If you’re looking for an online payment gateway, EVO Payments stands out as a top option for small businesses. In addition, with flat-rate payments for predictable costs, EVO is a great choice for starters that need to predict costs for financing, investment, or making finances work.
What else? With a minimum monthly card turnover of £1,500, EVO Payments is suitable for even micro businesses.
Still, EVO Payments won’t be right for everyone. That’s especially true now that the brand is owned by U.S. company Global Payments.
In this review, we’ve looked at pricing, features, integration, and other offerings for small UK businesses so you can make the right choice of payment gateway.
What Is EVO Payments?
The brand was founded in 1985 and is, today, owned by Global Payments, making it part of one of the largest payment processing networks in the world. The brand stands out with one of the most unique pricing structures out there.
Here, you pay a flat rate per card turnover processed, with everything included in your monthly bundle. That means payments are extremely predictable, with no hidden fees whatsoever.
EVO Payments Benefits For Small Businesses
EVO Payments has a lot to offer for small and micro businesses. Here, you get a payment processor that accepts payments from 120+ cards, digital wallets, and payment sources, and that integrates directly into your websites.
You can also add on physical card processing and other features on-demand.
- No hidden fees. That means no PCI, joining fee, minimum monthly fee, or authentication fee. However, you may pay additional transaction fees if your sales exceed your bundle.
- Next-day settlement on all transactions
- POS Terminal for retail sale included in monthly fees
- Fixed rate contracts
- Supports omnichannel sales
Some reasons EVO isn’t a great fit for small businesses:
- 18-month minimum contract. Even big banks like Tyl by NatWest only have a minimum contract term of 12 months.
- You’ll need a custom contract if you exceed £9,000 in transaction volume per month.
- It is not a full-service payment processor and authentication platform.
EVO Payments Features & Offerings
When you start with EVO Payments, you commit to an 18-month contract. That means you’ll have to commit to whatever monthly fee you’ve agreed to for 18 months. You will owe that fee even if you don’t process that many transactions.
Plug and Play with 50 Shopping Carts
EVO Payments offers plugins and apps for 50+ major shopping carts and websites.
That makes it extremely easy to integrate without codes.
Accept 120+ Payments
EVO Pay accepts 120+ payment types including all major credit and debit cards, digital wallets like Google Wallet and Apple Wallet, AfterPay, Klarna, and much more.
While not as expansive as some global brands, EVO has most business needs fully covered.
Central Management
You can view and manage payments, risk, and fraud from a single platform.
Fully Secure
EVO Payments offers all of the security and compliance you’ll expect from a payment gateway.
In addition, you can add extras like 3D Secure and separate encrypted checkout pages to improve customer security.
API
If you want a custom checkout page with your own branding or natively included in your platform, you can use the API.
Features EVO Doesn’t Have
EVO holds up very well as a simple and affordable payment gateway. In fact, it’s probably one of the best budget payment gateways in the UK.
Still, it isn’t right for everyone. You won’t get:
- Native support for subscriptions
- Fraud management
- Automatic scaling
- Language localization
- Card detection or credentials verification
However, you will get a very solid, simple payment gateway that holds up as one of the best in its price range.
EVO Payments Pricing & Fees
EVO Payments has a unique pricing structure that allows you to pay for what you use. With no monthly fees, you can tailor your pricing to your expected sales volume.
In addition, with monthly card volume starting at just £1,500, it’s extremely small business friendly.
When you start to scale up, EVO Payments offers some of the best rates on the market, making it a top choice for small-to-medium businesses with predictable card turnover.
Ready Made 1500
This bundle costs £33 per month for up to £1,500 of card turnover. That works out to a fee of just under 2.2% for all cards, which is comparable to or better than many leading competitors.
In addition, this rate includes a card processing machine should you need one. However, you should keep in mind that you may still pay additional fees from third parties.
Ready Made 3000
Ready Made 3000 costs £45 per £3,000 of monthly turnover. That averages to a 1.5% fee for all transactions. That compares with some of the best rates offered by competitors.
