Looking for the best Bitcoin payment gateway for your small business? Or wondering how to accept crypto as payment for your services or products?
We’ve got you covered!
First up, applaud yourself for embracing cryptocurrency, for taking the first step towards lower fees, less fraud and faster payments.
Accepting crypto is no longer a crazy idea. In fact, adding crypto as a payment option can benefit your business in many ways.
With the increasing popularity of Bitcoin, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon and accepting it as a form of tender for products or services.
According to a survey conducted by HSB, one-third of U.S. small businesses accept cryptocurrency as payment. And newer companies are twice as likely to trade in digital credits.
On the other hand, Bitcoin is a highly volatile digital asset. It can be prone to large price fluctuations throughout the day which may compromise its use as a practical currency.
Wouldn’t it be great if you can avoid crypto price volatility by fixing the exchange rate and receiving your local currency (USD, EUR, GBP etc) directly to your bank account?
Fortunately, it’s easy to fix. All you need is using the RIGHT tool.
Bitcoin payment processor simplifies the process of accepting Bitcoin payments, giving you the ability to convert to fiat with the real-time bitcoin rate.
You don’t have to worry about potential losses due to massive price movement. Whether you’re running an online store on Shopify, Woocommerce or opening a physical store, you can start accepting Bitcoin without much effort.
In this article, I will show you some of the best Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment gateways that allow you securely and cost-effectively accept crypto payments worldwide.
What is a Bitcoin Payment Gateway? How does it work?
A Bitcoin payment gateway is basically a merchant service that processes cryptocurrency payments for ecommerce sites and traditional brick and mortar stores. With this payment solution, customers can easily see the prices of your products based on the latest Bitcoin rate and make payments by clicking a button or scanning a code with their phone.
This is quite similar to accepting payment online via credit cards or internet banking using conventional payment gateways.
But instead of paying with a credit card, customers pay via a crypto wallet. Customers pay in cryptocurrency, not in fiat currencies like USD, EUR, GBP etc.
You create your own crypto payment gateway using tools like CoinPayments. Once you complete the setup process, it’s as simple as adding a WordPress plugin, then everything is fully automated.
It will automatically display Bitcoin payment information, record and process crypto transaction and convert coins into fiat currency to avoid price volatility.
| Bitcoin Payment Gateway | Processing Fee |
|---|---|
| CoinPayments | 0.5% |
| Coinbase Commerce | Free |
| SpectroCoin | up to 1% |
| CoinGate | 1% |
| Blockonomics | 1% |
| BitPay | 1% |
| GoURL | 0-3.5% |
Why You Should Accept Cryptocurrency in Your Business
1. Take crypto payments securely anytime, anywhere
Want to attract a whole new group of customers across the world?
Give your customers an extra way to pay by offering cryptocurrency payments.
Using a reliable payment gateway will help to grow your online sales, and optimize conversion by making it easy for customers to pay using their preferred coins, wherever they want.
2. Lowest fees
Did you know credit cards can take up to 5% in processing fees?
Here’s the good news. You can save yourself from paying unnecessary fees by implementing crypto as payment option.
It requires no bank-mediator and in most cases you only pay crypto transaction fees as low as 0.5%.
Not only that, this will help you prevent exorbitant overdraft fees, transfer fees, foreign transaction fees, service fees and other banking fees, this especially helpful if you’re running an international business.
Not to mention, having a crypto account is entirely fee. There is no account opening, maintenance or minimum balance fees.
3. No chargebacks
Bitcoin payments are irreversible. This means that a Bitcoin transaction cannot be reversed. There’s no chargebacks.
4. Fast, secure and fraud-resistant
Bitcoin is anonymous in the sense that users don’t have to provide any of their personal details like name, email, ID, phone number etc.
Accept Bitcoin for online payments will provide your customers an extra layer of protection for their personal information.
To make a Bitcoin transaction, all your customers need is the address and private key. This way, you can avoid credit card fraud and identity theft.
Plus, once payment is made, the transaction will show up instantly and is confirmed within hour. This means that you are able to receive your funds almost immediately after customer pays.
5. Better investment
Bitcoin has a limited and finite supply of total 21 million. As the demand for Bitcoin is growing at a blistering pace, the value of Bitcoin is only going to increase with time.
As “the native currency of the Internet”, Bitcoin may work well as an inflation hedge. And you can exchange crypto to fiat currency anytime you wants.
Are you ready to start accepting crypto payments in your business?
Let’s dive in.
