From my research, the above options would be fantastic to begin starting your Online Store with as other than PayPal Advanced, they do not have monthly fees and you only pay the fee when you actually make a sale.

Stripe

Stripe is a relatively new, but very popular service, as they position themselves with the following.

• No need for separate Merchant Account and Payment Gateway.
• No monthly fees – only a flat fee per transaction – 2.9% + 30¢

They are focused on making the payment process frictionless, and you can easily sign up with email and name. Available in these countries.

Shopify supports Stripe as a payment method, though Shopify charges an additional fee if you do not use Shopify Payments.

PayPal Advanced

In addition to PayPal Standard (which is free with your PayPal account), PayPal Advanced offers payment gateway options to accept credit cards directly on your online store (by using 1 of 3 pre-determined layout formats, without re-directing to PayPal’s website).

• Monthly Fee of $5
• Per Transaction Fee – 2.9% + $0.30
• Transaction Fee becomes lower with higher sales volume

Click here for a comparison of PayPal Standard, Advanced and Pro

Note that PayPal is not a true bank, and they have the right (and have done so in the past) to withhold funds in your PayPal account for one reason or another. There is a lot of debate about using PayPal as a provider given this fact, but the fact is that PayPal is one of the key payment systems in e-commerce.

Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is a payment method developed by Shopify (which is actually powered by Stripe, a partnership between the 2 firms), for the purposes of making receiving payments easier for Shopify customers (and earning a fee in the process).

• No need for separate Merchant Account and Payment Gateway.
• No monthly fees – only a flat fee per transaction – 2.9% + 30¢
• Only for Shopify stores
• Currently only available in U.S., Canada

Availability in Your Country

If you’re in the U.S. and other supported countries, having Stripe as greatly simplifies the process of setting up an Online Store. For all the rest of us however, we can only use options that are available to us in our home countries.Other options include traditional payment gateways, like Authorize.net, 2Checkout, WorldPay etc.

Using PayPal Standard to Accept Credit Cards

It is worth noting that PayPal Standard (comes free with your PayPal Premier / Business account) already offers a way to accept Credit Cards from your customers. However, it redirects you to PayPal’s website, and the credit card option is hidden. It looks like this.

If you’re in a country where options like Stripe isn’t readily available, this is the cheapest, though not the most ideal way to accept Credit Cards on your store.

Click here for a comparison of PayPal Standard, Advanced and Pro.

Deciding on a Payment Provider

If you are running a Shopify store, it makes sense for you to us Shopify Payments to accept credit cards on your store.

If these options aren’t available to you, you may consider one of the PayPal gateways, or use a traditional payment gateway such as Authorize.net, 2Checkout or WorldPay.

What other payment gateways do you prefer using when setting up your Online Store? Let me know.