Payment gateways UK compared on one online shop
For a UK shop taking £5,000 a month online at a £40 average order, the no-monthly-fee payment gateways cost between £97.50 and £182.50 a month. Stripe, Square and PayPal's card rate all land between £97.50 and £101.25; SumUp costs £125.00; PayPal costs £182.50 when customers pay from a PayPal account; Opayo starts from £74.50 with a monthly fee; Adyen and Worldpay need a quote.
Every rate read from the provider's own UK pricing page on 1 November 2026. Sources are linked in the table.
UK payment gateways side by side
| Gateway | UK card rate online | Monthly fee | Watch for | Cost on £5,000 (125 orders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 1.5% + 20p | £0 | Business cards 2.8% + 20p | £100.00 |
| Square | 1.4% + 25p | £0/month | Non-UK cards 2.5% + 25p | £101.25 |
| PayPal (customer pays by card) | 1.2% + 30p | £0 | Advanced card payments need approval; guest card checkout is the same rate | £97.50 |
| PayPal (customer pays with PayPal) | 2.9% + 30p | £0 | Tiered rate available on request | £182.50 |
| SumUp | 2.5% | £0 | Flat rate, no fixed fee | £125.00 |
| Opayo by Elavon | from 0.99% | £25 | 350 transactions free; rate subject to card turnover | from £74.50 |
| Adyen | £0.11 + Interchange++ + 0.60% | £0, minimum invoice applies | Minimum invoice amount not published | £58.75 to £63.75 + scheme fees |
| Worldpay | Not published | Not published | Quote tool only | Quote only |
All UK consumer cards, checked 1 November 2026. Adyen's range uses its own statement that European interchange runs at around 0.3% to 0.4%; scheme fees and its minimum invoice are not published. Worldpay publishes no online rate.
The arithmetic, line by line
- Stripe: £5,000 × 1.5% + 125 × 20p = £100.00
- Square: £5,000 × 1.4% + 125 × 25p = £101.25
- PayPal (customer pays by card): £5,000 × 1.2% + 125 × 30p = £97.50
- PayPal (customer pays with PayPal): £5,000 × 2.9% + 125 × 30p = £182.50
- SumUp: £5,000 × 2.5% = £125.00
- Opayo by Elavon: £25 + £5,000 × 0.99% = from £74.50
- Adyen: 125 × 11p + £5,000 × 0.6% + interchange = £58.75 to £63.75 + scheme fees
On this shop Stripe's effective rate is 2.00%, Square's 2.02% and SumUp's 2.50%. SumUp has no fixed fee, so it gains on small orders and loses on large ones: below a £20.00 order it is cheaper than Stripe.
Square sells a Premium online plan at £64/month billed annually that cuts the fixed fee to 15p. It saves £0.10 an order, so it only pays for itself above 640 orders a month. The house shop, at 125 orders, should stay on the Free plan.
What a payment gateway does
A payment gateway is the part of an online payment system that takes the card details at checkout, checks them with the card issuer and passes the result back to your site. Card payment processing then moves the money, and a merchant account (held by the acquirer) is where it lands before it reaches your bank.
Stripe, Square, PayPal and SumUp bundle all three, so one sign-up covers everything. Opayo sells the gateway and merchant account together on its Always Open plan; Adyen and Worldpay contract with you as the acquirer. Our guides to whether you need a merchant account and payment facilitators vs merchant accounts explain the trade-off.
Is there a free payment gateway?
Not in the sense of costing nothing. “Free” in this market means no monthly fee: Stripe, Square's Free plan, PayPal and SumUp charge only per payment, which is the right structure for a shop under a few thousand pounds a month. A gateway with a monthly fee, such as Opayo at £25, has to save you more than that fee in lower transaction costs to be worth it.
Best payment gateway by business
Small shop selling to consumers
Stripe or Square. They cost £100.00 and £101.25 on the house example and have no monthly fee. Pick the one your website platform supports; the £1.25 a month between them is noise.
Customers who expect a PayPal button
Offer PayPal alongside card checkout, never instead of it. PayPal-account payments cost 2.9% + 30p, so the same £5,000 paid that way is £182.50, £82.50 more than Stripe. Our PayPal business fees guide covers the tiered rate that brings it down.
Steady volume above £2,475 a month
Get a written Opayo quote. Its published from-price beats Stripe above about £2,475 a month at £40 orders: £25 ÷ (2% Stripe effective rate − 0.99%), but only if you are actually offered 0.99%. 350 transactions free is the gateway allowance; the price beyond it is not published.
Business customers or international sales
Flat rates punish this mix. Stripe charges 2.8% + 20p on business cards and 3.15% + 20p on international ones. Interchange++ pricing, as Adyen publishes it, passes the real card cost through instead, and becomes worth the minimum invoice once volume is high enough. Ask for both quotes and compare effective rates on a month of your own sales.
Want this comparison run on your own sales?
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Taking payments in person as well?
Online gateways are priced differently from card machines, so a business taking both should check each side on its own numbers. Our card machine costs by turnover page covers in-person pricing, and the free statement review checks a real statement line by line.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free payment gateway in the UK?
Several have no monthly fee: Stripe, Square's Free plan, PayPal and SumUp all charge only when you take a payment. None is free to use. On £5,000 a month at £40 orders they cost between £97.50 and £182.50 a month, depending on provider and how customers pay.
Do I need a merchant account to take payments online?
Not with Stripe, Square, PayPal or SumUp: they act as the merchant account for you. Opayo's Always Open plan bundles a gateway and merchant account together, online, phone and mail order. Adyen and Worldpay contract with you directly as the acquirer.
Which payment gateway is cheapest for a small online shop?
At £5,000 a month and £40 orders, PayPal's card rate (£97.50), Stripe (£100.00) and Square (£101.25) are within £3.75 of each other. Opayo's published from-price of £74.50 is lower, but the 0.99% is a starting rate subject to turnover and the £25 is due every month. Below about £2,475 a month at £40 orders, the no-monthly-fee gateways win outright.
Is Adyen suitable for a small business?
Adyen's pricing is £0.11 per transaction plus Interchange++ + 0.60% on Visa and Mastercard, with no monthly fees, set-up fees, integration fees or closure fees. A minimum invoice applies depending on industry or business model; the amount is not published. Until you know that minimum, you cannot cost Adyen for a small shop, so ask for it in writing first.
What does Worldpay charge for online payments?
Not published: Worldpay’s online quote tool gives indicative pricing only after you enter turnover, average transaction value and industry. Get the indicative summary from the tool and compare its effective rate with the published figures on this page.