Best SaaS Payment Processing Providers (UK- 2024)

Setting up a Software as a Service (SaaS) company in the UK? One of the most important things you’ll need is a payment processing solution.

There are quite a lot of them out there, and it’s tempting to just go for the cheapest. However, there may be other factors to consider, including features, user-friendliness and integrations with other apps and tools.

To help you choose, we’ve put together a handy comparison of the most popular SaaS payment solutions in the UK. We’ll cover all the main criteria you’ll want to consider, so you can make an informed decision.

We’ll also show you how you can expand your business overseas with other solutions like Wise Business. This powerful international account lets you manage business funds in 40+ currencies, and links seamlessly to popular payment service providers.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

SaaS payment processing

SaaS companies have very specific and unique needs when it comes to payment processing.

As many tend to run on a subscription model, payment processors need to be able to handle recurring billing. And if the company operates internationally, it’ll also need to offer multi-currency payments and global tax compliance.

Ideally, SaaS businesses need their payment processors to do three specific things:

1. Provide a payment gateway
2. Offer efficient subscription management
3. Give users a front-end interface to interact with their subscription.

It’s also critical to have processes that are as streamlined as possible, making use of automation tools to save time and reduce the risk of human error.

Below, we’ll take a look at SaaS payment systems that do most if not all of these things. This includes big names such as:

• Braintree
• ChargeBee
• Stripe
• GoCardless
• Worldpay
• Paddle.

Best SaaS payment solutions: overview

Let’s start with a quick at-a-glance comparison of some of the main SaaS payments solutions available in the UK right now:

Provider	Trustpilot score	Costs	Best known for
Braintree	1.1 from +200 reviews²	- No monthly fees - 1.9% + £0.20 per transaction¹	PayPal-powered processing services
Chargebee	3.8 from +50 reviews⁴	- Plans from £0 to £499 a month³ - Payment fees vary by payment processor	Subscription and billing management
Stripe	2.2 from +14,000 reviews⁶	- No monthly fees - Payment fees from 1.5% + £0.20 per transaction⁵	Comprehensive payment gateway services
GoCardless	3.0 from +1,000 reviews⁸	- No monthly fees - Payment fees from 1% + £0.20 per transaction⁷	Global payments
Worldpay	4.4 from +7,000 reviews¹⁰	- £19.95 a month - 1.5% per card transaction⁹	Retail and ecommerce payment services
Paddle	4.2 from +8,000 reviews¹²	- No monthly fees - 5% + $0.50 USD per transaction¹¹	SaaS billing solutions

Comparing SaaS payment processing services: criteria

When searching for the best SaaS payment gateways and processors, it’s tempting to focus solely on price. But while cost is important, there are other things you should be looking at.

Below, we’ll compare providers based on these key criteria:

• Essential features
• Cost (including monthly subscription costs and fees for add-ons)
• Integrations with other business tools and solutions.

It’s all to help you find a good fit for your business.

Braintree

Owned by payments giant PayPal, Braintree is aimed primarily at mobile users and offers both hosted and integrated payment gateway solutions.

Crucially for SaaS companies, it has subscription functionality.

Other key features include:

• Drop-in or customised user interface (UI)
• Recurring billing, including Account Updater tool
• Standard and advanced levels of fraud protection
• Huge choice of payment methods, including cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo and more.

Braintree can be integrated with lots of third-party apps and tools. This includes ecommerce platforms and billing applications, including WooCommerce, Salesforce, Recurly and Chargebee.

The platform has a per-transaction pricing model, where you’ll pay 1.9% + £0.20 for every payment and no monthly fees.¹

Braintree has a ‘Bad’ rating of 1.1 on Trustpilot, although it’s worth pointing out that this is from just 264 reviews and the profile is unclaimed by the company.²

Chargebee

Chargebee is a US company which provides a payment platform specifically aimed at subscription businesses. This makes it ideal for SaaS companies, although it also serves utilities companies and other businesses which charge customers on a recurring basis.

Its main features include:

• Billing - managing subscriptions and invoicing at scale
• RevRec - automated, compliant revenue recognition
• Receivables - including tools to create a proactive collection strategy
• Customer retention tools
• Analytics - including insight-driven and interactive dashboards
• Integration with accounting and other business tools.

As for pricing, Chargebee uses a subscription model. It has different plans available for each of its main services - including Billing and Retention.

For Chargebee Billing, you can choose from the following plans:³

• Starter - Free up to £200,000 of cumulative billing, 0.75% above that
• Performance - £499 a month up to £80,000 of cumulative billing, 0.75% above that
• Enterprise - custom pricing on request

An important thing to note is that Chargebee isn’t a payment gateway in itself. This means you’ll need to link it with another payment processor, which will mean you’ll have to pay its per-transaction fees too.

Chargebee has a ‘Great’ rating of 3.8 on Trustpilot, although it’s worth bearing in mind that this is only based on 56 reviews.⁴

Stripe

Stripe is a comprehensive payments processing platform aimed at businesses of all sizes. The Irish-American company’s customers are primarily ecommerce businesses, but anyone who sells online will find its services useful.

New to Stripe? Find out everything you need to know in our complete Stripe Payments review.

Features of the Stripe platform include:

• Local and global card payments
• Physical card terminals
• Online and digital payment methods
• Invoicing and recurring billing solutions
• Payment links
• Low and no code solutions as well as more complex, tailored options
• Support with tax, user identification, business management and more.