How to Accept Bitcoin Payments on Your Website
Founded in 2013, CoinPayments is an industry leader that specializes in crypto payments and transactions. It also gives you the ability to buy, store, send, receive and convert over 2,010+ cryptocurrencies with their digital crypto wallet.
With CoinPayments, you can accept 100+ different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin and settle payments in minutes at only 0.5% processing fee!
Managing incoming crypto payments as a merchant is so much easier with unique features such as
- Auto conversions – automatically convert your incoming coins to eliminating any risk associated with the price volatility of cryptocurrencies.
- Shopping cart plugins – Offer pre-built plugins and integrations for all popular webcarts such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Opencart, Magento and more
- Mobile Point of Sale (POS) – If you have a physical store or want to accept crypto in person, this easy-to-use POS feature provides real-time exchange rates for 27 fiat currencies, with optional tax and tipping features.
- Fiat Settlement – You can also settle crypto payments into 9 different fiat currencies directly to your linked bank accounts
- Auto payment forwarding – Instantly forward payments to any crypto wallet you want.
In addition to that, you can also use their cryptocurrency vault to safeguard your coins for as long as you want. However, if you’re planning to HODL your Bitcoin as long-term investment, it’s advisable to transfer your coins to your own hardware wallet like Ledger.
A hardware wallet is by far the most secure way of keeping Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. If you have yet to own a bitcoin hardware wallet, choose a reliable wallet here.
If want to mitigate volatility’s effects, you have the option to accept (and store) payment directly in stable coin of your choice, including
- Tether (USDT)
- True USD (TUSD)
- Gemini Dollar (GUSD)
- USD Coin (USDC)
Accept Crypto Payment with CoinPayments
Based out of United States and operational since 2012, Coinbase is arguably the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
You may know Coinbase as a digital wallet service provider and secure online platform for managing, buying, selling, storing and transferring crypto funds.
But do you know that Coinbase also offers Bitcoin merchant services?
Yes, Coinbase Commerce allows you to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a legitimate source of funds. Currently, the platform supports payments in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dai, Ethereum, Litecoin, and USD Coin.
Unlike CoinPayments, all payments facilitated by Coinbase Commerce are fully decentralized and peer-to-peer. Meaning that all crypto payments will go straight to your wallet that’s fully controlled and only accessible by you, as a merchant.
In other words, Coinbase doesn’t have any access to your funds.
Coinbase Commerce is completely free to use. Zero processing fees.
You only need to pay a network fee to the miners whenever you want to withdraw your crypto. To send crypto to your local bank account, you’ll need to pay for exchange fees.
The Coinbase Commerce platform offers few different ways for you to accept Bitcoin depending on your business needs:
- If you just want to sell a few products, then use the Simple hosted Checkouts and payment buttons.
- If you’re running an eCommerce site, use the quick integrations and install shopping cart plugins on your online store.
- If you’re looking for more advanced functionality, Coinbase offer a flexible API, though you might need to have some technical skills.
Get started with Coinbase Commerce
Like Coinbase, SpectroCoin offers various features that allow merchants to receive payments in Bitcoin and other leading crypto in different ways.
Sign up for a free SpectroCoin account, choose the most convenient merchant payment processing solution and implement it into your business platform or physical shop.
If you already have an e-commerce site, you can quickly start accepting cryptocurrencies by integrating a Bitcoin payment processor into your online store. Some of the supported e-commerce plugins are:
- Drupal
- Magento
- OpenCart
- PrestaShop
- WHMCS
- WooCommerce
- VirtueMart
- Zen Cart
- Magento 2
If you can’t find a suitable shopping cart plugin for your business, you can choose a custom integration route by integrating the SpectroCoin payment processing API.
Besides, SpectroCoin makes it super easy to add payment button onto your website so you can accept Bitcoin donations from other people right away. Simply adding a payment button snippet into the HTML code of your website to start receiving Bitcoin, NEM or Dash payments-no plugins needed!
Spectro charges up to 1% per every payment that you make. There are no other specific merchant fees. If you enable the ‘receive’ function in your merchant projects, all of the crypto assets that you accept will be automatically converted to your preferred currency.
Launched in 2014, CoinGate is another reliable and trustworthy cryptocurrency payment gateway that enables various businesses worldwide to accept Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum and other 50+ popular cryptocurrencies.
It doesn’t charge any setup or recurring fee. You only need to pay 1% flat fee for the merchant payment processing services, including
- Free SEPA transfers and Bitcoin payouts
- Customer support & reporting dashboard
- Full-range of crypto payment solutions such as fully customizable API, Payment buttons, E-commerce plugins and Point-of-sales
Also, you can keep revenue in cryptocurrencies and withdraw your earnings in fiat, Bitcoin and other coins, whenever you like.
