Hosted Payment Gateway: A Guide for UK Businesses

A hosted payment gateway lets customers enter their payment details on a page or form provided by a payment service provider. For a UK online business, it can reduce the card data your own systems handle, although you'll still need to check how the checkout works and which security responsibilities remain with you.

This guide explains how hosted payment gateways work, how they differ from other integrations and what to check before choosing one. We've also explained how Wise Business can help you receive supported overseas proceeds and manage the currencies you use after customers pay.

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Note: Wise Business offers a free Essential plan for basic spending and transferring. If you need to receive money, set up direct debits, or generate invoices, you'll pay a one-time £50 setup fee to unlock the Advanced features.

Provider features, fees, eligibility checks, protections and timelines mentioned in this article may vary by customer, business type, application outcome, plan and country. Check the provider's website and terms and conditions for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Wise services and features are not available in all regions, country and product restrictions apply. Visit wise.com to check availability, and for fee details and terms for your region, visit our pricing page for Wise Business.

This content is provided for general educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, financial, investment or professional advice and should not be relied upon as such.

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Key takeaways

How does a hosted payment gateway work?

A common setup redirects the customer from your checkout to a provider-operated payment page. Another uses an embedded frame, or iframe, which displays the provider's payment form within your website. A payment page can be hosted by the provider in either arrangement.¹

For a typical redirected checkout, the purchase follows this sequence:

1. Your store creates the payment request. The customer confirms their basket, and your integration sends the amount, currency and order reference to the provider.
2. The customer enters payment details. The provider's page collects the information needed for the selected payment method and handles any required authentication.
3. The provider returns a result. Your store receives the payment status through the provider's integration and updates the order accordingly.
4. The customer receives confirmation. They return to your website or see the provider's confirmation, depending on the setup.
5. Your business receives its payout. The provider pays out according to its settlement schedule and terms, which may include fees, reserves or other adjustments.

Before going live, test what happens when someone closes the payment page, fails an authentication check or loses their connection. Your store should use the provider's documented payment-status checks, rather than assuming that a visit to the confirmation page means the payment succeeded.

How does a hosted gateway compare with other integrations?

The checkout's appearance doesn't tell you who handles the payment data. A form can sit inside your site while still being supplied by the payment provider. This matters when deciding how much development work and card-data responsibility your team can take on.¹

“Integrated” and “self-hosted” can describe different technical setups. Ask the provider to show where card details go and explain which components your developers maintain. That is more useful than choosing a service from its label alone.

What are the benefits and limitations?

A hosted payment page can be useful when your team wants an established payment interface without building every card-entry component. Depending on the service, the provider may also maintain payment-method support and authentication features, reducing some of the work your developers would otherwise manage.

The trade-off is control. You may have limited choices over the page's layout, available payment methods or behaviour when a payment fails. A redirect also takes customers away from your website, so the handover and return journey need to feel clear and consistent.

For example, a UK shop selling a small range of products may be comfortable with a branded redirect. A business selling subscriptions should also test renewals, failed collections and changes to payment details before deciding that the same integration suits it. Check the features you actually need rather than assuming every hosted service includes them.

What are your PCI DSS responsibilities?

PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It sets security requirements for organisations involved in storing, processing or transmitting cardholder data. A hosted setup can reduce your exposure to that data, but your obligations depend on the full implementation.

For eligible outsourced arrangements, SAQ A is a self-assessment questionnaire used to validate compliance. Eligibility requires the relevant payment-page elements to come directly from a compliant third-party provider, alongside the other eligibility conditions. If your own website supplies elements involved in collecting or processing card data, you may need a different assessment.^1,2

Merchants completing SAQ A with e-commerce pages that redirect to a provider or embed its iframe still have external vulnerability-scanning requirements under PCI DSS v4.x. These scans must be carried out through a PCI-approved scanning vendor.³

Before selecting the integration, ask your payment provider and acquiring bank, or the organisation responsible for your merchant compliance, to confirm the applicable questionnaire and controls. Include your developer in that conversation so the agreed requirements match what will actually be installed.

How do you choose a hosted payment gateway?

Once you understand the technical setup, compare providers against the same list of requirements. Start with your main customer countries, currencies and payment methods, then test the checkout on the devices those customers use.

Check the purchase and after-sale journey

Run through successful, declined, cancelled and interrupted payments. Check how your team issues a full or partial refund and how each result appears in the order system. If the business sells subscriptions, include recurring-payment tests too.

Keep the price consistent between your store and the hosted page. UK consumer-pricing guidance requires unavoidable charges to be included up front, with specific rules where a charge can't reasonably be calculated in advance. Moving the payment page to another provider doesn't remove that pricing responsibility.⁴

Compare the full cost

Ask for a quote based on your expected order volume, average order value and mix of domestic and overseas customers. Check:

• Any setup, monthly or minimum-service fee.
• Percentage and fixed transaction charges for the payment methods you need.
• Currency-conversion and cross-border charges.
• Refund and dispute fees, including whether processing fees are returned.
• Payout fees, settlement currencies and any reserve requirements.

