Cash, check, or credit? For years, they were the most popular options to make or receive a payment. However, if you’ve ever been asked for your Paypal information or to “Venmo me the money,” you know that cash app payment processing options have recently increased in number.
By making it easier and more convenient for your customers and clients to make payments, you can get paid faster. The trick is often knowing which cash app payment processing options will work best for you and your customers.
While having options is generally a good thing, having too many can leave you confused about which ones to choose. That’s why we took a look at several of the best payment apps for small businesses that could work for you.
How Cash App Payment Processing Works
To know which payment system might be best for you, it can be helpful to know how payment systems work.
Whether a customer is using a credit card online, a mobile app, or pulling a credit card out of their wallet, payment systems use a gateway to authorize and transfer the payment to your business bank account.
All the payment systems we looked at charge a monthly fee, a fee per transaction, or some combination of both. We also noted which options handle online, app, and in-person payments.
Payment Processing Solutions for Most Businesses
1. Clover
Clover can handle both in-person or point-of-sale (POS) transactions, as well as payments online. There’s also the option to process transactions using an app on your mobile device.
Clover can be a good solution for brick-and-mortar businesses, such as restaurants and retail stores. Along with their sleek countertop POS devices, Clover also can handle creating gift cards, invoicing, mobile app integration, and online ordering.
Depending on what your business needs, Clover offers a variety of solutions. Of course, that variety comes with varying costs primarily based on:
- The hardware (POS devices) you need
- The software plan you choose
- The transaction processing fees (2.3%-2.6% + $0.10 per card-present transaction)
You can learn more here.
2. Square
A close competitor to Clover is Square. You may know them from the little white card readers that started showing up around 2009. Square payment processing can handle payment services for POS, online, mobile, and manually entered payments, making them another good consideration for restaurants, retailers, and beauty businesses.
Square invoicing lets you send digital invoices and estimates, reminders, and it can accept payments. It also can track paid and unpaid invoices. If you’re new to payment processing or unsure about what you may need, Square lets you start small and inexpensively. Their free plan has no setup or monthly charges, so you pay a fee only when you accept a payment.
You can get more details on Square payment processing here.
Payment Processing Solutions for E-commerce Businesses
3. PayPal
If this is a name you’re familiar with from your own online purchases, there’s a good chance many of your clients and customers are familiar with it too. That’s certainly something to consider if you’re looking to add a payment option to your online store or business.
PayPal is an easy way for customers to pay. They can make a purchase with a few clicks instead of tediously entering all their card numbers and security codes. On the business-owner side, PayPal lets you create invoices and estimates. If your business offers subscriptions or uses recurring payments, PayPal can handle those as well.
Costs for using PayPal differ, based on the type and amount of the transaction. Here’s a breakdown:
- Invoicing, PayPal checkout, and PayPal guest checkout — 3.49% fee per transaction plus an additional fixed fee
- QR code transactions — 1.9% and up per transaction, plus a fixed fee
- Standard credit and debit card payments — 2.99% and a fixed fee
You can learn more and get started here.
4. Venmo
You may be familiar with Venmo if you’ve ever sent money to someone for dinner, babysitting, or any number of other person-to-person payments. Venmo offers much the same speed, ease, and security for business payments as well.
If you already accept PayPal, you can easily accept Venmo by adding a button on your website. Venmo payment processing also enables users to like and comment on friends’ payments, potentially boosting your marketing presence along with your revenue stream.
Using Venmo for business comes with fees of 1.9% plus 10 cents per transaction.
You can find out more about Venmo for business here.
5. Stripe
While Stripe can be used for both in-person and online payments, it offers some helpful features e-commerce sellers might want to consider.
It can make your customer’s online buying experience smoother and easier (and improves your chances of getting the order) by adapting to both your customer’s location and the device they’re using. Other smart e-commerce features include accepting coupons and calculating, collecting, and reporting sales tax and value-added taxes (VAT).
Stripe can be easy to integrate with your online store or business. It also offers pay-as-you-go pricing, starting at 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction, with no set-up or monthly fees.
There’s more information about Stripe here.
Simplifying Payments and Simplifying Insurance
Understanding the world of cash app payment processing options is just one of the ways we try to help small business owners. We can do much the same with insurance to help financially protect your business.
Knowing what coverages your business may need and understanding the language many insurers use can be enough to cause an ice cream headache (without the benefit of the sweet treat itself!).
We like to make it fast, easy, and affordable. You can get a free quote online, 24/7. We also have licensed insurance pros ready to help and answer questions Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
We work with leading national insurers, and we’ve helped thousands of business owners across the U.S. Many of them have consistently rated us highly on Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau.
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Get an affordable & customized policy in just minutes. So you can get back to what matters: Your business.
It Can Pay to Make Payment Easier for Your Customers
As a business owner, you’re undoubtedly looking for ways to increase efficiency, lower costs, and create a better experience for your customers. A cash app payment processing system can help you achieve all three of those features. Just as importantly, it can help keep your revenue stream flowing and your business humming along.
Speaking of helping your business, we’re here for more than just insurance. We’ve got a wealth of advice and guides on a wide variety of topics for small business owners. It’s all free and available to you whenever you need it in our Resource Center.