Authorize.net is a payment gateway that helps companies to accept credit cards and other online payments. A payment gateway is basically an online credit card terminal. The payment gateway encrypts and securely authorizes credit card transactions. Payment gateways are crucial for a business to accept online payments and store credit card information.

Authorize.net Fees

The Authorize.net payment gateway has two specific plans, an all-in-one account provider and a gateway or a payment gateway only. Transaction fees with the all-in-one option are similar to competitors. Authroize.net’s prices include the following: 

• A 2.9% plus 30 cents fee per transaction and $25 per month for a merchant account. 
• A 10 cents per transaction, 10 cents daily batch fee, and $25 per month for payment gateway alone.
• ACH payments are billed at 0.75% per transaction.

Authorize.net Offered Features

Every Authorize.net account includes these features: 

• Fraud Detection: They provide a built-in fraud detection system to automatically identify suspicious transactions and unusual IP addresses. The tool can also be configured based on your business needs.

• Customer Manager: The customer manager allows customers to save their payment and shipping information for current and future orders.

• Recurring Payments: Enables recurring payments and automatic monthly billing for subscription-based services.

• Invoicing: Allows you to send custom invoices to customers through email and view reports to see invoice status. 

Drawbacks Of The Auth Net Payment Gateway

While the auth net payment gateway has many benefits, it also comes with some drawbacks, including: 

• User Interface Is Outdated: While the auth net payment gateway is simple to use, the backend could be better. Users have noticed that the administrative website is outdated, cluttered, and not intuitive.

• Expensive To Sign Up Through Authorize.Net: You can sign up for Authorize.Net’s gateway service directly or through a third-party reseller. Going through a third-party reseller can be less expensive than signing up directly with Authorize.net.

A Better Alternative To Authroize.Net

Bankful is a better alternative to Authorize.Net for several reasons, including:

1. More Affordable: Bankful’s credit card processing starts at $0 plus $0.10 per transaction. The following package is $15 a month and includes credit card processing, crypto processing, and fraud shield plus the $0.10 per transaction fee. Their most popular plan is $20 a month and includes a $0.10 per transaction fee, a $0.06 per crypto transaction fee, credit card processing, crypto processing, fraud shield, email and SMS invoicing, and eCheck.

2. Ability To Accept Different Currencies: Bankful allows you to accept payments in more formats than Authorize.Net, including eChecks, check imaging, and cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether. 

3. Solutions Experts: Bankful has custom financial technology offerings based on research, planning, and development.

4. Useful Integrations: Bankul provides useful integrations to give your business APIs and an SDK at your fingertips. They also integrate with Shopify, Square, Wix, WooCommerce, Plaid, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and more.

5. More Customization Features: Bankful offers a flexible hosted payment page that both reflects your brand and gives you the ability to style your eCommerce store. You can choose from pre-made themes, set a timer, so the customer is directed to their cart, select options for a money-back guarantee or free shipping, and more.

6. SMS Invoicing: Bankful gives you the ability to send SMS invoices for a higher response rate. By targeting your customers in this simple way, your customers can pay their invoices faster and with a modern payment experience. You can also make your invoices professional by customizing them with your company name and logo. 

7. Buy Now Pay Later Options: Bankful offers a buy now pay later option for your customers to increase their convenience. This option also allows you to maximize your average order value, convert browsers into shoppers, reduce shopping cart abandonment, and grow your ROI.

8. Specialize In High-Risk Merchants: Bankful specializes in payment processing for high-risk merchants from industries of all types. Due to them understanding the risks associated with your business, you will have a higher chance of approval.

9. Customizable Subscription Billing: Like Authorize.net, Bankful also offers subscription billing services; however, they have more customizable options. They allow you to design email templates and further control your customer’s experience. Bankful also allows you to simply change pricing plans when needed and create variants such as automated discounts, promotions, coupons, and more with ease.

10. Streamline Check Processing: Bankful’s eCheck Plus allows your business to instantly receive digital checks. It also helps with secure funding, has fewer restrictions than ACH processing, provides advanced verification tools to validate data in real time, and allows businesses to send invoices by email. eCheck Plus also includes features such as bulk upload, signature capture, and document recognition.

11. Global Reach: Bankful supports a worldwide network in almost every country and supports almost every currency. This is an excellent option for any business that sells internationally and wants to provide its customers with the convenience of using nearly any currency.

Things To Consider When Choosing A Payment A Payment Gateway

Choosing the correct payment gateway is an essential step in building your business. You’ll need to select a gateway that fits your business needs. 

Here are some essential factors to consider: 

1. Cost

The most important factor when choosing a payment gateway is cost. The costs involved often include set-up fees, monthly fees, and transaction fees. To find a budget-friendly solution for your business, you need to consider the volume and amount of your transactions. If your business has lots of high-value transactions, be sure to select a payment gateway that offers a low transaction fee. 

2. Card Types Accepted

The most common cards used are Visa, MasterCard, and Amex. However, if your customers choose to pay you with other card types, you need to ensure your payment gateway can support those card types. 

3.  Multi-Currency Support

If your business performs business internationally, you will need to ensure your payment gateway can handle multiple currencies. You will also need to check the fees involved in accepting these foreign currencies.

4.  Payment Time

Even though payments are approved immediately, the money can be held for a few days before reaching your account. These payment holding times can vary from 1 to 7 days, depending on the payment gateway. 

5.  Recurring Payment Options

If you offer a subscription-based business, you need a payment gateway that can handle recurring billing. The payment gateway needs to be able to store customer information for future transactions and give you the ability to charge cards automatically on a scheduled basis. 

6. Security

When you are accepting online payments, you are storing sensitive customer data, so you need a gateway that offers the best security. Different payment gateways have different security standards. Ensuring the gateway you choose is PCI-compliant will help to ensure the safety of your customer’s data.

7. Mobile Payment Options

A large number of customers shop using their mobile devices, so it is crucial to choose a gateway that can accept mobile payments. This gives your customers more flexibility over their payment options. 

8.  Transaction Limits

Specific payment gateways set transaction limits for the amount that you can process every month. If your business handles a large number of transactions, then you need to be aware of whether your payment gateway has these limits.

9.  Integration

It is essential to choose a payment gateway that can connect to your current accounting or invoicing software so that when online transactions happen, the invoice will automatically update your systems to save you time and effort.

Final Thoughts

The Authorize.Net payment gateway is a decent option for businesses that need a payment gateway, however, Bankful is much more affordable and offers several additional features including solutions experts, useful integrations with major eCommerce websites, SMS invoicing, hosted payment pages, buy now pay later options, and more.

Partnering with Bankful can provide your business with an affordable rate, more opportunities to engage your customer and increase sales, customize your pages to your brand, invoice conveniently, increase approval odds, and more. 

Choosing Bankful’s payment gateway as your provider can allow you to accept online payments and keep your customers satisfied and your future transactions secure.