The Best Free Payment Gateways Available in the UK

Unless your website comes with a built-in way to take payments, the best way to accept online payments is by using a payment gateway. These are digital checkout pages that you can add to any website, and they’re provided by many of the same companies that offer credit card machines for in-store purchases.

The good news for business owners is that, unlike credit card machines, some top payment gateways are free to add to your site. With these providers, instead of a fixed charge every month, you’ll pay a fee for every transaction.

In this guide, we’ll go through the pros and cons of the four best free payment gateways available – including Stripe and Revolut – and explain how you can switch to a new payment gateway provider.

The 4 Best Free Payment Gateway Providers

1. Stripe—Best for catering to international customers. Supports 135+ currencies and local payment options.
2. Revolut —Best for invoicing, one-click checkout, and payment links. Offers business bank accounts in addition to credit card processing.
3. GoCardless—Best payment gateway for ease of use. Multiple payment options and currencies, but transaction fees can be expensive.
4. WorldPay—Best low-cost solution for small, UK-only businesses. Makes payments to your business the next day at no extra cost.

Factors We Considered When Researching This Subject

When comparing the best free payment gateways, we considered factors like:

• How much credit card payments cost
• Whether there are additional fees (e.g. setup fees)
• What volume of transactions is allowed each month
• How customisable the checkout experience is
• The currencies are supported at checkout
• Available reporting and management features
• What accounting software integrations are provided
• How easy it is to sign up and add your payment gateway to your website
• Whether the provider also offers credit card machines for in-store purchases

In general, we prioritised payment gateways that offer plenty of customisation, a wide range of features, and low fees for each transaction. All of the gateways we considered are hosted payment gateways, meaning they’re hosted in the cloud by your provider. While other types of payment gateways exist, they’re much more complex and aren’t usually free.

The 4 Best Free Payment Gateway Providers

Let’s dive into the four best free payment gateways for UK businesses:

1. Stripe

Online fees: From 1.2% + 20p

Stripe is one of the most popular online payment processors in the UK, and for good reason. It offers transparent pay-as-you-go pricing with no monthly fees or contract for your payment gateway.

Stripe supports more than 135 currencies at checkout, and you can add local payment methods like AliPay, iDeal, and more to make international payments easier for your customers. There are a ton of customisation options for your checkout page, but adapting the platform for your business can be complex and time-consuming.

This payment platform is packed with tools including financial reports, transaction tags, and notes on payments to help you stay on top of your business’s finances. You can also integrate Stripe with Quickbooks, NetSuite, and other popular accounting software.

Stripe pricing

With Stripe, you’ll pay 1.5% + 20p per transaction for standard UK credit and debit cards, or 1.9% + 20p for premium cards (including most business credit cards). If customers use Link, Stripe’s one-click online checkout tool, your fee is reduced to 1.2% + 20p for all UK cards.

Who is Stripe best for?

Stripe is a great choice for UK businesses looking for a low-cost option and want to cater to international customers.

It offers a lot of capabilities for growing businesses but may be too complex for small business owners who aren’t especially tech-savvy or those who only need a payment gateway for UK transactions.

2. Revolut

Online fees: From 1.0% + 20p

Revolut is another excellent free payment gateway with low transaction fees. We especially like Revolut for its integrations, which let you seamlessly share data between your payment gateway, accounting software, communication tools like Slack, and more. An API offers even more flexibility and the ability to customise your checkout page.

Revolut also supports online invoices and one-click payment links, making it easy for customers to pay your business online without using a traditional checkout page. There’s also a one-click payment option you can add to your website, which is great for repeat customers who want to make purchases quickly.

Like Stripe, Revolut lets you accept multiple currencies and hold them in separate accounts so you can avoid foreign exchange fees. However, Revolut only supports around 25 currencies.

Revolut pricing

Revolut charges 1.0% + 20p for UK consumer cards, or 2.8% + 20p for UK business cards and international cards. It offers subscription plans that include business banking features, but you don’t need a subscription for online payment processing.

Who is Revolut best for?

Revolut is best for businesses that need multiple digital payment options, including a checkout page, a one-click checkout, invoices, and payment links. It’s also good for businesses that need to open a bank account and want to use the same provider for banking and payment processing.

3. GoCardless

Online fees: From 1.0% + 20p

GoCardless is one of the best solutions for recurring online payments, making it a great choice for businesses that sell subscriptions. With GoCardless, you can charge customers weekly or monthly, plus use direct debit to automatically take payments from customers’ bank accounts instead of charging a credit card.

The gateway supports 30+ currencies and local payment methods. Most supported currencies are in Europe and North America, so GoCardless isn’t as suitable for businesses with customers in Asia or Africa.

GoCardless has more than 350 integrations, so you can fully customise the payment gateway to meet your business’s needs. It’s fairly easy to use, which is a big plus for business owners who want to hit the ground running rather than spend hours configuring the platform. GoCardless also includes a wide range of financial reporting and cash flow tools to ensure your business runs smoothly.

GoCardless pricing

GoCardless charges 1.0% + 20p per transaction for all UK cards. Transactions over £2,000 have an additional 0.3% fee. International transactions cost 2% + 20p each.

As a welcome offer, GoCardless waives all transaction fees for your first 90 days.

Who is GoCardless best for?

GoCardless is a good choice for business owners who prefer ease of use over endless customisation options. However, businesses that frequently make large sales over £2,000 may not want to use GoCardless because of its extra fee for large transactions.

4. WorldPay

Online fees: 1.5%

WorldPay is one of the least expensive providers for businesses with small-dollar transactions. That’s thanks to its percentage-based pricing with no fixed fee. However, this pricing system only applies to UK payments. If you want to accept international payments, WorldPay is more expensive than many of its competitors.

WorldPay pays out funds to your business the next day at no extra cost, which is great for keeping cash flowing through your business. It also uses a custom fraud detection system that helps reduce costly chargebacks and prevent failed payments.

The WorldPay dashboard does a great job of reporting on your business’s sales, and it also integrates with popular accounting software. Overall, WorldPay is easy to use and its modular pricing can work well for businesses that are just starting out.

WorldPay pricing

WorldPay charges 1.5% per transaction for UK cards processed through its payment gateway. If you use WorldPay’s eCommerce solution, which enables international payments, you’ll pay 1.3% + 20p per transaction.

Who is WorldPay best for?

WorldPay is best for small businesses that are just starting out and want the lowest-cost solution for accepting online payments in the UK.

How to Switch to a New Payment Gateway Provider

If you already have a payment gateway, but you’re missing features or paying too much in fees, it might be time to switch. In most cases, switching is fairly easy—but there are some things to keep in mind.

First, check whether you have a contract with your current payment gateway provider. If you do, there could be fees for breaking your contract. You’ll need to decide whether paying the fees is worth it for your business or whether you should wait until your contract ends to switch providers.

In addition, remember that switching payment gateways can be disruptive for customers trying to make purchases on your website. So it’s important to make the transition quick and smooth.

To accomplish this, make sure that your new gateway is fully customised with your business’s logo and checkout options before you launch it on your site. Make a list of all payment links on your site that will need to be updated to point to the new checkout page.

Plan to switch over to the new payment gateway in the middle of the night, when it’s unlikely anyone else will be using your site.

You should also run a few test payments as soon as your gateway goes live. This is a good way to ensure that your checkout process is working smoothly and that funds are showing up in your business’s merchant account.

If you have any problems, don’t hesitate to contact your payment gateway provider. Most offer fast technical support to minimise the time that your business is unable to take online payments.

How We Test Payment Gateways