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

First, some terms will be clarified, a cost analysis conducted, and then the individual providers evaluated in detail. In conclusion, you will receive information about which Payment Service Provider is best for you.

Online Payments: Theory for Understanding

To accept payments in the online shop, Comerciante need an acceptance contract with an Acquirer and a processing contract concluded with a payment provider.

What is a Payment Service Provider (PSP)?

A payment provider, known as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) in English, refers to companies handling the technical integration of online payment methods in online shops. Instead of numerous individual contract partners, an online merchant who chooses a payment provider only needs to negotiate with this provider for the desired payment methods, such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, PostFinance and TWINT, to integrate them into their shop.

What is a Payment Method Provider?

A Payment Service Provider provides many external payment methods available to carry out a transaction. Companies that offer this option themselves are termed payment providers. This can be in card form like MasterCard and VISA or in wallet form like Google Pay or TWINT.

What is an Acquiring or Acceptance Contract?

In banking, acquiring involves recruiting contract partners willing to accept payments via credit card. The so-called acquiring bank is the credit institute that settles card payments for Comerciante. Comerciante can conclude 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 known as a Collecting PSP, is in direct contact with the Comerciante and manages the Comerciante account at the Acquirer. The Payment Facilitator can sign the acceptance contract on behalf of the Acquirer and thus simplifies the setup of online payments because the Comerciante has to maintain fewer direct relationships.

How do you choose the right provider?

It is crucial for Comerciante to keep costs as low as possible. It is important to consider setup, monthly costs, and transaction fees. Before deciding, it should be clarified which payment methods and tools are needed for the online shop. Depending on the provider, all major payment methods* are supported, and integrated tools are available. It is also crucial for Comerciante and their customers that the payment processing is secure. Compliance with PCI DSS Level 1 standards is significant.

It is advisable to choose a payment provider who is also an Acquirer or Payment Facilitator so that Comerciante have a single point of contact for both. Other important points are the provider's customer support and the provision of plugins for well-known shop solutions.

Cost Analysis

Online Shops with a Monthly Revenue of 20,000 EUR

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

Price Calculation

To conduct the cost analysis, the most affordable offers from individual payment providers for a trade turnover of 20,000 EUR per month were selected. The price information is mostly taken from the websites of the respective Payment Service Providers.

Notes

Any setup costs are not included in the diagram.

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

With Datatrans' Get-Started offer, additional acquiring costs are added. Since 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. Thus, the costs for the cheapest payment provider Payrexx are more than 50% lower than the most expensive offer.

Online Shops with a Monthly Revenue of 100,000 EUR

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

Price Calculation

To conduct the cost analysis, the most affordable offers from individual payment providers for a trade turnover of 50,000 per month were selected. The price information was mostly taken from the websites of the respective Payment Service Providers.

Notes

Any setup costs are not included in the diagram.

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

With Datatrans' Scale-Now offer, additional acquiring costs are added. The average value of the first diagram was reduced by 0.5%.

Conclusion: Costs for Medium-Sized Online Shops

Payrexx is the cheapest provider, with costs of 1,549 EUR per month, followed by wallee. PayPal and Stripe are significantly more expensive than the other providers for medium-sized online shops. Payrexx is 2,401 EUR cheaper than the costliest provider, PayPal, representing a percentage price difference of 60%.

No calculation was done for large online shops as most payment providers offer non-public special conditions for larger customers - including Datatrans, Payrexx, Stripe, wallee, Worldline, and zahls.ch.

Summary Table

If you operate an online shop, it is of utmost importance that you can offer a variety of different payment methods. In the table, you can see which payment provider offers which methods. The most common methods in Switzerland are listed.

In the second part, you can see what software you can use to build your shop. In addition to the well-known solutions, there are also some providers that offer their own shop system, which does not require programming knowledge to set up. Such offers are found in the row "Integrated E-Commerce Tools" of the table. This tool enables you to easily create a shop for products, coupons, subscriptions, or donations.

Finally, you will find an overview of the publicly accessible reviews of the companies on Google. The number of reviews is also important as it can provide a broader range of opinions.

All Payment Providers in Detail

Payrexx: Payment Facilitator with Integrated E-Commerce Tools

Payrexx is both a payment provider and a Payment Facilitator, presenting itself as an all-in-one solution through its affordable pricing model and the number of payment interfaces and e-commerce tools. With the diverse 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 coupons, as well as collecting membership fees or carrying out donation projects. Thanks to the 30-day trial period, the platform can be tested for free. Payrexx has an average Google rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 96 reviews.

Payrexx Price Overview

* Preferential rates between 1.7% and 1.3%

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration? Since each Comerciante receives a payment website with its own internet address, neither integration nor programming knowledge is necessary. If you already have a shop, you can activate the payment with one of the free available plugins.

PostFinance Checkout All-in-One: 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 Shop Plugins. The prices listed below already include all costs for payment provider and acquiring, as no additional contracts are required. PostFinance also offers the option of testing the provider for 30 days in a simulation mode.

