Best Payment Gateways in India

With the current pandemic situation, online payments have increased quite tremendously, and India’s digitisation has taken new heights. From shopping for regular items like groceries and dairy products to getting a new TV, digital payments have dramatically changed consumer behaviour in the country.

Needless to say, choosing the best payment gateway can mean the difference between ease of transaction and poor payment experience.

As the value of digital transactions across India has surged from 69 trillion in 2019 to a whopping 101 trillion rupees in 2021 (statista), experts speculate that it will likely boom a lot more in the coming years; all thanks to the ease of transactions through online payment gateways.

Not sure which payment gateway will be ideal for your business? 

Well, we’ll be reviewing the best payment gateways in India, so you can easily choose the ideal payment gateway for your online enterprise or website.

5 Best Payment Gateways in India

Here are the 5 Top Payment Gateways in India which make your transactions lightning-fast and online payment feel like a breeze:

1. Razorpay – Best for Midsize and Large Businesses
   
   
2. Instamojo – Best for Startup and MSMEs
   
   
3. Payoneer – Best for International Payment and Mid size Enterprises
   
   
4. PayPal – Best for International marketplace and Enterprise
   
   
5. PayU – Best for Developers, Omnichannel Businesses and Enterprises

About Razorpay

Razorpay has been among the top payment gateway providers in India for some time now. Their focus on instant activation speciality and efficient integration separate them from their usual competitors. It is also extremely simple to use and secure. Companies of all sizes as well as freelancers and self-employed entrepreneurs have loved Razorpay for its amazing support as an Indian payment gateway.

Founded in 2014, Razorpay now has more than 800K customers using their payment gateway. It also became a unicorn startup of India recently, with valuations over $1 billion. The Bangalore-based company has received more than $200 million in funding to date. With popular brand names such as Unacademy, UrbanClap, Groffers and BookMyShow as proud clients, Razorpay is surely one of the best payment gateway providers in India.

Razorpay Benefits

Secure Payments

With PCI DSS Level 1 compliant along with frequent third-party audits and a dedicated internal security team, Razorpay makes sure your data is always safe.

Simplified Integrations

Integrating payments with Razorpay is as simple as it can get with well-documented SDKs, RESTful APIs and plugins for all major platforms and languages.

Efficient Global Payments

Take your business global with no additional integration costs on Razorpay’s payment gateway. Boost conversions with international customers by allowing them to pay in their local currency.

One-Click Offers

Razorpay allows you to run all your promotional offers via the Razorpay dashboard. You can easily create offers at the click of a button, define the number of users who can avail offers, and run offers for specific banks, card networks and wallets.

Razorpay Features

• API for automation 
• 100+ payment modes
• Real-time Dashboards
• Invoice payments
• 24/7 support
• Save saving facility

Razorpay Wide Range of Products

Razorpay Pros & Cons

Razorpay Pricing

Razorpay offers two different subscription plans for various requirements of businesses:

• Standard: 2% Razorpay platform fee with no additional fees including 0 setup & transaction fees. Ideal for Startups, Small and Medium Enterprises.
  
• Custom: Customized and competitive pricing according to your business. Ideal for large volumes of transactions. You can find out more on their website.

Technical Details

About Instamojo

Instamojo is a multi-channel payment gateway well-known for its ease of use and extremely simple user-interface. Originally started as an online eCommerce platform, it has become quite popular as a payment gateway. It provides direct payments using unique links, instant onboarding as well as weekly payments to your account.

Instamojo is an All-in-one platform for small businesses with an inbuilt store, payments, marketing, shipping, analytics and CRM. You can easily accept domestic as well as international payments. It supports several payment options such as UPI, net banking, credit & debit cards, wallets, and pay later. You can also receive payments through NEFT using a virtual account number.

With more than 1 million active customers and several big companies like Shriram Properties, Zepo and Adani Realty as clients, Instamojo is surely one of the best payment gateways in India.

Instamojo Benefits

100+ online payment modes

Instamojo offers several payment modes such as Google pay, Netbanking, debit & credit cards, EMI and even pay later options. Your customers can pay you with any mode of payment they want.

Hassle-free settlements

With Instamojo, you can get paid out in 3 business days for your transactions. You can also explore faster payout options to ease cash flow requirements and quickly resolve settlements.

Easy payment integration

You can use Instamojo payment gateway on Woocommerce, Magento and many more third party integrations. With Instamojo, you can make use of their flexible APIs & plugins to integrate payment gateway easily.

Make your payment links smart

Instamojo also offers a smarter way to collect online payments, customer details and increase customer engagement. Smart links are original payment links loaded with several eCommerce features such as Embedded Payment Links and Customizable Payment Links, which allow you to make flexible payment links according to your brand image and value.

Instamojo Features

• Payment Analytics
• Invoices
• No Paperwork
• Flat Transaction Fee
• Integrated Merchant Account
• Transaction Data Management
• Fraud Screening
• Transaction Alerts
• Multiple Payment Options
• Multiple Bank Connection

Instamojo Pros & Cons

Instamojo Pricing

Instamojo charges a 2% transaction fee + ₹3.

