.

Pricing

With Mollie there are no minimum costs, no lock-in contracts, no hidden fees. You only pay for successful transactions. Whilst most payment providers will charge for all attempted transactions, we will never charge for failed card transactions.

Highlights & summary

• One simple contract and integration

• Best for all major ecommerce CMS platforms, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento 2 & Wix

• Fits both one-off or recurring payments and payment requests

• Thousands of ecommerce payment methods at your fingertips

• Mollie dashboard that provides real-time data, insights, and reports to make well-informed business decisions on the fly

• Want to add a new payment method down the line? You can activate them in your Dashboard with just one click

• Branded checkout experiences with no coding required

• Open-source and freely available integrations and packages

It’s easy with Mollie

Mollie gives you access to all the best online payment methods through one contract and integration. You can also create on-brand experiences in your checkout without having to write a single line of code. And, if you want to do this yourself, Our developer community has an array of third-party integrations and freely available open-source packages and guides.

Still not sure? We can help you discover the best online payment options for your business today. We believe that every business has the right to grow and are on a mission to simplify complex financial services for medium-sized merchants and small businesses. Get in touch to find out more.