Adyen Alternatives: Pricing and Features Compared

Adyen Alternatives: The Leading Payment Providers of 2026

With all the distinct pricing structures and feature lists out there, shopping for a payment service provider (PSP) for your business can feel overwhelming. One of the names you’ll see come up most often is Adyen, a Dutch fintech platform designed to allow global businesses to accept mobile, online, and in-person terminal payments.

While Adyen may be one of the first payment systems to get your attention, it’s not necessarily the best choice for your business. We wrote this article to break down how Adyen works, what its shortcomings are, and some of the leading Adyen alternatives you should consider implementing. If you’re looking for a financial platform that offers even more than payment processing, you may want to learn about Slash. Slash comes with business banking features, deep accounting integrations, a corporate card program, and payment solutions all together on a single dashboard.¹

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Key Takeaways

Adyen's pricing is tough to forecast, since a fixed $0.13 processing fee is combined with dozens of method-specific rates.
Adyen charges no setup, monthly, integration, or closure fees, but imposes an undisclosed minimum invoice based on your industry, so there's a spending floor regardless of how little you sell.
Adyen isn’t a merchant of record, which leaves most regulatory and compliance responsibilities with your business.
Two of the five alternatives, Ryft and Checkout.com, publish no transaction rates at all and rely on sales meetings/quotes.
Slash is the only alternative that combines a payment gateway and processor with a true all-in-one business banking platform.

What Is Adyen, and What Features Does It Come With?

Adyen is an enterprise financial technology platform built for accepting, processing, and settling payments. Its payment gateway and processor allow businesses to accept transactions online, in-app, and in-person via a POS system. Adyen also acts as an acquiring bank, which means they’re in charge of processing and settling payments made by shoppers on behalf of their merchants. All in all, the platform comes with:

Hosted and embedded checkout
APIs
Physical terminals
Payment tokenization
Recurring billing
Machine-learning fraud detection
Business accounts
Reporting features

Merchants that use Adyen can accept over 200 payment methods, including digital wallets and buy now-pay later options. The platform also allows users to issue virtual and physical corporate cards to team members, though these cards don’t offer any sort of cash back rewards.

Their feature list makes Adyen a better fit for mid-sized businesses and enterprises than small businesses. It’s not a plug-and-play POS package in the same way a product like Square or Toast can be. It also isn’t a merchant of record, which means it doesn’t cover red tape on behalf of the user and isn’t liable for most legal and tax implications.

Adyen fees and pricing

Adyen charges a fixed $0.13 processing fee as well as a specific payment method fee for each transaction. Their card transactions use Interchange++ pricing, which passes through issuing-bank and card-network fees and adds Adyen’s acquiring markup. The markup for several U.S. card methods (Visa, Mastercard) begins at 0.60%, although American Express runs all the way up to 3.95%.

Other methods work a little differently. U.S. ACH Direct Debit, for example, is listed at $0.13 plus $0.27, while Klarna (a BNPL option) comes with a 4.29% plus 30 cent charge. In total, there are dozens of different fees for dozens of different payment methods, so the only way to get a true sense of what Adyen costs is to know what your customers usually use to pay.

The platform doesn’t come with setup, monthly, integration, or closure fees. It does, however, impose a minimum invoice based on the merchant’s industry or business model. In other words, there’s a floor for how much you’ll pay per month, even if you don’t make many sales in a given period.

Who uses Adyen?

Adyen is primarily designed for mid-size to large businesses with complex payment operations. Its main industries include retail, travel and hospitality, food and beverage, digital media, financial services, marketplaces, and SaaS platforms. With a reach spanning 190+ countries, it’s also designed for international businesses with clients in different parts of the world.

The audience that typically doesn’t use Adyen is brick-and-mortar businesses that simply need a payment terminal. The platform does let you connect your existing POS software or cash registers to physical hardware via their Terminal API, but it may be unnecessarily complex for most small businesses.

Why Businesses Look for Adyen Alternatives

Adyen’s enterprise model doesn’t cover every use case, nor does it come with every feature a mid-sized company might need. Finance teams might look for alternative PSPs for the following reasons:

Pricing can be difficult to forecast: Interchange++, processing charges, method-specific rates, Adyen’s markup, and separately priced products all affect your bill. Making a monthly budget and setting expectations can be tough without a flat percentage and fixed fee.
It may be too enterprise-oriented for smaller companies: Adyen aims itself towards global businesses, and its pricing includes an undisclosed minimum invoice. If you’re looking for a simple POS solution with a cheap monthly bill, it’s probably not the right pick.
Implementation takes time: Similarly, implementation can be a big project. Configuring methods, merchant accounts, terminals, risk rules, reporting, and regional requirements is a lot harder than simply activating a hosted checkout. Depending on what you want to use Adyen for, you may need implementation help from a dedicated engineering team.
It’s not a merchant of record: Some companies may want a provider that becomes the legal seller and handles indirect-tax registration and remittance. Adyen processes payments, but those other obligations remain with the merchant.

