Cut costs, not capability: Top UK payment gateways for 2025

There is fierce competition in numerous aspects within the payment gateway industry. Providers race to offer the best integrations, the highest conversion lifts, and the slickest interfaces. But there’s one point that's hard to ignore – and that the executive team cares about most: Price.

CFOs and finance teams closely monitor cost controls. Even if a gateway looks like the answer to all of a business’ prayers, you’ll struggle to persuade anyone if it’s 10x more expensive than other options.

Cost is a legitimate point of comparison. The savings (or costs) of different gateways can add up significantly over time. So, if you’ve got an eye on price and want to know how some of the top options stack up, we’ve done the hard work for you and compared them in this article.

Key takeaways

• Payment gateways come with a host of different costs, some of which can be hidden.

• Price is an important point of comparison, but it can’t be the only deciding factor.

• The best payment gateways are equipped to grow with your business, rather than hold you back.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is to your online store what a card terminal is to a bricks-and-mortar shop. It’s a safe and secure way to process card payments from your customers.

It works by connecting your bank and the customer’s bank (via the network of whichever card they’ve used), confirming that the funds are available and that the purchase isn’t fraudulent. This requires complex technology and security protocols, so it is not something you could easily do yourself.

Lots of providers can give you a full suite of payment processing methods – from online gateways and card terminals to payment links and digital invoice integrations.

A quick look at the top five low-cost payment gateways

There’s variety across these gateways and their best use cases, but we’ve tried our best to standardise our points of comparison.

Wherever possible, we’ve compared online payments made using a consumer Visa debit card.

• Airwallex: The financial OS for global businesses. Airwallex can handle everything your business needs, from payments to spend, FX, and so much more.

• Stripe: Built for the modern business, Stripe combines physical and digital payment expertise to help businesses grow.

• PayPal: A name that’s synonymous with payments, PayPal continues to innovate in this space.

• SumUp: A popular choice for physical retailers, with affordable payment terminals and POS tech.

• GoCardless: One of the lowest-cost gateways, specialising in bank payments and Direct Debits.

What to look for in a low-cost payment gateway

Once you start to dig beneath the surface of payment gateways, you can find a lot of direct and indirect costs to analyse. We’ve shared some of the main costs below, as well as some less obvious ones to consider.

Costs to keep in mind

• Pricing structure: Gateways tend to use either blended or interchange++ pricing. We’ve written a full explanation of interchange fee structures, if you want to know more.

• Pricing per payment method: Consumer, commercial, and international cards typically come with different fees. A cheap consumer gateway might be an expensive one for B2B, so it’s worth researching this.

• Monthly fees: Some gateways have a monthly cost attached to the product, separate from your usage.

• Minimum monthly usage charge: Some gateways will have a minimum charge that you have to pay each month. So, if you had a month with no sales, you’d still be paying as if you’d made a certain number of sales.

• Currency conversion: Without a multi-currency gateway and merchant account, you’ll be forced to pay conversion fees on-the-spot for each transaction. This rigid payment structure can be costly, as you’re at the mercy of exchange and bank rates.

• Security: Some gateways will charge you a set monthly fee for securely processing transactions in line with PCI DSS standards, others will include it as part of their per-transaction fees.

Other features, services, and products to look for

• Integration with other finance software (e.g. Xero or other accounting tools) and other platforms you use to run your business (e.g. Shopify or other eCommerce sites).

• Security compliance, ensuring your customers’ details are stored and processed securely. Look for compliance with schemes like PCI DSS, SSL and TSL, and PSD2.

• Customer support can mean problem-solving, which needs a quick and clear response. It can also mean proactive account management, which is more about your gateway provider helping your business get the best results. Both are important, and both can vary wildly between providers.

• Reliability and uptime: If your payment gateway goes offline, you can't make money. It’s a business-critical piece of technology, so you need to be confident that it’ll almost always be working.

• Scalability: Your payment gateway needs to be able to grow with you. It’s great if your gateway can handle your current volume and value of sales, but how will it manage if you 10x your business?

Best low-cost payment gateways in the UK (2025)

Some costs are obvious, some are hidden or indirect. It makes it a bit tricky to compare gateways, but we’ve done our best to pull together the key information for some of the lowest-cost gateways on the market.

Every provider listed below can be considered low-cost, considering that others charge upwards of 2.5% in some cases.

Airwallex

• Overview: A unified, global financial platform supporting your spend, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, FX, and more.

• Transaction fees and pricing: 1.30% + £0.20 for UK cards

• Availability (supported countries): 180+ countries

• Supported payment methods and currencies: 130+ currencies in 160 payment methods

• Security and compliance: GDPR, PCI DSS, SOC1, SOC2, 3D Secure

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 46p

• Other monthly costs: If your balance is over £10,000, there are none. If below £10,000, £19. Other plans are available at £49, £999, or enterprise pricing.

