The Best Shopify Payment Gateway List for Global Selling

Introduction

Choosing the right payment methods for your store directly impacts your conversion rates and profit margins. Shopify provides access to over 100 payment providers globally, but presenting too many choices can overwhelm customers and lead to cart abandonment. We built HidePay to help merchants curate these options, ensuring that only the most relevant and cost-effective methods appear at checkout. If you’re ready to try it, you can install HidePay from the Shopify App Store.

This guide provides a detailed look at the current Shopify payment gateway list, categorized by region, functionality, and business model. You will learn the differences between direct and external providers and how to strategically organize your checkout to reduce fees and increase trust. Our goal is to help you build a checkout experience that converts every visitor into a customer.

Understanding Shopify Payment Provider Categories

Shopify categorizes payment providers based on how they interact with your checkout and where they are available. Understanding these distinctions is the first step in building an efficient payment strategy.

Direct vs. External Providers

A direct provider allows customers to complete their purchase without leaving your online store. The payment fields are embedded directly into the Shopify checkout experience. This reduces friction and is generally preferred for maximizing conversion rates.

An external provider redirects the customer to a hosted payment page outside of Shopify. Once the transaction is finished, the customer is sent back to your store’s thank-you page. While these can sometimes be slower, they are often necessary for certain local payment methods or regions where direct integrations are limited.

Shopify Payments: The Native Solution

For most merchants in supported countries, Shopify Payments is the default choice. It is fully integrated into the Shopify admin, allowing you to manage orders and payouts in one place. Using it also waives the third-party transaction fees that Shopify otherwise charges when you use external gateways.

The Core Shopify Payment Gateway List

The following gateways are the most widely used across the platform due to their reliability and broad geographical support.

1. Shopify Payments

As the primary solution, it supports all major credit cards and integrates with accelerated checkout options like Shop Pay. It is currently available in over 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Europe and Asia.

• Best for: General e-commerce, high-volume stores, and merchants wanting a unified dashboard.
• Key Advantage: No additional transaction fees and instant setup.

2. PayPal

PayPal is nearly universal. Most Shopify stores enable PayPal Express Checkout by default because of its high consumer trust. It allows customers to pay using their PayPal balance, linked bank accounts, or credit cards.

• Best for: International stores and building trust with new customers.
• Key Advantage: One of the fastest setup processes on the platform.

3. Stripe

While Stripe is the engine behind Shopify Payments in many regions, some merchants choose to use Stripe independently. This is common for businesses with highly specific API needs or those operating in countries where Shopify Payments is not yet available.

• Best for: Technical merchants and businesses with complex subscription models.
• Key Advantage: Excellent developer tools and transparent pricing.

4. Authorize.net

Authorize.net is one of the oldest and most stable providers in the industry. It is a popular choice for established businesses that require advanced fraud detection and secure data storage for recurring billing.

• Best for: Large enterprises and merchants requiring high levels of security customization.
• Key Advantage: Robust reporting and historical reliability.

5. Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay allows customers to use the payment and shipping information already stored in their Amazon accounts. This removes several steps from the checkout process, which can significantly improve mobile conversion rates.

• Best for: Stores targeting Amazon shoppers and those looking to reduce checkout friction.
• Key Advantage: High brand recognition and simplified data entry for the customer.

Regional Payment Gateway Specialists

Global expansion requires offering the specific payment methods that local customers prefer. For example, a customer in the Netherlands expects iDEAL, while a customer in Germany may prefer Sofort or Giropay.

Adyen

Adyen is an enterprise-grade platform that supports hundreds of local payment methods globally. It is particularly strong for merchants selling across Europe, North America, and Brazil.

Worldpay

Worldpay provides massive global reach, supporting over 120 currencies. It is frequently used by large-scale merchants who need a single partner to handle complex international transactions.

2Checkout (Verifone)

For merchants in regions with fewer gateway options, 2Checkout offers extensive support across more than 200 countries. It handles localized currencies and languages effectively, making it a strong choice for cross-border trade.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) Options

The Shopify payment gateway list also includes several specialized providers that allow customers to pay in installments. These providers often increase average order value (AOV) by making expensive items more accessible.

• Klarna: Highly popular in Europe and the US, Klarna offers "Pay in 4" and "Pay in 30 days" options.
• Afterpay: A leader in the fashion and beauty sectors, Afterpay is widely used in Australia and North America.
• Affirm: Focused on larger purchases, Affirm provides longer-term financing options with transparent interest rates.

When using these methods, many merchants use our app to ensure these options only appear for carts over a certain dollar amount. This prevents paying the higher BNPL transaction fees on small orders where a standard credit card payment would suffice.

Specialized and Manual Payment Methods

Not all transactions happen via credit card. Shopify allows for manual payment methods that you can configure to suit your business model.

• Cash on Delivery (COD): Essential in markets like India or Southeast Asia, though it carries higher risk for the merchant.
• Bank Transfers: Common for high-ticket B2B transactions.
• Cryptocurrency: Providers like Coinbase Commerce or BitPay allow you to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets.