It has lots of useful features for SaaS businesses too, as it supports all kinds of pricing models and lets you set up new plans in minutes. It offers pre-built customer portals along with built-in automation tools for scheduling subscriptions, automatic reminders and more.

Stripe integrates with all kinds of third-party solutions. This includes tools and apps popular with SaaS businesses, such as Chargebee, Recharge, Salesforce and Sticky.io.

Stripe uses per-transaction pricing. This means that it doesn’t charge monthly fees, instead imposing charges for each payment and individual service you use.

Here are the main fees you need to know about:⁵

Transaction type	Stripe fee
Local card payments	1.5% + £0.20 for standard UK cards 1.9% + £0.20 for premium UK cards
International card payments	2.5% + £0.20 for cards issued in the EEA 3.25% + £0.20 for cards issued anywhere else + 2% fee if currency conversion is needed

If you use add-ons like Stripe Billing to configure and manage subscriptions, costs start at £450 a month for a 1-year contract. The Pay as you Go price for this service is 0.7% per transaction.⁵

Unfortunately, Stripe gets a ‘Poor’ rating of 2.2 on Trustpilot (from more than 14,600 reviews).⁶

GoCardless

UK-based fintech GoCardless offers both managed and integrated payment gateway solutions. It’s particularly popular with globally trading businesses, as it lets you accept payments from customers in multiple countries including the UK, Europe and the US.

One of its main advantages for SaaS businesses is the function to automate payment collection, saving time and reducing the risk of delays or mistakes. It also has a dedicated solution built for managing recurring and subscription payments.

GoCardless core features include:

• International payments
• Automated recurring payments via Direct Debit
• Direct bank payments via Open Banking, avoiding expensive card payment fees
• Collect and reconcile invoice payments automatically
• User-friendly interface.

The platform integrates with a large number of partners, including Chargebee for subscription management. You can also connect it to your accounting tool for automatic reconciliation.

Like many of the others on our list, GoCardless operates on a per-transaction pricing model. It’s cheapest is Standard, which charges 1% + £0.20 per transaction, and 2% + £0.20 for international payments. There are limits on this though, so you may want to upgrade your plan if it suits your needs better.⁷

GoCardless also offers custom pricing on request.

Over on Trustpilot, GoCardless has an ‘Average’ rating of 3.0 based on nearly 2,000 reviews ⁸

Worldpay

Worldpay by FIS is a US-based payments platform, offering comprehensive payment gateway services to businesses and merchants worldwide.

Its core and add-on features include:

• POS and EPOS for real-world payments
• eCommerce and Payment Gateway solutions, including direct website integration
• WorldPay Dashboard for real-time insights and payment management
• Safer Payments, helping small businesses to comply with PCI-DDS.

Worldpay integrates with a number of third-party apps, tools and platforms, including the likes of Chargebee for subscription management.

For its payment gateway services, Worldpay charges £19.95 a month and then 1.5% per card transaction.⁹

It also has custom pricing plans, with variable pricing options tailored to the needs of larger businesses.

Over on Trustpilot, the company has an ‘Excellent’ rating of 4.4 based on over 7,600 reviews.¹⁰

Paddle

Paddle is a UK-based company which offers comprehensive payment services aimed specifically at SaaS companies. It uses a merchant of record (MoR) model to provide an all-in-one payments, billing, and sales tax solution.

Features and services available at Paddle include:

• Billing solutions, including subscriptions, invoicing and payments
• Built-in sales tax compliance for Europe, US, Canada, and Australia
• Fully customisable localised checkout options across multiple countries, languages and currencies
• Automated VAT collection, filing and verification capabilities
• One-click instant payouts directly to all major banks globally.

It integrates with lots of other apps and tools, including Braintree, Chargebee, Recharge, Recurly and Stripe.

Paddle offers pay-as-you-go pricing, with a fixed charge per transaction, no monthly fees and no extra costs. You can also contact Paddle for a custom pricing model. Fees for online payments are 5% + $0.50 USD.¹¹

Paddle has a ‘Great’ rating of 4.2 on Trustpilot, based on over 8,100 reviews.¹²

Manage your international business with Wise

While you’re researching payment gateways and processors, it could also be worth looking into how you’ll manage business funds across borders.

Open a Wise Business account and you can hold and exchange 40+ currencies at once. You can send payments to 160+ countries and get local account details to get paid in 8+ currencies like a local.

Use your Wise account to get paid in a selection of major foreign currencies by customers and clients, through marketplaces - and via PSPs like Stripe.

Whenever you need to send, spend or exchange foreign currencies, you’ll benefit from themid-market exchange rate, with low, transparent fees.

You’ll also benefit from all of these features:

• No ongoing fees, minimum balance requirements or foreign transaction fees
• Debit and expense cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 people at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions, and use the Wise API for automation and streamlining workflow
• Use theWise Interest feature to make your money work harder when you’re not using it

With the help of a truly global account, your business can grow beyond international borders.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

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After reading this, you should have a better idea of what’s out there in terms of SaaS payment processing providers. And you should be armed with all the info you need to compare options and choose the right solution for your business.

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Sources used:

1. PayPal Braintree - Pricing
2. Trustpilot - Braintree
3. Chargebee - Pricing
4. Trustpilot - Chargebee
5. Stripe - Pricing
6. Trustpilot - Stripe
7. GoCardless - Pricing
8. Trustpilot - GoCardless
9. Worldpay - Simplicity payment gateway
10. Trustpilot - Worldpay
11. Paddle - Pricing
12. Trustpilot - Paddle

Sources last checked on date: 30-Sep-2024