Price Overview of PostFinance Checkout All-in-One

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

PostFinance Checkout is available to all companies headquartered in Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein that have a business account in EUR with PostFinance.

Worldline (formerly SIX Payments): Acquirer and Payment Provider

Worldline offers both Acquirer and Payment Provider services and typically provides the offers in 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. As a result, the customer can relatively freely decide in which currency they want to pay. This is also because Worldline, like most other payment providers, offers so-called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). In addition, Worldline offers various payment functions, such as additional charges or booking partial amounts. Worldline has an average Google rating of 2.4 out of 5 stars based on 237 reviews.

Worldline Price Overview

Until the chosen turnover, transaction fees are included in the monthly fixed costs. All transactions that exceed this volume are charged at the rates in the last column.

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

No programming knowledge is required. According to its own statements, SIX goCard is especially suitable for existing e-commerce solutions and static websites.

Datatrans: Provider with Extensive Experience

Datatrans is the largest provider in Switzerland and can be integrated either as an external payment option (external payment window) or directly via an implementation (via API in the shop layout). With the Datatrans Payment Pages, Comerciante have access to all payment methods with a single integration. Datatrans Secure Fields seamlessly integrate into the design and help improve the Comerciante'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 based on 14 reviews.

Datatrans Price Overview

The monthly costs and transaction fees are visible on the website; the setup costs are not listed there. In addition to the Datatrans costs, there are external acquiring fees of about 2%.

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

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

Either developer knowledge is required or a standard shop system is implemented. Since Datatrans is neither an Acquirer nor Payment Facilitator, Comerciante need acceptance contracts with other acquirers.

PayPal: An International Payment Provider

PayPal is a simple solution for shop operators, but costs more in the long term with larger order volumes. Payment links and email invoices, as well as various plugins, are available. According to its own statements, the Payment Facilitator PayPal has more than 240 million active users and offers the option to make 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, a Comerciante can choose from a variety of different languages. PayPal has an average Google rating of 1.8 out of 5 stars based on 6 reviews.

PayPal Switzerland Price Overview

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

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

In order to use PayPal, Comerciante need to provide company information as well as a commercial register number. No development 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 is, like Payrexx and PayPal, a Payment Facilitator. Basically, this provider is especially attractive for smaller online shops due to the prices.

Stripe Price Overview

The transaction fees are 2.9% and 0.3 EUR per transaction. Neither one-time setup costs nor fixed monthly fees are charged. No additional fees are required for refunds.

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

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

wallee: Omni-Pay Provider from Switzerland

Wallee is a Swiss payment provider headquartered in Winterthur. Over 1,000 customers trust this company. Payments can be integrated online either on the website or through redirection. The templates can be customized with a resource editor and plugins for various shop systems are also available. A test mode is also available.

wallee Price Overview

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

To use one of the many integrations, programming knowledge is necessary.

zahls.ch: New Swiss Payment Solution for the Internet

zahls.ch is a Swiss provider with a very clear offering. In addition to classic payments, e-commerce tools are also available, including payment link, 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 based on 10 reviews.

zahls.ch Price Overview

What do Comerciante need to do for the integration?

No programming knowledge is required to use zahls.ch. On the contrary — you can easily create an online shop with the integrated tool. The verification process includes providing a photo ID and, if available, commercial register entry.

Conclusion: Which Payment Provider Suits You?

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

Of course, not only 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 third-party providers), Payrexx offers the broadest range of payment methods, followed by Datatrans with over 40 different payment methods.

Regarding the simplicity of installation, PayPal, Payrexx, and zahls.ch surpass the other payment providers. Overall, Stripe is more comprehensive in its implementation than the other providers. Advanced developer knowledge is needed for installing the plugins with PostFinance.

The ability to test the provider and its features in a free phase is of great advantage for the Comerciante. This way, they can ensure that the payment provider meets their needs. Datatrans, Payrexx, PostFinance, wallee, Worldline, and zahls.ch allow customers to test the provider.

Datatrans, PostFinance, and Worldline have the most experience in the domain of Payment Service Providing.

In summary, it can be said that when choosing a payment provider, one should not only look at the large and well-known providers, but also keep an eye on the new digital payment providers. They are often cheaper but still offer a variety of tools and can accommodate the individual needs of each Comerciante. For smaller and medium-sized shops, Payrexx and wallee are very suitable, while for larger companies, it may be worthwhile to look into the larger providers, who have a lot of experience. In terms of price, variety, and simplicity, Payrexx is clearly one of the leaders.

Sources

Prices

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

Plugins for Shop Systems

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

Payment Methods

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

Icons

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Legal (As of February 2022)

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We expressly reserve the right to change the data provided on this website or our entire offering at any time without separate announcement. We are also entitled to add to, delete, or discontinue the publication of this website at any time, either temporarily or permanently.

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Author

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