Strategic Selection: How to Choose Your Gateways

Listing every possible payment method is a mistake. A cluttered checkout leads to "analysis paralysis," where the customer becomes confused and leaves. Follow these steps to refine your list:

1. Check Local Popularity: Research the top three payment methods in your primary markets. If you sell to the UK, you need credit cards and PayPal. If you sell to the Netherlands, iDEAL is mandatory.
2. Compare Fee Structures: Look beyond the percentage fee. Check for monthly account fees, chargeback fees, and currency conversion costs.
3. Evaluate Mobile Performance: Ensure your chosen gateways support digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. These are critical for the growing number of mobile shoppers.
4. Consider Fraud Protection: Some gateways offer better built-in security tools than others. Protecting your margins from chargebacks is as important as the transaction fee itself.

How to Optimize Your Payment Method Display

Once you have selected your providers from the Shopify payment gateway list, the next challenge is managing them. Shopify's default behavior is to list payment methods in the order they were activated. This is rarely the most effective layout for conversion.

Sorting for Conversion

You should place your most popular or highest-converting methods at the top. If most of your customers use Shop Pay or PayPal, these should be the first options they see. By using HidePay, you can reorder these methods based on the customer’s location or cart value; see the HidePay documentation on how to sort and rename payment methods for step-by-step instructions.

Renaming for Clarity

Sometimes the default name of a payment provider is confusing to the customer. Renaming a method to "Credit or Debit Card" instead of the specific gateway name can reduce hesitation. Customizing labels allows you to match the language and terminology your specific audience expects; learn how to hide, sort, or rename payment methods in the HidePay help center.

Hiding Redundant Options

Displaying three different ways to pay via credit card is unnecessary. You should hide redundant or high-fee options based on specific conditions. If a customer is using a specific currency, you might hide payment methods that charge high exchange fees for that currency.

Strategic Use Cases for Payment Rules

• High-Risk Orders: Hide certain payment methods if the order attributes suggest a high risk of fraud or chargebacks.
• B2B Customers: Use customer tags to show "Net 30" or bank transfer options only to verified wholesale clients.
• Product-Based Rules: If you sell products that some gateways prohibit (such as certain supplements or digital goods), you can set rules to hide those gateways when those specific items are in the cart; the HidePay guide on hiding payment methods for product collections explains this setup.

Technical Foundation: Shopify Functions

The modern way to handle these customizations is through Shopify Functions. Unlike the old Script Editor, which was limited to Shopify Plus, Functions allow for native, high-performance logic that works across all plans.

We built our app on this native infrastructure. This means your checkout remains fast and secure because the logic runs directly on Shopify’s servers. There are no external scripts to slow down the page or break during high-traffic events like Black Friday. For more detail on why HidePay uses Shopify Functions and what that means for performance, read the Nextools overview on HidePay benefits.

Action Plan for Merchants

To get the most out of your payment setup, follow this practical sequence:

1. Audit your current list: Identify which payment methods are actually being used by your customers and which are just taking up space.
2. Simplify the UI: Use the app to hide any methods that have low usage or high processing fees in specific regions.
3. Test the order: Reorder your payments so the most trusted options appear first.
4. Localized Labels: Rename any methods that might be unclear to an international audience.

If you are also looking to optimize your shipping methods, consider HideShip for the same hide/sort/rename control on shipping options. For merchants who want both payment and shipping controls together, the HideSuite bundle combines HidePay and HideShip into one plan. If you need custom Shopify Functions or to migrate existing scripts, SupaEasy can generate and migrate functions without coding.

Conclusion

Managing your Shopify payment gateway list is about more than just checking boxes in your admin. It is a strategic balance between customer convenience, brand trust, and profit protection. By selecting the right regional providers and using tools to hide, sort, and rename those options, you create a professional checkout experience that minimizes friction.

• Select gateways based on local customer preferences.
• Prioritize Shopify Payments to reduce third-party fees.
• Organize your checkout so the most relevant options are easiest to find.
• Use native tools to protect your margins from high-fee or high-risk methods.

A clean, optimized checkout is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. You can start refining your payment rules today by installing HidePay from the Shopify App Store.

FAQ

Can I use multiple payment gateways on Shopify?

Yes, you can use Shopify Payments alongside other providers like PayPal, Amazon Pay, and various Buy Now, Pay Later services. However, you can generally only have one "primary" credit card processor active at a time.

Why doesn't a specific payment gateway appear in my list?

Payment gateway availability is determined by your store's business location. Shopify automatically filters the available providers based on the country address set in your store settings. If a provider is missing, double-check that it supports your region.

How do I change the order of payment methods at checkout?

By default, Shopify does not allow you to reorder payment methods in the admin. You must use an app like HidePay, which uses Shopify Functions to sort and organize payment options based on your specific rules; install HidePay to get started.

Will using an app to hide payment methods slow down my checkout?

Not if the app is built on Shopify Functions. Because this technology runs natively within Shopify's backend, there is no impact on page load speed or performance, ensuring a quick and reliable experience for your customers.

---

Links used in this article (embedded contextually above):

• HidePay on the Shopify App Store
• install HidePay
• HidePay help: Sort and Rename payment methods in the Checkout
• HidePay help: How to create a payment customization
• HidePay help: How to hide payment methods using cart attributes
• HidePay help: How to hide payment methods for a collection of products
• Nextools blog: Introducing HideSuite
• Nextools apps page and HidePay homepage
• HideShip on the Shopify App Store
• SupaEasy on the Shopify App Store