The largest Payment Service Providers (PSP) for Swiss online shops, as well as two smaller options, namely Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline and zahls.ch are analysed.

To do this, some terms are clarified first, a cost analysis is conducted, and then the individual providers are evaluated in detail. Finally, you will receive information about which Payment Service Provider is best suited for you.

Online Payments: Understanding the Theory

To accept payments in an online shop, Comerciantes need an acceptance contract with an acquirer and a processing contract, sealed with a payment provider.

What is a Payment Service Provider (PSP)?

A payment provider, known as a Payment Service Provider in English, is a company that handles the technical integration of online payment methods at online shops. Instead of having many individual contract partners, an online merchant who chooses a payment provider only has to negotiate with this supplier to integrate the desired payment methods, such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, PostFinance, and TWINT, into their shop.

What is a Payment Method Provider?

A Payment Service Provider provides many external payment methods that can be used to complete a transaction. Companies offering this option themselves are referred to as payment providers. This could be in card form such as MasterCard and VISA or in wallet form like Google Pay or TWINT.

What is an Acquiring or Acceptance Contract?

In banking, acquiring involves acquiring contract partners who are willing to accept payments via credit card. The so-called acquiring bank is the credit institute that processes card payments for Comerciantes. Comerciantes can sign an acceptance contract with acquirers, such as Worldline, Concardis, or PostFinance, or with a Payment Facilitator like Payrexx.

What is a Payment Facilitator?

A Payment Facilitator, also called a Collecting PSP, is in direct contact with the Comerciante and manages the Comerciante's account with the acquirer. The Payment Facilitator can sign the acceptance contract on behalf of the acquirer, making setting up online payments easier because the Comerciante has fewer direct relationships to maintain.

How to Choose the Right Provider?

For Comerciantes, it's crucial to keep costs as low as possible. It's important to consider the setup and monthly costs, as well as transaction fees. Additionally, it should be clarified before making a decision which payment methods and tools are required for the online shop. Depending on the provider, all major payment methods* are supported, and integrated tools are available. It is also highly essential for Comerciantes and their customers that the payment process runs securely. Compliance with PCI DSS Level 1 standards is significant here.

It is advisable to select a payment provider who is also an acquirer or Payment Facilitator, so Comerciantes have a single point of contact for both. Other important points are the provider's customer support and the offer of plugins to well-known Plugin e-commerce solutions.

Cost Analysis

Online Shops with a Monthly Turnover of 20,000 EUR

The cost analysis shows the monthly fees for smaller online shops with a turnover of 20,000 EUR with 200 credit card transactions per month. This results in an average price of 100 EUR per purchase.

Price Calculation

To perform the cost analysis, the cheapest offers from individual payment providers were selected for a turnover of 20,000 EUR per month. Most of the price information is taken from the websites of the respective Payment Service Providers.

Notes

Any setup costs are not included in the diagram.

Up to a turnover of 5,000 EUR, transaction fees are included in the E-Commerce Large package from Worldline. Transactions exceeding this volume are charged with a percentage fee of 2% and fixed costs of 0.1 EUR.

Additional acquiring costs are added to the Get-Started offer by Datatrans. As the percentage fee is not publicly visible, a value of 2% was assumed (average of all other providers).

Conclusion: Costs for Smaller Online Shops

The lowest fees are with Payrexx, closely followed by wallee. With costs of 790 EUR, PayPal is the most expensive for online shops with this volume. The absolute price difference between Payrexx and PayPal is 421 EUR. Consequently, the costs for the cheapest payment provider, Payrexx, are more than 50% lower than the most expensive offer.

Online Shops with a Monthly Turnover of 100,000 EUR

The cost analysis shows the monthly fees for medium-sized online shops with a turnover of 100,000 EUR and 1,000 credit card transactions per month. The average value of a transaction then yields 1,000 EUR.

Price Calculation

To perform the cost analysis, the cheapest offers from individual payment providers were selected for a turnover of 50,000 EUR per month. Most of the price information was taken from the websites of the respective Payment Service Providers.

Notes

Any setup costs are not included in the diagram.

Up to a turnover of 5,000 EUR, transaction fees are included in the E-Commerce Large package from Worldline. Transactions exceeding this volume are charged with a percentage fee of 2% and fixed costs of 0.1 EUR.

Additional acquiring costs are added to the Scale-Now offer by Datatrans. The average value of the first diagram was reduced by 0.5%.

