“Best payment processing software” hides two unrelated jobs under one label. A SaaS company charging customer credit cards and a freelancer collecting a wire transfer from a client in Germany are not shopping for the same thing, even though every roundup on this topic lists them side by side. This page splits them on purpose: three tools for businesses that accept payments, two for people who need to get paid across borders. Buying across that line wastes money in both directions.
Executive Answer
- Best if you already have a merchant account and just need a gateway: Authorize.net. Flat $25 a month on every plan, and the Gateway Only tier drops to 10 cents a transaction once you supply your own merchant account.
- Best Merchant of Record for global tax handling: Paddle. One flat rate, 5% plus 50 cents, covers processing, VAT/GST remittance, fraud protection and subscription billing with no separate line items.
- Best for getting paid as a freelancer, if your clients can pay you directly: Wise. Mid-market exchange rate with a stated fee from 0.24%, and free local receiving details in more than 20 currencies.
- Best for getting paid when a marketplace forces the issue: Payoneer. If Upwork, Fiverr or Amazon only pays out through it, the comparison with Wise is academic — you need the account.
Two Jobs, Not One List
Accepting payments means you are the business collecting money from customers. You need a gateway or processor wired into your checkout, and the decision hinges on whether you already have a merchant account, whether you sell internationally, and whether you want someone else to own tax compliance. Authorize.net, 2Checkout (now Verifone) and Paddle all compete for this job, and they are genuine alternatives to each other.
Getting paid internationally means you are the one being paid — a freelancer, contractor or remote worker whose clients or platforms sit in other countries. The question is how much of your own money disappears in conversion and withdrawal fees before it reaches your bank. Wise and Payoneer compete for this job. Neither processes a checkout for a merchant, and neither merchant tool above will get a freelancer paid by Upwork. We already cover Wise against Payoneer in detail in our dedicated comparison, so this page treats that pairing briefly and links out rather than repeating it.
Sort by Job
| Job | Tool | Core price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accepting payments (merchant) | Authorize.net | $25/mo + 2.9% + 30¢ (All-in-One), or 10¢/transaction with your own merchant account | Existing merchant account holders, established platform integrations |
| 2Checkout / Verifone | 3.5%–6% + fixed fee, tiered by feature (reported, not vendor-confirmed) | Selling digital goods across many countries with varied local payment methods | |
| Paddle | 5% + 50¢ flat, all-inclusive | SaaS selling globally without an in-house tax team | |
| Getting paid (freelancer/remote worker) | Wise | From 0.24%, mid-market rate, free account | Clients who can pay you directly by bank transfer |
| Payoneer | Layered fees, conversion 1.2%–4%, $29.95/yr if under $6,000 received | Marketplace payouts (Upwork, Fiverr, Amazon) that require it |
The Tools In Detail
Authorize.net — a gateway, not automatically a full processor
Authorize.net sells three plans, all with the same $25 monthly fee and no setup or termination charges. All-in-One bundles a merchant account for 2.9% + 30 cents a transaction. Gateway Only drops to 10 cents a transaction plus a 10-cent daily batch fee, but it requires you to already have a merchant account elsewhere — the gateway alone doesn’t move money into your bank. Gateway + eCheck adds ACH processing at 0.75% per eCheck transaction.
That $25 fee applies whether you process one transaction or a thousand, which makes Authorize.net a poor first choice for a brand-new business with no existing merchant relationship. It earns its place with businesses that already have a merchant account and real volume, or that run on an older platform with a long-tested integration. Capterra rates it 4.5/5 across 215 reviews; Trustpilot sits at a rough 1.4/5, with real complaints about frozen funds. Full Authorize.net review.
2Checkout / Verifone — broad reach, unconfirmed pricing
2Checkout, now operating as Verifone, targets businesses selling digital goods or subscriptions to a genuinely international customer base, with broad local payment method coverage. Its three tiers are reported at 3.5% + 35 cents (2Sell), 4.5% + 45 cents (2Subscribe, adds recurring billing), and 6% + 60 cents (2Monetize, full Merchant of Record with global tax handling). We flag those figures as third-party reported rather than vendor-confirmed — the pricing page did not return accessible content when we checked it directly, unusual for a processor where published rates are normally table stakes.
The tier that matters most, 2Monetize, is directly comparable to Paddle: both sell Merchant of Record tax handling, and on the numbers available, Paddle’s flat 5% + 50 cents undercuts 2Checkout’s reported 6% + 60 cents for the same service. A new $500-a-month platform fee, announced August 2026, now applies to non-EU/US physical-goods merchants. Trustpilot’s rating sits at 2.2/5 across more than 2,300 reviews, with reports of account terminations and held funds. Full 2Checkout review.
Paddle — Merchant of Record at one flat rate
Paddle becomes the legal seller of record for your transactions, which means it handles global sales tax and VAT compliance rather than leaving that work to you. The price, verified directly against Paddle’s own pricing page, is 5% + 50 cents per transaction, covering payment processing, tax remittance, fraud protection, chargeback handling and subscription management with no separate line items and no monthly fee.