This is an example of how your website would look like with CoinGate crypto payment integration:
CoinGate is not yet available in the United States.
Blockonomics is a global cryptocurrency payment provider that helps you track and accept Bitcoin payments safely across the world in a matter of minutes.
What’s great, Blockonomics is completely non-custodial. This means that you have full control of your own Bitcoin. Blockonomics can never touch your revenue. Once a sale is made, you’ll get paid instantly and directly to your own wallet like Ledger and Trezor.
Plus, you don’t have to reveal your identity or go through KYC (Know-your-customer) procedure to start using Blockonomics. Making it a perfect choice for those who want to protect their privacy while accepting BTC payments from anyone in the world.
To help merchants accept bitcoin, Blockonomics provides features like shopping cart plugins, payment buttons, customizable API and payment links.
It charges only a 1% fee on transactions.
Additionally, you can use the wallet watcher to track multiple wallets and addresses, and receive email notifications when a customer make a payment.
Accept BTC Payment with Blockonomics
If you live in the U.S. and have no luck earning using CoinGate, then BitPay is for you.
BitPay is a U.S. based Bitcoin payment service provider that was founded back in May 2011.
It gives you the ability to accept payments in Bitcoin and withdraw them as local currency through your bank or spend and store BTC with BitPay crypto card and wallet.
BitPay makes accepting Bitcoin payments easy. Here are some different ways to receive crypto from all over the world with BitPay:
- payment buttons
- a hosted checkout
- embeddable invoice for your website
- easy-to-use plugins and integrations
Here’s how it works:
- BitPlay will show the invoice for your customer.
- A customer pays the invoice with the current crypto exchange rate.
- BitPay converts crypto payment into your local money.
- You get a bank settlement the next business day.
That’s it. And for every dollar or euro you earn, BitPay will take 1% fee.
GoURL is a 100% free open source project that helps crypto enthusiasts accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Dash etc without a middleman.
Even though you don’t have your own website, you can take advantage of Monetiser Online to sell your music, texts, images, videos, files or any artwork online for cryptocurrencies. Simply create your own free GoUrl Payment Urls, share it on social media, forums and any site you want and start receiving crypto payments from your audience.
Alternatively, you can install ready-to-use WordPress Bitcoin plugin on your website to get payments straight to your bitcoin/altcoin wallets.
It’s completely free to use. Transaction fee starts from 0% – 3.5% depending on the features and types of cryptocurrencies you want to accept.
- 0% fee forever for any Speedcoin payments
- 1.5% fee to accept Bitcoin, BitcoinCash, BitcoinSV, Litecoin, Dash, Dogecoin, Reddcoin, Potcoin, Feathercoin, Vertcoin, Peercoin, MonetaryUnit
- 3.5% fee to access GoUrl URL Shortener & Monetiser features
Accept Bitcoin Payment Manually
Sure, you can handle Bitcoin payments on your own without using any crypto payment gateway.
As we all know, Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”.
The essence of Bitcoin is to remove middlemen and enable direct payments between two users.
However, accepting Bitcoin payments manually without using any third-party platform will require a little more work on your part.
You’ll need to generate a Bitcoin address for each sale, create invoices, track transactions, exchange crypto to fiat. The biggest noticeable benefit is that you don’t have to pay any processing fees. You get 100% of what your customers pay, nothing less.
However, consider the amount of work involved and price volatility, it’s not a viable option for websites with high sales volume.
Conclusion
There you’ve it, 7 best Bitcoin payment gateways to accept crypto payments with no hassle.
Don’t limit your sales to locally available payment options, pick a crypto payment gateway that best fits the needs of your business, reach a new global audience and increase your businesses’ profits in no time.
Each of these platforms offers slightly different features, interfaces and fees.
So hopefully with this list, I can help you choose the best, low fee, secure crypto payment processing options for your business.
That’s all for now. As the space of cryptocurrency is rapidly evolving, I’ll be updating this post regularly with the latest info, so keep coming back to discover more.
What do you think?
Would you accept Bitcoin and crypto payments for your products or services? Why or why not?
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P.S: This Bitcoin resource is One of – if not the most – comprehensive resources for learning about Bitcoin with over 20 categories ranging from history to buying BTC, setting up a wallet, technical information, mining, security, and trading. Enjoy!
