 "2025 Shopify Payment Gateways: Our Guide To The Top Options")
2025 Shopify payment gateways.
Every ecommerce store needs a payment gateway to take payment from its customers, so finding the right Shopify payment gateway is business-critical. In this post, we’re exploring:
What’s a payment gateway & why do I need one?
Questions to ask when choosing a Shopify payment gateway, and
Our top picks for Shopify payment solutions in the UK.
What’s a Shopify payment gateway & why do I need one?
Don’t let the formal name intimidate you! As Shopify explains…
“A payment gateway is a payment processing technology that communicates transaction information between the customer and the merchant.
You need a payment gateway in order to securely accept credit and debit card payments from your customers, both online and in person. The payment gateway ensures payment data is securely transmitted from the customer to the merchant, protecting all entities involved.”
So, in a nutshell, Shopify payment gateways:
Facilitate secure credit and debit card payments when your customers make a purchase,
Protect both you and your customers because all payment data is communicated securely, and
As such, they are essential for all ecommerce sites.
Questions to ask when choosing a Shopify Payment Gateway in 2025.
As part of our journey-led growth approach at blubolt, we review Shopify payment gateways early in each client’s journey. This ensures we fully understand their business model, audience, and long-term goals before recommending the most suitable solution.
So to avoid buyer's remorse, consider:
1. Availability in your location.
Start with a process of elimination, as some Shopify payment gateways only work in specific regions! Check on Shopify’s site to see which payment gateways are available in your region before doing any other research. For example, we work with UK-based companies and check Shopify’s list of providers and filter by the UK.
2. Conducting a quick competitor audit.
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the competition. So, it’s worth checking what payment gateways they are using. Along with brands in your own vertical, you could also check brands with similar requirements (they rely on subscriptions, for example).
3. Pricing.
As with any aspect of managing your ecommerce site, pricing is one of the top considerations when choosing a new provider. However, don’t get caught out by failing to research your options, as you could negatively impact your profit margin. For example, some providers may have higher transaction rates but no monthly fee. Also, watch out for those extra fees!
To summarise, for each potential provider:
Check rates per transaction,
Check monthly fee/payment (if any),
Additional fees like annual fees, chargeback fees or cancellation fees, and then
Weigh up which pricing structure offers the best value for your brand, factoring in which features you need and which option is more profitable for your brand at its current size and with its current requirements.
4. Potential for international expansion.
While you may be trading in the UK only right now, there’s no harm in thinking big and future-proofing your site!
Shopify is known as a fantastic ecommerce platform for international expansion. With that in mind, it makes sense to ensure your Shopify payment gateway can deliver on that too. So it’s essential to choose a payment gateway that serves your current market well and has the potential for international expansion in markets relevant to your audience.
5. Types of payment gateways.
Another consideration is to understand the different types of Shopify payment gateways. With Shopify, there are three types:
Hosted: With this type of gateway, also known as a redirect payment gateway, your customers are taken off your site to the payment gateway page. Following payment, the gateway redirects them back to the right stage of the checkout process on your site.
Self-hosted: As the merchant, you collect payment data on your site and send it to the third-party payment gateway in the backend. The payment is processed off-site.
Non-hosted: As the merchant, you both collect and process the payment on-site. Bear in mind that this payment gateway is more common with larger brands because of its technical nature and the ongoing maintenance required.
6. Time to launch.
Unsurprisingly, the time from choosing your payment gateway to launching it will vary by provider and the complexity of your requirements. For example, Shopify Payments and PayPal are fast to set up, whereas others may take around four weeks. As part of our journey-led growth process, we explore all payment gateway options early on, giving us ample time to align technology choices with each brand’s broader growth strategy and launch timeline.
Our top UK Shopify Payment gateways for 2025.
Now that we’ve covered the key questions to ask, it’s time to look at our top UK Shopify payment solutions.
1. Shopify Payments
If you’re using the Shopify ecommerce platform, you’re automatically set up to access its payment gateway, Shopify Payments. With Shopify Payments, you can accept all major payment methods as soon as you create your Shopify store (so there’s no set-up fee), and it removes the need to set up a third-party provider. Payments take up to 3 days to arrive. Another bonus is being able to see your transactions in the Shopify admin (not available for external providers).
In terms of pricing for 2025, you’ll also avoid the transaction fees that Shopify charges for other third-party payment gateways. Instead, you’ll just be charged for your standard store subscription fee and credit card fees. For example:
Basic plan - 2% + 25p GBP online and 1.7% + 0p GBP in person,
Grow plan - 1.7% + 25p GBP online and 1.6% + 0p GBP in person, and
Advanced plan - 1.5% + 25p GBP online and 1.5% + 0p GBP in person).
Shopify Plus plans, which are bespoke, offer competitive rates depending on the volume of transactions, so discuss this in more detail with your Shopify partner.
