# The best Authorize.net alternatives in 2026

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-authorize-net-alternatives
Type: Guide
Published: 2026-11-04 · Updated: 2026-11-04
Summary: Leaving Authorize.net? Eight alternatives compared on fees, monthly costs and fit, plus what moving stored cards and ARB subscriptions actually involves.

## Summary

Most businesses leaving Authorize.net are paying for two products: a gateway with a $25 monthly fee and a separate merchant account with its own statement. An all-in-one processor such as Paydude or Stripe replaces both with a single API and a single statement; Paydude charges 2.6% + 25¢ per card payment with no monthly platform fee. If you want to keep your merchant account and only replace the gateway, NMI is the common like-for-like swap, sold through resellers at quoted prices. Square suits in-person sellers, while Helcim and Stax suit higher-volume businesses that want interchange-plus pricing. Leaving is mostly a migration job: stored cards move only through a supported transfer from Authorize.net to the new processor, and ARB recurring billing has to be rebuilt.

Authorize.net has been processing online payments since the 1990s and is now owned by Visa. That longevity is the reason so many established businesses still run on it — a shopping cart wired up a decade ago, a merchant account from the local bank, and a gateway that has never gone down badly enough to justify the hassle of moving.

It is also the reason people start looking. A **$25 monthly gateway fee** on top of processing, an API and hosted forms that show their age, and two separate statements — one from the gateway, one from the merchant account provider — add up to a setup that costs more and does less than what newer providers sell as one product. Below are the eight Authorize.net alternatives worth considering, what each costs at published rates, and what switching actually involves. We are one of them, so we have tried to be clear about where we are not the right answer.

## Authorize.net alternatives at a glance

**Published standard rates for domestic online card payments, November 2026. Negotiated rates can differ.**

| Provider | Published card rate | Fee on a $100 sale | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Authorize.net | 2.9% + 30¢ + $25/month | $3.20 | The baseline: a long-established gateway |
| Paydude | 2.6% + 25¢, no monthly platform fee | $2.85 | One modern API replacing gateway and merchant account |
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ | $3.20 | The broadest product surface and integration catalogue |
| Braintree | 2.89% + 29¢ | $3.18 | PayPal and Venmo at checkout |
| NMI | Quote-based, through resellers | Varies | Keeping your merchant account, swapping only the gateway |
| Helcim | Interchange-plus | Varies | Interchange-plus pricing without a contract negotiation |
| Square | 3.3% + 30¢ online on Square Free (2.9% + 30¢ on Plus/Premium) | $3.60 | In-person and omnichannel retail |
| Chase Payment Solutions | 2.9% + 25¢ | $3.15 | Businesses that already bank with Chase |
| Stax | $99+/month + interchange + 8¢ | Varies | High volume where a subscription beats a percentage |

> **Check rates before you decide:** These are list prices. Authorize.net's gateway-only plan is priced differently — $25 a month plus a per-transaction and daily batch fee, with your merchant account's fees on top — so if that is your setup, add both statements together before comparing. Work out your real [effective rate](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-an-effective-rate) first.

## Fees at different ticket sizes

**Fee per sale on a domestic online card at published rates, November 2026. Authorize.net's $25 monthly gateway fee is not in these figures; it is in the yearly table below. Paydude is shown at its standard tier. NMI, Helcim and Stax are quote-based or interchange-plus and are left out.**

| Pricing | $10 sale | $25 sale | $50 sale | $100 sale | $500 sale |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Authorize.net all-in-one (2.9% + 30¢, plus $25/month) | $0.59 | $1.03 | $1.75 | $3.20 | $14.80 |
| Paydude (2.6% + 25¢) | $0.51 | $0.90 | $1.55 | $2.85 | $13.25 |
| Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) | $0.59 | $1.03 | $1.75 | $3.20 | $14.80 |
| Braintree (2.89% + 29¢) | $0.58 | $1.01 | $1.74 | $3.18 | $14.74 |
| Chase Payment Solutions (2.9% + 25¢) | $0.54 | $0.98 | $1.70 | $3.15 | $14.75 |

