What is Online Payment Gateway API?

In general, APIs make it simple to integrate applications, which results in more creative and entertaining digital experiences. An API for a payment gateway interacts with your current digital workflows to link the payment acquiring network of your business with the checkout system of your firm. It is a replacement for the hosted checkout pages that eCommerce companies have historically utilized, enabling customers to make purchases from you without having to leave your website in order to complete payments. If you aren't already utilising one, payment gateway APIs are worth considering again because they have a direct impact on your relationship with your clients.

How do APIs work?

An application programming interface, or API, is a piece of software that enables two applications to communicate with one another. You use an API every time you send a text message, check the weather on your phone, or use a social media tool like Facebook.

What Is a Good API Instance?

A mobile phone app links to the Internet as well as sends information to a server each time you use it. Once the data has been retrieved, interpreted, and the necessary steps have been taken, it is then sent back to your phone by the server. After analyzing the data, the application displays the desired information to you in a comprehensible manner. An API is used to accomplish all of this.

Let's use a relatable scenario to better illustrate this.

Imagine, you are at a table in a restaurant, in front of a menu. The "system" component that will prepare your order is the kitchen. What's missing is the vital link that would allow you to give your order to the kitchen and have your food brought back to your table. The waiter or API steps in at this point. The waiter serves as the messenger, or API, who relays your request or order to the kitchen, or system, for processing. Then the waiter returns with the answer, which in this case is the food.

Here is an example of a real-world API. Online flight searches could be something you're used to. You have a range of choices, including various places, departure and returning details, and more, just like the cafe. Consider that you are making a flight reservation on an airline website. You select the departure city, the return city, the cabin class, as well as other options. Before you purchase your travel, you use the airline's website to search their database, see if any seats are available on those dates, and learn what the potential charges would be.

But what if you're not utilising the airline's website, which provides direct access to the data? What if you're using a website that compiles information from many airline databases, like Expedia or Kayak?

Here, you can see the interaction between the travel service and the airline's API. The online travel agency can request information from the airline's database through the API, so that seats, baggage options, etc. can be reserved. The online travel agency then provides you the most recent, pertinent information by using the API to take the airline's response to your request and deliver it directly back to it.

The Modern API

Over the years, the term "API" has commonly been used to describe any kind of broad connectivity access to an application. But more recently, the modern API has acquired a few characteristics that make them highly practical and helpful:

Modern APIs adhere to widely acknowledged protocols (often HTTP and REST), which are user- and developer-friendly.

More than code, they are regarded like goods. They are versioned to let users to have exact expectations about their maintenance and lifecycle, they are documented, and they are intended for consumption by certain audiences (such as mobile developers).

Suppose a developer is asked to create a website for a client to start a business. In this case, if you haven't selected the best payment gateway provider, running a firm successfully may prove challenging. The payment gateway integration is the most crucial component of your website, so if you ignore it, your website is unlikely to produce the desired results. While selecting a payment gateway, your business must exercise caution. The customer's experience on your websites, cash flow, and online sales should all be taken into consideration. Make sure to consider at least the following elements given below while choosing a payment gateway.

• Security should always be the main priority. Make sure that it complies with the PCI Data Security Standard and has 3D security incorporated (PCI DSS).
• It should take less time to credit money to your bank account.
• Integration must be simple and straightforward, or it will be simple to create a custom-coded solution for your platform.
• For consumers utilising different currencies all across the world, the payment gateway should be able to handle several currencies.

Here, we'll talk about the seven most frequent payment gateway services, which are very well-liked by developers and are utilised by many IT firms for a variety of commercial endeavours.

1. Paytm

It is one of the top payment channels in India. Leading unicorns in India rely on the technology provided by Paytm Payment Gateway. The Paytm app is also powered by this payment gateway.

Instant online onboarding and simple integration options are provided by Paytm Payment Gateway. The payment gateway works with all popular e-commerce systems, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and more than 20 others. It also supports all kinds of websites and mobile applications. The feature-rich mobile SDKs from Paytm Payment Gateway offer the greatest checkout experience for clients' customers. Additionally, it provides robust APIs and ready-to-use JS snippets.