Ready Made 6000
Ready Made 6000 costs £71 per £6,000 of card transaction turnover. At just 1.18% transaction fee for all cards, this is highly competitive.
Ready Made 9000
Ready Made 9000 costs £94 per £9,000 of monthly card turnover. You’ll average a fee of 1.01%, providing you max out the transaction volume.
What About Hidden Fees?
EVO Payments charges custom pricing for larger plans. In addition, you might pay different rates for pay by link.
What else? If your customer’s bank uses a third-party authentication service like Authorize.net, you’ll see those charges on your statement as well. EVO Payments is not a bank and so can’t authorise payments on its own.
Finally, you pay for EVO whether or not you process that amount of transactions. You’ll pay £71 for the £3,000 monthly turnover plan even if you’re only making £3,100 in turnover.
What does that mean for you? Rates could go up and down as you move between bundle sizes.
EVO Payments vs Competitors
Let’s take a look at how EVO Payments compares to its competitors.
| Provider | EVO Payments | Stripe | Mollie | PayPal | Adyen | Tyl by NatWest | Square | WorldPay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | £33-£94 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £14.95 | £0-£29+ | £2.95-£25+ |
| Transaction Cost | Included in fee (Rates work out to an average of up to 2.2%) | 2.5% + 25p for UK Card, 1.5% + 25p for EU cards | 1.80%-3.25% + 25p | 1.2% -3.5% + fixed fee | 11P + Provider Cost (typically 3%) | 1.39% + 5p or 1.99% + 5p | 1.4%+ 25p or 2.5% + 25p | 1.4%-3.95% + fixed rate |
| Payments Accepted | 120+ cards | All major | Major EU + UK | All major | All major | All major cards and digital wallets | All major Western cards and digital wallets | All major |
| Native Checkout | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Ease of Integration | High | Medium | High | High | High | Low | High | Low |
EVO’s flat-rate payment system means that the closer your transaction rate is to the maximum of your bundle, the less you’ll pay per transaction. That is unique. However, it does mean you could pay a lot more if your transaction rate is very low.
EVO Payments Reviews & Reputation
EVO Payments has a great reputation both in the UK and internationally.
However, it also has some negative reviews. These mostly relate to potentially slow customer service, slow authorisation, and slow switches to other authorisation processes.
- Customer Service – Most reviews quote quality customer service with fast assistance and remediation of problems.
- Ease of Integration – Customers praise EVO’s ease of implementation, with some citing setup in just a few minutes.
- Low Rates – Many customers cite saving considerably over competitors, even other alternative payment platforms.
Now that EVO is part of a larger payment processor, Global Payments, the company will likely also benefit from that brand’s stellar reputation.
In fact, Global Payments has a 4.6-star Trustpilot rating, making it one of the best reviewed payment processors in the UK.
Who Should Use EVO Payments?
EVO Payments is an online payment gateway geared toward small and medium businesses. It offers flat-rate pricing so you get predictable costs and no hidden charges.
Plus, with plans supporting transaction volumes as low as £1,500 per month, it’s ideal for micro businesses as well.
- Startups looking for predictable costs
- SMEs looking to minimize total costs on card transactions
- Businesses with roughly the same transaction volume per month (e.g., with established clientele or sales volumes)
- Non-technical business owners who want to install a payment gateway with a single click
- Businesses looking for an online payment gateway and card terminal. You get a card terminal free with your 18-month contract.
EVO Payments might not be for you if you want more features, if you want to set up subscription services, or if you expect to process different volumes of money every month.
Is EVO Payments Right For Your Small Business?
EVO Payments is just one of over a dozen online payment gateways for small businesses in the UK. That means you’ll have plenty of choice. EVO Payments stands out with low rates, predictable pricing, and highly competitive transaction costs. However, you’ll want predictable transaction volumes and ideally near the max of your package cost to save.
If you want help choosing your online payment gateway, use the form below and we’ll request quotes, sort the best for your needs, and pass the savings on to you.