## What it adds up to over a year

**Annual fees at a $50 average sale on Authorize.net's all-in-one plan, published rates, November 2026; the Authorize.net column includes $300 a year in gateway fees. Paydude is 2.6% + 25¢ at $10,000 and $50,000 a month and its 2.55% + 20¢ tier at $250,000 a month. On the gateway-only plan, add your merchant account's fees.**

| Monthly volume | Authorize.net (2.9% + 30¢ + $25/month) | Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) | Paydude | Paydude saves vs Authorize.net |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $10,000 | $4,500 | $4,200 | $3,720 | $780 |
| $50,000 | $21,300 | $21,000 | $18,600 | $2,700 |
| $250,000 | $105,300 | $105,000 | $88,500 | $16,800 |

The $25 monthly fee weighs most at low volume: at $10,000 a month it adds $300 a year, about 0.25% of volume, on top of a per-sale rate that already matches Stripe's.

## Gateway, merchant account, or all-in-one processor?

Most of the confusion in this search comes from three different products that all get called a payment processor.

- **A [payment gateway](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-a-payment-gateway)** carries card details from your checkout to the processor and returns the approval. Authorize.net's core product is a gateway.
- **A [merchant account](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-a-merchant-account)** is the bank relationship that actually receives the money and settles it to your bank account. Traditionally you got one from a bank or an ISO, separately, with its own statement and often its own contract.
- **An all-in-one processor** bundles both, plus card storage, recurring billing and reporting, behind one API with one statement. Paydude, Stripe, Braintree and Square all work this way.

So the first decision is whether you are replacing the gateway only or the whole stack. If your merchant account has a negotiated rate you are happy with, a gateway swap is enough. If you are on Authorize.net's all-in-one plan, or the merchant account is the expensive half, an all-in-one processor removes a vendor, a monthly fee and a reconciliation step.

## Why businesses look for an Authorize.net alternative

- **The monthly fee.** $25 a month is $300 a year before a single transaction, on top of processing that already matches Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ on the all-in-one plan.
- **Two vendors, two statements.** On the gateway-only plan you reconcile Authorize.net's fees against a separate merchant account statement, and support questions bounce between the two.
- **A dated developer experience.** The API, hosted payment forms and SDKs predate modern payment intents, webhooks-first design and typed client libraries, which shows the moment a new developer has to touch it.
- **Recurring billing that lives in a silo.** Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) works, but subscriptions, retries and customer records sit in a separate tool rather than in the same objects as one-off payments.

## 1. Paydude — best for replacing gateway and merchant account with one API

Paydude is a payment processor and payments API for software and online businesses in the US, covering online card and ACH payments. There is no separate merchant account to arrange: customers, payment methods, payment intents, refunds and signed webhooks sit behind one API, with typed SDKs, an open sandbox and an MCP server for coding agents.

Cards are 2.6% + 25¢, falling to 2.55% + 20¢ and then 2.5% + 15¢ as monthly volume grows, with **no monthly platform fee** (a $7 monthly minimum applies), no extra percentage for subscriptions or invoices, ACH at 0.6% capped at $3, and $12 dispute fees. Saved cards can be migrated in at no cost from any PCI Level 1 processor that will export them. On a $100 sale that is $2.85 against Authorize.net's $3.20 plus the monthly fee — see [Paydude pricing explained](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-pricing-explained).

**Choose it when** you sell online — software, subscriptions, invoices, services — and want one modern integration and one statement in place of a gateway and merchant account. **Skip it when** most of your sales are in person, you need payments outside the US, or you want a provider to handle sales tax as a [merchant of record](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-a-merchant-of-record).

## 2. Stripe — best for breadth of products and integrations

Stripe charges the same 2.9% + 30¢ as Authorize.net's all-in-one plan but with no monthly fee, and it has an integration for almost every cart, CRM and billing tool. Its add-ons are priced separately — Stripe Billing is 0.7% of billing volume and disputes are $15 — so a subscription business should price those in. See [best Stripe alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-stripe-alternatives) and [Paydude vs Stripe](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-vs-stripe).

**Choose it when** you need a product surface Stripe uniquely covers, such as issuing, terminals or a long tail of plugins. **Skip it when** the main goal of leaving Authorize.net is a lower per-transaction rate, because Stripe's list rate is the same.