Top Adyen Alternatives of 2026 Compared

Whether you want a flat-rate pricing structure, a simpler terminal-based system, or a merchant of record, you might find yourself needing to pick a provider other than Adyen. The five options below represent some of their strongest alternatives, though they approach payment processing from a couple different angles.

Slash

Slash is a financial platform that offers payment processing capabilities alongside its broader business banking features. Users can both accept cards through Slash Invoicing and build custom web checkout and payment flows with the help of Slash’s SDK. All payments come with a flat fee of 3% plus 40 cents per transaction, with no monthly subscription cost.

While Adyen also offers a business checking account and corporate card program, Slash goes a step further. The Slash Visa® Platinum Card gives users up to 2% cash back on eligible purchases, and each issued card can be configured with custom limits and restrictions. Slash also allows users to send and receive stablecoins with the help of native on/off ramps, which is a feature that none of the other alternatives on this list support.⁴

Strength: Slash is one of the only options available that ties payment processing together with a business checking account, corporate card program, accounting automation system, and more. Slash is also a merchant of record, while Adyen is not.
Weakness: At this time, Slash doesn’t support payment processing for in-person purchases.

Stripe

Stripe is a global payments platform for accepting money online, in person, and through apps. Its key features include hosted and embedded checkout, Payment Links, invoicing, marketplace payments through Connect, terminal hardware, fraud tools, and reporting.

The platform supports more than 125 payment methods, customers in over 195 countries, and transactions in more than 135 currencies. Standard U.S. online card pricing is 2.9% plus $0.30, with an additional 1.5% for international cards and 1% when you need to convert currency. Like Adyen, it can be a bit tricky to learn and implement, and may be a better fit for those who are ready to work with an API.

Strength: Stripe’s country and currency reach is wider than most other PSPs you’ll find on the market.
Weakness: Costs can become hard to predict with the wide array of fees and extra feature costs. Additionally, Stripe charges $15 per chargeback and $15 per fought dispute, with a 30% cut taken from any winnings.

Ryft

Ryft is an FCA-regulated payment provider built primarily for UK and European marketplaces, platforms, and retailers. Along with standard payment methods, it supports recurring billing, seller onboarding, split payments, configurable commissions, and conditional releases of funds.

Their main strength is in the way they allow users to manage payouts. You can use Ryft to onboard and verify sub-merchants, divide transactions among multiple parties, hold payments until predefined conditions are met, and generate revenue by adding platform fees. While Ryft is the same sort of payment processor as the others on this list, it actually doesn’t disclose its transaction fees, and pricing is customized.

Strength: The ability to split transactions, manage commissions, and delay payments until thresholds are met can give Ryft a distinct advantage for marketplaces.
Weakness: Their lack of public transaction rates makes it impossible to get a clear picture of what you’ll be paying month-to-month. Additionally, while plans are underway to enter the US market, Ryft isn’t currently available in the United States.

PayPal Enterprise Payments

PayPal Enterprise Payments, formerly known as Braintree, is the merchant processing layer within PayPal’s broader business platform. While its global reach is wide (200+ countries and 130+ currencies), it only supports around 30 payment methods, which is a lot less than some other providers.

The platform includes payment orchestration, tokenization, fraud management, and enterprise payouts. One of PayPal’s more distinct features is Smart Retries, which uses machine learning to intelligently retry card declines based on factors like customer behavior and transaction history. Published rates start at 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction for credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets, though PayPal also states that custom pricing is available based on certain metrics.

Strength: Large merchants can combine card processing with PayPal and Venmo acceptance, orchestration, and international payouts.
Weakness: While PayPal’s published rates are reasonable, it’s unclear whether those rates will hold as you enter a custom pricing structure.

Checkout.com

Checkout.com is an enterprise PSP that gives you a gateway, processor, fraud tools, analytics, and payouts through a collection of APIs. Merchants can accept major cards and local payment methods on hosted payment pages or a customized checkout. It also comes with a unique feature called Intelligent Acceptance, which is designed to improve authorization rates, control fraud, and optimize individual transactions using AI. The company processes payments in more than 150 currencies, but it only offers domestic coverage in 57 countries. Pricing is custom-quoted only, and per-transaction fees aren’t listed.

