Every processor.
Graded on evidence.

Paystack is a payment aggregator for businesses in Africa, founded in Lagos in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, put through Y Combinator in early 2016 and bought by Stripe in October 2020 in a deal widely reported at over $200 million. Its own help desk says the service is available to businesses registered in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya, with Côte d'Ivoire — which has a published rate card — described as a private beta alongside Egypt. Paystack's site says more than 200,000 businesses use it; its chief executive put the figure at 300,000 in January 2026. A merchant signs up with Paystack rather than applying for a merchant account of their own, which is the reason onboarding is quick and the reason Paystack, not an acquiring bank, decides when to hold funds. Pricing is published in full for every market, which is unusual in this segment: Nigeria is 1.5% + ₦100 on local transactions with the ₦100 waived under ₦2,500 and the whole fee capped at ₦2,000, 3.9% + ₦100 on international cards; South Africa is 2.9% + R1 excluding VAT locally and 3.1% + R1 internationally; Ghana is a flat 1.95%; Kenya is 1.5% on M-PESA and 2.9% on local cards; Côte d'Ivoire is 1.95% on mobile money and 3.2% on local cards. Settlement is next working day in Nigeria and Ghana and two working days in South Africa, with no setup or monthly charge. In January 2026 the business reorganised under a holding company, The Stack Group, whose founding shareholders are Stripe, Paystack's employees and Akinlade, alongside the Zap transfer app and a microfinance bank. The reservations are the ones that come with any aggregator: the Central Bank of Nigeria fined Paystack ₦250 million in April 2025 over Zap operating outside its licence, and the public review record is dominated by accounts of balances held during compliance review.

Next working day in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire; two working days in South Africa

Expert grade BRead review →

Mindbody

C+

Mindbody is booking, scheduling and point-of-sale software for fitness studios, gyms, salons and spas, founded in San Luis Obispo, California in 2001 and now the best-known brand in wellness software. Payment processing is sold as Mindbody Payments, built on Stripe Connect, and takes cards, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and Tap to Pay in more than forty countries. The pricing picture is unusually lopsided: Mindbody's own support documentation publishes card-present and card-not-present rates for around twenty regions — Canada at 2.89% + $0.25 CAD online and 2.39% + $0.10 CAD in person, the UK at 2.19% + 20p and 1.99% + 10p, most of the EU at 2.4% + €0.25 — and for the United States and Australia prints an email address instead. Software runs from $79 a month per location on the Starter plan, with the Accelerate and Ultimate tiers quoted rather than listed. Bookings that come through the consumer Mindbody app via its marketing tools are charged 3.5% plus a 20% marketplace fee, capped at $30 and applied only to a new client's first purchase. The terms of service, updated 20 March 2026, make early exit expensive: fees are non-refundable, thirty days' notice is required, and a customer who leaves before the end of a subscription term remains liable for the rest of it. The corporate context changed twice recently — the brands were gathered under a parent called Playlist in June 2025, and that business completed a merger with the German connected-fitness company EGYM in March 2026 at a combined valuation of $7.5 billion.

US cards 1–2 business days; ACH 2–5; first payout takes at least 7

Expert grade C+Read review →

Mangopay

Mangopay is payment infrastructure for marketplaces and platforms rather than a processor a shop signs up with. It launched in 2013 as a spin-off of the French group-gifting site Leetchi, was bought by Crédit Mutuel Arkéa in 2015, and has been majority-owned by Advent International since April 2022, which put €75 million of new capital in at the same time; Sergi Herrero, previously global director for payments and commerce partnerships at Meta, has been chief executive since September 2024. Mangopay S.A. is registered in Luxembourg and licensed by the CSSF as an electronic money institution, which is the core of the product: it can open an e-wallet for every buyer and seller on a platform, hold funds there, split a payment between several parties, and pay out later — the money movement a marketplace legally cannot do itself without a licence of its own. Its UK arm, Mangopay U.K. Limited, has been an FCA-authorised electronic money institution since 2023, under firm reference 984753. The company says it has created 207 million wallets and processed €68 billion in transactions, and its named clients are the big European marketplaces: Vinted, Wallapop, Chrono24, Rakuten France, ManoMano, Malt, Mirakl. It bought the Polish anti-fraud firm Nethone in November 2022 and the Dublin payment orchestrator WhenThen in March 2023, and now sells fraud screening, identity verification, FX across twenty-plus wallet currencies, payouts in thirty-plus countries and virtual IBANs alongside the core wallet. What it does not do is publish prices: pricing is custom and volume-based, quoted per platform, with no self-serve tier and no public rate card.