Stripe

• Overview: Multiple payment methods, including billing subscriptions, invoices, and card payments

• Transaction fees and pricing: 1.50% + £0.20

• Availability: 47+ countries with local acquiring

• Supported currencies: 135+ currencies and 58 payment methods

• Security/compliance: PCI Service Provider Level 1, MFA, and PCI DSS compliant

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 50p

• Other monthly costs: None

PayPal

• Overview: One of the oldest and biggest names in payments, with wide reach and proprietary products including instalments

• Transaction fees and pricing: 1.20% + £0.30

• Availability: 200 countries

• Supported currencies: 25 currencies, 18 payment methods

• Security/compliance: 3D Secure, PSD2, dedicated fraud and chargeback products

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 54p

• Other monthly costs: None

SumUp

• Overview: An all-in-one option for businesses trading in-person and online.

• Pricing & transaction fees: 2.5%

• Availability: 36 countries

• Supported currencies: 13 currencies, eight payment methods

• Security/compliance: PCI DSS, SSI and TLS, and PGP

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 50p

• Other monthly costs: None, or £19 per month to secure lower transaction fees of 0.99%.

GoCardless

• Overview: Bank transfer specialist, offering one-off A2A payments and Direct Debits

• Transaction fees and pricing: 1% + £0.20

• Availability (supported countries): 31 countries

• Supported payment methods and currencies: Eight currencies, two methods (bank debit and instant pay)

• Security and compliance: Fraud protection scales with your subscription. GDPR, ISO27001, SSL, Direct Debit Guarantee

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 40p

• Other monthly costs: None

WorldPay

• Overview: Global payments, with sliding-scale pricing based on volume and value of transactions

• Transaction fees and pricing: 1% + £0.045 (presuming £60,000 annual card sales and average value of £20)

• Availability (supported countries): 146 countries

• Supported payment methods and currencies: 135 currencies in 30 payment methods

• Security and compliance: Proprietary technology, including OmniToken and FraudSight

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 24.5p

• Other monthly costs:

• Point-of-sale terminal (per terminal): £20

• PCI DSS service fee: £5

• Minimum monthly service charge: £15

Elavon

• Overview: Formerly NOVA and Opayo, Elavon is predominantly a physical payments processor - but does also offer a gateway.

• Pricing & transaction fees: From 0.99%, depending on card turnover

• Availability (supported countries): 36 countries

• Supported payment methods and currencies: 100+ currencies and nine payment methods

• Security and compliance: 3D Secure, PCI DSS and ongoing data security consultancy

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: Pricing isn’t fully transparent, but it’d be at least 10p

• Other monthly costs:

• Monthly gateway fee: £25

Adfin

• Overview: Best for B2B and services, this UK startup is built around invoice collection rather than payment on receipt or in-person sales

• Pricing & transaction fees: 1% + 20p

• Availability (supported countries): UK only

• Supported payment methods and currencies: GBP only and at least five payment methods

• Security and compliance: Built on platforms including Tink and Adyen, along with having its own security measures in place

• Cost of a £20 transaction*: 40p

• Other monthly costs: None

*Assuming that the transaction is made with a UK Visa consumer debit card. Costs will vary depending on payment method.

Comparing the best seven low-cost payment gateways

The best low-cost payment gateways for specific use cases

If every business looked and operated the same way, there’d be no need for a payment gateway market. In reality, a clothing retailer, a construction company, and a B2B SaaS platform need completely different things from a payment gateway.

So, it’s sensible to look at which of these low-cost gateways are the best fit for different types of businesses.

Best for eCommerce

Stripe or PayPal are two fine choices for eCommerce businesses, for reasons that aren’t really related to their eCommerce capabilities.

As two of the most familiar names in payment processing, the trust and confidence that a Stripe or PayPal checkout can give customers is important. Of course, they’re also well-built, secure, and offer useful features for eCommerce businesses.

Airwallex is another great option to consider, offering beautiful and customisable checkout options at a lower cost than these two.

Best for brick-and-mortar stores

SumUp or Stripe are both well-equipped to help you process in-person payments. They provide terminals at fair prices (e.g. from £49 with Stripe and £34 + VAT from SumUp), as well as the ability to send customers payment links and integrate them on your website.

You can also use their terminals and dashboards to record cash payments, making your accounts synced up and easier to maintain.

Best for subscription-based businesses

GoCardless or Airwallex are good choices for subscription or recurring payments.

GoCardless offers the lowest fees of the three, but is limited to just direct debits and bank payments. If you want to give your customers the choice of paying for their subscription by card, you’ll need to consider another option.

