Best payment processor for small business: 7 options

The best payment processor for a small business that sells both online and in person is one account that runs your website checkout, your invoices and your counter, priced in a way you can check. This small business list comes from Clearo Payments, and we've ranked ourselves first for the criteria below. Every other company's details come from its own website, and we haven't tested their services ourselves, so check the linked pages before you sign anything. If you mostly take cards at a counter, our list of the best credit card processing for small business goes deeper on terminals and tap to pay.

Our merchant services page covers what Clearo includes, from checkout to counter.

How we chose the best payment processor for small business

A small business selling in two places needs fair, readable pricing and one account that handles both. Our five criteria:

1. Pricing you can check: interchange-plus, with interchange and the markup on separate statement lines.
2. Room to change your mind: no long-term contract and no cancellation fee.
3. A person assigned to your account: every client has a dedicated rep.
4. Proof before you switch: a free review of what you pay today.
5. Online and in person on one account: a hosted checkout or gateway for your website, invoices and payment links, and terminals or tap to pay at the counter.

The rest of the list follows in order of how many of these criteria each company's own pages describe. Helcim's describe interchange-plus pricing with no long-term contracts, Stripe and Square describe some of the same terms, and Authorize.net, Shopify Payments and PayPal complete the list on selling online and in person.

Not every small business should rank them our way. If your store already runs on Shopify, the payments inside your plan may matter more than anything here: Shopify's pricing page says its third-party transaction fees don't apply to orders processed through Shopify Payments. If you already run your business through PayPal, its invoicing and Point of Sale products may be the shortest path. And if a developer is building your checkout, Stripe's documentation may matter more to you than our criteria.

The countries in the last column are the ones each company's own pages confirm for the products covered here.

1. Clearo Payments

Why Clearo ranks first

Clearo Payments meets all five criteria, and the fifth carries the most weight here: your website checkout, your invoices and your counter all run through one account. The pricing is itemized, there's no long-term contract or cancellation fee, a dedicated rep looks after your account, and the free statement review shows the math before you change anything. For a small business that sells both ways, that's one provider and one person to call instead of two.

How the pricing works

With interchange-plus pricing, you pay each card's interchange, the rate the card networks set, at cost, and our margin is listed separately. That split matters more once you sell online, because card-not-present sales usually carry higher interchange than the same card dipped at a counter. A flat rate hides that difference inside one percentage. On interchange-plus, every sale shows its own interchange line, and you can check it against Visa's published interchange schedule.

Based on its client records, Clearo says businesses moving from flat-rate pricing have saved 20 to 50% on processing costs. Your outcome depends on your card mix, average ticket and volume, including how much of it comes in online.

What you get

• For your website: hosted checkout and gateway integration, with fraud screening that uses AVS, CVV checks and velocity rules, and PCI compliance support.
• For invoices and repeat customers: a virtual terminal that sends invoices and payment links, takes phone and email payments, and runs recurring billing.
• For the counter and the road: POS terminals that take chip, tap and swipe, and mobile payments with tap to pay and mobile card readers.
• For the back office: chargeback management tools, a credit card surcharging program covering compliance, disclosure and setup, and same-day or next-day funding options, for businesses in the US and Canada.

Switching

If you use one provider online and another in person today, send a statement from each for a free statement review, and we'll show what the same month would cost with everything on one account. Like every client, you get a dedicated rep, and you won't face a long-term contract or a cancellation fee. Clearo says setup takes under 48 hours.

If your whole business runs inside an ecommerce platform such as Shopify, the payments built into that platform may be simpler to manage.

2. Helcim

For small businesses that want interchange-plus pricing on both their website and their counter, Helcim is a payment processor serving the US and Canada. It offers online payments with no monthly fees, a Virtual Terminal and in-person payments, and its pricing page lists no long-term contracts, no cancellation fees and no setup fees.

Best for: small businesses that want month-to-month interchange-plus pricing for online and counter sales.

3. Stripe

Stripe offers online checkout, in-person payments, billing and invoicing on one platform, so it suits a small business that wants both channels together, especially with a developer involved. Its pricing page says standard pricing has no setup or monthly fees and no closure fees, and as of October 2026 its no-code documentation describes in-person payments without writing code, on a compatible reader or the Stripe Terminal app on a supported phone, both in preview.

Best for: small businesses with a developer who want online checkout, invoices and in-person payments on one platform.

4. Square

Square brings payments, free POS software and invoicing together, which works for a small business that wants store, website and invoice payments in one place. Its invoice pricing page says invoicing is included in any Square plan, and its Virtual Terminal page describes no long-term contracts and no monthly fees.

Best for: small businesses that want the counter, online sales and invoices with one company, beginning on its free plan.

