We compete with Helcim, so read this as a competitor’s review. We have tried to make it one you can check against Helcim’s own pricing page.
Helcim is a Calgary-based processor selling to US and Canadian businesses direct, with published interchange-plus pricing and no monthly fee. For a lot of small businesses that is exactly what they were looking for and could not find. This page lays out the pricing, what it works out to, where it is the right choice, and where a local provider with dual pricing and negotiated rates does better.
Helcim’s published pricing, September 2026
| In person | Keyed and online | |
|---|---|---|
| $0 to $50,000 a month | Interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ | Interchange + 0.50% + 25¢ |
| $50,000 to $100,000 | + 0.35% + 7¢ | + 0.45% + 20¢ |
| $100,000 to $500,000 | + 0.25% + 7¢ | + 0.35% + 20¢ |
| $500,000 to $1 million | + 0.20% + 6¢ | + 0.25% + 15¢ |
| $1 million to $5 million | + 0.15% + 6¢ | + 0.15% + 15¢ |
ACH: 0.5% + 25¢ per transaction, capped at $6, with an extra 0.05% on amounts over $25,000. Monthly, setup, PCI, cancellation, refund: $0. Hardware: Smart Terminal $349 or $32 a month on a one-year lease; card reader $199; Tap to Pay on iPhone adds 10¢ per transaction; optional 4G data $7 a month.
Source: helcim.com/pricing. Tiers apply automatically based on the prior month’s volume.
What it works out to
Interchange for a typical in-person retail mix runs about 1.5% to 1.8% plus 10¢ to 15¢; card-not-present about 1.9% to 2.2%. Adding Helcim’s entry markup:
| Helcim all-in (entry tier) | Square / Stripe | A negotiated merchant account (interchange + 0.20% + 8¢) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In person, $30,000 a month, $35 ticket | About 2.0% + 18¢, roughly $760 | Square 2.6% + 15¢, about $910 | About 1.8% + 18¢, roughly $700 |
| Online, $30,000 a month, $80 ticket | About 2.5% + 35¢, roughly $880 | Stripe 2.9% + 30¢, about $980 | About 2.2% + 18¢, roughly $730 |
Helcim clearly beats the flat-rate aggregators. A negotiated merchant account beats Helcim’s entry tier by a smaller margin, mostly on the per-item fee for online and on the percentage for in-person. Helcim’s tiers narrow that gap as volume grows.
Where Helcim is the right choice
- Businesses under about $20,000 a month that want published, fair pricing with no negotiation and no relationship.
- Businesses that are comfortable buying hardware outright and setting it up themselves.
- Merchants who want a single account for in-person, online, invoicing and a basic POS app from one vendor.
- Anyone who has been burned by a reseller contract and wants a company that publishes its terms.
If that is you, Helcim is a good answer and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where we do better
Dual pricing. Helcim does not offer it. A restaurant or retailer running dual pricing pays $0 in processing on in-person sales. Helcim’s 2.0% all-in is good; zero is better. This is the single biggest difference for counter businesses. How it works is on the dual pricing page.
Negotiated markup. At $20,000 to $100,000 a month, a direct provider can price below Helcim’s entry and second tiers, especially on the per-item fee for card-not-present.
Equipment. Placed at no charge for qualifying merchants, including Clover and Dejavoo, against Helcim’s $349 terminal.
Gateway compatibility. Helcim’s online payments run through Helcim’s own gateway and plugins. If your practice management, billing or vertical software connects to NMI, Authorize.net, accept.blue or Fluidpay and not to Helcim, Helcim is not an option for that channel.
Level 3 and B2B. Helcim supports Level 2 and 3 data; so do the gateways we place. Comparable.
Support. Helcim is remote. In San Diego and Los Angeles we show up.
Where Helcim and we are the same
Interchange-plus with the markup stated in writing. No long-term contract. No PCI or annual junk fees. Both of us will tell you what interchange is and show it on the statement. If you are comparing us to Helcim, you have already avoided the worst of the industry.
How to compare fairly
Get Helcim’s rate for your tier from its pricing page. Get our quote with the markup in basis points and cents. Apply both to last month’s statement. Then ask whether dual pricing fits your business, because that changes the answer for in-person volume more than any markup difference does. Our statement guide shows how to pull the numbers.