That rate is roughly double what a standard processor like Stripe charges, and the gap is the price of the tax compliance work Paddle does for you. For a two-person SaaS team selling into a dozen countries, tracking and remitting VAT in-house is genuinely more expensive in time and audit risk than Paddle’s premium. For a domestic-only seller, that premium buys nothing — a standard processor is simply cheaper. Items priced under $10, or accounts needing invoicing, fall outside the standard rate. G2 rates Paddle 4.7/5, though the FTC fined it $5 million over how it handled consumer chargeback complaints. Full Paddle review.
Wise — moving and converting money at the real rate
Wise converts currency at the mid-market rate — the actual midpoint rate you’d find searching a currency pair on Google — and charges a separate, stated fee starting from 0.24%, instead of burying a markup inside the exchange rate the way a bank does. The account is free with no monthly fee, and it gives free local receiving details in more than 20 currencies, so a US client pays what looks like a domestic transfer into your USD details while a European client does the same in EUR.
It is not a bank: funds are safeguarded rather than insured, and holding savings in Wise earns no meaningful yield. Its marketplace integrations are also limited compared to Payoneer — if a platform pays you out specifically through Payoneer, Wise doesn’t change that. See our Wise vs Payoneer comparison for the full breakdown. Full Wise review.
Payoneer — infrastructure for marketplace payouts
Payoneer solves a specific problem: getting paid when your clients or the marketplace you sell through can’t easily send money to your country, or won’t pay out any other way. Fiverr’s payout system runs on Payoneer, and so does a large part of Upwork’s — for freelancers on those platforms, it’s not a choice among alternatives.
The cost is layered rather than singular. Receiving via bank transfer runs about 1%, credit card payment requests run up to 3.99% plus 49 cents, and withdrawing in a different currency costs 1.2% to 4% depending on the pair and country. An annual account fee of $29.95 applies if you receive under $6,000 equivalent in a year, so the fee lands hardest on the smallest earners. Used as a default currency converter rather than marketplace infrastructure, Payoneer is nearly always more expensive than Wise. Full Payoneer review.
How to Choose
- Collecting payment, or receiving it? Collecting from customers: Authorize.net, 2Checkout or Paddle. Receiving pay as a freelancer or contractor: Wise or Payoneer.
- Merchant with a merchant account already? Yes: Authorize.net’s Gateway Only plan, at 10 cents a transaction, beats a percentage fee at real volume. No: Authorize.net’s All-in-One plan, or a Merchant of Record.
- Merchant selling internationally — want to own tax compliance yourself? No: Paddle’s flat 5% + 50 cents undercuts 2Checkout’s reported 2Monetize rate. Yes, or domestic-only: skip both and use a standard processor.
- Getting paid — can clients pay you directly? Yes: Wise, for the mid-market rate and the lowest fees here. No, a marketplace requires a specific payout method: Payoneer, and treat its fee as the cost of being payable at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Wise and Payoneer alternatives to Authorize.net or Paddle?
No. Wise and Payoneer solve getting paid as an individual or freelancer across borders; Authorize.net, 2Checkout and Paddle solve collecting card payments as a business. They don’t compete for the same purchase, even though roundup pages routinely list all five together.
What’s the actual difference between a payment gateway and a Merchant of Record?
A gateway like Authorize.net’s Gateway Only plan moves the transaction but leaves you responsible for the merchant account and for calculating and remitting sales tax yourself. A Merchant of Record like Paddle legally becomes the seller and handles that tax compliance for you, in exchange for a higher per-transaction rate.
Is Paddle or 2Checkout cheaper for Merchant of Record services?
On the numbers available, Paddle’s confirmed 5% + 50 cents is lower than 2Checkout’s reported 6% + 60 cents for 2Monetize. 2Checkout’s figures aren’t confirmed against a live pricing page, so get a direct quote before deciding, but Paddle starts from a lower and better-verified position.
Do I need a merchant account to use Authorize.net?
Only if you choose the Gateway Only or Gateway + eCheck plans, which pair with a merchant account you source separately. The All-in-One plan bundles one in for $25 a month plus 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.
Should a freelancer use Wise or Payoneer?
Wise if clients can pay you directly by bank transfer — it’s cheaper on conversion in nearly every case. Payoneer if a marketplace you earn on requires it. Many freelancers end up using both: Payoneer for platform income, Wise for everything else.
Why did 2Checkout add a $500 monthly fee?
Announced in August 2026, it applies specifically to non-EU/US merchants selling physical goods. Digital-goods sellers and EU/US-based businesses aren’t affected, but it’s a real new cost for the segment it targets — confirm directly rather than assume your account is exempt.
How We Assessed These
Every tool here has an individual review, and every price above is either verified directly against the vendor’s own pricing page (Authorize.net, Paddle, Wise, Payoneer) or flagged as third-party reported where it couldn’t be (2Checkout/Verifone). We didn’t score all five against one another with a single number, because they answer two different questions and a combined ranking would misrepresent that. Disclosure: some links on this page may be affiliate links; that has no bearing on which tool is recommended for which job.
Related
- Authorize.net review · 2Checkout review · Paddle review
- Wise vs Payoneer — the full freelancer-payout comparison, not repeated here
- Best AI tools · Best web hosting