Conclusion: Costs for Medium-Sized Online Shops

Payrexx is the cheapest provider at 1,549 EUR per month, followed by wallee. For medium-sized online shops, PayPal and Stripe are significantly more expensive than the other providers. Payrexx is 2,401 EUR cheaper than the most expensive provider, PayPal, which results in a percentage price difference of 60%.

No calculation was carried out for large online shops, 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 operate an online shop, it is of great importance that you can offer a variety of different payment methods. The table shows which payment provider provides which methods. The most common methods in Switzerland are listed.

In the second part, you see which software you can use to build your shop. Besides well-known solutions, there are also some providers that offer their own shop system, the setup of which does not require programming knowledge. In the table, such offers can be found in the row “Integrated E-Commerce Tools”. This tool enables the easy creation of a shop for products, vouchers, subscriptions, or donations.

Lastly, you'll find an overview of publicly accessible company ratings on Google. The number of ratings is also important as they can provide a broader picture.

All Payment Providers in Detail

Payrexx: Payment Facilitator with Integrated E-Commerce Tools

Payrexx is both a payment provider and a Payment Facilitator and thus presents a modern and user-friendly option as an all-in-one solution with a favourable pricing model and numerous payment interfaces and e-commerce tools. With the various tools, such as payment link, one-page shop with its own URL, virtual terminal, QR-Pay, and digital invoices, Payrexx meets the individual requirements of almost every Comerciante. Payrexx is suitable for selling products, services, online tickets, or vouchers as well as for collecting membership fees or conducting donation projects. Thanks to the 30-day trial period, the platform can be tested free of charge. Payrexx has an average Google rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from a total of 96 ratings.

Price Overview of Payrexx

* Preferential conditions ranging from 1.7% to 1.3%

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration? Since every Comerciante receives a payment website with its own internet address, neither integration nor programming knowledge is required. If you already have a shop, you can activate the payment with one of the free available plugins. PostFinance Checkout All-in-One: a comprehensive e-payment solution PostFinance enjoys great customer acceptance in Switzerland. PostFinance Checkout is a payment solution that offers all common payment methods (PostFinance E-Finance, PostFinance Card, TWINT, as well as Visa and Mastercard) and various Plugin e-commerce options. The prices listed below already include all costs for payment providers and acquiring, as no additional contracts are required. PostFinance also offers the possibility to test the provider in simulation mode for 30 days.

Price Overview of PostFinance Checkout All-in-one

What do Comerciantes 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 EUR at PostFinance.

Worldline (formerly SIX Payments): Acquirer and Payment Provider

Worldline offers both acquirer and payment provider services and thus 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. Accordingly, the customer can decide relatively freely in which currency they wish to pay. This is also because Worldline, like most other payment providers, offers Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). Moreover, Worldline offers various payment functions, such as recharging or booking partial amounts. Worldline has an average Google rating of 2.4 out of 5 stars from a total of 237 ratings.

Price Overview of Worldline

The transaction fees are included in the monthly fixed costs up to the selected turnover. All transactions exceeding this volume are charged under the conditions of the last column.

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

No programming knowledge is required. SIX goCard is specifically suitable for existing Plugin e-commerce solutions and static websites, according to their own statement.

Datatrans: Provider with Vast Experience

Datatrans is the largest provider in Switzerland and can be integrated both as an external payment option (external payment window) and through an implementation (via API in the shop layout) directly. With Datatrans Payment Pages, Comerciantes have access to all payment methods with a single integration. Datatrans Secure Fields seamlessly blend into the design and help improve the Comerciante's conversion rate. This provider also offers the possibility of creating a test account. Datatrans has an average Google rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from a total of 14 ratings.

Price Overview of Datatrans

The monthly costs and the transaction fees can be seen on their website; the setup costs are not displayed. In addition to the costs of Datatrans, external acquiring fees of about 2% arise.

It is important to note that the minimum billing per month is EUR 290 (excluding external acquiring costs).

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

Either you need developer knowledge or you implement a standard shop system. Since Datatrans is neither an acquirer nor a Payment Facilitator, Comerciantes need acceptance contracts with other acquirers.

PayPal: An International Payment Provider

PayPal is an easy solution for shop operators but costs more in the long run with larger order quantities. Payment links and email invoices, as well as various plugins, are available. According to their own statements, the Payment Facilitator PayPal has more than 240 million active users and offers the possibility of processing payments in over 100 currencies. PayPal is not a Swiss company but has locations in San José and Luxembourg. As PayPal is an international provider, a Comerciante can choose from a variety of languages. PayPal has an average Google rating of 1.8 out of 5 stars based on a total of 6 reviews.

