Adyen Payments Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Anna’s experience in business and finance led her to work for a US risk mitigation company in Singapore. She has contributed to POS and payments topics in the Retail section across Fit Small Business.
This article is part of a larger series on Payments.
Adyen Payments is an international payment service provider based in Europe that allows businesses to accept in-person and online payments. It offers features such as ecommerce tools, multichannel sales management, risk management, and cross-border payments processing. Adyen Payments is also a merchant acquirer, which means it does not pass the risk of undertaking responsibilities to a larger financial organization.
While often compared to Stripe for its developer-first integration tools, Adyen Payments is more suitable for tech-savvy, midsize and large businesses that won’t mind a $120 minimum monthly sales requirement.
Adyen Payments
What We Like
- Strong multichannel sales
- No monthly, setup, or closure fees
- No currency conversion fees
What's Missing
- Minimum monthly sales requirement
- Limited invoicing tools
- Not-so-easy application process
- Numerous user complaints
Deciding Factors
- Monthly fee: $0
- Pricing Method: Blended (interchange-plus and flat-rate pricing)
- Transaction Fees:
- Card Present: 3% + 12 cents to 4.99% + 42 cents
- Ecommerce: 3% + 12 cents to 4.99% + 42 cents
- Virtual Terminal: 3% + 12 cents to 4.99% + 42 cents
- ACH: 37 cents
- Acquirer Fees: From 0.6% per transaction (for interchange-plus pricing)
- Gateway fee: $0
- Chargeback fee: 5% max/transaction
- Monthly minimum: $120
- Closure fee: $0
- Contract length: Month-to-month
When To Use Adyen Payments
Adyen Payments is an ideal payment processing choice for tech-savvy merchants and can be an overall cheaper option compared to other popular options like Stripe. However, its blended pricing method and somewhat complicated application process make it better suited for midsize to large businesses. Smaller merchants may want to choose from one of our recommended merchant service providers that do not require a monthly minimum and offer a simpler pricing structure and application process.
In particular, Adyen Payments is a good match for:
- Online businesses that accept international payments: Adyen Payments can link multiple bank accounts with multiple currencies so it does not need to convert currency and helps merchants avoid currency conversion fees.
- Businesses that rely heavily on ACH and credit card sales: Adyen helps merchants save on credit card processing fees by offering interchange-plus pricing for major credit cards with a 12-cent fee. It also charges a very small fee for ACH debit transactions with no cap.
- Tech-savvy midsize to large businesses: Adyen integrations and plugins require a certain level of technical expertise to manage. You will also be required to set up integrations on a test Adyen Payments account before being able to apply for a live account.
When Adyen Payments Would Not Be a Good Fit
- New and small businesses: New businesses are better served with processors that have an easy application and setup process and no monthly fees or minimums. Consider our recommendations for free merchant account providers with a simple application process and easy approval.
- Small mobile-based businesses: While you can also get a mobile payment processing service from Adyen, pricing for in-person and digital wallet payments is comparatively higher. You may want to look into our list of mobile credit card processors and top credit card payment apps for better alternatives.
- Small, non-tech-savvy businesses: Merchants without direct access to IT developers would find it easier to build their small business with simple integrations and plug-and-play software. Consider our list of cheap credit card processing companies and top payment gateways for better solutions.
Adyen Payments Alternatives & Fees Comparison
 |  |  | |
Best for | Brick-and-mortar retailers and small businesses, especially those with low sales | Small and growing tech-savvy businesses needing flexibility | Individuals who need a reliable solution for occasional payments |
Monthly fee | $0 | $0 | Starts at $0 |
Card present | 2.6% + 10 cents | 2.7% + 5 cents | 2.7% |
Card not present | 3.5% + 15 cents | 2.9% + 30 cents | 3.5% + fixed fee |
Ecommerce transaction fee | 2.9% + 30 cents | 2.9% + 30 cents | Starts at 3.4% + 30 cents |
Looking for a simple merchant services solution? Start accepting payments in-person and online with Square Payments which is built-in to every Square all-in-one POS, retail POS, restaurant POS, and appointment POS system. Signing up is free and you can get set up in minutes!
Adyen Payments Pricing
Adyen pricing can be somewhat confusing to small businesses but is overall competitive, with Adyen charging only 12 cents for the processing fee. Major credit card transactions are charged an interchange-plus rate and an acquirer fee, while other payment methods, including the use of American Express and Discover cards, are charged a flat rate. Note that rates also vary for transactions outside Northern America.
