Payment gateways for Shopify
Gateway pages
| Gateway | Connection | Last verified |
|---|---|---|
| Authorize.net | Vendor plugin | 2026-09-11 |
| Braintree | Vendor plugin | 2026-09-11 |
| PayPal | Built-in connector | 2026-09-11 |
| Square | Not supported | 2026-09-11 |
| Stripe | Indirect | 2026-09-11 |
About Shopify
Shopify is a hosted commerce platform: the merchant rents a store rather than installing software, and Shopify runs the storefront, admin, checkout and hosting. Its plans run from Basic for a single seller through Grow and Advanced to Plus for larger brands; Shopify's own figures put it at roughly a tenth of US ecommerce sales.
Payments attach in two tiers. The native option is Shopify Payments, Shopify's own processor. Alternatively, a merchant can activate one of more than a hundred third-party providers from the Payments page in the admin, split into direct providers (card entry on the store) and external providers (checkout on the provider's hosted page). Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee on every order taken through one of these, on top of whatever the provider charges: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, with PayPal and manual payments exempt when Shopify Payments is active. The fee is the main commercial fact a gateway vendor has to explain to a prospect.
The extension model is closed. New gateways are built as payments extensions on Shopify's Payments Platform, and only approved Payments Partners may build them; custom payment extensions for a single merchant are limited to eligible Shopify Plus accounts. Extension types cover credit card, alternative, offsite and redeemables, all plugging into Shopify Checkout.
For testing, a Partner organization gets free development stores, up to 250, which accept the Bogus test gateway or a provider's test mode but never a real transaction. A regular store needs a paid plan before payment testing is allowed, and while a provider is in test mode customers cannot place live orders, so test on a dev store or a non-trading one. Webhooks from Shopify need a public HTTPS endpoint.
How payments work on Shopify
- Built-in payments
- Shopify Payments
- Third-party gateways
- Third-party and alternate gateways are allowed and are activated from the Payments section of the admin. Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee on them (per the pricing page: 2% Basic, 1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced, 0.2% Plus). New payment gateways are built only by approved Payments Partners on Shopify's Payments Platform.1
- Checkout extensibility
- Payments extensions plug into Shopify Checkout; custom payment extensions are limited to eligible Shopify Plus merchants.2
What we checked
- Shopify applies third-party transaction fees to every third-party and alternate payment gateway.1
- Shopify's pricing page lists third-party provider fees of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.3
- Only approved Partners can build payments extensions, and custom payment extensions are limited to eligible Shopify Plus merchants.2
- Development stores are free, capped at 250 per organization, and support the Bogus gateway or a provider's test mode but not real transactions.4
- Testing payment gateways requires a paid plan, and customers cannot place live orders while providers are in test mode.5
Sources
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Integration capabilities, requirements, pricing, availability, and vendor policies may change over time. UAT-Ops documents information based on the authoritative sources and testing available at the time of review.
Where newer information, testing, or vendor documentation materially changes a published claim, UAT-Ops may revise the page to reflect the most current verified information. Readers should confirm time-sensitive requirements with the relevant vendor before making production or purchasing decisions.