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Buycraft University: Which Gateway Should I Use?

You’ve probably spent a lot of time searching for the best gateway to use and while we can’t choose for you, what we can do is

by Harry Machin Posted on 19 March 2018

You’ve probably spent a lot of time searching for the best gateway to use on your store and while we can’t choose for you, what we can do is support the best payment gateways for your community.

With many years of coding, building, testing and developing behind us, we’ve marked up the pros and cons of the best gateways on the market to help you decide on the perfect payment gateway for your store. And if you’re still unsure, we’ve recommended some of our top choices.

PayPal / PayPal Express

PayPal is the most recognisable gateway across all eCommerce stores and it’s so easy to set up.
At Buycraft we have two PayPal integrations - standard PayPal, which uses the standard checkout integration, and PayPal Express Checkout. Express, available only to Business customers, provides additional features and analytics - perfect for those who want to improve the efficiency of their business.

Pros

  • Very easy to get set up with an account.
  • Relatively low fees – they reduce based on your volume of sales.
  • Widely recognised and trusted.

Cons

  • You aren’t able to get PayPal accounts in some countries, limiting its global reach.
  • PayPal isn't built with digital sales in mind and disputes are a more difficult process than some other gateways.
  • It only provides users with the ability to pay using their PayPal balance or credit/debit card.

PayPal guide
PayPal Express Guide

Xsolla

We’re very excited to be able to support Xsolla on Buycraft. It’s relatively new to us but it ticks so many boxes. Like us, Xsolla's experience and expertise is set in the gaming industry, so they understand the intricacies of gCommerce.

One of the reasons that a large number of sellers use Xsolla is their global reach - they support a large number of payment methods, not just the common ones, but niche ones for almost any country in the world.

Pros

  • 700+ payment gateways are supported by Xsolla, providing a global reach we've not seen with any other payment platform.
  • While Xsolla work on a commission basis, we have a specially negotiated rate with the business, undercutting the standard 5% seen with similar platforms.
  • Xsolla is a gaming-industry specific platform, so has a unique understanding of the issues experienced in the industry, which isn't seen on many other platforms.
  • It allows you to provide your own account details for a number of gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, AmazonPay, Paysafecard and more) for even lower fees.
  • Payouts are available after 30 days regardless of the payment method used and are free as long as the amount to withdraw meets Xsolla's minimum.
  • Only a small amount of paperwork and a new single button setup is coming very soon to completely simplyfy this process.

Cons

  • We genuinely struggle to find negatives to Xsolla. Initially, the setup process was complicated, and that’s why we are introducing the 'single button setup' to make this process as smooth as possible.
  • In order to receive the Buycraft discounted rate from Xsolla, you must sign up using the button in your payment gateways set up here.

Xsolla guide

Stripe

Stripe is another well-known gateway, specialising in credit and debit card processing. Stripe make it easy to accept card payments without a merchant account, but they do have a reputation for coming down hard on accounts that experience chargebacks, which is a common problem in the gaming industry.

Pros

  • Easy to accept card payments.
  • Simple fee structure.

Cons

  • Have a reputation in the industry for rejecting a large number of applications and closing accounts with risks of chargebacks.
  • While this gateway is easier to set up, their fees are still typically higher than having your own merchant account.

Stripe guide

Paygol

PayGol is a platform that we've worked with for a long time and one we don't hear too many complaints about. This payment platform supports around 30 gateways, mostly focused on Europe and Latin and South America. PayGol differs to other multi-gateway platforms in that they don't charge a separate commission, but their gateway fees tend to be a little higher, so in most instances, it works out about the same. This is always something to look out for with gateways – don’t be drawn in by zero commissions, as they’re almost always offset with higher fees, and vice versa.

Pros

  • As their commission is built into the gateway fees they charge, the pricing is easier to understand than other platforms.
  • Good support for payment gateways in Latin and South America.
  • They have a straightforward signup process.