5. Authorize.net

Authorize.net is a payment gateway that carries online, phone and mobile payments to a merchant account, a good match for a small business that wants one gateway behind its website and its mobile sales. It offers mobile point of sale and digital invoicing, and its pricing page lists an All-in-One plan with a merchant account and a Gateway Only plan for businesses that already have one.

Best for: small businesses that want one gateway for web, phone, invoice and mobile payments, with or without a merchant account of their own.

6. Shopify Payments

If your store runs on Shopify, Shopify Payments is the company's own payment processing for stores on its plans, covering online and counter sales. Shopify's pricing page lists Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans with in-person card rates that differ by plan, and its help center lists the US and Canada among the countries where Shopify Payments supports in-person processing.

Best for: small businesses that sell on Shopify and want online and in-person payments inside their Shopify plan.

7. PayPal

Small businesses that already use PayPal can get invoices, phone payments and in-person sales from the same company. PayPal has a US Invoicing page, its Virtual Terminal page lists a per-transaction fee and no monthly fee, and its US point of sale system is sold as PayPal Point of Sale, the new name for PayPal Zettle.

Best for: PayPal users who want invoices, phone payments and Point of Sale from one company.

What does a small business need to sell online and in person?

Ideally, one account with four pieces that work together. Online is a big slice of retail now: the Census Bureau estimated e-commerce at 17.1% of total US retail sales in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted (US Census Bureau).

A checkout that keeps your PCI scope small

How card data reaches the processor decides your PCI paperwork. A hosted payment page, or card fields supplied by your provider, usually keeps you on SAQ A, the shortest questionnaire. Since March 31, 2025, merchants using SAQ A have also had to confirm their site isn't susceptible to script attacks that could affect their e-commerce systems (PCI SSC). Build your own payment form and you're likely looking at SAQ A-EP, which covers sites that don't receive card data but can affect the security of the payment (PCI SSC). Our guide to the hosted payment page walks through the options.

Invoices and payment links

For quotes, deposits and customers who order by text or phone, an invoice or payment link lets them pay on the provider's page, so card numbers never sit in your inbox. Our guides to payment links and how to send an invoice cover wording and timing.

Stored cards for repeat customers

Visa's stored credential rules require the cardholder's consent before you store card details for future charges, and they require the first storage and each later charge to be flagged in the transaction data (Visa). Your gateway sets the flags; your job is the consent. Ask who holds the stored cards and whether they can be exported if you switch.

The counter

You'll want terminals that take chip and tap, plus tap to pay on a phone for markets and pop-ups. Keep them on the same account as your website so refunds, reports and deposits don't split in two.

What does it cost to take payments online and in person?

Online payments usually cost more than in-person ones, because the card isn't there. In Visa's US schedule effective April 18, 2026, a Traditional Rewards credit card dipped or tapped in person carries 1.65% plus a fixed fee, while the same card used online carries 2.04% plus the same fee (Visa). Fraud screening, chargebacks and gateway fees add to the online side.

So work out your effective rate by channel. Say a home goods shop in Portland sells $30,000 in a month, half at the counter and half on its website. If its statement shows $410 in fees on the in-person half and $520 on the online half, its effective rates are 2.73% in person and 3.47% online, or 3.1% overall. The numbers are made up, but the method works on any statement: total fees for a channel divided by that channel's sales.

Then compare quotes channel by channel rather than by headline rate:

• Many flat-rate plans set separate rates for in-person, online and keyed payments, so ask for each one.
• On interchange-plus, the interchange line changes with the card and how it was taken, so ask whether the markup also differs by channel.
• Ask which fraud tools come with online payments. Address verification (AVS), card security code (CVV) checks and velocity rules are the basics.
• Count every fixed fee: gateway, PCI, statement and monthly minimums.

Our guides to card-not-present transactions and ecommerce fraud prevention explain why online sales carry more risk, and our comparison of interchange-plus vs flat rate shows when each model comes out ahead.

How to choose a payment processor for a small business

Start with one month's statement, then ask each provider:

1. Can one account handle my website, invoices, payment links and counter sales?
2. Will my checkout keep me on SAQ A, and what do I need to do each year?
3. How is each channel priced, and what is the markup?
4. Which monthly, gateway, PCI and chargeback fees apply?
5. Who holds my stored cards, and will you export them if I leave?
6. What's the contract length, and what would it cost me to get out?
7. When do deposits land, and who do I call when something breaks?

Two mistakes to avoid: picking a processor for its online checkout and then finding the counter needs a second account, and building a custom card form for looks that moves you from SAQ A to SAQ A-EP. Ask before you build.

One account isn't always worth chasing. If you sell online a few times a month and everything else happens in person, an invoice or payment link from your in-person provider may be all the online setup you need.

The next step

Send us a recent statement, from one provider or two, for a free statement review. We'll work out your effective rate for each channel and show what the same month would cost on interchange-plus with one account. We work with small businesses across the United States and Canada.