What gateway features do I need?

Choosing the right gateway depends on several factors. Providers differ in rates and fee structures, supported countries and currencies, value-added services, and the level of effort required to implement and maintain the integration.

Smaller companies often prioritize getting up and running quickly at a fair rate. As companies grow and expand internationally, they often reevaluate their gateway strategy based on broader geographic coverage, additional payment methods, improved rates, and services such as direct debit support, fraud prevention, and chargeback management.

One advantage of using Zuora is flexibility. You can switch gateways as your requirements change, and you can also use more than one payment gateway. For example, you might use one gateway for customers in the United States and another for customers in other markets.

Gateway selection criteria

When evaluating payment gateways, consider the following criteria:

• Whether the gateway is supported for your Zuora billing and payment use cases

• The payment methods you need to support

• The currencies in which you sell, process, and settle payments

• Your merchant domicile country or countries

• Your preferred merchant processors

• Enhanced services such as payment method updaters, fraud tools, and chargeback management

• Your expected payment volume and transaction volume

• Whether you prefer an independent gateway provider or a full-service payment provider

Information to prepare before signing up

Because gateway selection usually involves balancing several business and technical requirements, the process does not reliably lend itself to automation. Before engaging with Zuora or gateway providers, gather the following information:

• Your merchant domicile country

• The countries in which you plan to sell your services

• The credit card brands you need to accept

• Any other payment methods you need to support, such as PayPal or direct debit

• If you need direct debit, the countries in which you plan to support it

• The currencies in which you need to sell

• The currencies in which you need to process payments

• The currencies in which you need settlements

• Any additional gateway functionality you require, such as fraud services, AVS checking, or chargeback management

• Your approximate chargeback rate, if chargebacks are a concern for your business

• Your expected annual payment volume

• Whether you need only card-not-present transactions or also card-present transactions

How Zuora can help

If you need additional assistance, submit a request through Zuora Global Support. Based on your requirements, Zuora can help identify payment gateway or payment processing providers that align with your business needs and introduce you to the appropriate provider contacts for further evaluation.

After you narrow the options, you should speak directly with the providers to evaluate pricing, service levels, onboarding effort, and the overall fit for your business.

Changing payment gateways

You may decide to switch to a different payment gateway provider over time. Before making a change, consider how the existing gateway handles refunds for transactions it originally processed. Some gateway providers limit how long they will process refunds after the original transaction, such as one month or three months.

If your business frequently processes refunds, review these refund windows carefully before switching gateways. This can help reduce operational issues when handling payments that were processed through a gateway you no longer use.