Best Payment Services for Small Business

Running a small UK business can be rewarding and demanding in equal measure. There’s an endless list of things to think about, from inventory management to marketing and everything in between. Finding a way to get paid quickly, without fuss or overpaying for fees and charges, shouldn’t be on that list.

By taking the time to discover the right payment service for your business today, you can focus on doing what you do best.

In this article we’ll be looking at some of the best payment services for small businesses in the UK, comparing the various features, tech, hardware, fees and integrations.

We’ll also be exploring the Trustpilot scores of each provider to give you a sense of how other users rate them.

This guide will highlight the payment solution that helps you do business your way.

If you’re currently researching cost-effective and reliable ways of getting paid, don’t overlook Wise Business. It’s a popular solution for small businesses who want to avoid high fees and currency conversion costs.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Payment systems for small businesses

Payment systems share a number of important features like credit card processing and online payment processing but there are important differences too. Some providers are better suited for in person businesses, others are optimised for e-commerce.

The way you do business will influence which provider is the best fit, whether you’re looking for quick pay outs, versatility, robust point of sale (POS) solutions or a comprehensive range of tech integrations.

Fees and charges will also be a major consideration, especially if your business accepts payments in multiple ways.

Below, we’ll be examining how the following providers deliver on these fronts:

• Stripe
• SumUp
• GoCardless
• Square
• Zettle
• Amazon Pay
• Shopify Payments

Small business payment processing: overview

Provider	Trustpilot score	Transaction fee	Best known for
Stripe	2.0, from +15k reviews1	1.5% + £0.202 for UK cards 2.5% + £0.202 for EU cards	No subscription, pay per transaction
SumUp	4.0 from +25k reviews3	Pay-as-you-go: 1.69% for in-person card payments and 2.5% for online payments Payment Plus: 0.99% for in-person card payments and online payments, 1.99% for in-person and online payments made by international, corporate and premium credit cards 4	Good customer service and next day pay outs
GoCardless	2.5, from +2k reviews5	Standard plan: 1% + £0.20, capped at £4 per transaction 0.3% added to transactions over £2,000 2% +£0.20 for international transactions Plans with payment and fraud protection have higher fees.6	Impressive range of e-commerce integrations
Square	4.1 from +3k reviews7	1.75% for in-person card payments 1.45% + £0.25 for online payments made with UK cards 2.25% + £0.25 for online payments made with non-UK cards 2.5% for manually keyed-in payments 8	Easy set up and simple use
Zettle	3.1 from +5k reviews9	1.75% for any transaction type 10	Powered by PayPal, popular with in person businesses
Amazon Pay	1.3 from +200 reviews11	2.7% +£0.30 per transaction if monthly transactions are under £50,000. Amazon charges various cross-border fees. Discounts available if monthly transactions are higher12	Access to Amazon’s customer base
Shopify Payments	1.3 from +3k reviews13	Basic plan: 1.7% for in-person payments 2% + £0.25 for online payments14	Comprehensive range of e-commerce extensions

Comparing payment systems for small businesses: criteria

The payment services we’ve detailed below all have different strengths that suit different types of businesses. Some are better suited in person businesses, others are optimised for e-commerce at scale.

We’ve compared each based on:

• Features and services
• Fees
• Integrations

To find the best fit for your business, pay attention to the broader picture.

Stripe

Stripe is the world’s largest privately owned fintech company. It offers full service small business payment processing, from hobbyists to giants like H&M and Uber.

Small e-commerce businesses may find Stripe particularly appealing due to the relatively simple way you can add payment pages to websites. The pricing table plug-in is particularly useful for businesses selling subscription products.

Stripe integrates nicely with most of the tools small businesses use online. These include WordPress, Wix, Xero, Salesforce and HubSpot.

Features of the Stripe platform include:

• Local and global card payments
• Card machines
• Online and digital payment options
• Invoicing and recurring billing
• Payment links
• Support with business admin like tax

There are no subscription fees and you’ll be automatically enrolled in Stripe’s per-transaction pricing. So Stripe charges percentages plus flat fees for each payment you take. These start from 1.5% + £0.20 for UK cards.²

Despite the comprehensive payment solutions, Stripe suffers from poor Trustpilot ratings. As of May 2025, it has a score of 2.0 from more than 15,000 reviews².

Although, many complaints relate to perceived heavy-handed regulatory compliance, rather than poor product performance.

Considering Stripe? Our guide to using Stripe for payments could prove useful.

SumUp

SumUp provides payment processing, business account services and POS hardware for UK sole traders and business owners on a pay as you go model —the cheapest in our list— or a monthly plan called Payment Plus.

It is a popular solution for businesses and traders that make in-person sales. It also provides invoice payment processing, credit card processing for small business and online payments. The account opening process is typically quite simple, requiring just an IOS app.

