Most businesses looking for an Authorize.net alternative are not unhappy with the gateway. They are unhappy with the combined bill, or they have outgrown a feature set that has not changed much, or a developer told them to move. The right alternative depends on which of those it is. This page compares the realistic options for an established business with existing software, and says who should not switch.
Quick comparison
| Gateway | Monthly | Per transaction | Sold by | Vault and recurring | Level 2 and 3 | ACH and eCheck | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authorize.net | $25 | 10¢ + 10¢ batch (gateway only), or 2.9% + 30¢ all-in | Direct and resellers | Yes (CIM, ARB), Account Updater $0.25 | Yes | eCheck 0.75%, $10 min | Established merchants with working integrations |
| accept.blue | Set by provider | Set by provider | ISOs and agents only | Yes, tokenized vault, scheduled and recurring | Yes, enhanced | Yes | Ecommerce, B2B, MOTO, invoicing, merchants that want gateway and processing on one bill |
| NMI | Set by reseller | Set by reseller | Resellers only | Yes, Customer Vault | Yes | Yes | Merchants with many integrations, multi-MID setups, ISVs |
| Stripe | $0 | 2.9% + 30¢ online | Direct | Yes | Limited | ACH 0.8% capped | New online businesses, developers, SaaS |
| Square | $0 | 2.9% + 30¢ online, 2.6% + 15¢ in person | Direct | Yes | No | ACH 1% | Small retail and service that wants one app |
| PayPal / Braintree | $0 to $30 | About 2.99% + 49¢ (PayPal) | Direct | Yes | Limited | Yes | Marketplaces, consumer checkout with PayPal wallet |
| Helcim | $0 | Interchange plus about 0.4% + 8¢ online | Direct | Yes | Yes | ACH 0.5% + 25¢ | Lower-volume merchants that want interchange-plus without a reseller |
Published rates are from each company’s pricing page or 2026 reviews and change often. accept.blue and NMI are quoted per merchant; ask for the gateway fee, per-item fee and processing markup on one page.
The question to answer first: gateway problem or processing problem?
Authorize.net’s own fees on Gateway Only are about $25 plus 10¢ an item. The processor behind it is the other 90% of the bill. If you have not had the processing re-quoted in a few years, you can often keep Authorize.net exactly as it is and cut the total by re-pricing the merchant account. We do that. It is the least disruptive fix and sometimes the right one. The Authorize.net fees breakdown shows how to tell.
Switch the gateway when:
- The combined bill is high and the software you use supports a cheaper gateway with the same features.
- You need something Authorize.net does not do well: modern hosted checkout, better recurring tools, Level 3 for B2B, surcharging or dual pricing logic on card-not-present sales.
- You want gateway and processing from one company so there is one bill and one phone call when something breaks.
Stay on Authorize.net when:
- Your platform only supports Authorize.net and a re-integration is a real project.
- You rely on tuned Authorize.net fraud filters or Account Updater for a large subscriber base.
- You are under about $10,000 a month on All-in-One and the simplicity is worth 2.9% + 30¢.
accept.blue vs Authorize.net
accept.blue is the gateway we place most often for merchants leaving Authorize.net, so here is the direct comparison.
What accept.blue has that Authorize.net gateway-only does not, out of the box: enhanced Level 2 and 3 data (lower interchange on commercial cards), 3D Secure, Amex routing, a modern virtual terminal and hosted page, an invoicing suite, fraud scoring, and the option to bundle processing so the whole bill comes from one provider. It is PCI Level 1.
What Authorize.net has that accept.blue does not: twenty years of plugins for every cart ever built, direct sign-up without a provider, published pricing, and a huge base of developers who know its API. If your integration is obscure, check compatibility before assuming.
Pricing: Authorize.net is $25 and 10¢. accept.blue is priced by the provider. Our gateway fee is comparable or lower, but the point is the processing attached to it, which we quote as interchange-plus for card-not-present and dual pricing for any in-person channel. Full detail on the accept.blue gateway page.
NMI vs Authorize.net
NMI is the other widely integrated gateway sold through resellers. It is a strong choice when you run several integrations at once, need multiple merchant IDs under one login, or are a software company embedding payments. It does not sell direct, so like accept.blue the price depends on who sells it. Feature-wise, NMI and accept.blue overlap heavily. We place NMI when a merchant’s platform has a native NMI connection and no accept.blue one.
Stripe, Square and PayPal
These are processors with a gateway built in. They are the right answer for a new online business that wants to be live today with no sales conversation. They are rarely the right answer for a business leaving Authorize.net, for two reasons: the processing is fixed at 2.9% + 30¢ (Stripe, Square online) or higher (PayPal), and moving stored cards into them means their vault, on their terms. Businesses above $10,000 a month typically pay more all-in on Stripe than on a negotiated gateway-plus-processing setup.
Migration in brief
Authorize.net exports stored customer payment profiles to another PCI DSS compliant gateway on request from the account owner. The file is PGP-encrypted, exports run on a fixed weekly schedule, and Customer Information Manager and recurring billing extractions can carry a fee. The new gateway imports the file into its vault and maps the customer IDs so your software keeps billing. Allow two to four weeks end to end. The full sequence, including what to do with your cart plugin and recurring schedules, is in how to switch from Authorize.net.