Following the determination of your functional and security requirements, the next issue is the user's payment experience and technical integration. Payment gateways typically provide a number of integration methods, each with its own unique user experience and technical requirements. Some of the most common integration methods are as follows.

Payment Page Hosted

When a user confirms an order on the merchant's website and clicks the "Continue Payment" button, the browser is directed to the payment page provided by the payment gateway, where the card information is entered and the payment is made.

Popup in Context

When a user confirms an order on the merchant's website and clicks the "Continue Payment" button, a popup box containing the payment module provided by the payment gateway appears directly on the current page, allowing the user to make a payment without leaving the merchant's website. PayPal in-context checkout is the most common example.

When rendering the payment page, the payment gateway extracts the part containing the input card information and the payment button into a public component, allowing the merchant to load the payment component into the page in the form of an iFrame.

After entering payment information and clicking the payment button on the merchant website, an API request is sent directly from the merchant website's backend to the payment gateway.

Recommendation from Us

We compared the various integration methods in terms of user experience, development costs, and the extent to which they require PCI on the merchant's website.

The choice is entirely dependent on the reality of the situation and is neithersaas payment gateway better nor worse. We have the following suggestions.

The API integration method with the best user experience is the best choice for merchants who can afford to meet PCI DSS and have some technical ability to integrate APIs.

Popup or Hosted Payment Page is a good choice for merchants who want to be completely outside of PCI regulation or who want to provide payment functionality as quickly as possible with a less demanding user experience.

For most merchants, iFrame is the best option for most scenarios because it not only helps merchants avoid PCI, but also provides a better user experience and faster integration.

Other things to think about

In addition to the aforementioned core examination points, the following factors not only provide side-by-side evidence of the payment gateway's business and technical capabilities, but are also important aspects when we use the payment gateway's services.

Whether it has a simple and quick onboarding process.

Whether its technical documentation is informative, accurate, and includes all necessary details, as well as whether it provides a well-designed client SDK.

whether we have access to a sandbox environment and test accounts in order to conduct automated and manual testing in a test environment

If technical support is professional, timely, and efficient.