## 3. Braintree — best for PayPal and Venmo at checkout

Braintree is PayPal's developer platform, an all-in-one processor that adds PayPal and Venmo to card checkout through one integration. Its 2.89% + 29¢ rate is a hair under 2.9% + 30¢ at every ticket size, about a cent or two a sale, so on cards it prices level with Stripe and Authorize.net. See [Paydude vs Braintree](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-vs-braintree) and [best Braintree alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-braintree-alternatives).

**Choose it when** your customers want PayPal or Venmo, or you are a verified 501(c)(3) charity, which Braintree charges 2.19% + 29¢. **Skip it when** the lowest card rate is the goal: Paydude's 2.6% + 25¢ is cheaper at every ticket size.

## 4. NMI — best for swapping only the gateway

NMI is the closest like-for-like replacement: a gateway that sits in front of a merchant account you already hold, with broad processor and shopping-cart support. It is sold almost entirely through resellers, ISOs and software platforms rather than directly to merchants, so there is no single published price — the gateway fee depends on who sells it to you.

**Choose it when** your merchant account has a rate worth keeping and you only want a more flexible gateway. **Skip it when** the separate merchant account is part of what you want to get rid of — NMI keeps the two-vendor setup.

## 5. Helcim — best for interchange-plus without negotiation

Helcim passes [interchange](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-interchange) through at cost with a published markup, combining gateway and merchant account in one product. On higher, debit-heavy volume, [interchange-plus pricing](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-interchange-plus-pricing) can beat any flat rate; the trade-off is fees that vary by card and harder reconciliation. Model it with the [Paydude vs Helcim calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/paydude-vs-helcim-fee-calculator).

**Choose it when** you want interchange-plus transparency without negotiating a bank contract. **Skip it when** you want a predictable flat rate you can quote in a spreadsheet.

## 6. Square — best for in-person and omnichannel sales

Square is a point-of-sale system with payments attached. Online it charges 3.3% + 30¢ on the default Square Free plan, $3.60 on a $100 sale, which is more per sale than Authorize.net's 2.9% + 30¢ though without the $25 monthly fee. Square Plus ($49 a month per location) and Premium bring online checkout down to 2.9% + 30¢, as do payments taken through Square's Payments API. Its real strength is hardware and register software for card-present sales. See [Paydude vs Square](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-vs-square) and [best Square alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-square-alternatives).

**Choose it when** a meaningful share of your sales happens across a counter. **Skip it when** you sell online only and want a developer-first API.

## 7. Chase Payment Solutions — best if you already bank with Chase

Chase sells card processing directly to its business banking customers, at a published 2.9% + 25¢ for online payments. The appeal is consolidation with your bank and fast funding into a Chase account, which suits older businesses that already run everything through one bank relationship.

**Choose it when** you bank with Chase and value one relationship over the lowest rate. **Skip it when** you need a modern developer API or do not bank with Chase.

## 8. Stax — best for high volume on a subscription

Stax charges a monthly subscription, from $99, and then passes interchange through with an 8¢ per-transaction fee and no percentage markup. At high volume that structure can undercut any flat rate; at low volume the subscription costs more than it saves. Run your numbers through the [Stax fee calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/stax-fee-calculator).

**Choose it when** you process enough each month that a fixed subscription is small next to the percentage you would otherwise pay. **Skip it when** your volume is modest or seasonal — you are trading a $25 monthly fee for one of $99 or more.

## What leaving Authorize.net actually involves

The rate comparison is the easy part. For an established business the real work is in three places.

1. **Move stored cards through a supported transfer** — Authorize.net does not return full card numbers through its API, so you cannot export Customer Information Manager (CIM) profiles yourself. The route is to ask Authorize.net support to send the stored payment data as an encrypted file directly to your new provider's PCI-compliant migration team. Confirm with both sides that this is available for your account before you sign anything; if it is not, customers will have to re-enter their cards. See [storing payment methods safely](https://www.paydude.io/resources/storing-payment-methods-safely).
2. **Rebuild ARB recurring billing** — Automated Recurring Billing schedules live inside Authorize.net and do not transfer. Export each subscription's customer, amount, interval and next billing date, recreate them in the new system against the migrated cards, and cancel each ARB subscription only once its replacement is confirmed. Our guide to [building a subscription system](https://www.paydude.io/resources/building-a-subscription-system) covers what the new side needs.
3. **Replace the integration and run both in parallel** — Swap the checkout, webhooks or silent post URLs, and reporting exports to the new API, then run both providers side by side for a billing cycle. Keep Authorize.net open until refunds and disputes on old transactions have run their course, and only then close the gateway and the merchant account — check the merchant account contract for an early termination fee.