They also support International Payment Modes as an add-on feature which is available on request, at 1% additional fee.

Technical Details

About Payoneer

Payoneer is an international payment gateway that allows users to efficiently send as well as receive payments across 200 countries in several different currencies. You can easily keep track of your current account balance, payments, full transaction history online, including foreign currency balance, transaction fees bill or request payments from clients, receive payments through popular marketplaces, and pay freelance workers no matter where they are.

Payoneer offers businesses the required technology to participate in the new global economy by giving them a powerful payment solution accessible across borders. They also have free resources, books and survey findings to help you do more than just online transactions. All in all, Payoneer is a nifty software to get started with international online payments.

Payoneer Benefits

Receive Third Party Payments

With payoneer, users can request and receive payments both from other Payoneer users as well as from third parties who don’t have Payoneer accounts, making online transactions a much smoother experience.

Decide who pays

Payoneer also allows users to decide whether the payer or the recipient pays the transaction fees, so you can make sure that prices and costs remain equal on both sides.

Get Paid Directly

The prepaid Mastercard which the brand issues can facilitate transferring your funds. It can be used as a debit card for any type of transaction, including e-commerce. Payments are sent to Payoneer Mastercard, rather than going through your online account (and then transferring to a local bank account), which makes it less of a hassle if you need to acquire funds quickly. The card is supported by all ATMs but has a maximum daily limit of $2,500.

Payoneer Features

• Reporting/Dashboards
• User, Role, and Access Management
• Payout Time
• Manual Payment Entry
• Dispute Resolution
• Fraud Protection Tools
• Two-Factor Authentication
• APIs

Payoneer Pros & Cons

Payoneer Pricing

Payoneer charges different fees depending upon the type of transaction:

They charge 3% on credit card payments when you pay someone through Payoneer.

Additionally, they charge 2% when withdrawing to your bank in another currency.

Extra fees include 0.5% currency Management fees, Annual account fee of $29.95 (only for inactive accounts) and Escheatment fees (according to your country).

Technical Details

About PayPal

PayPal is a comprehensive payment gateway solution designed to serve the international payment needs of your business as well as your customers. Being one of the earliest payment systems, PayPal is a pioneer of payment gateways and is still considered one of the best and most reliable payment solutions out there.

PayPal lets you connect with millions of PayPal customers around the world and across various marketplaces, platforms and portals. It also combines ease of payment with an outstanding level of security.

With 20 years of experience, 200 markets worldwide, 360+ million active customers and reliable support for more than 100 currencies, PayPal is arguably the best international payment solution in the market right now.

PayPal Benefits

Accept & Make Payments Hassle-free

PayPal Platform helps make it easy for your customers to pay in any way they want from anywhere. Let them pay now or later, offer subscriptions or global and local payment options. Same applies when you want to send payments to other vendors and sellers.

Outstanding Risk Management

PayPal’s powerful network securely processes more than 1 billion transactions each month. Since their fraud tools get smarter with each transaction, they can help protect your business and your customers against fraud with their unmatched experience, global reach, and advanced fraud protection technology.

Streamline Mundane Operations

With PayPal, you are given the tools and resources necessary to tackle mundane tasks, making you free to do whatever you love. Your business will run much smoother with reporting, analytics, shipping, and cash management tools—all provided by a single dashboard from PayPal.

PayPal Features

• Access Controls/Permissions
• ACH Payment Processing
• Billing & Invoicing
• Compliance Management
• Customizable Dashboard
• Data Import/Export
• Deferred Billing
• eCommerce Management
• Electronic Signature
• Enrollments/Onboarding
• Financial Reporting
• In-Person Payments

PayPal Pros & Cons

PayPal Pricing

When receiving international payments, PayPal charges 4.4% plus a fixed fee.

Balance Withdrawal from a business PayPal account is free of cost (no currency conversion involved).

Other additional fees include 3% Currency Conversion fee (above the base exchange rate), dispute fees (on a case-to-case basis), and some other merchant fees.

Technical Details

About PayU

PayU is a payment services provider that makes an efficient online payment process for sellers and buyers while focusing on matching merchants needs with consumers shopping and payments behaviour.

PayU supports online payments across all major channels and devices through a single processing platform, making online transactions quick, efficient and hassle-free. You can collect payments on any website, mobile app, tablet or using any social app. While there are many channels of payment acceptance, all your transactions reconcile in one easy-to-use location — the PayU payment gateway.

With popular brands like Netflix, Airbnb, Goibibo, Ola and Myntra as proud customers, PayU is certainly one of the top online payment solutions in India.

PayU Benefits

Unlimited Email Invoicing

PayU lets you create and send unlimited professional e-invoices to your customers, so you can forget about the hassle of reminding them manually. The customers receive an email and can pay online by a single click.

Easy Integrations

You can integrate PayUMoney immediately and go live in the quickest time possible, allowing for a lightning-fast and easy integration. Also sell hassle-free at highly affordable and competitive prices.

Create a free Webstore

PayU allows you to design a simple web store using PayUMoney tools, which requires almost zero technical knowledge. They also offer useful built-in support for shipping and billing. Publish your store within minutes and sell your first product today.

