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You’re a software vendor looking to provide more value to your product by adding the ability to accept payments. But with so many processors out there, it can be hard to decide which one best aligns with your business and customers. This document summarizes the top payment integration partners in Canada to help you narrow your search and find a solution that will integrate seamlessly with your products and business.
To help you make an informed decision, the following criteria will be used to highlight the different capabilities of each partner:
At the beginning of each entry is a “Quick glance” section where we’ve addressed the following topics:
Elaborating on the last point, a merchant account is mandatory to accept payments, even through an integration. The following list of payment integration partners is a mix of merchant account providers and processing aggregators. Merchant account providers, as you may have deduced, provide customers with their own merchant account, while processing aggregators allow customers to use a joint merchant account along with other similarly-sized merchants. Whether you decide to partner with a merchant account provider or a processing aggregator can significantly impact your customers’ funding times. With an aggregator, funds are initially deposited into their merchant account first instead of straight into the merchant’s individual account, and they can hold funds at their discretion. Aggregators typically have aggressive fraud prevention measures in place so if fraud is suspected in the slightest, they have the ability to freeze funds to investigate, leading to funding delays for your customers.
Bambora deals strictly with online payments, and their in-house gateway can be paired with a merchant account from another processor if needed. Bambora is bank-neutral, meaning that they work with most acquiring banks in North America and Europe. They have a vast suite of secure payment processing tools that help your customers process online payments however their respective customers prefer.
Bluefin’s patented P2PE (point-to-point encryption) solution, Decryptx, keeps up with payment industry standards by providing industry-leading security and reducing PCI scope for your customers. Their propriety gateway, PayConex, supports all point of sale transactions types.
Compared to its competitors, BluePay isn’t as innovative but they do meet merchants’ needs with a wide selection of PCI-compliant online, in-store, and on the go payment services.
BluePay also offers an interactive voice response option that allows customers to pay or manage an account through an automated touchtone and voice-activated phone system.
Braintree offers cutting-edge payments technology, including a one-touch payment option that allows users to pay securely and easily on apps and websites, contextual commerce, and a mobile cash transfer service: Venmo. Braintree’s SDK enables faster mobile payment integration and customization across platforms. They are also a validated Level 1 PCI DSS-compliant service provider.
As one of the largest payment processors in Canada, Moneris offers many secure payment solutions and services for your merchants that keep up with industry trends.
Moneris also integrates with a wide selection of third-party tools like accounting software, simplifying your customers’ backend systems.
Credited as the first merchant service provider to bring mobile payments to the Canadian market, Payfirma is an omnichannel payment processor, offering seven different payment channels. Both their payments platform, PayHQ, and API are user-friendly and PCI-compliant. They also offer a white label version of their payments platform. Payfirma allows merchants to access all of their payment data in a single dashboard, providing powerful insight into their business.
A veteran in the payments space, PayPal provides industry-leading encryption and fraud prevention tools. They offer a powerful suite of online, mobile, and in-store payment solutions for their partners.
They continue to innovate in payments, most recently offering a one-touch payment feature that was initially introduced for mobile but is now available for websites as well.
Square is known for providing small businesses with simple, secure solutions for online and in-store payments and an easy-to-use interface. They offer a simple iPad application that includes an advanced inventory management system, a sleek online store that syncs with your in-app inventory, as well as an NFC/EMV-enabled chip reader.
Stripe makes it simple to take payments online and within mobile apps, store cards, enable subscriptions, and direct payments to a bank account. They are PCI-DSS-certified at the highest level of PCI compliance (Level 1). Mobile app developers can use Stripe’s functionality and retain full control over the UI. This full-stack payment platform lets merchants accept instant payments in 139 currencies. They offer Connect (payment integration), Relay (buy button), and Checkout (hosted payment page).
With its many years in the industry, Vantiv has acquired countless companies to help it expand their payment offerings, and as a result, they offer a comprehensive set of secure payment tools that fit any merchant’s needs. Among the payment companies that Vantiv has acquired are National Processing Company, Jeanie (ATM network), SKIPJACK (payment gateway), Element Payments, Mercury Payments, and most recently, Moneris USA.
Addendum: Flat rate vs. MDR pricing
With flat rates, no matter the type of card, the transaction rate is always a flat percentage – which is set at a higher average rate to protect the payment provider from losses. Because the flat rate assessed is typically set at a rate well above the cost of premium cards, the downside of this pricing structure is the cost. Typically, if a merchant is processing more than $40k, they likely won’t get to enjoy the lower rates associated with the majority of cards accepted.
MDR (merchant discount rate) affords the payment processor the ability to customize pricing based on each individual business. The payment structure used may differ from interchange plus to bill back but typically, merchants will get a competitive payment structure that best fits their business needs and processing volume.
For more information on payment processing pricing, download our eBook Pricing Demystified for a thorough overview of what merchants pay to get paid.