Why it’s best: Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that has strong customer service, offers uptime, and provides great value for your money
Free site builders
Dozens of site tool add-ons
Free Cloudflare integration (speeds your site loading)
We’ve reviewed the best web hosts that offer payment gateways with their e-commerce plans. We chose the hosts which offer security, a choice of gateways, and PCI compliance.
Lastly, we searched our extensive database of thousands of genuine customer reviews to identify the best hosts for payment gateways.
What Is a Payment Gateway?
Payment gateways are the online equivalent to the checkout lane at your local store. They provide a secure and reliable method for processing online transactions by encrypting customer credit card information.
The payment gateway encrypts payment data sent through a gateway server, where the payment is processed in seconds.
If you’re planning on doing business online, accepting credit card payments with a payment gateway is essential.
How To Choose a Payment Gateway Host
Get the facts before purchasing a plan from your hosting provider or gateway. Choose a payment gateway that makes it easy and secure for your customers to make payments.
Keep an eye on five key points when selecting a payment gateway:
Security: Once your visitor’s data is in your hands, it’s your partial responsibility to protect it. This not only builds trust but an overall respectable image for your business.
Responsibility: Are you fully in charge of the payment data, or is the payment gateway service? It is important to know this for both legal and ethical reasons.
Convenience: Is the selected gateway convenient to use? Test out each service to decide which is ideal for your shoppers’ needs.
Fees: Are the fees reasonable to you and your customers? You can be selfish here, but then you risk losing some valuable customers. Keeping them happy will keep you happy in the long run.
Ease: How simple is the integration, or does your host already have it ready for you? It’s worth evaluating your time as an investment considering how much you’ll need to put toward integration and setup.
Why it’s best: Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that has strong customer service, offers uptime, and provides great value for your money with an integrated merchant service.
If you’re looking for another beginner-friendly host that will enable you to process customer payments, check out Bluehost.
Bluehost offers a variety of payment gateways. The easiest option is the integrated merchant service called Payment Sphere, which allows you to accept credit card payments on your website. It’s the fastest and easiest way to get your money.
Bluehost can accept all major credit cards, PayPal Instant Transfer, purchase orders, checks (only in the U.S.), and money orders (U.S. currency only). At this time, it can’t accept non-reloadable prepaid credit cards, gift cards, payments using your PayPal balance, or wire transfers. There’s also a WooCommerce-specific hosting package for those who want to host, build, and accept payments via WooCommerce.
Pros and cons of Bluehost
Pros
Solid uptime
Storage is unmetered on all but the least expensive plan
Includes several security features such as unique Internet Protocol (IP), SSL, and SiteLock protection
Cons
No automated daily backups
What customers are saying about Bluehost
Bluehost is a reputable provider offering shared and VPS hosting. The company is easy to use, affordable, and has great uptime. It is geared toward entrepreneurs and small online startups. Billing might be confusing, but they have solid customer service for any issues.
Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that has strong customer service, offers uptime, and provides great value for your money with an integrated merchant service.
Features
High-performance platform
Easy setup
Frequent updates
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SiteGround
Best payment gateway hosting for 24/7 customer support
Integrations with popular apps like Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
Why it’s best: SiteGround excels at customer service and tech support, and associates are available to help with any issues that develop with your site 24/7 via email, chat, or phone.
SiteGround is not only a stellar host for beginners, but it offers a few different options for adding payment gateways to your new website as well. It integrates with 2Checkout, Merchant Express, and WorldPay. If you’re building out an e-commerce store, you’ll have even more payment gateways to choose from, including Stripe, Amazon Pay, CloudSwipe, and Skrill.
Pros and cons of SiteGround
Pros
Blazing fast servers
Fast and secure tech stacks
Staging environments provided on larger plans
Cons
Limited storage space on starter plans
Requires a three-year contract for the lowest rates
What customers are saying about SiteGround
SiteGround doesn’t offer much storage compared to other shared web hosting providers. However, it receives nearly universal praise for its customer service, with people reporting near-instantaneous responses. That response time adds a significant element of peace of mind for users who need extra help setting up the platform or working through any unexpected issues.
Summary
SiteGround
Best payment gateway hosting for 24/7 customer support
SiteGround excels at customer service and tech support, and associates are available to help with any issues that develop with your site 24/7 via email, chat, or phone.
Features
Integrations with popular apps like Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
Why it’s best: Impressive uptime, 24/7 customer support over email, chat, and phone, and a generous refund policy
A2 Hosting is another great, beginner-friendly choice for credit card hosting. You can easily accept credit card payments via PayPal and AcceptSafe. Also, you can set up your payment gateway in a few clicks and accept payments from Visa, American Express, Discover, and MasterCard.
It also supports the Authorize.Net payment gateway. This allows your e-commerce website to connect to Authorize.Net from its servers and accept credit card payments without a problem.
Pros and cons of A2 Hosting
Pros
24/7/year-round support
International data centers
Cons
No free domain name
What customers are saying about A2 Hosting
A2 is a reliable, affordable hosting company that has fast speeds. The customer service is generally responsive but could use more updated tutorials and documentation.
Yes, you can run payment gateways on shared hosting, but it’s advisable to choose a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated hosting account if you have a more extensive e-commerce site that requires integration with all payment gateways.
How much does a payment gateway cost?
A payment gateway usually charges a flat rate per transaction and/or a percentage per transaction. These usually run from 10 to 30 cents for flat rates and 2% to 3% for percentages Some gateways also charge a monthly fee of up to $25.
What are the benefits of a dedicated merchant account?
A dedicated merchant account requires an extensive application process, but your payment gateway provider will be more familiar with your company and help your online store's credibility. You will find it simpler to acquire help or haggle over transaction rates. Plus, your hardware and software will be tailored to your business needs, including top-notch customer support.