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Ecommerce payment gateway comparison: DPS vs eWAY vs PayPal vs Braintree
August 12, 2020
Which ecommerce payment gateway is best for your online shop? Below, we compare four of the most popular payment gateway tools in New Zealand to help you make this important decision.
But first, let’s take a look at how payment gateways work and why they are so crucial to ecommerce success.
What is a payment gateway and why do I need one?
An ecommerce payment gateway is an external application that processes and authorises payments from your online shop. This means that when a customer clicks ‘buy’ and confirms their purchase, they will briefly be taken to your chosen secure payment gateway to enter their credit card details. Think of it like a virtual credit card machine.
You’ll need a payment gateway if you want to make it easy for customers to make online purchases ‘at the click of a button’. Without one, you won’t be able to receive payments through your online store – so it really is an essential component. The only question is: which one is best? Check out our comparison below to learn more about New Zealand’s four major payment gateway players.
Ecommerce payment gateway comparison
DPS Payment Express
As the most well-known payment gateway provider in New Zealand, DPS is a popular choice and a trusted brand. It offers both hosted and self-hosted payments solutions, as well as options for manual payment processing and recurring billing. To use DPS, you require a merchant account. Once payments are processed, they will be deposited straight into your account, ensuring your funds are easily accessible with minimal delay. Reliable and affordable, DPS is ideal for businesses which process high levels of transactions.
Key benefits: Most well-known payment gateway brand in New Zealand, offering a variety of payment solutions including PxPay, PxPost and PxFusion.
eWAY
Self-described as offering ‘all-in-one secure payment processing’, eWAY prides itself on flexibility and scalability. Whether you run a small business and make a few sales a month, or you make hundreds of sales every day, eWAY can be customised to suit your needs and accommodate growth. You require a credit card merchant account to operate eWAT.
Key benefits: eWAY offers excellent anti-fraud features to suit businesses of all sizes, as well as a ‘Rapid 3 API function’ that allows you to process credit card transactions directly on your website
PayPal
Another popular payment gateway, PayPal is a little different to other providers as it does not deposit the funds directly into your merchant account. Instead, payment goes straight into your PayPal account; you then need to manually transfer money into your business bank account. The great thing about PayPal is that you can open several different accounts in different currencies. Many consumers also hold PayPal accounts and therefore enjoy it when online shops offer this payment option.
Key benefits: You can open multiple PayPal accounts in different currencies – great for international ecommerce businesses.
Braintree
Owned by PayPal, Braintree offers the best of all worlds. Acting as both a merchant account and a payment gateway, it leads the way in terms of convenience. There’s also minimal admin, as payments are deposited straight into your account. What’s more, Braintree is available in more than 40 countries and six languages and allows you to manage multiple currencies with ease.
Key benefits: Braintree acts as both a merchant account AND a payment gateway, and offers multiple currency support.
Conclusion: Our top pick is Braintree
Based on our extensive ecommerce experience, our top pick is Braintree. As the newest payment solution on the market, Braintree offers everything other providers have and more, including the ability to securely save credit card details and to process payments directly on your website (without redirecting to an external application) plus the killer feature of supporting multiple currency out of the box. Overall, Braintree will provide your customers with a user-friendly online shopping experience and keep them on your website throughout the entire purchasing process. It’s a great, flexible solution, well-suited to all business types and sizes.
Development / Ecommerce / Shopify