The only payment gateway that doesn't charge for UPI transactions is Paytm Payment Gateway. On UPI and RuPay debit cards, there is a 0% MDR (merchant discount rate) offer. The payment gateway also supports 2,500 transactions per second and T+1 settlement, which are the highest in the business.

Additionally, Paytm's International Payment Gateway enables Indian businesses to accept payments from over 200 different nations in all major currencies. With the Paytm Payment Gateway, Indian companies may sell their goods worldwide without the need for additional API integrations.

Key Features

• Domestic Credit Cards supported: Visa, Master, Maestro, Amex, Discover, and Diners
• Shopping Cart Kits currently available: Opencart, Magento, Zencart, WordPress, Woocommerce, Joomla Virtue Mart, Prestashop, OSCommerce, WordPress Ecommerce, Ubercart, Easy digital, WHMCS, ViArt, Opencart, CScart, Virtuemart, Drupal Commerce, Moodle, Nopcommerce, Gravity forms.
• The following environments offer integration kits: OSCommerce, PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby On Rails, JSP, and VB.NET
• Available for both Android and iOS mobile applications.

Price

No startup costs, no ongoing charges, no yearly maintenance fees.

2. Stripe

It is also one of the most popular payment gateways in the industry. Stripe was introduced in 2010 and is adored by many developers. The site has a Developer First section that you can access when you visit it, which is extremely amazing and demonstrates that it was created with developers in mind. Methods for receiving payments, managing subscriptions, maintaining user accounts, and sending invoices are all accessible to developers using the Stripe payment API. In the business, the user interface is the best. Lyft, Postmates, Doordash, TaskRabbit, Deliveroo, Slack, Kickstarter, and Pinterest are just a few of the good firms that use its services. We'll talk about some of its main characteristics.

Key Features

• Clear and thorough documentation for programmers to use in implementing the services.
• Provides best tools for developers and the market. It enables you to reach out to new audiences, increase renewal, and forge strong partnerships with top markets and third-party applications.
• Suitable for International trades.
• Ideal for major businesses with in-house developers or external web development firms for their projects.
• With the help of Stripe, you may create and include trial periods in your strategies or distribute coupons to aid in the creation and improvement of your tactics.

Price

• Domestic: 2% for the majority of Indian-issued cards and 3% for cards from other countries.
• 4.3% for cards issued internationally. 2% more for currency exchange.

3. PayPal

One of the most well-known payment processors and one that is well-known worldwide is Paypal. Over the past 20 years, Paypal has been offering services; today, it does so in more than 200 markets worldwide. More than 237 million people currently have active accounts with it across a number of platforms, including Braintree, Venmo, and Xoom. India's onboarding process is a little difficult because Paypal is new to the country. The staff may not have received adequate training for the verification process, which could be the cause. Let's talk about some of its main attributes.

Key Features

• With Paypal, both the merchant and the customer can conduct transactions in more than 100 different currencies, withdraw money in 56 different currencies, and keep balances in 25 different currencies in their registered accounts.
• There are no monthly fees, initiation costs, termination fees, or withdrawal fees.
• Provides iOS and Android mobile app payment gateway integration.
• Various plans are offered depending on the demands.
• It allows high-security payments on low-security websites and makes PCI compliance easy, even on low-cost or free tier cloud hosting, as you are not obliged to keep credit card or bank account information on your server.

Price:

• Free, no maintenance fees are assessed on an annual basis.
• 4.4% per transaction plus a set charge determined on the currency.

4. Razorpay

The only payment gateway in India that offers a product suite that enables businesses to accept, process, and disperse payments is Razorpay. All payment methods, including credit card, debit card, net banking, UPI, and well-known wallets like Airtel Money, FreeCharge, JioMoney, PayUmoney, Ola Money, Mobikwik, and PayZapp, are accessible through it. Additionally, Razorpay offers a fantastic user experience, and onboarding is not too difficult. Even if you just want to test out their user interface, Razorpay cannot function until you supply a valid bank account number. Let's go through some of its main characteristics.

Key Features

• It is the industry's best documentation on par with Stripe's level of quality.
• Supported eCommerce CMS Systems: WooCommerce, Magento, CS-Cart, Opencart, Shopify, WHCMS, WordPress, Arastta, and Prestashop are just a few examples of the most popular ones.
• Mobile app integration with Cordova/Phonegap and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android.

