Everyone quotes 2.9% plus 30 cents, but your real cost depends on your volume and how big your average sale is. Put in your numbers and this works out the true effective rate and monthly fee for every major processor, then shows exactly where flat-rate pricing loses to subscription and interchange-plus deals.
We costed 15 card processors on a real month rather than on the rate they advertise: $10,000 of card sales at a $60 average ticket, which is what this page's calculator uses. The cheapest is Adyen at $232 a month, or 2.32% of takings, and the dearest Lemon Squeezy at $583, or 5.83%. Only 5 of 15 hold the position their headline percentage suggests. Payment Depot advertises 1.80% against Adyen at 2.10%, and charges $79 a month for it. On $2,000 of card sales that is $120 a month against $46: the lower rate costs 2.6 times as much. It only wins above about $29,600 a month.
Method: monthly fee plus the percentage of $10,000 plus the fixed fee on each of 167 transactions, which is $10,000 at a $60 ticket. Counts by model: Interchange 2, Subscription 2, Flat 8, Merchant of record 3. The monthly fee is included on purpose: leave it out and the subscription processors look cheapest, which is the impression their pricing is built to give and is wrong for anyone under $29,600 a month. Interchange is not included, because it is the same for everyone and is not what these companies compete on. Cite this: "usefulHQ Card Processing Study 2026", usefulhq.com/payment-processors/.
Rates reviewed 27 August 2026 . Standard online (card-not-present) consumer-card pricing in USD; your real rate varies with card mix and negotiation.
That is about 167 sales a month. Change either number and every row updates.
| Processor | Type | Advertised | Monthly fee | Effective rate | Total fees/mo | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AdyenCheapest Interchange plus a low 13c fixed fee; built for very large global volume. | Interchange | 2.10% + $.13 | – | 2.32% | $232 | Enterprise & global | Visit site |
| Helcim Interchange-plus with no monthly fee and volume discounts; margin shrinks as you grow. | Interchange | 2.30% + $.08 | – | 2.43% | $243 | Transparent interchange-plus | Visit site |
| Payment Depot Membership model: interchange at cost plus a small per-transaction fee, no percentage markup. | Subscription | 1.80% + $.15 | $79 | 2.84% | $284 | Mid-to-high volume | Visit site |
| Stax Subscription pricing that only wins at scale, where the flat monthly fee spreads thin. | Subscription | 1.80% + $.10 | $99 | 2.96% | $296 | High volume ($50k+/mo) | Visit site |
| Chase Payment Solutions Slightly lower fixed fee and next-day deposits if you already bank with Chase. | Flat | 2.90% + $.25 | – | 3.32% | $332 | Chase business banking | Visit site |
| Stripe The online default. Flat rate, no monthly fee, best-in-class API and docs. | Flat | 2.90% + $.30 | – | 3.40% | $340 | Developers & SaaS | Visit site |
| Square Same rate online and in the app, with strong free point-of-sale tools. | Flat | 2.90% + $.30 | – | 3.40% | $340 | In-person plus online | Visit site |
| Shopify Payments Skips Shopify’s extra third-party gateway fee; only available on Shopify. | Flat | 2.90% + $.30 | – | 3.40% | $340 | Shopify stores | Visit site |
| Amazon Pay Lets shoppers pay with their Amazon account; rate matches Stripe and Square. | Flat | 2.90% + $.30 | – | 3.40% | $340 | Amazon-account checkout | Visit site |
| Braintree PayPal-owned. Lower percentage but a higher 49c fixed fee, so ticket size decides. | Flat | 2.59% + $.49 | – | 3.41% | $341 | Scaling online brands | Visit site |
| Authorize.net Adds a $25/mo gateway fee on top of the per-transaction rate; legacy but reliable. | Flat | 2.90% + $.30 | $25 | 3.65% | $365 | Established gateway | Visit site |
| PayPal The 49c fixed fee bites small tickets, but the brand and buyer protection lift conversion. | Flat | 2.99% + $.49 | – | 3.81% | $381 | Buyer trust & reach | Visit site |
| 2Checkout (Verifone) Merchant of record handling worldwide tax and fraud; higher rate buys that coverage. | Merchant of record | 3.50% + $.35 | – | 4.08% | $408 | Global digital goods | Visit site |
| Paddle They become merchant of record and remit your global sales tax and VAT. Worth 5% for many SaaS. | Merchant of record | 5.00% + $.50 | – | 5.83% | $583 | SaaS with tax handled | Visit site |
| Lemon Squeezy Merchant of record for indie makers; flat 5% + 50c covers global tax compliance. | Merchant of record | 5.00% + $.50 | – | 5.83% | $583 | Indie digital sellers | Visit site |
It depends on your volume and ticket size. Flat-rate players (Stripe, Square, Shopify Payments) win at low to medium volume; past roughly $40k to $50k a month, subscription and interchange-plus (Stax, Payment Depot, Helcim) usually take over. Enter your numbers to see your own answer.
Total monthly fees divided by total monthly volume, as a percentage. It combines the percentage, the fixed per-transaction fee and any monthly fee into one number. A high fixed fee hurts most on small tickets, since you pay it on every sale.
Stripe is usually cheaper because its fixed fee is 30 cents against PayPal's 49 cents. PayPal can still earn its keep through higher checkout conversion. On small tickets the fixed-fee gap really matters, so run your real figures.
Providers like Paddle and Lemon Squeezy legally resell your product and remit sales tax and VAT worldwide for you. They cost more, around 5 percent, but for global digital goods that can beat handling tax compliance yourself.