Which payment gateway should an Irish website use?
The right payment gateway in Ireland depends on the platform the site runs on. A WooCommerce or custom-built site is usually best served by Stripe, which publishes its prices and charges no setup or monthly fee. A Shopify store should use Shopify Payments, because any other card gateway adds a Shopify transaction fee. Global Payments (the former Realex) and Elavon suit a business that wants a merchant account and a negotiated rate. We set up payments as part of ecommerce development in Dublin, and every fee quoted was checked on the provider’s own site in September 2026.
What do the main payment gateways in Ireland charge?
Two of the four publish their card rates on their Irish sites.
Scroll the table sideways for the full detail
| Provider | Published online card fee (as of September 2026) | Fixed costs | Payout to your bank | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 1.5% + €0.25 standard EEA cards; 2.8% + €0.25 premium EEA cards; 2.5% + €0.25 UK cards; 3.15% + €0.25 international cards | No setup or monthly fee | 3 business days (first payout 7 calendar days) | WooCommerce, custom sites, bookings, memberships |
| Shopify Payments | Standard cards 2% + €0.25 on Basic, 1.7% on Grow, 1.5% on Advanced; Amex and international cards 3.1%, 2.7% and 2.5% + €0.25; all excluding VAT | The Shopify plan, from €24 a month billed yearly | See Shopify’s Ireland page | Shopify stores |
| Global Payments (Realex) | No rate card found | Ask for a quote | Ask for a quote | Businesses wanting a merchant account and hosted payment page |
| Elavon | None published; by enquiry | Ask for a quote | 2 to 4 business days, next-day option | Businesses wanting a merchant account with an Irish-regulated acquirer |
Sources: Stripe’s Irish pricing, Stripe’s payout schedule, Shopify’s Irish pricing and Elavon’s online payment gateway page.
Stripe counts consumer Visa and Mastercard cards as standard, and commercial, corporate and business cards as premium (Stripe support). That matters if you sell to other businesses, whose company cards fall in the dearer band.
What one €100 order costs in fees
| Card and provider | Fee on a €100 order |
|---|---|
| Stripe, standard EEA card | €1.75 |
| Stripe, premium EEA card | €3.05 |
| Stripe, UK card | €2.75 |
| Stripe, international card | €3.40 |
| Shopify Payments, Basic plan, standard card, before VAT | €2.25 |
| Shopify Payments, Advanced plan, standard card, before VAT | €1.75 |
These are our own sums from the published rates. Stripe adds 2% when it converts currency, and a dispute costs €20.
Stripe vs Elavon for an Irish business
Stripe is a single account with public pricing. Elavon is a merchant acquirer that prices each business individually.
With Stripe you sign up online, connect the site and pay per transaction. 3D Secure is included on standard pricing, and the free Stripe extension for WooCommerce adds Apple Pay, Google Pay and SEPA Direct Debit, and supports recurring payments when the separate WooCommerce Subscriptions extension is installed. Stripe offers custom pricing to businesses with large processing volumes.
Elavon’s Irish site lists a hosted payment page or an API, integrations with WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento, Apple Pay and Google Pay, 3-D Secure, stored cards and pay-by-link. It publishes no price, so you ask for a quote. Its footer states that U.S. Bank Europe DAC, trading as Elavon Merchant Services, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
A quote from Elavon can be compared with Stripe’s list price only when it states the rate for each card type, the monthly fees, the contract term and the payout time.
Is Realex Payments still available in Ireland?
Realex Payments is now Global Payments. Global Payments bought the Dublin company behind Realex, Pay and Shop Limited, in March 2015 and acquired the remaining shares that October, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Realex name survives in the technology. The Global Payments hosted payment page guide still sends payments to realexpayments.com addresses, and the hosted page handles 3D Secure 2. Global Payments also publishes its own WooCommerce plugin with Apple Pay, Google Pay, 3D Secure 2 and stored cards.
Global Payments completed its acquisition of Worldpay on 12 January 2026. We found no public rate card for Global Payments in Ireland, so treat it like Elavon and get the quote itemised.
Is Shopify Payments available in Ireland?
Yes. Ireland is on Shopify’s list of supported countries, and the card rate falls as the plan rises.
Two rules shape the decision on Shopify.
- Stripe cannot be added separately. Stripe is the banking partner behind Shopify Payments, so where Shopify Payments is supported, standalone Stripe is not offered (Shopify Help Center).
- Other gateways carry a surcharge. Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the gateway’s own rate. PayPal and manual payments are exempt while Shopify Payments is active (third-party providers).
On the Basic plan, a €100 order taken through an outside gateway costs €2.00 to Shopify before that gateway charges anything. Our Shopify development page covers the rest of the platform, and Shopify, WooCommerce or custom compares the three routes.
What does Strong Customer Authentication mean for an Irish checkout?
Every card gateway on an Irish site has to support it. Strong Customer Authentication comes from the EU’s second Payment Services Directive, which Ireland transposed as the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018, S.I. No. 6 of 2018 (Central Bank of Ireland). The European Banking Authority set 31 December 2020 as the deadline for online card payments.
For cards, the customer’s bank asks for a second check through 3D Secure. A checkout that cannot show that step can have the payment declined by the bank. The second check also protects you: when a payment authenticated through 3D Secure is later disputed as fraud, liability typically shifts from the merchant to the card issuer (Stripe’s SCA guide).
Recurring payments need more care. The customer authenticates once when the card is saved, and later charges are flagged as merchant-initiated. That needs a clear agreement at checkout covering permission, frequency and how the amount is set.
How do you choose a payment gateway for your website?
Start from the platform, then check five things against your own orders.
- Card mix. Count how many orders come from business cards, UK cards and cards outside Europe. The headline rate covers only standard EEA cards.
- Fixed fees. Add any monthly, setup and gateway fees to the percentage, then work out the cost at your order volume.
- Payout time. Days between a sale and the money reaching your bank affect cash flow, most of all for a seasonal business.
- Recurring billing. Subscriptions, renewals and deposits need stored cards and merchant-initiated payments. Stripe’s own Billing product costs 0.7% of billing volume on its pay-as-you-go plan.
- Reconciliation. Payouts arrive net of fees. Your bookkeeper needs a payout report that splits sales, fees and refunds.
How Loco sets up payments
Two of our published projects take payment through Stripe.
Loco Digital rebuilt the ERP HEADtoHEAD event site in 2026 with a bespoke booking and payments plugin on WooCommerce and Stripe. The Dublin and Birmingham events are run by separate companies, each with its own currency, VAT regime and Stripe account. A delegate books in four steps and pays by Stripe, and Dublin bookings are invoiced by the Irish company in euro. Our post on online booking systems compares that kind of build with a booking subscription.
For IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, membership applications run online and the applicant pays the application fee by Stripe. Membership websites for Irish associations covers the platform, plugin and custom routes.
On a new project we check the payment rules during the consult that opens every project: who is billed, in which currency, by which company, and how the money is matched in the accounts. The gateway choice follows from those answers, and any payment account we set up for you transfers to you on request.
