Are you looking for a Bitcoin payment gateway for your goods or services? This article is for you. First of all, congratulations on not being a Luddite by thinking about the adoption of new technology. Surely this information will be the first step towards innovation in your business.
Accepting crypto in online and offline stores is not a dream anymore, it’s something that is being implemented worldwide recently. BTC Payment Gateway allows businesses to increase the number of customers, pay lower fees, be resistant to fraud, and get faster payments. Sounds intriguing? Let’s dive into the topic.
What is a Bitcoin payment gateway?
Short answer: it’s another way of payment for merchants.
Long answer: it’s a service for e-commerce sites and traditional brick-and-mortar stores that helps process crypto payments.
Basically, it’s no different from accepting payment online via bank cards, but instead of government currency, customers pay from their crypto wallet.
13 Best Bitcoin payment gateways
There are quite a lot of players in this market nowadays. We will describe the most popular services.
CoinPayments
Founded in 2013, it accepts nearly 1500 different cryptocurrencies. If you’re a store owner, you can use one of the pre-made shopping cart plugins and customize it if you’ve got some coding skills. Note: US citizens are required to pass KYC to be able to use this type of payment. CoinPayments is supported by Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, and other popular commerce services.
Binance Pay
Created by a popular crypto trading platform Binance in 2021 but it’s still not available to the public. You can request access to the beta version by email, but it’s also not for everyone. The list of supported countries excludes the USA, the UK, and Singapore. If you are from another country, you can use Binance Pay to accept payment on your e-commerce site.
Binance Pay’s Merchant APIs allow peer-to-peer and merchant-based payments with the help of QR codes, which allows a seamless payment experience.
BitPay
One of the best Bitcoin payment gateways for merchants, BitPay, is based in the USA and has been on the market since 2011, which is the early era of Bitcoin. There are nearly 40 integrations with popular e-commerce platforms, 8 fiat currencies available and more than 35 countries are supported, with an opportunity to settle funds via local bank transfer (ACH, SEPA, FPS, etc).
BitPay is easy to set up and works with many plugins and integrations. The service shields merchants from the price volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptos. Therefore, sellers do not lose anything on exchange rates and pay to a processor only a 1% commission.
Coinbase Commerce
One of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world since 2012. Apart from trading crypto, you can use a special service, Coinbase Commerce, for accepting Bitcoin payments in a fast and safe way. Their special merchant app allows businesses to accept BTC and instantly convert it into fiat to avoid price volatility. There is an opportunity to integrate the payment through the hosted payment page.
Both offline and online businesses can use this instrument with different eCommerce plugins, such as WooCommerce, Shopify, etc.
NOWPayments
It’s one of the non-custodial Bitcoin merchant services that support a large number of cryptocurrencies (more than 140). Their killer feature is auto coin conversion, which means that customers may pay in any crypto they want while the seller receives the coin they prefer. Also, NOWPayments don’t do just payments, there’s an option for crypto donations, a point-of-sale link, a Mass Payouts solution, a customized Casino solution, a subscription feature, etc.
Their tools include API, a donation widget, buttons, links, and invoices, as well as plugins for WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Opencart, ZenCart, WHMCS, Shopify, Magento 2, and others.
CoinGate
Launched in 2014, CoinGate is a strong player in the market among bitcoin merchant service providers. Accepts BTC, ETH, XRP, and more than 50 other popular cryptocurrencies. No setup or recurring fee, just a stable 1% for payment processing services. CoinGate has a fully customizable API, Payment buttons, a variety of e-commerce plugins, and Point-of-sales. It is possible to instantly convert and withdraw earnings in fiat or crypto. Supported on the web and Android.
Shopify
This platform is being used by a thousand merchants all over the world to receive payments in Bitcoin. It is easy to set up and there’s good customer support. The only disadvantage of Shopify is that sellers are required to sign up for a Shopify merchant account if they want to use the payment processing option. Transaction fees may be different depending on which payment processor a seller chooses.
SpectroCoin
Various features are available for merchants to receive payments in BTC and other leading cryptocurrencies. Some of the supported e-commerce plugins are: Magento and Magento 2, Drupal, WHMCS, WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, Zen Cart, etc. Custom integration is also available or just adding a payment button snippet into the HTML code. SpectroCoin charges up to 1%, but other specific merchant fees are absent.
GoUrl.io
It’s an open-source project on Github.com with ready-to-use plugins for e-commerce and APIs. It’s free, doesn’t have recurring fees, and transaction fees start from zero percent. You do not need a bank account or to pass KYC, customers’ payments can arrive directly in your crypto wallet. Free technical support is available. Another great feature is a WordPress plugin that can be added to a website in minutes, it’s called “GoUrl WooCommerce”.