The following is a summary of Adyen Payments rates and fees:
Adyen Fee | Online/Ecommerce | In-person/POS | |
|---|---|---|---|
Visa | 12 cents | Interchange ++* | Interchange ++* |
Mastercard | 12 cents | Interchange ++* | Interchange ++* |
American Express | 12 cents | North America: 3.3% + 10 cents Global: 3.95% | North America: 3.3% + 10 cents Global: 3.95% |
Discover | 12 cents | 3.95% | 3.95% |
JCB | 12 cents | 3.75% | 3.75% |
Diners Club | 12 cents | 3.95% | 3.95% |
ACH | 12 cents | 25 cents | 25 cents |
PayPal | 12 cents | PayPal Rate | N/A |
Amazon Pay | 12 cents | Interchange ++* + 0.8% 3.95% + 0.8% | Interchange ++* + 0.8% 3.95% + 0.8% |
Apple Pay | 12 cents | Card Network Rate | Card Network Rate |
Samsung Pay | 12 cents | Card Network Rate | Card Network Rate |
Google Pay | 12 cents | Card Network Rate | N/A |
*The interchange ++ rate is a combination of interchange-plus pricing method plus an acquirer fee assessed by Adyen Payments which starts at 0.6% per transaction.
Note that the table above only lists major brands—other local payment methods such as Union Pay, WeChat Pay, and Zip cost up to 4.99% + 30 cents. Adyen Payments does not charge a currency conversion fee, nor does it collect a monthly, gateway, PCI compliance, or closure fees. It does, however, impose a chargeback fee of up to 0.5% per transaction.
Adyen Payments Hardware
Early this year, Adyen Payments launched a series of Android-based payment terminals. It offers everything from mobile card readers to countertops and even self-service kiosks. You will need to contact Adyen Payments directly to confirm prices.
 | Best for: Mobile payments
|
 | Best for: Standalone POS
|
 | Best for: Standalone POS
|
 | Best for: At the counter sales
|
 | Best for: Mobile in-store and at the counter sales
|
 | Best for: At the counter sales with CRM tools
|
 | Best for: NFC payments and Self-checkout
|
Adyen Payments Features
Setup & Application
The most important note to point out for applying for a merchant account with Adyen Payments is that it requires you to set up a test account on its platform and set up integrations before getting approved. This means having to work with code to have your system already connected to Adyen even before getting approved. Small businesses, particularly startups without any access to such technical skills will find this challenging and likely discouraging.
That said, Adyen details the application process as follows:
- Step 1: Create a free test account
- Step 2: Build your integration
- Step 3: Apply for a live account
- Step 4: Sign the contract and get details for your live account
- Step 5: Configure settings for your live account
The integrations required are to test the compatibility of your current setup with Adyen’s tools for making test payments, inviting team members, and adding platforms.
Contract & Terms of Service (TOS)
Adyen Payments does not lock you into a long-term contract or impose closure fees. However, it does require you to maintain a monthly minimum sales volume of $120. It also sets a chargeback rate limit of 0.5% which is significantly lower than the standard 1%. This means Adyen allows fewer incidents of chargebacks before imposing fees, suspensions, or even terminating your merchant account.
Other things to consider in Adyen’s terms of service are:
- You are required to inform Adyen Payments two months in advance of your intention to cancel the service.
- Adyen will impose a chargeback fee for each disputed transaction. There is no chargeback protection scheme mentioned in the merchant agreement so ensure that you ask about this from Adyen’s sales representatives.
- Hardware purchased from Adyen Payments only carries a four-month limited warranty.
- Adyen reserves the right to raise its payment processing fees three months after providing notice to its merchants.
- Adyen Payments require merchants to set a reserve account to cover fees and other liabilities that may arise from normal business operations while using Adyen’s merchant services. Adyen determines the amount of deposit to be maintained on the reserve and may be increased at any time.
- Deposits to your reserve account will only be released six months after termination of the contract.
Ecommerce
Adyen Payments provides merchants with a range of online payment integration options that allow you to process card-not-present transactions through Adyen’s API.
- Pay by Link: Adyen-hosted checkout pages can be customized through a set of tools provided on the Adyen Payments platform and embedded on emails, webpages, and social media sites.
- Drop-in: For developers looking to create a full checkout to add to your website. This form contains fields that collect payment details and securely submits this information to Adyen’s secure payment gateway.