High Success Rate

PayU provides the best transaction success rate in the industry with several powerful and robust features such as Auto OTP Reading, Magic Retry, Dynamic Switching and more.

PayU Features

• Billing & Invoicing
• In-Person Payments
• Mobile Payments
• Payment Processing
• Payment Processing Services Integration
• PCI Compliance
• Recurring/Subscription Billing

PayU Pros & Cons

PayU Pricing

PayU charges a 2% service fee + GST on every transaction for various modes of payments such as debit cards, credit cards, netbanking and wallets (3% service fee + GST for American Express & Diners Cards).

Technical Details

What is Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway is a technology used by businesses and sellers to accept debit or credit card purchases from their respective customers. The term applies not only to the physical card-reading devices used in physical retail stores but also the payment processing portals in online websites.

Benefits of Payment Gateway Software

• They provide security for your as well as your customers’ payment data.
• You can accept payments in any currency across the world.
• They make returns and refunds easy by maintaining a record of all transactions.
• They allow customers to purchase directly from your online store through multiple payment methods.

Who Uses Payment Gateway Software?

Payment gateway is used by merchants to accept debit or credit card purchases from their customers. It is utilized by businesses of all sizes from humble E-commerce businesses to professional enterprises.

How Does a Payment Gateway Work?

A payment gateway is what keeps the transactions going fluidly, as it enables online payments for customers as well as vendors. If you’re an online seller, you don’t need to know everything about payment gateways and their functions, but it’s worth understanding the basics of how an online payment flows from your customer to your bank account.

Before we go on, you need to understand some basic terms involved in payment online gateways:

An online business operating in any vertical (travel, retail, eCommerce, gaming, Forex, etc), offering a product or service to customers is called the merchant.

The customer, also called a cardholder, is someone who wants to access the products or services that the merchant is selling, and starts the transaction.

The issuing bank is the customer’s bank that issues the cardholder’s credit or debit card on behalf of the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard).

According to the definition, a payment gateway is a technology that captures and transfers necessary payment data from the customer to the acquirer and then returns the payment feedback to the customer. A payment gateway authenticates the customer’s card details securely, ensures proper funds are available and eventually enables merchants to get paid. It acts as an intermediary between a merchant’s website and its acquirer. It encrypts sensitive credit card details, ensuring that information is passed securely from the customer to the acquiring bank, via the merchant.

In other words, the payment gateway works as the middleman between your customer and the merchant and makes sure that the transaction is carried out securely and promptly.

Payment Gateway Software Features

Following are the features of payment gateways:

• Payment Information Storage
• Customer Service
• Multiple Forms of Payment

Payment Information Storage

E-commerce sites offer their repeat customers the ability to store payment information so that they don’t have to re-enter their details each time they make another purchase. With payment gateway software, buyers can store multiple cards at a single site and choose anyone for purchase. These sensitive details are encrypted and stored separately from the e-commerce site.

Customer Service

E-commerce payment solutions usually come with ample customer support. Before choosing a payment gateway, you should review it carefully and make sure the company has a history of supporting their products and servicing its customers.

Multiple Forms of Payment

A payment gateway application usually accepts several modes of payment like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.

Issues with Payment Gateway Software

3 major issues with payment gateways software are:

• Payment Fraud
• Chargeback
• Credit Card Data Theft

Payment Fraud

Almost half of all online eCommerce complaints were related to payment fraud. As your ecommerce store grows, you will likely receive more and more fraud orders. Majority of these fake orders are done by hackers or scammers by breaching your store security.

Chargeback

A chargeback is when a customer charges back the money to demand a refund after making a purchase. 81% customers admit to filing a chargeback and their reason for doing so: the product was received late or wasn’t delivered. Some of the online shoppers claim that their purchases were fraudulent or made without their permission or knowledge. These chargebacks can have a serious negative impact on your business’s rating and reputation.

Credit Card Data Theft

In 2018, hackers stole almost 14 million credit cards in the USA. This shows just how common this fraud is; and as an online store owner, you must consider using online security tools to secure your e-commerce store. Relevant measures must be taken so you can keep hackers away from your e-commerce store.

Conclusion

The emergence of online payment gateways has created enormous commercial value for businesses, sellers and merchants. Online transactions have never been this easy and secure, which is why you should be using the top payment gateway to fast-track your business for success.

In summary, we discussed the top 5 payment gateways in India including their benefits, features as well as shortcomings. We also addressed the major questions and queries that arise frequently when starting out with payment gateways.

Hopefully, choosing an ideal payment gateway for your business has become easier and much more effective after reading this article.

To conclude, here are the best payment gateways according to the type of your company or business:

1. Razorpay – Best for Midsize and Large Businesses
   
2. Intamojo – Best for Startup and MSMEs
   
3. Payoneer – Best for International Payment and Mid size Enterprises
   
4. PayPal – Best for International marketplace and Enterprise
   
5. PayU – Best for Developers, Omnichannel Businesses and Enterprises

Hopefully, the job of choosing the best payment gateways in India has become easier regardless of your business size or type.