Pricing clarity: 2.0
Feature set: 4.5
Ease of use: 3.5

Venmo (Business Profiles)

A Venmo business profile lets a sole proprietor, club or registered business accept payments from Venmo's 67 million monthly users inside the app — by username, QR code, or, since March 2024, Tap to Pay on a phone — and it is the only Venmo product that a merchant signs up for directly rather than through PayPal or Braintree. Venmo was founded in New York in 2009 by Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, bought by Braintree in 2012 and by PayPal with Braintree in 2013; it is operated by PayPal, Inc., which holds money-transmitter licences in every US state and is not a bank, and business profiles were opened to all sellers in February 2021. On PayPal's fee page as of September 2026 a business profile pays 1.9% + $0.10 on every payment of $1 or more it receives from another Venmo account, and 2.29% + $0.09 on a contactless card or wallet accepted with Tap to Pay, which is available on iPhone and Android in the United States only. There are no monthly, setup or chargeback fees, receiving is unlimited, and money moves to a bank for free in one to three business days or in minutes for 1.75% (minimum $0.25, maximum $25). The customer pays nothing extra, even when funding with a credit card, and buyers get Venmo's Purchase Protection on business-profile payments. What it is not is a merchant account: there is no interchange-plus, no invoicing, no card-on-file, no integrations, no seller protection beyond documented shipped-goods claims, one login per profile, management only in the app — and an operator whose 1.1 TrustScore from 1,268 reviews and 4,581 BBB complaints in three years are dominated by frozen accounts and held balances.

Pricing clarity: 4.5
Feature set: 2.5
Ease of use: 4.0

Jobber

B+

Jobber is field-service management software for home-service businesses — lawn care, cleaning, HVAC, plumbing, electrical and about fifty other trades — with card and bank processing built in as Jobber Payments. The company, legally Octopusapp Inc., was founded in Edmonton, Alberta in 2011 by Sam Pillar and Forrest Zeisler and is still run by them; it raised US$100 million from General Atlantic in February 2023 and says more than 400,000 service professionals use the product. Jobber does not hold a merchant agreement itself: Jobber Payments is processed by Stripe, Inc. under Stripe's connected-account terms, which is what makes the rate card flat and the onboarding fast. As of September 2026 the published rates are the same on every plan — 2.9% + 30¢ for cards paid online through the client hub, 2.7% + 30¢ for Tap to Pay in the field, 1% for US bank payments (ACH), and an extra 1% for an instant payout — with a chargeback fee (amount unpublished) that is refunded if you win and no monthly processing charge beyond the software subscription, which runs from $49 a month (Core, one user, no commitment) to $199 a month (Grow) at list. Payouts run on a rolling two-business-day window after a five-day authorization period on the first payment; ACH takes about four business days. The processing is available in the US, Canada and the UK; ACH, the card reader and the Jobber Money account are US-only. The trade-off is the software: its subscription is the real cost, it auto-renews, and prepaid annual fees are non-refundable, which is the substance of most of the complaints on record.

Two business days rolling; first payout after a 5-business-day authorization

Expert grade B+Read review →

Housecall Pro

Housecall Pro is field-service software for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning and other home-service trades, with card, ACH and consumer-financing acceptance built in as HCP Payments. Codefied Inc., which trades as Housecall Pro, was founded in San Diego in 2013 by a team including Ian Heidt and Roland Ligtenberg, took $125 million from Permira Growth Opportunities and Vista Credit Partners in June 2022, has since moved its headquarters to Denver, and says more than 200,000 home-service professionals use the product. The processing is Stripe's: the terms of service bind every customer to Stripe's Services and Connected Account agreements, and Stripe applies the $25 dispute fee. The rates, published in the help centre as of September 2026, are percentage-only with no per-transaction cents — 2.59% for cards dipped, tapped or swiped in the field (Tap to Pay adds $5 per active device a month), 2.99% for cards paid online against an invoice, 3.49% for keyed, card-on-file and scanned cards and for American Express and business cards, 1% for ACH, 2.99% for PayPal and Venmo, and 4.99% for PayPal Pay Later and Klarna — with mobile check deposit free. Standard payouts take two business days, with up to seven for the first and Instapay in about 30 minutes for 1%. The software runs $79 a month (Basic, one user) to $329 a month (MAX, eight users) billed monthly, or $59 to $299 billed annually, with no long-term contract. The record is the problem: a 2.4 TrustScore from 638 reviews, 76 BBB complaints in three years and a steady stream of reports about held funds, surprise price increases and cancellations that require a phone call.

