Payment gateways are services that process credit card payments. When your customer pays for your offerings with a credit card, the payment gateway services your customer's interests by handling all the card data securely, and your interests by getting the money to your account.
These days, the term "payment gateway" is used somewhat loosely (and even recklessly) to refer to any of the different types of organizations that connect your website, app or business with the money paid to you by your customers. I won't go into the detail of distinguishing between these different types of organizations, except to say that some of these services require merchant accounts while others don't. Some interact directly with your bank and require bank involvement, while others simply transfer money to whatever account you specify.
And this leads me directly to the topic of which of these services you should use. If you have the freedom to choose any approach, I'd recommend Stripe for seven reasons:
- Stripe is safe and reliable.
- Stripe offers competitive rates.
- Stripe is one of the card processing solutions that will do everything you need without having to worry about complex or expensive merchant accounts. They'll process your payments and then transfer the funds to whatever valid account you specify.
- Stripe is extremely "developer friendly", which is why it's already integrated into so many e-commerce apps and components. And this means that if you're going online with your business or just trying to simplify the earning side of an existing online concern, Stripe is very likely already working with your chosen online platform.
- You will have an easier time making changes to your app or website with Stripe than with many others (also a consequence of their "developer friendly" approach).
- Stripe offers one of the easiest user interfaces I've ever seen and not only as compared to other financial services providers. They've done a wonderful job making their online tools easy to use even for novices.
- Stripe support is fast, knowledgeable and courteous.
Of course, even though Stripe is this wonderful, you should check with other players in your process before starting. Is your business subject to any regulatory requirements that would require a different choice? Do you have partners or other dependencies that have already made commitments to other providers? Is your sector serviceable by a specialty provider that offers even better rates than Stripe?
If none of the above concerns applies to you, Stripe.com would be my very next stop.