Cons

  • Unfortunately they do not provide any chargeback appeal process.
  • All payouts are subject to a fee of €20.00.

PayGol guide

Mollie

Mollie is another relatively new platform to Buycraft, supported to help extend coverage of the popular payment methods for European customers. For servers that need to appeal to a European market, it offers a number of useful gateways for a competitive price.

Pros

  • Low prices for most gateways - just a simple €0.25 on top of the standard gateway processing for most gateways.
  • Well respected as a supplier in Europe.
  • Free payouts.

Cons

  • Only supports Europe - for servers with an international reach, other platforms provide a larger mix of gateways.
  • Requires merchants to be registered companies in order to use the platform.

Mollie guide

paysafecard

The paysafecard integration is our latest addition to our suite of payment methods. While their sign up process requires that you are a registered business, it offers a payment method that is safe from chargebacks and is available to a wider range of customers who might not otherwise be able to pay.

Pros

  • No chargebacks or disputes.
  • As this is a direct integration there is no extra fee on top of the processing fee.

Cons

  • You need to have a registered business to be able to use this gateway.
  • Higher fees as they are a prepaid card.

paysafecard guide

Braintree

Braintree is a gateway offered by PayPal. Most commonly used to accept credit/debit card payments and PayPal payments, it does also have support for a small number of other payment methods. Braintree generally provides a more streamlined user experience than standard PayPal.

Pros

  • Charges the same or lower fees than PayPal directly.
  • Charges the same or lower fees than Stripe for card payments.
  • Very user-friendly interface for accepting payments - doesn't require a redirect from the checkout page like some other methods.

Cons

  • Limited for subscriptions - only supports 1-month subscriptions and requires every subscription to be tied to a plan on the Braintree side.
  • More complex to set up than standard PayPal as a result of additional steps in setting up plans, providing full API details etc.

Braintree guide

G2A Pay

G2A Pay has a large number of gateways (200+) that they support on their platform which allows you to support a number of local and specialized gateways.

Pros

  • A custom set up process to help make signing up a much easier process.
  • Many local gateways for communities around the world.

Cons

  • A complicated fee structure including fees for processing and payouts.

G2A Pay guide

Paymentwall

Paymentwall is a platform that has often been used as the multi-gateway solution as it's the oldest platform like this on Buycraft. Similar to platforms such as Xsolla, they charge a commission on their platform. However, this is their standard 5%, rather than a negotiated rate as is the case with Xsolla. Paymentwall has a large international reach thanks to offering 150+ payment methods, including subscription support.

Pros

  • Easy to setup as usually no additional documentation is required.
  • Allows merchants to add their own account details for a limited number of gateways (PayPal, AmazonPay and Skrill only) for lower fees.

Cons

  • Highest commission fees of all our supported platforms depending on the payment method.
  • Payout time can be up to 60 days depending on the payment method used.

Paymentwall guide

So what should I choose?

As you know, every community is different and although gaming is a global industry, players have their own preferences based on country, culture and age.

Where to start?

We would recommend starting with a recognised payment gateway, with relative global reach, like one of PayPal's integrations. It's quick to set up and reaches a fairly large portion of your potential customer base.

Expanding your reach

Once you’re up and running and comfortable with PayPal, we recommend having an additional payment platform that is truly global, serving different niches in the whole of the gaming space. This will ensure that no matter where your customers are playing, they are still able to purchase with their preferred method.

Xsolla have a huge portfolio of payment gateways at a competitive price and gives you an easy way to support worldwide and niche payment methods without needing lots of separate gateways confusing the checkout process for your payments.

Refining fees

Once you have those options covered and are further down the line with your community expanding, you may also want to look at direct integrations for gateways like paysafecard where you can be saving money on transaction fees by accepting them directly.

Make sure to take into account processing fees and payout fees to be able to weigh up the cheapest ones for your server!

NB: All fee's and figures are as of 19th March and could change in future!

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