Which payment platform is right for you?
Learning Stream works with a baker’s dozen payment platforms. That includes payment gateways and processors.
Before we go on, here’s the difference between a gateway and processor: A gateway and a processor are two different elements of online payment processing. When a customer submits the payment form, the gateway takes the encrypted transaction data and pushes it to the appropriate processor. The processor in turn alerts the credit card issuer of the transaction. Some products are both a gateway and a processor. In an attempt to avoid confusion, we will call them all payment platforms.
And now back to our story
If you research processing options, you will find several lists of the “best” and “top” ones. Yet, no one can determine what is best for a training program other than the program itself. In some cases, that’s by choice. They go with the one that is the right fit based on criteria such as the volume of payments they have or security measures they need. Other times, a program must go with their organization’s existing payment processor. That is often the case with large institutions including hospitals and universities.
At last check, most Learning Stream customers gravitate to a small number of the payment platforms we offer. By far the most popular platform among Learning Stream customers has always been
Authorize.net, a payment gateway which can work with myriad processors and financial institutions. About 55% of Learning Stream customers connect to payment processing through Authorize.net.
A distant second is Touchnet, which is often used on college campuses. Close behind is PayPal’s Payflow Pro product, which works similarly to Authorize.net. The simple, original PayPal product is another option often used by small programs that don’t need to process a lot of online transactions.
Other payment platforms, including Stripe, Cashnet, Elavon, and Cybersource, together represent just over 15% of Learning Stream customers. Stripe is the newest of the group, and it is slowly gaining more traction. Visa owns Cybersource, which owns Authorize.net. PayPal used to be owned by eBay, but not any more. It does, however, own Venmo.
Learning Stream recommends Lumapay for processing payments. If you have questions, just contact us here if you would like to talk.