Keep gateway processing costs separate from the cost of receiving or converting the payout. This helps you see which part of the payment chain creates each charge, particularly when customers pay in a different currency from your business's expenses.

Check integration, reporting and support

Confirm that the provider supports your store platform and the integration version you plan to use. Ask how payment updates reach your order system, who maintains the connection and what support is available if payments stop working.

Your finance team should also be able to match each payout to its sales, fees and refunds. Review a sample report before signing up, and confirm whether the provider can pay out to your chosen account in the currencies you need.

Manage overseas payment proceeds with Wise Business

If your store takes payments in more than one currency, consider where the proceeds will go after the gateway processes them. Eligible UK businesses can use Wise Business to receive supported overseas payments, hold supported currencies and make international business payments. Check that your chosen payment provider accepts the Wise account details and settlement currency before connecting the payout account.

For example, you may be able to keep supported USD proceeds in USD for a later supplier payment, rather than converting them into GBP on receipt. You can also connect supported accounting software to bring Wise transactions into your books, where your team can reconcile them with the gateway's payout reports. Payment acceptance and settlement arrangements still depend on the gateway and account setup you've chosen.

Wise Business offers a free Essential plan for basic spending and transferring. If you need to receive money, set up direct debits, or generate invoices, you'll pay a one-time £50 setup fee to unlock the Advanced features.

With Wise Business, you can:

• 🌍 Send money to 70+ countries and pay overseas invoices at the mid-market exchange rate with low, transparent fees and no hidden exchange rate markups (product availability varies by region)
• 📥 Receive payments in 24 currencies and counting
• 💵 Get local account details for 8+ currencies, including USD and EUR, to let your customers pay in a currency they know and trust - convenience for them and peace of mind for you
• 💰 Hold money in 40+ currencies
• 🔁 Convert currencies anytime at the mid-market exchange rate with low, transparent fees
• ⚡ Use the batch payments tool to create and send up to 1,000 payments in a single transfer
• 👥 Run payroll and make international payments for up to 1,000 employees all over the world - including paying suppliers using local payment methods like ACH, SEPA, and Faster Payments
• 💳 Get business debit cards with 0.5% cashback for you and your team to keep track of team expenses and spend all over the world, with real-time visibility and categorisation. See full cashback terms and conditions
• 🏢 Manage cash in 55+ currencies across international offices from a single business account and move money between business accounts in seconds (exact speeds can vary depending on individual circumstances and may not be the same for all transactions)
• 🧾 Connect and sync every business transaction to your favourite accounting software, including Xero, Quickbooks, and more
• 🔐 Create your own payment approvals process to manage your team better with customised access for different team members, roles and permissions
• 📑 Create custom professional invoices and schedule invoice payments for future dates
• 📈 Earn variable returns on GBP, USD and EUR with Wise Interest (Growth not guaranteed. Your balance will go down in the event of a government default or interest rates going negative.)
• 🔗 Create payment links and QR codes to get paid easily (Card payment acceptance for new Wise Business customers is currently unavailable. Payment methods subject to eligibility and availability.)
• ⚙️ Automate payouts with the Wise API (comes with 24/7 customer support, a sandbox account to test integrations, API tokens, and clear documents on how to implement and make the most of our API)

Make the wise choice when selecting a business account for your domestic and global needs.

Be Smart, Get Wise.

Register for Wise Business ✍️

Wise Interest disclaimer: Growth not guaranteed. Your balance will go down in the event of a government default or interest rates going negative. Taxes may apply. 3.32% variable rate on GBP is based on 7 day performance as of 05 Aug 2026. For full 5-year past performance and fund information, visit https://wise.com/interest. Investments are offered by Wise Assets UK Ltd. (FRN 839689)

Wise services and features are not available in all regions, country and product restrictions apply. Visit wise.com to check availability, and for fee details and terms for your region, visit our pricing page for Wise Business.

FAQs

What is a self-hosted payment gateway?

The term commonly describes an arrangement where the merchant builds or hosts the payment interface. It doesn't, by itself, explain where card data travels. Ask for the integration's data flow and applicable security requirements before comparing it with a hosted service.

Can a hosted gateway accept international payments?

It can if the provider supports your business, the customer's payment method and the relevant currencies. Check both the currency the customer pays in and the currency you receive, because processing and conversion charges can differ.

How much does a hosted payment gateway cost?

There's no single price. Costs can include monthly fees, per-transaction charges, currency conversion, refunds and disputes. Compare quotes using the same expected sales mix and include the cost of receiving the payout.

Sources:

1. PCI Security Standards Council: Payment pages and iframe eligibility for SAQ A
2. PCI Security Standards Council: SAQ A eligibility for outsourced payment pages
3. PCI Security Standards Council: ASV scanning for redirects and embedded iframes
4. Competition and Markets Authority: Providing clear and accurate information about prices

Sources last checked on 6th November 2026