Compare payment processors and secure the lowest payment processing fees for your business

Compare payment processors and secure the lowest payment processing fees for your business

You'll only deal with us. We are not a lead generation company.
No multiple sales agents. No call centres. No referring your details.

Payment Orchestration ms payment logos

Compare payment processors and secure the lowest payment processing fees for your business

Trustpilot-400w
Contents

What Is Payment Orchestration and Should Your Business Consider Using It?

Payment orchestration involves integrating multiple payment service providers (PSPs) into a single platform. This can help enable smart routing and ultimately cut your cost management for payments. 

Payment orchestration has become even more valuable for UK companies since the complexities introduced by Brexit. “Card not present” interchange fees for European transactions, for example, can be lowered, as well as routing through EU banks to overcome SEPA complexities. Compliance, authorisation rates and FX fees can also be improved as a result.

The payment orchestration market was estimated by Industry Research to be around $1.67 billion in 2022 but is expected to grow to $8.6 billion by 2028 – meaning an annual growth rate of just over 31%.

How payment orchestration works:

The core functions of payment orchestration are:

  1. Smart routing: Using set criteria like geography and transaction value, transactions are automatically directed to the most cost-efficient or high-performing processor.
  2. Multi-acquirer setup: Orchestration platforms allow merchants to work with multiple payment service providers and acquirers within a geographic market. They can switch one for another, thus improving processing resilience and reliability.
  3. Unified API: Orchestration platforms simplify technical integration and maintenance by connecting merchants to multiple payment platforms and processors from a single API.
  4. Transaction optimisation: Success rates are increased with tools like tokenisation, decline management and retry mechanisms.
Payment Orchestration payments orchestration framework
Image source: Glenbrook Partners

Benefits of payment orchestration

The benefits of payment orchestration include:

  • Reduction in payment processing fees: By routing transactions through the most affordable providers and leveraging dynamic interchange fee calculations, businesses can lower transaction costs (e.g. Hyperswitch claims that costs can be reduced by 10% – 40%).
  • Improved authorisation Rates: Orchestration aims to increase approval rates by selecting the most effective payment provider for each transaction. The knock on effect of a reduction in failed payments and cart abandonment is an improvement in customer experience and revenue.
  • Operational efficiency: Managing multiple e-commerce payment methods through a single platform helps streamline processes like reconciliation, reporting and fraud management. This is particularly helpful for businesses scaling across different markets.
  • Reduced development effort: Platforms make it cheaper and easier to integrate all the payment methods thanks to their unified API and centralised development environment.
  • Reduces dependency on a single processor: You have the flexibility to switch between multiple providers based on performance, cost or cross-border needs.
  • Customised checkout experience: An orchestration SDK allows a business to have the same customised payment experience across multiple payment processors.

The evolution of payment orchestration

Understanding the historical development of payment orchestration helps highlight its current value and future trajectory – from the early days of e-commerce payment processing to the changing demands of e-commerce.

Early payment gateways

The first payment gateways were relatively simple systems that facilitated online transactions between merchants and customers. These early solutions laid the groundwork by establishing basic protocols for secure online payments.

Considering remote money transfers date back to 1871, it wasn’t until 1994, over 120 years later, that the first e-commerce transaction occurred – a Sting CD used SSL to facilitate the $12.48 purchase. It was in the same year that First Virtual Holdings created the first-ever online payment system, where customers could now make secure online credit card purchases. Four years later, PayPal was born.

Rise of Multi-Provider Strategies

As e-commerce grew, some businesses recognised the benefits of using multiple payment providers. Early examples come from high-risk industries that would connect to multiple PSPs, switching between them if contracts were terminated. It wasn’t until the proliferation of alternative payment methods (i.e. Skrill, Neteller, etc.) that created enough complexity to warrant payment orchestration.

“Head of Payments” suddenly became an in-demand job role, and software solutions for multi-provider API development rapidly emerged.

Initially, multi-provider strategies required manual management and integration of each payment service. However, managing multiple providers was complex and time-consuming which led to the development of middleware solutions to centralise payment processing. There are echoes in this trend with SaaS and cloud-based solutions which are optimised for minimal maintenance and operations that can scale efficiently.

