If you own a website that sells a products or services, it is inevitable for you to set up an integrated payment gateway for monetary transactions. This post will explore the best Indian payment gateways. Let us first give you an insight about payment gateways.

What is a Payment Gateway?

In layman terms, a payment gateway is a service that allows the authorization of electronic payments such as internet banking, credit/debit/cash card payments, etc. A payment gateway simply acts as a middleman between the buyer’s bank and the seller’s website or mobile application.

When a buyer wants to make a payment, the seller’s website sends the credit card information to the payment gateway in an encrypted form. The payment gateway then checks and confirms the validity of these details with the buyer’s bank and subsequently the money is transferred from the buyer’s account to the seller’s account.

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Popular Indian Payment Gateways:

There are a vast number of Indian Payment Gateways. Since there is cut-throat competition in the payment gateway market, these payment gateways regularly revise their commission fee and also offer lucrative discounts on a timely basis. Below is a list of the most popular payment gateways in India. It is advisable for you to research extensively about these payment gateways in order to settle for one which you think is the best option for your website/app.  

Instamojo:

Instamojo is an easy-to-use payment gateway app for websites to facilitate transactions within the Indian sub-continent. One of the greatest advantages of Instamojo is that there is absolutely no coding involved to integrate it into your website. It allows you to create direct payment links. Moreover Instamojo does not charge any installation fee.

For every payment you receive, instamojo charges a commission of 1.9% exclusive of taxes. In case you want to host your content on their website, 5% of the transaction is charged. Supposing you receive a payment of  Rs. 1000, Instamojo will charge Rs. 19 as fee and deposit Rs. 981 in your account.

You can check our detailed Review of Instamojo Here 

CCAvenue:

As per Techwelkin, CCAvenue is India’s largest payment gateway, accounting for over 80% Indian e-commerce merchants as their clients. There are several payment options offered by them. Some are enlisted below:

1.   7 Credit Cards including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, eZeClick etc.
2.   73+ Debit Cards
3.   48+ Net banking options
4.  8 Prepaid Cards or e-Wallets

CCAvenue lets you accept payments in 27 major world currencies such as USD, Yen, Yuan and Euro. The checkout page is multilingual, with 18 major Indian regional languages and also International languages. There is no setup fee for CCAvenue but the commissions charged by them are significantly higher than those of other Indian payment gateways. So it is not recommended for budding businesses.

EBS Payment Gateway:

EBS is a globally renowned payment gateway by Ingenico group, a company based out of France. EBS has offices in 5 major Indian Cities and supports 11 major foreign currencies. They charge a minimum setup fee of Rs. 11,999 and an annual maintenance fee of Rs. 2400. Their commission rates for credit card and net banking payments vary from 2.75% to 3.75%. For debit cards it ranges from 1.25% to 1.5%. EBS offers mobile app integration for Android, iOS and Windows.  

Citrus Payment Gateway: Citrus is one of India’s leading Payment Gateways. It boasts of a user base of 800 million. The services of Citrus are used by over 1500 clients such as Airtel, GoAir, PVR and Lenskart to name a few. Their services include:

• Citrus Cash: Citrus Cash is an e-wallet which eases the process of sending and receiving money.
• Citrus Cube: Citrus Cube is an app to facilitate bill payments
• Citrus for Merchants: Citrus for merchants is an online payment gateway for web transactions.

Fee  charged per Transaction for Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and domestic debit cards is 1.99% + Rs 3; For American Express and International payments fee is 3%. An Annual maintenance fee of  Rs 4900 + Taxes is required to be paid. An additional fee of Rs 2800 is charged for international payments

Paypal:

Paypal is a Global payment gateway with a presence in over 200 countries. PayPal claims to have processed 4 billion payments ( 1 billion mobile) in the year 2014. It has a customer base of over 173 million. PayPal supports more than 100 currencies.

In India sellers use PayPal to receive payments only from foreign customers because Indian banking regulations do not allow Indian companies to receive Indian credit cards via Paypal. The fee charged per transaction is 4.4% + USD 0.30 + Currency conversion charges.

Digital Wallets:

A digital wallet is an electronic device that allows you to make e-commerce  transactions. This includes purchasing products online using a computer or a smartphone to purchase something at a store. Digital Wallets can be linked to an Individual’s bank account. Paytm is a popular brand offering digital wallet services in India.

We will explore more details about digital wallets in one of our upcoming blog posts.

Conclusion:

Now that you are aware of the different Indian payment gateways, choose the one which you find the most appealing in terms of convenience and ease of use. Make sure that you choose a budget friendly pricing plan.