Price

• There is no yearly maintenance fee and no initial setup cost.
• Transaction fee: 2% for each successful transaction; +1% for EMI, international cards, Diners, and Amex cards.

5. PayU

PayU, a product of an Indian payment processing company that was originally known as PayU Money, is another rival to Razorpay. One of the greatest and most straightforward online payment options, PayU was developed to fill the holes created by complicated service providers. They have a simple sign-up and rapid onboarding procedure, and it requires little effort on the part of the developer. The user interface seems good. Users can start accepting local payments through the service's single integrated solution in any location where it conducts business. More than 250 local payment methods and a variety of currencies are available with PayU. Let's talk about some of its main attributes.

Key Features

• It provides support for International Payment. Credit Cards are also available.
• There are more than 100 payment options, such as UPI, debit/credit cards, and net banking.
• The industry's best documentation is found in the same bar as Stripe and Razorpay.
• Supported eCommerce CMS Systems: Support for all of the main CMS
• Integration of iOS, Android, and Windows mobile applications.
• Accept payments in more than a hundred different currencies.

Price:

• Zero yearly maintenance fee. There is no setup cost.
• 2% plus GST is the transaction fee per transaction. Transaction fees for American Express and Diners Cards are 3% plus GST for international transactions, and there is a setup fee in addition to annual maintenance fees for EMI payment alternatives (AMC). Additionally, each transaction has a fee of 3% plus 6Rs.

6. Instamojo

Another payment gateway option receiving a lot of attention at the moment is Instamojo. They have a fairly effective onboarding procedure. To set up your account within an hour, you only need to provide your bank information and tax information. You don't need a checking account to use Instamojo. It works with savings accounts. The user interface is also great. Let's talk about some of its main features:

Key Features:

• For Instamojo, the documentation is pretty decent.
• UPI, debit/credit cards, net banking, and wallets are just a few of the accessible payment methods.
• All popular eCommerce content management systems, including Magento, Prestashop, Opencart, etc., are supported.

Price:

• Zero annual maintenance fee.
• 2% plus Rs 3 is the transaction fees for each transaction.

7. CCAvenue

One of India's leading payment gateways, CCAvenue, provides a variety of payment methods. They accept 200+ different forms of payment, including six credit cards including eZeClick, JCB, Mastercard, Visa, and Amex. Additionally, 18 important Indian and foreign languages are supported by CCAvenue's multilingual payment website. It's difficult for users to sign up for them. The majority of individuals find it annoying that they still have to complete manual or physical documentation. The onboarding procedure may take months, and you will need to send couriers and files. The documentation for CCAvenue is excellent, and there are numerous blogs and articles to integrate virtually any software stack. CCAvenue has a respectable user interface. Here are some of the salient characteristics:

Key Features

• It provides support for international payments and credit cards. Your eCommerce business can display the prices of your products in a wide range of currencies.
• On the CCAvenue payment options page, your clients can complete their purchases in the currency of their choice.
• Support for Multiple Currencies: CCAvenue enables the collection of payments in 27 significant international currencies.
• The majority of shopping carts, including Buildabazaar, Cubecart, Drupal, Interspire, Joomla, Magento, Magento Go, Martjack, Moodle, NopCommerce, Opencart, OsCommerce, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, WHMCS, WordPress, and ZenCart, are supported by the API that CCAvenue has developed.
• Integration of mobile app payment gateways for Android, iOS, and Windows.

Price:

• No startup costs
• Rs. 1200 is the annual maintenance fee for a new account.
• Transaction Fee per Transaction:
  • Domestic Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and RuPay Credit & Debit Cards: Flat Fee @ 2%
  • Wallets: Paytm, PayZapp, Jana Cash, SBI Budd.y, OlaMoney, JioMoney, Freecharge, Mobikwik, and OlaMoney
  • Mobile Wallet: Flat cost @ 2%
  • UPI and IMPS: flat cost of 2%
  • American Express, JCB, Visa, Mastercard, and other international credit cards
  • 3% flat fee for Diners Club members.
  • Additional taxes from time to time.