Comparison of Swiss online payment providers for the year 2022
Finding the right payment provider for an online store can be difficult, but it is immensely important. To make it easier for you, this article provides you with a detailed comparison of eight payment service providers.
The largest payment service providers (PSP) for Swiss online stores and two smaller options - namely Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline and zahls.ch- are analyzed.
To do this, we will first clarify a few terms, carry out a cost analysis and then evaluate the individual providers in detail. Finally, you will receive information on which payment service provider is best suited to you.
Online payments: Theory for understanding
To accept payments in an online store, merchants need an acceptance contract with an acquirer and a processing contract concluded with a payment provider.
What is a payment service provider (PSP)?
Payment service providers are companies that take care of the technical connection of online payment methods for online stores. Instead of having to deal with many individual contractual partners, an online retailer only has to negotiate with one payment provider in order to integrate the desired payment methods, such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, PostFinance and TWINT, into their store.
What is a payment provider?
A payment service provider provides many external means of payment with which a transaction can be carried out. Companies that offer this option themselves are referred to as payment providers. This can be in card form such as MasterCard and VISA or in wallet form such as Google Pay or TWINT.
What is an acquiring or acceptance contract?
Acquiring in banking is about acquiring contractual partners who are willing to accept payments by credit card. The acquiring bank is the credit institution that settles card payments for merchants. Merchants can conclude an acceptance contract with acquirers such as Worldline, Concardis or PostFinance or with a payment facilitator such as Payrexx.
What is a payment facilitator?
A payment facilitator, also known as a collecting PSP, is in direct contact with the merchant and manages the merchant account with the acquirer. The payment facilitator can therefore sign the acceptance contract on behalf of the acquirer, making it easier to set up online payments because the merchant has to maintain fewer direct relationships.
How do you choose the right provider?
It is crucial for merchants to keep costs as low as possible. It is important to consider the set-up and monthly costs as well as the transaction fees. Before making a decision, it should also be clarified which payment methods and tools are required for the online store. Depending on the provider, all important payment methods* are supported and integrated tools are available. It is also of central importance for merchants and their customers that payment processing is secure. Compliance with PCI DSS Level 1 standards is important here.
It is advisable to select a payment provider that is also an acquirer or payment facilitator so that merchants have a single point of contact for both. Other important points are the provider's customer support and the range of plugins for well-known store solutions.
Cost analysis
Online stores with a monthly turnover of CHF 20,000
The cost analysis shows the monthly fees for smaller online stores with a trading turnover of CHF 20,000 and 200 credit card transactions per month. This results in an average price of CHF 100 per purchase.
Price calculation
In order to carry out the cost analysis, the most favorable offers of the individual payment providers for a trading turnover of CHF 20,000 per month were selected. The prices are largely taken from the websites of the corresponding payment service providers.
Notes
The diagram does not include any installation costs.
Transaction fees are included in Worldline's E-Commerce Large package up to a turnover of CHF 5,000. Transactions exceeding this volume are subject to a percentage fee of 2% and fixed costs of CHF 0.1.
The Get Started offer from Datatrans comes with additional acquiring costs. As the percentage fee is not publicly available, a value of 2% was assumed (average of all other providers).
Conclusion: Costs for smaller online stores
Payrexx has the lowest fees, closely followed by wallee. With costs of CHF 790, PayPal is the most expensive for online stores with this volume. The absolute price difference between Payrexx and PayPal is CHF 421. Consequently, the costs for the cheapest payment provider Payrexx are more than 50 % lower than for the most expensive offer.
Online stores with a monthly turnover of CHF 100,000
The cost analysis shows the monthly fees for medium-sized online stores with a trading turnover of CHF 100,000 and 1,000 credit card transactions per month. The average value of a transaction is therefore CHF 1,000.
Price calculation
In order to carry out the cost analysis, the most favorable offers of the individual payment providers for a trading turnover of 50,000 per month were selected. The prices were largely taken from the websites of the relevant payment service providers.
Notes
The diagram does not include any installation costs.
Transaction fees are included in Worldline's E-Commerce Large package up to a turnover of CHF 5,000. Transactions exceeding this volume are subject to a percentage fee of 2% and fixed costs of CHF 0.1.
Datatrans' Scale-Now offer comes with additional acquiring costs. The average value of the first chart was reduced by 0.5 %.
Conclusion: Costs for medium-sized online stores
Payrexx is the cheapest provider with costs of CHF 1,549 per month, followed by wallee. For medium-sized online stores, PayPal and Stripe are significantly more expensive than the other providers. Payrexx is CHF 2,401 cheaper than the most expensive provider PayPal, which represents a percentage price difference of 60 %.