SumUp is generally well reviewed and scores 4.0 on TrustPilot from more than 25,000 reviews. Many of the highest rated reviews suggest SumUm is a good choice for those who value personal customer service.

You have the option to open an associated SumUp Business Account or to use SumUp independently. Customers with an associated SumUp Business Account can have a debit card and benefit from 7am next-day pay outs¹⁵ on cleared transactions. Those without a SumUp account can expect to receive their payments within 1-3 business days.

SumUp has two main plans: Pay as you go and Payment Plus. Transaction fees vary by plan but start from 1.69% for in-person payments and 2.5% for online payments.⁴

SumUp features include:

• In person payments: Card readers, self service ordering kiosk, tap to pay by smartphone technology
• Digital payments: Invoices, online payments, online store, QR codes
• Financial: Business Account, cash advances

With a focus on in person business, SumUp integrates with a range of useful tools and products including UberEats, Deliveroo, Pepper and TipJAR. It also integrates well with the expected online business ecosystem tools like WooCommerce, Xero, QuickBooks and Otter.

SumUp has a customer service phone number and a comprehensive knowledge centre for troubleshooting problems.

Considering SumUp for your business? Dive into our in-depth SumUp review for more guidance.

GoCardless

GoCardless is similar to Stripe in some ways, but doesn’t facilitate in person payments. It’s therefore best suited to businesses taking payments digitally. The platform is popular with businesses trading globally due to providing payment collection from 30+ countries and using the mid-market rate for conversions.

Users rate it 2.5 stars on TrustPilot. The main issues relate to the platform’s stringent verification and anti money laundering processes.

GoCardless core features include:

• Recurring billing
• International payments with mid-market conversion rates
• Direct Debits
• Open Banking payments that can help users avoid card fees
• Automatic invoice and accounting reconciliation
• Automatic failed payment retry

GoCardless integrates with 350+ partners¹⁶ across accounting, customer relationship management, membership and subscription management and e-commerce. Notable integrations include Salesforce, Drupal, WooCommerce, Xero, QuickBooks and Sage.

Square

Square gives you a variety of ways to get paid online and in person. It offers POS hardware and payment processing, plus inventory tracking, scheduling and ordering tools. For online businesses, Square offers payment processing, recurring billing, analytics and business insights.

It’s a versatile platform that allows users to tailor their experience to their industry, making it popular with large e-commerce businesses and independent retailers alike.

Some of Square’s most popular features include:

• Payment links, buttons and QR codes
• Social selling via Meta platforms
• POS hardware and Android or IOS payment collections
• No chargeback fee, with PCI compliance as part of the transaction cost
• Gift card functionality
• App eco system that allows users to tailor their experience by sector, from fast food to e-commerce

Customers gave Square an average of 4.1 out 5 on TrustPilot, which is impressive. Ease of set up and simplicity of use are common reasons users like it.

Square’s transaction fees depend on the transaction type and method of payment. For in person card payments you’ll pay 1.75% and for online payments from UK cards you’ll pay 1.45% + £0.25, the transaction fees are 2.25% + £0.25 if taking payment from non-UK cards and 2.5% for manually keyed-in payments ⁸

You can access an impressive range of integrations through Square, with many industry specific tools supported. Highly rated partners include WooCommerce and Wix for e-commerce, Trunk and Thrive Inventory for stock management, Xero for accounting and Acuity for scheduling.

Zettle

Zettle is part of PayPal and functions mainly as a point of sale system offering a range of handy functions including barcode scanning and customer receipts. You can take payments on your phone and also get invoicing and ecommerce functionality, which is useful for businesses that sell in store and online. Like PayPal, Zettle has no monthly fees.

Inventory management is perhaps one of Zettle’s most useful features, as it syncs with the POS system and sends low stock alerts.

Key Zettle features include:

• Robust POS system
• Inventory and stock management
• Reporting
• Digital customer receipts
• Payment links
• Gift cards
• Online invoicing
• Barcode scanner

Zettle gets a 3.1 rating on TrustPilot from 5,152 reviews. Reviewers appreciate Zettle’s responsive customer service.

There are no monthly fees and the fee structure is very simple. You’ll pay 1.75% per transaction, with no variations based on transaction type. The card reader is reasonably priced at £29.

Zettle integrates mainly with POS products, including Vend, Hike and Lightspeed. You can also connect it to your Quickbooks or Xero account for bookkeeping and accounting and to Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce and Shopify for e-commerce.

Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay is more of a digital wallet than a payment service, but it does have a number of features that overlap with more traditional platforms. The main advantage of Amazon Pay is that it allows access to Amazon’s customer base of more than 300 million¹⁶ active customers.

This makes it a useful solution for businesses scaling up from an Amazon store and traders selling into markets not served by other payment platforms.

One of the biggest sources of friction in online checkouts is the need for new customers to create an account. Amazon Pay solves that problem by letting customers check out with their Amazon account. The downside is that you have fewer options to personalise the payment process to your business, but some integrations make it possible.

