When it comes to ecommerce infrastructure, few decisions are as consequential or as misunderstood as the choice of payment gateway. On the surface, it seems like a simple numbers game. Compare transaction fees, pick the cheapest, move on. But for brands on Shopify, that logic misses the bigger picture.
Shopify Payments Is More Than a Gateway
Shopify Payments isn’t just another processor. It is the foundation that powers the wider Shopify ecosystem. Features like Shop Pay, Shopify Markets, Shop Promise, the Shop App, and the integrated POS are all tied to this single gateway. Choosing an alternative means losing out on a range of capabilities that are built to drive performance, reduce friction, and unlock higher conversion.
Take Shop Pay. For some brands, it accounts for 40 to 50 percent of total transactions. Its speed and saved credentials create a checkout experience that converts far better than traditional forms. That alone makes Shopify Payments a strategic asset, not a basic utility.
And here’s the thing: you wouldn’t buy a Tesla and then fit it with a petrol engine. Shopify Payments is the engine built specifically for the Shopify platform. Everything around it is optimised to perform when that engine is running. Trying to substitute it with another provider often breaks more than it fixes.
Conversion Beats Cost Cutting
Many competing gateways come in with a pitch that focuses on rates. But when evaluating payment infrastructure, the key question isn’t just about cost. It’s about revenue.
Shopify Payments has an average acceptance rate of around 98 percent. That is significantly higher than what many third-party processors offer. Gateways like Braintree or Worldpay often operate closer to 90 to 95 percent due to how they route transactions through multiple layers of risk assessment and banking infrastructure. That gap matters. For a merchant processing hundreds of millions per year, a few lost percentage points in approvals can mean millions left on the table.
In one real example, a large merchant in Singapore processing $100s of millions annually stood to lose over $300K per year due to a lower acceptance rate from their previous provider. That loss came not from visible fees, but from missed revenue.
No Hidden Fees, No Surprises
Shopify Payments is straightforward. Other providers often advertise low rates, then bury additional costs in cross-border fees, batch processing charges, service retainers, and other line items that only show up once the contract is signed. Shopify’s pricing is clean, visible, and directly integrated into the platform fee structure.
And if you choose to use a third-party gateway, you are not only losing features—you are also paying an extra transaction fee on top. It is a lose-lose.
Built-In Advantage
Shopify Payments is the only gateway with deep native integration into the Shopify admin. If you want to use Shopify POS with a card reader, you need Shopify Payments. If you want to take advantage of Shopify Markets and their international expansion features, Shopify Payments is the only option that enables those tools to work at full capacity.
Shopify continues to evolve. Most new features that involve checkout, fraud protection, customer experience, and upsell mechanics are being built around its own payment infrastructure. Every month, more product value is being tied to Shopify Payments.
What About Alternatives?
There is one notable exception. Adyen.
If you are a large enterprise merchant, especially in Europe, Adyen is the only third-party gateway that shares Shopify’s infrastructure DNA. It supports local payment methods, true multicurrency, and strong reporting capabilities. Adyen is where Shopify wants to be in terms of global scale. If you are operating across multiple countries with complex needs, it is a serious contender.
But beyond Adyen, most other gateways are stuck competing on cost. And cost alone is no longer a competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts
Shopify Payments is not just a checkout tool. It is the engine that powers a growing list of features that make Shopify what it is. Using something else is like buying into the ecosystem, then unplugging the parts that make it work best.
The pitch from other providers might sound tempting. But once you unpack what you lose in terms of speed, experience, product access, and revenue retention, the decision becomes obvious.
This is no longer about payment processing. It is about performance. And Shopify Payments delivers more than any other option on the table.
