What Is A Payment Link & How Do You Use One? 7 Best Pay-By-Link Options For Small Business

Stripe prides itself on staying on the cutting edge of the payments industry, rapidly introducing and adopting features as technology shapes consumer behavior. Payment links not only fall into Stripe’s wheelhouse, but they’re a great eCommerce option for businesses that don’t want to invest in website infrastructure.

Stripe’s features focus heavily on eCommerce, international sales, and API functionality, but the company’s recently been improving its in-person processing options with Stripe Terminal and Tap-To-Pay for Android and iPhone. Additional features include:

• Stripe Payments integrated payments platform
• Stripe Virtual Terminal
• Stripe Radar anti-fraud protection
• Stripe Terminal API and card readers for card-present transactions
• ACH processing included with every account
• Extensive library of APIs and developer tools
• Broad support for international payments and local payment methods
• Many ancillary services for establishing and running your business

• No monthly fees for basic account
• 2.9% + $0.30 per card-not-present transaction
  • Payment links add 0.4% to transaction total (capped at $2)

Read our full breakdown of Stripe’s pricing for more info.

At the end of the payment links are really a form of digital invoicing, and invoicing is something Stripe has long excelled at. Moreover, payment links happen to be one of the easiest Stripe features for the average merchant or contractor to use. You won’t need any programming skills to implement payment links; it can all be done from your Stripe dashboard.

PayPal is one of the biggest names in eCommerce, known for its massive infrastructure, proprietary digital wallet, and innovative services. So it should be no surprise that PayPal offers payment links.

While we don’t like the recent PayPal price hikes, its accessibility and market reach still make it a strong choice for payment links.

PayPal supports payment links through its PayPal.Me feature, which has both business and personal versions. Additionally, PayPal’s Venmo brand can be used for invoicing. Additional features include:

• PayPal integrated payments platform
• Payment buttons and hosted checkout pages
• Virtual terminal
• Recurring billing

PayPal’s payment link fees can vary depending on your account. PayPal’s pricing model has become rather complicated, so you’ll want to check out our PayPal pricing guide to get a sense of what you’ll pay.

PayPal was one of the first processors to offer payment link functionality and features one of the most user-friendly implements of it via PayPal.Me. You’ll get your own user tag through which customers can pay you, and you can invoice them directly through the PayPal.Me interface.

Just remember you can’t use a personal account for business transactions, so make sure you sign up for the business version. You’ll also need to be careful where you post your link, as PayPal has guidelines about what kind of content it can be associated with.

When you’re talking about broad functionality with minimal overhead, you’ll inevitably find Square on your short list. Square’s reputation is built on in-person payments, but it also offers a robust suite of eCommerce payment features including payment links.

Square offers one of the most generous feature packages one can get without a monthly fee (and even more if you do pay one). In addition to payment links, this includes:

• Credit and debit card processing
• Mobile card reader (magstripe-only) included with an account\
• EMV and NFC-capable card readers are available
• Square Register POS system available
• ACH processing included with every account
• Square Online Store for eCommerce businesses
• Analytics and reporting available through Square Dashboard
• Create milestone-based payment schedules (Invoice Plus)
• Send batch invoices (Invoice Plus)
• Custom invoices (Invoice Plus)

• No setup or application fees
• $0/month Square free account; $20/month for invoice Plus plan
• 3.3% + $0.30 per invoice paid online
• 2.9% + $0.30 per invoice paid online (invoice Plus plan)

Square’s invoicing system is a simple and versatile way to use payment links without any fancy equipment or monthly plans, and you’ll have access to Square’s expansive omnichannel sales tools. There is a surcharge for payment links, but you’re sending a lot of them you sign up for the Invoice Plus plan to eliminate it in exchange for a monthly.

More interesting, perhaps, is Square Messages. Accessible from your Square dashboard, Square Messages functions as a single channel you can use to communicate with your customers as well as create and send payment links.

Venmo is better known for P2P transactions, but the PayPal-owned service can be used for sales if you sign up for a business account. With its focus on QR-code scanning and payment solicitation, Venmo is a ready-made mobile platform for payment links.

Venmo is a lightweight app but manages to do quite a bit. Features include :

• Sending and receiving payments
• Personal QR codes
• Direct deposit
• Venmo debit card
• Venmo credit card
• Social feeds
• Buy and sell cryptocurrency

• No maintenance fees
• 1.9% + $0.10 per transaction made using Venmo app or a QR code
• 3.49% + $0.49 for purchases made online or using Braintree gateway or PayPal Checkout

Venmo is technically a PayPal service, so why are we giving it a separate entry?

Venmo takes a different approach to payment links than, say, PayPal.Me. As a “social” payments platform, Venmo is designed to encourage interaction between payers and payees. Engagement isn’t limited to personal usage; merchants can create business profiles that will appear in customers’ feeds when they choose to share what they’ve purchased from you. So, ideally, you’re getting a payment method and an advertising platform all in one.

Wave is a convenient accounting tool for contractors, so the ability to take payments through it can save freelancers a lot of hassle. And since contractors rely heavily on invoices, payment links are a natural fit for this niche.

Wave offers a lot of useful functionality for freelancers, though some features are paywalled:

• Credit card processing
• ACH processing
• Unlimited invoicing
• Unlimited estimates
• Contact management
• Expense tracking
• Accounts payable
• Inventory
• Reports
• Payroll (premium)
• Bookkeeping (premium)
• Tax services (premium)
• Coaching (premium)

• No monthly fee for basic account
• 2.9% + $0.30 per Visa, Mastercard, or Discover transaction
• 3.4% + $0.30 per American Express transaction
• 1% per ACH transaction (min. $1)

You’ll notice we mentioned freelancers on our list of businesses that can benefit from payment links. Wave clearly has come to a similar conclusion, as the company offers pay-by-link services through its Checkout feature. After you’ve created a Checkout page that contains your products and services, you can generate either a Checkout button or a hyperlink that you can drop into the appropriate site or messenger app. It’s a tight little package if you don’t want to keep all of your freelancing tools under one roof.

PaymentCloud is one of the best payment processing solutions available to high-risk businesses. Additionally, PaymentCloud recently acquired independent contactless payment processor Paysley, and now has access to its text-to-pay infrastructure.

In addition to Paysley’s pay-by-text and QR code payment link processing, PaymentCloud offers:

• Credit and debit card processing
• Payment gateway access through Authorize.Net, NMI, or USAePay
• ACH and echeck processing

• $15/month (low-risk accounts)
• Interchange + 0.05%-0.30% + $0.08-$0.10 per transaction (low-risk accounts)
• Processing rates vary by acquiring bank/back-end processors (high-risk accounts)

Paysley is a pay-as-you-go service that allows you to send payment requests to your customers over text or email. Paysley does not use an app or any dedicated hardware, nor do customers need to sign up for an account to make a payment. Instead, you’ll either send a payment link or generate a QR code that can be displayed online or on a device. Paysley can also support recurring bills starting at the Plus plan level. Customers can pay with cards, PayPal, and several additional options.

Helcim is one of the most cost-effective ways for small businesses to get a full merchant account. On top of that, Helcim offers a strong suite of services on its platform, which includes payment links at no additional charge.

In addition to pay by text, Helcim offers:

• Credit and debit card processing with a full merchant account
• Affordable, versatile card reader
• Good developer tools
• Strong support for international sales

• No setup or application fees
  No monthly account fees
  Interchange + 0.5% + $0.25 on card-not-present transactions, including payment links (volume discounts available)

Helcim lets businesses generate and send payment links right from its virtual terminal, so you won’t need any special infrastructure to get started.