Strength: While we don’t know Checkout.com’s true price, their website indicates that you may pay via a flat rate or interchange++, which gives you more flexibility than other providers offer. Additionally, payment processing can be entirely free for charities.
Weakness: Because pricing and onboarding begin through its sales team, it’s less convenient for a small company seeking instant signup and a published transaction rate.

*Platform*	*Pricing Structure*	*Published Fees*	*Main Features*	*Ideal Use Case*
Slash	Flat-rate	3% plus 40 cents per transaction	A payment processor, gateway, MoR, and business banking platform in one	Online businesses that want to manage their processor alongside their checking account
Adyen	Interchange++ plus fixed processing and method-specific fees	$0.13 processing fee; U.S. card markup starts at 0.60%, plus interchange and scheme fees	Online and in-person payments, 200+ methods, acquiring, fraud controls, reconciliation, and platform tools	Large omnichannel or multinational merchants
Stripe	Flat-rate by default; custom IC+ and discounted rates available	U.S. online cards: 2.9% + $0.30; international and conversion surcharges may apply	Checkout, Billing, Connect, Terminal, Radar, invoicing, and APIs	Startups, SaaS companies, ecommerce brands, and developer-led platforms
Ryft	Custom blended or Interchange++ pricing	No public standard rate	Split payments, seller onboarding, delayed funds, subscriptions, and embedded payments	UK and European marketplaces and multiparty platforms
PayPal Enterprise Payments	Custom enterprise pricing	Quote-based, though published rates start at 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction	PayPal and Venmo, cards, orchestration, optimization, risk, and global payouts	Large merchants seeking PayPal reach and an end-to-end payment stack
Checkout.com	Custom flat-rate or Interchange++	No public standard rate	Unified API, local acquiring, fraud tools, analytics, payouts, and 150+ currencies	Global digital merchants focused on payment performance

How Slash Combines Payment Processing and Business Banking

Your PSP may offer a wide array of tools outside of its standard payment processor and gateway, but if you still need separate banking tools and accounting systems, you might be in for some headaches. With Slash, you get corporate cards, expense management, a business checking account, high-yield treasury, and more on the same platform that includes your payment processor and gateway.⁶

Users that qualify for Slash Payment Processing may natively accept cards through invoices without any custom integration required. You can also build a custom web checkout with the help of our software development kit and API access. It’s important to note that Slash functions as a merchant of record, meaning we manage the regulatory and legal compliance while accepting liability for customer transactions on your behalf. However, you still remain responsible for calculating, filing, and remitting applicable sales taxes.

Alongside these payment services, the Slash platform also comes with:

Accounting automation: Transactions are categorized as they post and carry the accounting dimensions your ledger expects: GL codes, departments, classes, locations, subsidiaries, vendor details, cardholder memos, and receipts. Set your mapping rules once in Slash instead of reclassifying spend at close.
Business banking: FDIC-insured business checking, protected up to $150M through Column N.A.'s insured cash sweep network.²
Native cryptocurrency support: Send and receive USD-pegged stablecoins USDC and USDT across 15 supported blockchains for faster, lower-cost global payments.
Diverse payment rails: Slash supports a wide range of payment methods, including card spend, global ACH, international wire transfers to over 180 countries via SWIFT, and real-time domestic payments through RTP and FedNow.
Global USD: The Slash Global USD account is designed as an alternative for foreign founders who want access to USD without forming a US entity.³ Accounts are backed on Base by a balance held in USDC, which is designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the US dollar.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between interchange plus pricing and flat rate pricing?

Flat rate charges one percentage plus a fixed amount on every transaction, so a premium rewards card and a basic debit card cost you the same. Interchange plus passes through the card network's actual interchange cost and adds a disclosed processor markup on top, which means your rate changes with every transaction depending on card type and how it was accepted.

What is a minimum invoice?

A minimum invoice is a floor on what you pay each month. If you’re a smaller business that doesn’t see a lot of activity, a minimum invoice could put a larger platform like Adyen out of your comfort zone. It can also affect seasonal businesses and anyone whose volume varies, since a slow quarter doesn’t mean a small bill.

What’s the difference between a payment processor and a payment gateway?

A payment gateway securely collects and transmits customer card data from a website or app, while a payment processor handles the backend authorization and movement of funds between banks. They both work in tandem, but they’re separate tools.