Key drivers for the growth of payment orchestration

DriverHow payment orchestration helps
Globalisation of e-commerceSupport for multiple currencies and regional payment methods
Increasing payment complexityAllows integration of diverse payment types (credit cards, digital wallets, cryptocurrencies)
Demand for enhanced user experienceDevelopment of one-click payments and intelligent payment method selection
Regulatory complianceBuilt-in features to ensure adherence to regional and international financial regulations

Globalisation of E-commerce

The expansion of online retail across borders has increased the demand for more flexible and diverse payment options. It’s increasingly common for even the smallest of online business enterprises to serve customers from different countries. Payment orchestration platforms, which support multiple currencies, payment methods and regional preferences, are there to meet this growing demand.

Increasing Payment Complexity

As alternative payment methods have grown, businesses have required more advanced tools to manage them effectively. Modern orchestration platforms can handle a wide range of payment types, from traditional credit cards to emerging digital wallets.

Payment orchestration is also bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern payment requirements. For example, BR-DGE lets merchants improve their payment processes without ditching their traditional banks.

Demand for Enhanced User Experience

Consumer expectations for seamless, frictionless payments have driven innovation in orchestration technology. Platforms prioritise user experience in order to convert more visitors to buyers by utilising features like one-click payments and intelligent payment method selection.

Is Payment Orchestration Right For Your Business?

payments orchestration flow
Source: paymentorchestration.com
The more global and complex your payments are, the more benefits will be found in an orchestration strategy and platform. Below is a high-level and somewhat crude summary of which types of merchants will be a good fit for payment orchestration and the types of merchants where it is unlikely to deliver a net benefit.

Merchant CharacteristicsWeaker FitStronger Fit
Geographic ReachTransacts in just one marketTransacts in multiple markets
Payment Methods SupportedOnly supports general-purpose cardsSupports many payment methods
Number of Payments ProvidersUses a single payment providerUses multiple payment providers
Payment ChannelsSells through a single payment channelSells through multiple payment channels
Recurring paymentsBills on a one-off basis to random customersBills known customers on a periodic basis

Build vs Buy: Making the Right Choice

If you decide your business needs an orchestration solution, then you have a choice to make – build one in-house or use a third party.

In-House vs Third-Party Solutions

Building an in-house orchestration system will enable mare more freedom to customise but this will come at a significant cost. As well as the time and monetary cost of the initial development and maintenance, there will be a significant amount of difficulty in getting the expertise required to develop the software as it is unlikely to be in-house already.

BR-DGE claims businesses can spend up to 5,300 more hours when internally developing, though the company will retain more control over the process.

For most businesses, paying for third-party platforms like Primer, Spreedly or BR-DGE are more viable options as will typically offer quicker implementations and lower upfront costs.

It’s difficult to determine a comparison of long-run costs, because in-house solutions require on-going maintenance and improvements. However, it appears that while in-house development grows ever more complex and demanding of resources, third-party solutions (as seen with the cloud and SaaS revolution) become more efficient.

In short, the size of the business and its pre-existing technical capacity will be a key factor in the decision, as most SMEs simply won’t have the resources or expertise to develop an orchestration platform in-house that gets near the capabilities of third-party solutions.  

Payment Orchestration Platforms To Consider

Below is a list of payment orchestration platforms to consider:

Primer

Primer is a UK-based fintech founded in 2020 by former PayPal employees. It provides a low-code infrastructure to unify payment services, allowing businesses to integrate multiple payment methods and services. It claims it’s the “first open infrastructure” to unify payments, and has recently announced 200% YoY growth. Primer is focused on allowing merchants to build sophisticated workflows without the need for additional engineering.

Spreedly

Spreedly, founded in 2008 and based in North Carolina, USA, is one of the oldest payment orchestration companies. They specialise in tokenisation and have an agnostic approach to payments with support for over 120 payment services via a single API. They have a comprehensive set of features, from advanced payment vault capabilities to account updater technologies.

IXOPAY

IXOPAY is an Austria-based company that launched in 2016. It provides a modular, scalable payment orchestration platform that claims to reduce PCI scope by up to 90%. They have some other strong claims, such as improving authorisation rates by up to 15% via smart routing, as well as connecting to over 200 payment methods around the world. It offers independent payment routing and risk management to large merchants and white-label clients.

Corefy

Corefy was established in 2018 and is a Ukraine-based payment orchestration platform. They offer the usual smart routing, analytics and centralised payment management solutions as the others, but stress that they can deliver up to a 40% increase in conversion rates. Instant payouts and direct fund transfers are possible, along with multi-business management through a unified back office.