TrustPilot users rate Amazon Pay 1.4 out of 5 from 219 reviews, although a lot of these reviews are from unhappy buyers, rather than small businesses rating it as a payment solution.

Amazon Pay features include:

• The same robust fraud prevention and dispute processes used by Amazon.com
• Customer shipping and payment information pre-populated from Amazon account which reduces errors
• Subscription, recurring and deferred payments to support a variety of business models
• Pay outs normally take 1-2 business days, like Amazon

Amazon Pay’s transaction fee structure is based on your business’ monthly revenue. You’ll pay 2.7% +£0.30 per transaction if your monthly transactions stay under £50,000. Once your business starts taking more than £50,000 in monthly transactions, you can speak to Amazon Pay about a bulk discount.

Amazon Pay integrates with a handful of partners, including WooCommerce, Stripe, VisualSoft and PrestaShop. The latter is useful if you want to personalise the payment journey to suit your business.

Shopify Payments

Shopify started life as the payment gateway for a snowboarding website. It has since grown to include point of sale and e-commerce functionality. It is Canada’s second largest publicly traded company.

Many people know Shopify as an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create their own webstore and even create localised versions with translated text. Shopify Pay, also known as Shop Pay, taps into the rapidly growing global Shopify community.

The focus for Shopify Pay is simplifying the checkout process to increase conversion rates, making it ideal for dropshipping operations and e-commerce businesses looking to scale up or improve sales.

Once a customer saves their payment to any Shopify Pay account, it’s saved when they go to buy from another website using Shopify Pay. In some cases this means they only need to complete two fields in a checkout form, making the process extremely quick and efficient.

Shopify Pay doesn’t have its own TrustPilot rating. But Shopify does and it has a low score of 1.3 from 3,287 reviews. The majority of reviews are not about Shopify Pay, but the broader Shopify experience.

The Basic plan costs £19 per month and transactions fees start 1.7% for in-person payments rising to 2% + £0.25 for online payments.¹⁴ Shopify Pay’s broader pricing model is quite varied according to your plan, where you are, where your customers are and the types of transactions you accept. For the fuller picture, take a deeper dive into Shopify’s payment processing fees.

Shopify Pay integrates with a range of e-commerce and business partners, including Quickbooks, Microsoft and NETSUITE.

How to choose the right payment provider for small business?

Cost is an important consideration when looking at payment systems for small businesses, but you should consider what you get in return. Sometimes paying a monthly fee to access useful extra features can save cost in other areas. Customer service and support is also a major consideration.

Speak to other businesses in your sector and make a list of ‘must-have’ and ‘nice-to-have’ features might help you eliminate unnecessary extras and identify the right fit more quickly.

Receive payments in multiple currencies with Wise Business

Wise can help UK small businesses to receive payments from platforms in multiple currencies, with low fees and the mid-market exchange rate.

A Wise Business account comes with local account details to get paid in 8+ major foreign currencies like Euros and US Dollars just as easily as you do in Pounds, these payments can come directly from your customers, from PSPs like Stripe and Amazon, or from platforms like SumUp.

All you need to do is add the relevant currency account details to the platform you need to withdraw the funds. Once you receive the payment in Euros, Dollars or other supported currencies, you can hold this money into your multi-currency account, spend with Wise Business debit card or convert back to Pounds with low fees and the mid-market exchange rate.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

FAQs - payment systems for small businesses

Is there a free payment gateway for my business?

It’s rare that a payment provider can offer a totally free solution in the long run. For cost-sensitive businesses, look for providers that offer pay as you go solutions so you only deal with fees when you get paid.

Can I use more than one payment service as a small business?

Some businesses use multiple payment systems because they want access to various feature sets or because different providers are better suited to certain geographies. Others have a main solution and a backup solution. This approach can result in your business paying more fees than strictly necessary.

Can I use my own bank to manage small business payment processing?

Most banks offer business accounts with various payment solutions like card readers. It’s important to remember that banks specialise in broader financial services like debt and lending. Payment services specialise in facilitating small business payment processing.

So if you’re solely looking to find the best credit card processing for small business, be sure to check that your bank offers what you need.

Now that you’ve digested the common features and fee structures, and considered which features matter most to how you run your business, you should be in a good position to benchmark which providers best match your needs.

Sources used for this article

1. Trustpilot Stripe
2. Stripe Pricing
3. Trustpilot SumUp
4. SumUp Pricing
5. Trustpilot GoCardless
6. GoCardless Pricing
7. TrustpilotSquare
8. Square Pricing
9. Trustpilot Zettle
10. Zettle Pricing
11. Trustpilot Amazon Pay
12. Amazon Pay Pricing
13. Trustpilot Shopify
14. Shopify Pricing
15. GoCardless Integrations

Sources last checked on 13-May-2025