No calculation was carried out for large online stores, as most payment providers offer non-public special conditions for larger customers - these include Datatrans, Payrexx, Stripe, wallee, Worldline and zahls.ch.
Overview table
If you run an online store, it is very important that you can offer a variety of different payment methods. In the table you can see which payment provider provides which means. The most common means in Switzerland are listed.
In the second part, you will see which software you can use to set up your store. In addition to the well-known solutions, there are also some providers who offer their own store system that does not require any programming knowledge to set up. In the table, such offers can be found in the line "Integrated e-commerce tools". This tool makes it easy to create a store for products, vouchers, subscriptions or donations.
Finally, you will find an overview of the publicly accessible reviews of the companies on Google. Also important is the number of reviews, which can provide a broader picture of opinion.
All payment providers in detail
Payrexx: Payment facilitator with integrated e-commerce tools
Payrexx is both a payment provider and a payment facilitator, making it a modern and user-friendly option as an all-in-one solution with a favorable pricing model and the number of payment interfaces and e-commerce tools. With its wide range of tools, such as payment link, one-page store with its own URL, virtual terminal, QR Pay and digital invoices, Payrexx meets the individual requirements of almost every merchant. Payrexx is suitable for the sale of products, services, online tickets or vouchers as well as for the collection of membership fees or the implementation of donation projects. Thanks to the 30-day test phase, the platform can be tested free of charge. Payrexx has an average Google rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars with a total of 96 reviews.
Price overview of Payrexx
* Preferential conditions between 1.7 % and 1.3 %
What do retailers need to do for integration?
As each merchant receives a payment website with its own Internet address, neither integration nor programming knowledge is required. If you already have a store, you can activate payment with one of the plugins available free of charge.
PostFinance Checkout All-in-One: a fully comprehensive e-payment solution
PostFinance enjoys a high level of customer acceptance in Switzerland. PostFinance Checkout is a payment solution that offers all common payment methods (PostFinance e-finance, PostFinance Card, TWINT, Visa and Mastercard) as well as various store plugins. The prices listed below already include all costs for payment providers and acquiring, as no additional contracts are required. PostFinance also offers the option of testing the provider in a simulation mode for 30 days.
Price overview of PostFinance Checkout All-in-one
What do retailers need to do for integration?
PostFinance Checkout is available to all companies based in Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein that have a business account in CHF with PostFinance.
Worldline (formerly SIX Payments): Acquirer and payment provider
Worldline offers both acquirer and payment provider services and therefore usually provides the offers as a package. With the SIX goCard e-commerce package, payments can be processed directly via a payment window. Transfers are possible in more than 20 currencies. This means that customers are relatively free to decide which currency they want to pay in. This is also because Worldline, like most other payment providers, offers what is known as Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). In addition, Worldline offers various payment functions, such as subsequent debiting or the posting of partial amounts. Worldline has an average Google rating of 2.4 out of 5 stars from a total of 237 reviews.
Price overview from Worldline
The transaction fees are included in the monthly fixed costs up to the selected turnover. All transactions that exceed this volume will be charged with the conditions in the last column.
What do retailers need to do for integration?
No programming knowledge is required. According to SIX goCard, it is particularly suitable for existing e-commerce solutions and static websites.
Datatrans: provider with a lot of experience
Datatrans is the largest provider in Switzerland and can be integrated both as an external payment option (external payment window) and directly via an implementation (via API in the store layout). With Datatrans Payment Pages, merchants have access to all payment methods with a single integration. Datatrans Secure Fields fit seamlessly into the design and help to improve the merchant's conversion rate. This provider also offers the option of creating a test account. Datatrans has an average Google rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars with a total of 14 reviews.
Datatrans price overview
The monthly costs and transaction fees are shown on the website, but the setup costs are not listed there. In addition to the Datatrans costs, there are external acquiring fees of around 2%.
It is important to note that the minimum charge per month is CHF 290 (excluding external acquiring costs).
What do retailers need to do for integration?
Either you need developer knowledge or you implement a standard store system. As Datatrans is neither an acquirer nor a payment facilitator, merchants need acceptance contracts with other acquirers.
PayPal: an international payment provider
PayPal is a simple solution for store operators, but costs more in the long run for larger order quantities. Payment links and e-mail invoices as well as various plugins are available. According to PayPal, the payment facilitator has more than 240 million active users and offers the option of making payments in over 100 currencies. PayPal is not a Swiss company, but has offices in San José and Luxembourg. As PayPal is an international provider, merchants can choose the language they want from a wide range of different languages. PayPal has an average Google rating of 1.8 out of 5 stars with a total of 6 reviews.