Two business days for cards; up to 7 for the first payout

Vagaro

Vagaro is booking, point-of-sale and marketing software for salons, spas, barbers, medical spas, gyms and studios, sold from Pleasanton, California since 2009 by founder and chief executive Fred Helou. Card processing is built in through Vagaro Merchant Services, a registered ISO of PNC Bank, N.A., and priced on two published plans: small merchants under $4,000 a month pay 2.6% + $0.10 for swiped, dipped and tapped cards with no monthly fee, and large merchants above that pay 2.29% + $0.19 for $10 a month. Every keyed, online, card-on-file and membership charge is 3.5% + $0.19 on either plan, card-brand FANF and Mastercard location fees pass through, buy-now-pay-later through Affirm costs 6% + $0.30, and surcharging is not allowed. Deposits arrive the next business day after a batch, with same-day and instant payouts at 1.75%. The software is $30 a month for one calendar (currently $23.99 for the first six months) plus $10 a calendar up to seven, month to month with no cancellation fee, and the US marketplace listing is free — Vagaro only takes a 20% cut when you opt into its Fill My Books promotions. The rate card is clear and competitive in person; the weak spots are the keyed rate, a BBB review score of 1.09 out of 5 with recurring complaints of duplicate charges and hardware warranty disputes, and the lack of any way to pass fees on to clients.

Next business day after the batch; weekend sales on Monday

Expert grade BRead review →

FreshBooks Payments

FreshBooks Payments is the built-in way to get paid on a FreshBooks invoice. FreshBooks, the Toronto accounting software company founded in 2003 by Mike McDerment, rebuilt the product on Stripe Connect in 2024, retiring the WePay-powered version in the process, and now runs it as a white-labelled Stripe account you open from inside FreshBooks. It is sold only to businesses in the United States and Canada, on top of a FreshBooks subscription ($23 to $70 a month at list, or the custom Select plan). Published US pricing is 2.9% + $0.30 on domestic consumer cards, 3.5% + $0.30 on American Express and business cards, 1% on ACH with no cap outside Select, 3.5% + $0.30 on anything run through the $20-a-month Advanced Payments add-on (virtual terminal, saved cards, AutoPay), 6% + $0.30 on Affirm and Afterpay, plus 1.5% for cards issued abroad, 2% for currency conversion and $15 per dispute. Card money arrives two business days after the charge once the account is established, but every new account waits seven business days for its first payout, and Stripe's reserves and verification holds apply. There is no monthly fee, no minimum and no contract for the payments product itself. It is convenient and priced at the Stripe standard for small invoices; it is a poor fit for a business collecting large bank transfers, which pay the full 1% with no ceiling.

2 business days for cards after a 7-business-day first payout; ACH 4 days

Blackbaud Merchant Services (Blackbaud Integrated Payments)

C+

Blackbaud Merchant Services — renamed Blackbaud Integrated Payments (BBIP) in 2025 — is the payment processing built into Blackbaud's fundraising, school and CRM software: Raiser's Edge NXT, eTapestry, Luminate Online, Blackbaud Tuition Management and the rest. Blackbaud, founded in Charleston, South Carolina in 1981 and listed on Nasdaq, does not process or hold the money itself; under its August 2025 payments terms the designated processor is Stripe, Inc., and each organization signs Stripe's sub-merchant agreement through Blackbaud. The published US rate is 2.99% + $0.30 per card transaction (3.5% + $0.30 on American Express), 1% + $0.30 capped at $5 for ACH, and a $15 chargeback fee, with no setup or monthly processing fee. What the rate card does not show is the rest of the bill: a payment enablement fee charged to every customer with a payments-capable product whether or not they process anything, a new online-form platform fee of 1.5% to 2% on top of processing from 1 July 2026, and a software subscription that renews on a standard three-year term unless you give 45 days' notice. Add the 2020 ransomware breach — a $49.5 million multistate settlement, a $3 million SEC penalty, a $6.8 million California judgment and a 2024 FTC order — and a D- BBB rating for the company, and the convenience of one integrated system carries a real cost. It is the default for organizations already committed to Blackbaud software; it is not a processor anyone picks on its own merits.