Fabrick

Fabrick is an Italian fintech founded in 2018. It focuses on enabling open banking and payment services through its orchestration platform. This convergence helps businesses connect to a wide range of financial services, enhancing their ability to innovate and offer embedded financial solutions. They have a strong European presence, along with strategic partnerships with the likes of Shift4 and TerraPay.

BR-DGE

BR-DGE, headquartered in the UK and launched in 2018, is a rapidly growing payment orchestration provider. Their success comes from their vast network of over 400 payment methods and solutions, and was the first firm to provide Visa Instalments. It has its own proprietary tokenisation solution and is proud of its strong customer service.

Worldline

Worldline, founded in 1974 and based in France, is a global leader in payment and transaction services. It processes transactions from over 100 currencies and offers a comprehensive suite of payment orchestration solutions. This includes routing, fraud detection, and risk management aimed at large enterprises and financial institutions. Advanced escrow and mediation handling are also offered.

Hyperswitch

Hyperswitch is a relatively new player which started in 2022, with its base in India. It offers an open-source payment orchestration solution which was built with Rust in order to minimise latency. The focus is on providing dynamic routing capabilities and a cost-effective way to manage multiple payment methods and providers.

payments orchestration architecture
Source: uxdesign.com

How much are payment orchestration platforms?

It’s clear that most platforms don’t publish their pricing. Hyperswitch and Corefy, however, are more transparent about their pricing than most.

Hyperswitch (see their pricing here)

  • Growth: $1,500 for unlimited payment collection integrations and upwards of 30K transactions.
  • Essential: $500 up to 3 payment connector integrations from their pre-integrated list
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing. Ideal for businesses processing monthly volumes upwards of 1M transaction count.

Corefy (see their pricing here)

  • Standard: €2,500 for 10K successful and €0.072 for each transaction exceeding the plan
  • Professional: €10,00 for 100K successful and €0.024 for each transaction exceeding the plan. Includes the creation of one custom payment page per year and a white-label package.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

UK-Specific Considerations for Implementing Payment Orchestration

  • Cross-Border Payments: Since Brexit, UK businesses face greater costs and friction from their international payments. Orchestration helps overcome this by reducing costs related to cross-border transactions.
  • Localisation & Local Payment Methods: To further improve the international customer experience, the check-out process can be adapted based on the customers’ geography, as well as offering local payment methods, such as Pay by Bank, to further reduce friction and costs.
  • Sales Surges: Many UK businesses are seasonal or experience surges in sales on days with days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day. Payment orchestrators help deal with spikes in sales volume, along with unexpected overseas seasonality, by having a dynamic, multi-acquirer setup.
  • Competitiveness: The UK is dominated by a small handful of e-commerce sites, like Amazon. However, Amazon lacks payment methods (i.e. no Open Banking, no Google Pay, and limited Buy Now, Pay Later options). Payment orchestrators present a rare opportunity to gain an advantage against a big hitter by offering a better checkout experience with more payment options.
  • Security and Data Compliance: With PCI-DSS certification and secure tokenisation, orchestration platforms make data protection stronger and simpler, reducing merchants’ compliance burdens. They also support FCA and GDPR compliance.
  • PSD2 Compliance: Payment orchestration helps businesses meet the strong customer authentication (SCA) requirements mandated by PSD2, reducing fraud risk while maintaining a smooth checkout process.
  • Negotiating power: Utilising a multi-acquirer strategy can give you negotiating power with acquires who may be willing to compete on fees to gain a greater share of the processing volume.

Future Trends in Payment Orchestration

The role of machine learning will continue to grow within the payment orchestration industry. Machine learning has long been used for fraud detection and we will likely see predictive payment routing become a more important tool for orchestrators (i.e. they will be better able to predict which processors are most likely to approve transactions based on various factors, from customer location to the time of day).

Embedded finance, where businesses offer financial services within their own platforms, is also a trend we are likely to see more of. For example, Fabrick helps accept payments from various channels within a single dashboard, and this leads to the simpler implementation of loyalty schemes and automatic commission distribution. Going beyond payment routing and offering an embedded approach is improving customer experience, but also facilitates a more comprehensive ecosystem rich in features.

On this page

Compare Payment Processor Fees

Compare preferential rates and card processing offers from the UK’s leading merchant account providers

You’ll only deal with our in-house payment experts

Your details will not be shared

Compare Payment Processors