Price Overview of PayPal Switzerland

PayPal does not charge a setup fee or monthly subscription costs. The fees per transaction are 3.4% of the transaction volume and a 0.55 EUR transaction fee.

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

To use PayPal, Comerciantes need to provide company information and a commercial register number. Developer knowledge is not needed.

Stripe: Provider for Developers

Stripe offers developer-friendly tools for integrating payment provider services into various web and mobile apps with modern design. It enables credit card payments and offers some other well-known payment methods, such as Alipay. Stripe, like Payrexx and PayPal, is a Payment Facilitator. This provider is primarily attractive to smaller online shops due to its pricing.

Price Overview of Stripe

The transaction fees are 2.9% and a 0.3 EUR per transaction. No one-off setup costs or fixed monthly fees apply. No additional fees apply for refunds.

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

Comerciantes need developer know-how for implementation. Additionally, a valid ID and a company number are required for verification.

wallee: Omni-Pay Provider from Switzerland

wallee is a Swiss payment provider based in Winterthur. Over 1,000 customers trust this company. Payments can be integrated online either on the website or by redirection. The templates can be changed as desired using a resource editor and Plugin e-commerce for various shop systems are also available. A test mode is also available.

Price Overview of wallee

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

Programming knowledge is necessary to use one of the many integrations.

zahls.ch: New Swiss Payment Solution for the Web

zahls.ch is a Swiss provider whose offering is designed to be very straightforward. In addition to classic payments, e-commerce tools are also available. These include payment links, digital invoices, online terminal, and a self-configurable payment page (small online shop). zahls.ch offers 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 from a total of 10 reviews.

Price Overview of zahls.ch

What do Comerciantes need to do for integration?

Programming knowledge is not necessary to use zahls.ch. On the contrary — you can easily create an online shop with the integrated tool. The verification process includes submitting a photo ID and, if available, registering in the commercial register.

Conclusion: Which Payment Provider Suits You?

In general, it is recommended to start with cost-effective options and then respond to customer needs and possibly expand. For young and digital companies, Payrexx is suitable before wallee, Worldline, and Datatrans. Payrexx is the cost leader for medium-sized online shops, followed by wallee. PayPal, on the other hand, demands relatively high transaction fees, and Worldline incurs expensive monthly fixed costs.

Not only the prices should be considered, but also the range of functions and supporting services. Payrexx and zahls.ch offer the most diverse and useful tools.

With over 200 payment methods (via integrated Proveedor externo), the greatest breadth of payment methods is available with Payrexx, followed by Datatrans with over 40 different payment methods.

Regarding the ease of installation, PayPal, Payrexx, and zahls.ch surpass the other payment providers. Overall, Stripe is more comprehensive in its implementation than the other providers. For PostFinance, you need advanced developer knowledge to install the plugins.

The ability to test the provider and its functions during a free period is a great advantage for the Comerciante because it allows them to ensure the payment provider meets their needs. Datatrans, Payrexx, PostFinance, wallee, Worldline, and zalhs.ch allow customers to test the provider.

Most experience in the area of Payment Service Providing is held by Datatrans, PostFinance, and Worldline.

In summary, it's worth looking beyond the large and well-known providers and also considering the new digital payment providers. These are often cheaper, yet offer a variety of tools and can cater to the individual needs of each Comerciante. Payrexx and wallee are very well-suited for smaller and medium-sized shops, while for larger companies, it might be worthwhile to look at the larger providers with extensive experience. Basically, Payrexx is clearly at the forefront in terms of price, variety, and simplicity.

Sources

Prices

Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch

Plugin e-commerce for Shop Systems

Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch

Payment Methods

Datatrans, PayPal, Payrexx, PostFinance, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, zahls.ch

Icons

Flaticon

Legal (as of February 2022)

We take no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or quality of the data and information provided on this website. It is particularly crucial that you obtain the information about prices and any additional costs from the respective providers themselves.

We expressly reserve the right to change the data provided on this website or our entire offer at any time without separate announcement. Similarly, we reserve the right to add, delete, or temporarily or permanently discontinue the publication of this website at any time.

This article may be freely copied.

Author/s

Author & Author: Sven Otziger, Payrexx AG and Priscilla Wyss, formerly Payrexx AG