With Airwallex’s subscription payments, for example, you can create logic-based or flat-rate subscriptions that run automatically and immediately. With intelligent retries and reminders, you don’t have to chase after anybody – Airwallex does it for you.

Best for international transactions

Airwallex stands alone in its versatility for global businesses. Not only can you offer customers their choice of over 160 local payment methods and 130 currencies, you can settle and hold funds in 14 local currencies (covering 53 countries).

While other payment gateways will charge you for converting currencies, you can avoid all of those costs entirely with Airwallex. When you do choose to convert, you can do it at incredibly competitive interbank exchange rates.

Then, with your multi-currency account, you can spend like a local in those areas, too. You could sell a product in USD, hold it without conversion, then use it to pay a supplier or contractor in the States. With other gateways, you’d face a double-hit of currency conversion costs going in and out. With Airwallex, you’d pay precisely £0.

Best for freelancers & self-employed

Adfin combines the lowest fees with the greatest number of payment methods, making it a versatile and affordable option – something that many solopreneurs will enjoy.

GoCardless has the same fees (1% + 0.20 GBP), but only offers Direct Debit and bank payments.

The caveat for both is that they are geared towards B2B and service-based businesses, rather than high-volume B2C. Neither offers any way of taking in-person payments, so will only be a realistic option for those who do their business digitally and typically bill via invoice.

Why use Airwallex as your payment gateway?

Airwallex sits in the sweet spot of payment gateways. Some of the lowest fees on the market, combined with high-quality service and account management. Rebecca Mulcahy, SME and Growth Sales Manager at Airwallex, explains our consultative, collaborative approach:

The biggest payment gateway providers, she says, “don't care unless you're a huge merchant. We really care about mid-market merchants and payment optimisation for them. We ask how we can improve their checkout and conversions at checkout, using data science to optimise payment methods and acceptance rates.

“We're very open and transparent with our merchants – we do a lot of work with them. It's more of a consultative approach on how we can improve their whole checkout, rather than just purely offering a gateway.”

On top of the low-cost gateway and high-value support, you get all of the following benefits:

• Global accounts, so you can pay like a local across the world

• Wide-ranging integration options and API customisation

• End-to-end financial system, including all your spend management

• Fully compliant and secure technology

• Fast FX at affordable interbank exchange rates 

• Global pay-ins and payouts to 150+ countries

FAQs about low-cost payment gateways

Are there any free payment gateways?

No, there are not. Some gateway providers might offer introductory offers that make their service cheaper or free up to a certain value, but there is no such thing as a free payment gateway.

If price is a big concern, Airwallex offers some of the lowest payment acceptance fees in the market.

Which payment gateway has the lowest transaction fees?

Based on the fees listed in this article, the average transaction fee for card payments is 1.2%. Anything around that figure is a good, low fee. You can find some providers with fees as high as 3%.

However, it’s hard to give a single answer to this question, as transaction fees can fluctuate and there are hidden and indirect costs to consider.

Can I use multiple payment gateways for my business?

Yes, you can. The only thing to consider is how you host your checkout. If your payment gateway currently hosts your checkout (i.e. customers are sent to the gateway’s own site to pay), you might not be able to integrate with other gateways.

This is easily addressed by hosting your own checkout page and building on APIs from your chosen gateways.

What’s the best payment gateway for startups in the UK?

For most startups, flexibility and cost are two of the most important factors to consider.

In terms of flexibility and scalability, consider gateways like Stripe or Airwallex, which are set up to help you scale nationally and globally.

In terms of cost, Adfin and GoCardless offer some of the lowest fees.

There are too many factors to offer one single platform as the answer, as a B2B SaaS startup will have completely different needs to a clothing startup running pop up stores.

Cost can be a great filter, but not a deciding factor

The variety of options for payment gateways is only a good thing. The needs of businesses are too great and varied for a single player to dominate this market.

We’ve also seen throughout this article that costs come in many shapes and forms. Transaction and monthly product costs are the obvious targets, but currency conversion, terminal fees, and minimum charges can sneakily add up and turn a ‘cheap’ provider into an expensive one.

Cost is a good initial filter to narrow down your options, but it shouldn’t be the only way you determine the right payment gateway for your business. The cheapest option might not be able to offer what you need – whether that’s in terms of hardware, capacity for growth, or any number of other factors. So, while it’s a great idea to keep costs in mind, you’ll only find the right answer when you take the time to assess what your business, in all of its uniqueness, needs.

If, after you’ve done all of that work, you realise that Airwallex is the right choice – as thousands of businesses already have – then we’d love to have you on board.

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q2 2025. The information was based on our own online research and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only. Consider the specific requirements of your business when evaluating providers. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].