2. Stripe
Stripe bills itself (no pun intended!) as a payment provider for businesses of all sizes with transparent pricing. Along with online and in-person payments, Stripe is also known for its straightforward set-up of recurring billing and direct debits, perfect for those businesses in the subscription market.
Pricing-wise in 2025, Stripe has no set-up or monthly fees, as you pay by transaction:
1.5% per transaction plus 20p for standard UK cards
2.5% per transaction plus 20p for European Economic Area cards
3.25% per transaction plus 20p for international cards
3. PayPal
Fortunately, PayPal is one of Shopify’s default payment providers. As a result, once you open a Shopify store, you're given a PayPal Express Checkout account with the email you used to sign up for your Shopify store. Simply set up your PayPal account to start collecting payments for orders made with PayPal. Generally, it’s a user-friendly process and usually takes less than a day to set up an account.
Unless you also activate Shopify Payments, you're charged transaction fees each time a customer purchases using this payment method. If you enable Shopify Payments, you aren't charged transaction fees on orders for stores located in most countries.
Pricing plans vary, but in 2025, for a standard commercial translation in the UK, you’re charged 1.29% plus £0.30 for each transaction.
4. Adyen
Adyen is a global payment platform ideal for larger or fast-growing Shopify stores selling across multiple markets. It supports a wide range of cards, wallets, and local payment methods through a single integration, helping merchants manage payments and currencies worldwide.
Adyen offers international reach with local payment support, no setup or monthly fees (pricing is per transaction) and enterprise-grade reporting, fraud protection, and scalability.
In 2025 in the UK, Adyen charges a fixed processing fee of £0.11 plus a variable percentage depending on the payment method and region. Fees vary by volume and currency, so you can review them here and contact them for a tailored quote.
5. Amazon Pay
With an estimated 56% of UK households having access to an Amazon account, giving customers the option of paying via their Amazon account is an easy way of streamlining the purchasing process. Amazon Pay is available worldwide, so it has fantastic expansion potential. On the downside, it will take between 3-5 business days to complete the payment and appear in your bank account. You’ll also need to factor in whether the cost of using Amazon Pay is worthwhile if you have a lower volume of transactions.
In 2025, costs for Amazon Pay start at a 2.9% fee plus $0.30 per transaction for desktop or mobile. For an international transaction, costs start from 3.9% and $0.30 per transaction for desktop or mobile.
6. Opayo by Evalon (formerly Sage Pay)
Formerly known as Sage Pay, Opayo by Evalon is well known in the UK and US markets and processes over £40 billion worth of card payments for over 50,000 merchants, online and in-store.
For online stores in 2025, Opayo by Evalon has three price tiers and no set-up fees:
Always Open (fixed) - from £25 p/m, transaction fee from 0.99%, includes 350 transactions per month and no joining fee.
Always Open (pay as you go) - £0 p/m, from 1.99% per transaction, £0.12 gateway fee, and £99 one-off joining fee.
7. Shop Pay Installments
On a different tangent, Shop Pay Installments operates on a ‘buy now, pay later’ model. This form of payment can also improve conversion rates and average order value because customers don’t necessarily have to pay for their order all at once.
Shop Pay Installments offers your customers more flexibility at checkout. In 2025, Shop Pay Installments offers two packages:
Standard. Available for smaller purchases from £50 to £999.99, customers can opt for three interest-free monthly payments (Pay in 3) or monthly instalments from 3 to 12 months.
Premium. As you’d expect, it’s for larger purchases from £150 to £30,000. Customers can choose interest-free payments for up to 12 months or monthly instalments for up to 24 months.
With this option, you won't pay any additional charges, interest rates, or late fees passed on to customers for these Shop Pay orders. You'll also get paid upfront (excluding fees) for the customer’s orders, and the customer stays on your site throughout (no redirects).
8. Klarna
Klarna is another payment gateway with a ‘buy now, pay later’ model, which helps businesses of all sizes attract, convert, and retain customers with flexible payment options. Like Shop Pay Installments, merchants get payment for the customers’ orders immediately, so there’s no risk even if the customer defaults. In terms of pricing in 2025, merchants pay 4.99% plus £0.20 per transaction to pay over time or 2.9% plus £0.20 per transaction to pay later varies for international payments).
It enables merchants to offer customers four main product options:
Pay in full,
Pay in 3-4 (interest-free instalments),
Pay in 30 days, and
Financing (up to 36 months to pay).
The top 2025 Shopify payment gateways.
While choosing a Shopify payment gateway may seem daunting to start with, we hope the above information has boosted your knowledge and confidence! You’re bound to be more thorough in analysing each option by answering our quick questions before starting your research. And remember, if you have any further questions, you can get in touch with us. With hundreds of ecommerce growth journeys supported, we’re well-placed to advise on how payment gateways can fit into your wider strategy.
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