PaySpace
It’s a payment service provider with a specialization in high-risk business processing. Not only does it enable crypto payments. But it also offers modern fraud prevention software. PaySpacelv has advanced analytic tools that help to learn customer behavior. The funds’ settlement is available in the crypto or €. The settlement happens through Swift or crypto payout. Sellers can integrate the gateway via HPP.
SpicePay
Quite a unique service for sellers as it allows the withdrawal of BTC payments to PayPal or debit cards in USD or EUR, as well as using the standard bank transfer. However, Payments made in EUR are slower and can take up to 24 hours. The fees are 1% on all transactions, but there’s a nice bonus for new merchants, as they can get free transactions for a limited amount of time. Basically, SpicePay would be a perfect tool for beginners who are looking for Bitcoin merchant services.
Alfacoins
AlfaCoins is unique among other services because it offers to split payments between fiat and cryptocurrency. It’s great for those merchants who would like to hedge their bets without risking the whole amount of income. Their transaction fees are just a bit lower than usual, 0.99%, and there are no other charges for the installation of the BTC payment gateway. The service can be used almost in any country, the list excludes only those under sanctions, Iran and North Korea.
Funds can be withdrawn in EUR or USD. Supported crypto payment methods include BTC, LTC, ETH, DASH, USDT, XRP, and more.
CoinsPaid
Having been on the market for 8 years, CoinsPaid now supports 8% of global on-chain Bitcoin transactions. They already gave an opportunity to 800 businesses to accept crypto, with a focus on iGaming companies, as they’ve covered all major ones. Their services include: a wallet app, payment gateway, SaaS, etc.
Accepted crypto can be converted into fiat and withdrawn to a bank account in USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, JPY, and GBP. Supported crypto: BTC, ETH, USD, LTC, DOGE, and more. Also, the platform offers a payment feature that allows clients to automatically set up payments to several addresses in one click.
Find who accepts XMR, LTC, ETH, DASH, USDT, XRP
Why you should use a BTC payment gateway for your business?
Accepting Bitcoin as a payment method gives merchants a lot of benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them.
- Get more customers
A whole new group of buyers around the world becomes available if you enable BTC payments. Let’s give a simple example. Some online shops in the UK allow only GBP payments, and it’s difficult to get a GBP account outside of the United Kingdom. Bitcoin is international and it’s not different in each country. One BTC in London costs the same as one BTC in Japan.
Using a reliable payment gateway will boost your online sales by making it easy for customers to pay with crypto, wherever they want.
- Pay lower fees
Did you know that banks may charge between 2 and 5% in processing fees? From this article, you already know that most Bitcoin merchant services charge 1% or even less, with free trial periods for new customers. By getting crypto into your business you also can avoid exorbitant overdraft fees, foreign transaction fees, service fees, etc. This is especially important for multinational stores.
By the way, keeping crypto in your wallet is entirely free — no account opening charge, monthly maintenance fee, or minimum balance fees.
- Resolve issues easier
Crypto transactions are irreversible. If a client decides to get a refund, no bank will be involved in this issue, just you and the customer. You get better chances of resolving issues on your side.
- Become fast, secure and fraud-resistant
Crypto payments are anonymous. Bitcoin payment gateway usually does not require any personal details like name and surname, email, ID photo, phone number, etc. Some clients prefer to stay anonymous, especially when paying for goods and services in gray niches. For this reason, crypto payments are better as credit card fraud and identity theft may be completely excluded.
- Better investment
If you, like many others, believe in the power of crypto, you know that the demand for Bitcoin is constantly growing despite occasional drops. By keeping savings in crypto you may be able to win long-term, as government fiat currencies tend to go down in price because of inflation.
Summary
Accepting crypto is beneficial for businesses in many ways. With almost no disadvantages and minimal risk, this form of payment may become extremely popular worldwide. We can already see how the amount of crypto payment solutions grows every day. Crypto’s future is not just possible, but rather unavoidable, in a good sense.
FAQ: Bitcoin Payment Gateway Processor
Why does your business need payment gateways?
By allowing customers to pay in crypto, business owners can, first of all, get more customers. Clients all over the world can pay easily without the need to deal with international banking regulations. Also, it allows you to avoid high banking fees and long waiting times.
What is a Bitcoin payment gateway?
A Bitcoin payment gateway is an opportunity for online and offline business owners to accept payments from customers in Bitcoin. Merchants can charge clients in their preferred digital currency (BTC, ETH, DOGE, XRP, USDT, etc) while buyers receive payments in either crypto or fiat money (USD, EUR, GBP, etc).
How does the Bitcoin payment gateway work?
Thanks to the Bitcoin payment gateway, clients are able to pay for goods and services in their preferred digital currency, for example, Bitcoin. The gateway automatically converts this money into a fiat currency preferred by the merchant, for example, USD, EUR, GBP, etc.