Price overview of PayPal Switzerland
PayPal does not charge a set-up fee or monthly subscription costs. The costs per transaction amount to 3.4 % of the transaction volume and a transaction fee of CHF 0.55.
What do retailers need to do for integration?
To use PayPal, merchants must provide company information as well as a commercial register number. No developer knowledge is required.
Stripe: Provider for developers
Stripe offers developer-friendly tools for connecting payment provider services to various web and mobile apps with a modern design. It enables credit card payments and also offers some other well-known payment methods, such as Alipay. Stripe, like Payrexx and PayPal, is a payment facilitator. Due to its prices, this provider is particularly attractive for smaller online stores.
Price overview from Stripe
The transaction fees are 2.9 % and CHF 0.3 per transaction. There are no one-off set-up costs or fixed monthly fees. No additional fees are charged for refunds.
What do retailers need to do for integration?
Retailers must have developer know-how for the implementation. In addition, a valid photo ID and a company number are required for verification.
wallee: Omni-Pay provider from Switzerland
Walle is a Swiss payment provider based in Winterthur. Over 1,000 customers trust this company. Payments can be made online either integrated on the website or via redirection. The templates can be changed at will using a resource editor and plugins for various store systems are also available. A test mode is also available.
Price overview from wallee
What do retailers need to do for integration?
Programming knowledge is required to use one of the many integrations.
zahls.ch: New Swiss payment solution for the web
zahls.ch is a Swiss provider with a very clearly structured offering. In addition to traditional payments, e-commerce tools are also available. These include payment links, digital invoices, online terminals and a self-configurable payment page (small online store). zahls.ch provides all Swiss payment methods and a large selection of foreign payment methods. zahls.ch has an average Google rating of 5 out of 5 stars with a total of 10 ratings.
Price overview of zahls.ch
What do retailers need to do for integration?
Programming skills are not required to use zahls.ch. On the contrary - you can easily create an online store with the integrated tool. The verification process includes the presentation of a photo ID and, if available, entry in the commercial register.
Conclusion: Which payment provider is right for you?
It is generally advisable to start with low-cost options and then respond to the needs of customers and expand if necessary. Payrexx is suitable for young and digital companies, ahead of wallee, Worldline and Datatrans. The cost leader for medium-sized online stores is Payrexx, followed by wallee. PayPal, on the other hand, charges relatively high transaction fees and Worldline incurs expensive monthly fixed costs.
Of course, it is not only the prices that need to be considered, but also the range of functions and supporting services. Payrexx and zahls.ch offer the most versatile and useful tools.
With over 200 payment methods (via integrated third-party providers), Payrexx offers the widest range of payment methods, followed by Datatrans with over 40 different payment methods.
In terms of ease of installation, PayPal, Payrexx and zahls.ch outperform the other payment providers. In general, Stripe is more comprehensive in its implementation than the other providers. With PostFinance, you need advanced developer knowledge to install the plugins.
The opportunity to test the provider and its functions in a free phase is of great benefit to the merchant, as it allows them to ensure that the payment provider meets their needs. Datatrans, Payrexx, PostFinance, wallee, Worldline and zalhs.ch allow customers to test the provider.
Datatrans, PostFinance and Worldline have the most experience in the area of payment service providing.
In summary, when choosing a payment provider, it is worth not only looking at the large and well-known providers, but also keeping an eye on the new digital payment providers. This is because they are often cheaper, but still offer a variety of tools and can cater to the individual needs of each merchant. Payrexx and wallee are very suitable for small and medium-sized stores, although it can be worthwhile for larger companies to look at the larger providers who have a lot of experience. In general, Payrexx is clearly one of the frontrunners in terms of price, variety and simplicity.
Sources
Prices
Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch
Plugins for store systems
Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch
Means of payment
Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch
Icons
Legal (as of February 2022)
We accept no liability for the accuracy, completeness, up-to-dateness or quality of the data and information provided on this website. In particular, it is important that you obtain information about prices and any additional costs from the respective providers.
We expressly reserve the right to change the data provided on this website or our entire offer at any time without prior notice. We also reserve the right to amend, delete or temporarily or permanently cease publication of this website at any time.
This article may be freely copied.
Author
Author: Sven Otziger, Payrexx AG and Priscilla Wyss, formerly Payrexx AG
