Payplug Review

Payplug is a Paris-based payment provider for French and European merchants, owned by the French banking group BPCE and, since September 2026, the omnichannel brand of BPCE Merchant Services. It is a licensed French payment institution. Merchants sign up online, get a payment account in Payplug's books and take card and local payment methods online, on Android terminals, and on phones through SoftPOS and Tap to Pay on iPhone. Pricing is published by plan, and all prices are ex-VAT. As of October 2026, Starter costs €10 a month and charges 1.5% + €0.25 online or 1.5% + €0.10 in store on euro-zone consumer cards. Pro costs €30 a month and charges 1.1% on the same cards. Business cards cost 2.5% and cards from outside the euro zone cost 2.9%. Merchants turning over more than €1 million get custom pricing. The payment contract has no fixed term and can be ended on 30 days' notice, but a rented terminal comes with a 24-month contract and early-exit fees. Money is not paid out automatically by default. You request a transfer, and Payplug says about seven days can pass between request and arrival, or up to ten business days for a new account's first transfer. The terms let Payplug hold funds and set up reserves. Chargebacks cost €18 including VAT each. Trustpilot shows a split picture, but almost all of its reviews are more than two years old.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Payplug’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Payplug is

Payplug is a French payment provider for merchants that sell mainly in France and the rest of Europe. It was founded in Paris in 2012 by Camille Tyan and Antoine Grimaud to make online payment simple for small e-commerce businesses. It has since added in-store terminals, phone-based acceptance and services for larger merchants. The company says more than 18,000 merchants use it on its French site (17,000 on its English page) and that it has about 350 staff and offices in Paris, Milan and Amsterdam. These are its own figures, as of October 2026.

Payplug is owned by Groupe BPCE, the French banking group behind Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne. BPCE's Natixis completed a majority stake in April 2017, with a €7 million capital increase, while the founders kept running the company. Payplug's own timeline says it and Dalenys, another payments company in the group, joined forces in 2022, while BPCE dates the integration of Dalenys to 2023. The French company register shows how this happened: a notice published in January 2023 records Dalenys Payment's renaming as Payplug Enterprise SAS, and the original PayPlug company transferred its business to it in mid-2023 and was struck off later that year. That is why the legal entity behind Payplug today was registered in 2002 and authorised in 2011, before the Payplug brand existed. In September 2026 BPCE launched BPCE Merchant Services, a unit bringing together the group's in-store, online and omnichannel merchant payments, with Payplug as its omnichannel solution. Antoine Grimaud, Payplug's co-founder, leads it.

Why we list Payplug as a payment facilitator

The merchant signs a single framework payment-services contract with Payplug Enterprise SAS. Payplug opens a payment account in its own books, collects the money there, and pays out to the merchant's bank on request. Onboarding is self-serve, at prices Payplug publishes, and Payplug underwrites the account and decides on holds and reserves. Payplug is a licensed payment institution, not just a reseller. However, its own card-acceptance annex defines the Cartes Bancaires acquirer as a separate member of the CB scheme that is contractually bound to Payplug, rather than Payplug itself. Many merchants under one aggregating provider, with a separate acquirer behind it, is the facilitator model in our taxonomy. Payplug also sells payment services to other payment facilitators at the Enterprise level.

What it costs

Payplug publishes its pricing by indicative annual turnover. All figures below are ex-VAT and current as of October 2026.

• Starter (turnover up to about €100,000): €10 a month. Euro-zone consumer cards cost 1.5% + €0.25 online and 1.5% + €0.10 in store.
• Pro (€100,000 to €1 million): €30 a month, with three months free. Euro-zone consumer cards cost 1.1% + €0.25 online and 1.1% + €0.10 in store. Pro adds one-click, deferred and split payment, Smart 3-D Secure and multiple users.
• On both plans, business cards cost 2.5% and cards issued outside the euro zone cost 2.9%, plus €0.25 online or €0.10 in store.
• Enterprise (over €1 million): custom volume pricing that takes interchange into account.
• Other methods, subject to eligibility: American Express 2.90% + €0.25; Apple Pay at the card rate; Scalapay 3.99% + €0.10; Oney 2.10% + €0.25; iDEAL | Wero €0.39; Bancontact 1.40% + €0.25; MyBank 1.50% + €0.40; Satispay 1.20% + €0.25; Wero on request.
• Chargebacks: €18 including VAT each, according to the help centre.

As an illustration, take a shop on Pro taking €20,000 a month online in 400 payments of €50, all on euro-zone consumer cards. Fees would be €220 + €100 = €320, plus the €30 subscription, for €350 ex-VAT, or about 1.75%. With VAT on top that is €420. The same volume on Starter would cost €300 + €100 + €10 = €410 ex-VAT. The rate gap matters more as volume rises, but the mix of cards matters too: every business card or non-euro card costs 2.5% or 2.9% whatever the plan. Two caveats apply. The terms say transaction fees may be subject to a monthly minimum. And a Payplug help article from 2023 still quotes older plan rates (1.2% + €0.25 on Starter, 0.8% + €0.15 on Pro). The pricing page is the current source, and your offer in the portal is what you will actually pay.