## When to stay on Authorize.net

Stay if your merchant account carries a negotiated rate well below list and the gateway fee is a rounding error against your volume, if your shopping cart or ERP integrates only with Authorize.net, or if you cannot get a confirmed card-data transfer and re-collecting cards from customers would cost more than the fees you would save. A setup that works and is cheap enough is a legitimate reason not to move.

## How to choose

1. Add up one month of both statements — Authorize.net's gateway fees and your merchant account's fees — and divide by volume to get your real [effective rate](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/effective-rate-calculator).
2. Decide whether you are replacing the gateway only (NMI) or the whole stack (Paydude, Stripe, Braintree, Helcim, Square, Stax).
3. Price the same month at each shortlisted provider's published rate. The [Authorize.net fee calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/authorize-net-fee-calculator) and the calculator below do this for us and Authorize.net.
4. Ask the new provider, before signing, whether they accept an Authorize.net card-data transfer and how they handle recurring billing schedules.

*[Interactive calculator: https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/paydude-vs-authorize-net-fee-calculator]*

Comparing more broadly? Our [payment processor fee comparison](https://www.paydude.io/resources/payment-processor-fee-comparison) puts the major providers side by side, and [best PayPal alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-paypal-alternatives) covers the other common legacy setup.

## Sources

- Authorize.net pricing page (authorize.net/sign-up/pricing.html), checked November 2026
- Stripe pricing page (stripe.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- PayPal Braintree fees page (paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees), checked November 2026
- Chase merchant fees page (chase.com/business/payments/merchant-fees), checked November 2026
- Square processing fees page (squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees), checked November 2026
- Paydude pricing page (paydude.io/pricing), checked November 2026

**Replace your gateway and merchant account with one API** 2.6% + 25¢ per card payment, no monthly platform fee, free saved-card migration from PCI Level 1 processors that will export. — [See Paydude pricing](https://www.paydude.io/pricing)

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the best alternative to Authorize.net?

It depends on what you are replacing. To replace the gateway and the separate merchant account with one modern API, Paydude (2.6% + 25¢, no monthly platform fee) or Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) are the usual choices. To keep your merchant account and change only the gateway, NMI is the common like-for-like swap. For in-person sales, Square. For interchange-plus pricing at volume, Helcim or Stax.

### Is Authorize.net a payment processor or a payment gateway?

Authorize.net is a payment gateway: it carries card data from your website to the processor and merchant account that actually move the money. It also sells an all-in-one plan that bundles a merchant account for 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction plus $25 a month, so some businesses use it as both.

### Can I move my stored cards from Authorize.net to a new processor?

Usually, but not by yourself. Authorize.net does not return full card numbers through its API. Stored Customer Information Manager (CIM) profiles are moved by asking Authorize.net support to send an encrypted file directly to the new provider's PCI-compliant migration team. Confirm with both sides that the transfer is supported for your account before you commit, because if it cannot happen, customers have to re-enter their cards.

### What happens to my Authorize.net recurring billing (ARB) subscriptions if I switch?

ARB subscriptions are schedules that live inside Authorize.net, and they do not transfer to another provider. Export the list of subscriptions, amounts and next billing dates, rebuild them in the new system against the migrated cards, and cancel each ARB subscription only once its replacement is confirmed, so nobody is charged twice or skipped.

### Is Authorize.net more expensive than Stripe?

On the all-in-one plan the per-transaction rate is the same, 2.9% + 30¢, but Authorize.net adds a $25 monthly gateway fee that Stripe does not charge. On the gateway-only plan the comparison depends on your separate merchant account, whose fees are added on top of Authorize.net's monthly and per-transaction gateway fees.

### How much does Authorize.net cost a year?

On the all-in-one plan Authorize.net charges 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction plus $25 a month. At a $50 average sale that is $4,500 a year on $10,000 of monthly volume and $21,300 on $50,000. The same volumes cost $4,200 and $21,000 on Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢, and $3,720 and $18,600 on Paydude at 2.6% + 25¢. The gateway-only plan is priced differently, with your merchant account's fees added on top.