- Component: For developers looking for a more flexible checkout option that can be added to a website, on a mobile app, or as a link to collect a per-Payment Method basis transaction.
Account Updater
This service provides merchants with the ability to automatically request and receive updated payment details through Adyen’s secure system, either in real time or during batch submission. Merchant agrees that any updates to payment details (e.g., expiry date of a card) may be used by Adyen to improve or provide payment services on its platform. Adyen Payments impose a fee for using its Account Updater Services, which should be detailed on your merchant application.
Payment Terminals
Adyen Payments supports standalone, terminal API, and third-party payment terminal integrations. This flexibility provides merchants with the option to choose based on their required level of mobility, customization, and additional hardware and software requirements.
Those who select a payment terminal that requires a SIM card to process transactions will be provided with one by Adyen in conjunction with the hardware that will remotely activate once the contract starts. However, note that the use of a SIM card will tie merchants into a one-year contract.
Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
Adyen Payments provides dynamic currency conversion, where merchants are able to sell products and services based on the customer’s currency but receive the sales proceeds in the merchant’s currency. Note that the conversion rate and the DCC fee, which will be specified in the merchant agreement, ranges from 1.2%–6% (default at 3%), and is charged against the customer. This service is also designed to ask customers to confirm their acceptance of the fees from the POS terminal.
Note that the proceeds of the cardholder DCC fee are shared between the merchant and Adyen according to the merchant agreement.
Offline Payments
Adyen allows merchants to configure payment terminals to process payments even when offline. However, note that you will be required to set a transaction limit allowable for offline payments. You can choose to process transactions within the limit offline by default or attempt to process payments online first, before allowing to accept payments without an internet connection.
Risk Management
You can set up risk rules for multiple risk profiles through Adyen’s RevenueProtect risk management tool, but available profiles will depend on the service option you sign up for. RevenueProtect Basic lets you set up one company-wide profile, while RevenueProtect Premium is ideal if you have multiple merchant accounts which require different acceptable risk levels. A risk profile is already set by default, which you can configure manually and assign company-wide; you can create additional risk profiles with Adyen’s set of tools.
Adyen Payments Ease of Use
Payouts
Payouts take up to two business days to arrive in your account, depending on the currencies and bank involved. What’s good about Adyen is that it supports payouts in different currencies and does not charge currency conversion if the currency of your sales proceeds and the currency of your business bank account are both supported by the payment method.
Integrations
Adyen provides numerous payment integration options, including options for local payment methods available based on your customer’s location. There are 77 local online payment options and 27 local in-person payment integration options available for Adyen merchants globally.
Adyen Payments also support a wide range of platform and marketplace integrations, through its flexible API tools. That said, it’s important to note that most users find Adyen not so easy to set up because of these required integrations.
Customer Support
Merchants are provided customer support via email, web, and telephone during business hours, and are available in English, German, and Dutch. Emergency support is also available 24 hours a day. The website also provides a knowledge base for troubleshooting and a complete guide for its suite of developer tools for setting up payment processing integrations as well as business management functionalities.
What Users Think of Adyen Payments
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of Adyen reviews available online. Feedback from users is mixed, with the provider receiving a perfect score on Capterra, while only receiving an average reception from users on G2. The general consensus among users is that international payment processing is a useful built-in feature, but the platform is unnecessarily complicated to set up.
- G2: 3.6 out of 5 stars based on 15+ reviews.
- Capterra: 5 out of 5 stars based on ~10 reviews.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has only logged a total of 6 user complaints for Adyen, which all involved businesses being erroneously charged for transactions and even taxes. All of the comments emphasize that they are not Adyen Payments users—some are individuals not running a business. It has closed four of the six complaints in the past 12 months, though there are no specifics on how they were resolved.
Most Adyen Payments users have this to say about the provider:
Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
|---|---|
Easy to process refunds | Complicated setup |
Makes it easy to accept international payments | Lack of support for some ecommerce features |
Highly customizable payment methods | Expensive for low-volume merchants |
Bottom Line
All Adyen reviews you find online will agree that Adyen Payments is a strong alternative to Stripe. However, the requirement to set up all of its integrations before approval can be too complicated for the average merchant. As such, unless they have the technical resource to set up integrations, we do not recommend Adyen Payments for small businesses, especially new ones. Instead, consider merchant provider alternatives like Stripe and PayPal, which may be much easier to set up for beginners.
