Online Payment Systems UK: Guide for Businesses

An online payment system can include checkout software, a payment gateway, payment processing, fraud controls, reporting and settlement. The exact combination depends on the provider.

Main routes

• Hosted checkout pages.
• Embedded website checkout.
• Payment links and pay-by-link.
• Invoice payments.
• Recurring billing.
• Direct Debit for eligible recurring use cases.

Choose around customer behaviour

Consider how customers discover your business, where they complete payment, which devices they use and whether purchases are one-off or recurring.

Compare the complete system

Review fees, supported methods, settlement, reporting, refunds, disputes, fraud controls and integration effort together. This gives a more realistic view than comparing a single processing rate.