Indian Payment Gateway Comparison

If you are a start up company selling goods and services online and targeted towards Indian customers, a Payment Gateway can help your clients to pay you online using their credit card, debit card or internet banking access.

In its current form, there are just a handful of payment gateway service providers in India. Recently I researched on some of the names in the payment gateway field and here is the comparison of these payment gateways along with the fees they charge for the service. I had to contact few provides such as Times of Money to get their fee structure.

Most companies have at least three or or packages available. As a startup company, you may only want to go with the lowest plan. So I am going to mention only the lowest plan details. For more plans, you may visit the respective website which are noted at the end of this article.

The price mentioned here are excluding 10.30% Tax which means, you’ve to pay 10.30% tax when you sign up and get transactions.

DirecPay – Times of Money : I believe, this is the biggest player in the industry right now (I may be wrong!), having big players of IT field as their clients, such as Google, Rediff, Indiatimes etc

The entry level package is their Silver package and the details are

Onetime Setup Fee(Non Refundable): Rs.7500
TDR for Credit/Debit Cards : 6.5%
TDR for Internet Banking: 6%
Annual Maintenance Cost: Rs.2400

TDR = Transaction Discount Rate.
AMC is payable on a pro-rated basic and payable at every April.

The package information is not displayed on their website for some reason. For knowing more about their packages, you must contact them. Visit http://www.timesofmoney.com/direcpay/jsp/home.jsp for more information

CCavenue: One of the oldest player in the payment processing field, have a large number of clients, mostly small to medium sized.

Onetime Setup Fee(Non Refundable): Rs.7500
TDR for Credit/Debit Cards : 7%
TDR for Internet Banking: 4%
Annual Maintenance Cost: Rs.1200

AMC is payable on a pro-rated basic and payable at every April.

Visit http://www.ccavenue.com/ for more information

EBS: There are two reason for which I shortlisted EBS. One is the low start up cost and next is their own addon script for integrating with WHMCS, a billing system generally used by web hosting companies. This module is maintained by Ebs itself. However, WHMCS has inbuilt support for CCAvenue.

Onetime Setup Fee(Non Refundable): Rs.6000
TDR for Credit/Debit Cards : 6%
TDR for Internet Banking: 6%
Annual Maintenance Cost: Rs.2400

AMC is payable on a pro-rated basic and payable at every April.

Visit http://www.ebs.in for more information

Procedure for getting payment gateway for your website:

The procedure for getting the payment gateway approved for your website is common. You’ve to sign up with them first and they will send you the requirements. Once you receive the requirements in your email, you have to arrange it and send them through courier. It may take upto 1 week for activation.

If you are a private limited company, they may ask you the following documents

1. Agreement signed by the directors
2. Memorandum
3. Company Tax Registration
4. Balance Sheet 6 months bank statement
5. Cancelled cheque
6. Pan card copy of the company
7. Signature and photograph verification letter from bank
8. Photos or directors
9. Pan cards copies of directors
10. Rs.100×3 Non-judicial stamp papers in the company name.

You can also signup as individual, and you may required to submit the following documents in most case. However, some companies such as CCAvenue, may refuse to provide you Credit/Debit card facility if you are signing up as individual. You will only get netbanking processing account.

1. Agreement signed by you
2. Residence Address proof
3. IT Returns
4. Bank Account statement
5. PAN card copy
6. Sales Tax registration
7. Voided check
8. Signature and photograph verification letter from bank
9. Rs.100×3 Non-judicial stamp papers in your name
10. Photo

Note that, the list above is not complete as it varies with the companies. This is just to give you an idea of what proofs and documents you need to submit to them.

What did I choose ? :

I selected CCavenue because their yearly software maintenance cost is half of the other companies, and the TDR for internet banking is as low as 4%. However, the setup fee is 1500 rupees more than Ebs, but if you are looking for long run with less cost for low volume of transactions, CCavenue is the best choice. Another main reason is the inbuilt support for Ccavenu in WHMCS billing system.

Did you sign up for a payment gateway ? Please share your opinion!