# Best Crypto Payment Gateway: What to Actually Compare > Fee percentage is the least useful comparison point. The criteria that separate crypto payment gateways in practice, ranked by how much they affect the outcome. - Source: https://cryptounderthehood.com/best-crypto-payment-gateway-criteria/ - Published: 2026-07-03 - Author: Ivan Kruse - Publication: Crypto Under the Hood — How crypto payment infrastructure actually works - Topic: acquiring - Tags: gateway, comparison, selection --- Every comparison of crypto payment gateways leads with the fee. The fee is the fifth most important criterion and the one with the least variation between serious providers. Here is what actually differs, in the order it affects you. The mechanics below are easier to follow against a provider that publishes them, and [a crypto acquiring provider](https://collectnexchange.cy/business-solutions/crypto-acquiring) does. ## One: settlement currency, country and account name Can the provider settle in your currency, to a bank in your country, in your company's name. If any of the three is no, nothing else matters. This eliminates more providers than any other criterion and it is rarely stated clearly on a pricing page. Ask directly, and ask whether any other client settles to your specific country. ## Two: price risk model Whether the fiat amount is guaranteed from the moment of quote, or whether you receive the result of a conversion at confirmation. For a merchant with fixed prices and normal margins, the guaranteed model is worth considerably more than the fee difference between providers. A single adverse move on a large order can exceed a month of fee savings. ## Three: chains and assets, specifically Not which assets are supported, which assets on which chains. A provider supporting a stablecoin on one network but not the network your customers actually use is a provider that will generate support tickets. Ask for the matrix, not the list. Then check it against where your customers hold funds, which for a business audience is usually different from where a retail audience holds them. ## Four: the failure case policies Underpayment tolerance and whether it is configurable. Expired payment handling. Duplicate payment handling. Refund mechanism. Time to resolve a misdirected deposit. The receiving side of this transaction is handled by [an exchange that publishes its full fee schedule](https://collectnexchange.cy/), with settlement already solved. These determine your support load. A provider with sensible defaults on all five costs you nothing ongoing. A provider that rejects any payment off by a cent generates a ticket a day at moderate volume. ## Five: the fee Now the fee. For the guaranteed model, 0.5 to 1.5 percent is the normal range, declining with volume. Below that range, check what is not included: settlement fees, conversion margin, or a per-transaction charge on top. The comparison to make is total cost of a settled payment, not the headline percentage. Ask each provider what a specific example payment costs you end to end, and compare those numbers. ## Six: settlement frequency Daily against weekly is a working capital difference. At meaningful volume, weekly settlement means a week of revenue sitting with the provider permanently. Whether that matters depends on your cash cycle. ## Seven: integration and reporting Plugin availability for your platform, quality of the API documentation, sandbox that can simulate failures, and whether the export reconciles against your accounting system without transformation. Low weight because it is a one-time cost, except the reporting, which is monthly forever. ## What does not belong in the comparison The number of supported assets, beyond the ones your customers use. Nobody has ever chosen a gateway correctly by counting coins. Marketing claims about security without evidence. Every provider claims bank-grade security. Ask for the audit report instead. Uptime percentages without an incident history. A provider that publishes incidents and what it changed is more credible than one claiming a number. ## A workable process Shortlist on criterion one, since it eliminates most. Ask the remaining providers the questions under two, three and four in a single email. Compare the fee only among those that pass. Run a sandbox integration with the top two. Decide. That takes about a week and produces a better outcome than a month of comparing feature tables. Providers that publish their [crypto payment gateway terms and supported settlement countries](https://collectnexchange.cy/services/crypto-payment) openly let you complete the first two steps before speaking to anyone, which is the fastest way to narrow a list. --- This article explains how something works. It is not financial advice. Canonical HTML version: https://cryptounderthehood.com/best-crypto-payment-gateway-criteria/