How it works

You sign up online, and to activate the account Payplug asks for company and identity documents. Its help centre says a business must be registered, so a sole trader in France needs a SIRET number. Online, Payplug offers e-commerce plug-ins, an API and payment links sent by email or SMS. 3-D Secure is on by default for payments from €100, and you can turn it on from the first euro. In store, you can buy or rent Payplug's Android terminals or run its app on compatible existing terminals. SoftPOS turns an Android phone or tablet into a contactless terminal, and Tap to Pay works on an iPhone XS or later. Both take PIN entry for payments over €50. In-store and online payments are reconciled in one portal, with accounting exports and integrations into checkout software. For American Express on terminals, the help centre says you need your own contract with Amex, which settles those payments directly.

Contract, cancellation and terminal rentals

Payplug's terms (Conditions Générales de Vente, applicable from 1 April 2026) form an open-ended framework contract. You have 14 days to withdraw after opening the account. After that you can end the online payment contract on 30 calendar days' notice, by recorded-delivery letter or another channel Payplug offers, and the help centre describes a self-serve closure in the portal. The CB in-store agreement can be ended by either side at any time without notice. Payplug can change the contract on one month's notice by email, and you can leave without penalty during that month.

Terminal rentals are where the commitment sits. Payplug's in-store page invites merchants to order terminals or install its app on existing ones "sans engagement" (without commitment), but the rental annex in the terms sets a 24-month term from delivery. It renews automatically for one-year periods unless you cancel by recorded-delivery letter three months before the end date. Leaving early costs an indemnity that falls each year. The table in the terms lists, for example, €690 in the first year of a 48-month rental, €480 for a 24-month IP/GPRS rental and €200 for a 12-month IP/GPRS rental, all ex-VAT. The table also lists 12- and 48-month rentals, although the annex's duration clause states 24 months, so check which term your rental order shows. Rent is also collected until the terminal comes back, and at the latest until the rental's end date. An unreturned or damaged terminal costs between €350 and €30 ex-VAT depending on its age. Buying a terminal outright avoids the rental term.

Other clauses worth knowing: Payplug can close an account without notice for breaches, suspected fraud or excessive credit or fraud risk. It charges a €5,000 penalty if you use the service for an undeclared activity that the terms do not allow. Its liability is capped at the fees paid in the previous six months, with an overall ceiling of €8,000. Complaints must be sent by recorded-delivery letter within six months of the transaction. Payplug commits to answer within 15 business days, or 35 in exceptional cases.

Payouts, holds and reserves

Payplug does not pay out automatically by default. Your sales build a balance in your Payplug account, and you ask for a transfer from the Transfers menu. The help centre says compliance validates each request the next business day, transfers leave after 10:30, and interbank transfer takes 2 to 3 business days. Counting weekends, Payplug says seven days between request and arrival is possible. A first transfer from a new account can take up to ten business days. The Pro plan can automate transfers daily, weekly on Mondays or monthly. Transfers are free.

The terms give Payplug wide room to hold money. It can keep funds for as long as necessary on suspicion, during a dispute, where it judges chargeback risk high for the business, or where the law requires. It can withhold an amount equal to any likely chargeback, and impose a reserve, extra fees, compulsory 3-D Secure or limits on transfers if chargebacks are frequent. The help centre lists triggers for delays and reserves, including long or growing delivery times, fraudulent payments, drop-shipping, a sudden jump in sales, and a first transfer after several months without one. Event organisers' ticket money is held until the day after the event. Transaction fees are held back from the balance as you go and invoiced on the first day of the following month.

Reputation and complaints

As of October 2026, Payplug's Trustpilot page shows a TrustScore of 3.4 from 552 reviews. The distribution is polarised, with 60% five-star and 30% one-star. Payplug has claimed the profile and replied to 69% of negative reviews. The page is old, though. The most recent review is from September 2026, and the one before that from July 2024. Older positive reviews praise simple setup and the interface. Older negative reviews describe chargebacks and slow, email-only support. We found no ACPR sanctions, lawsuits or enforcement actions naming Payplug or Payplug Enterprise SAS.

Who Payplug suits

Payplug fits a French small or mid-size business, online, in store or both, that sells mostly to euro-zone consumers, wants to see its rate before signing, and is comfortable asking for its money or setting up automatic transfers on Pro. The bank ownership and payment-institution licence will reassure merchants wary of newer fintechs, and the local methods suit merchants with buyers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.

It suits businesses that need fast automatic funding less well, nor those with many business or non-euro-zone customers, where the 2.5% and 2.9% rates apply on every plan. Merchants in the many verticals Payplug refuses, including e-cigarettes, CBD, crypto, forex, adult services and marketplaces, will be turned away. If you rent a terminal, read the rental annex before signing: the 24-month term and automatic renewal are the main commitments in an otherwise flexible contract.