Payment Gateways With No Monthly Gateway Fees: Stripe, Square, PayPal and Coastal Pay Compared

Let’s Define What “No Monthly Gateway Fee” Really Means

Payment processing involves several layers of technology and relationships, each of which can theoretically carry its own fee. Understanding what each fee covers prevents you from comparing a $0-gateway-fee provider to a provider that hides the gateway cost in other line items.

What Is a Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway is the technology layer that sits between your checkout (POS terminal, e-commerce checkout page, or virtual terminal) and the payment network. When a customer swipes, taps, or enters a card number, the gateway captures the transaction data, tokenizes the card information for security, routes the authorization request to the acquiring bank, receives the approval or decline, and returns the result to your checkout. The gateway is the pipe; the processor and acquiring bank are the infrastructure the pipe connects to.

Traditional Gateway Fees vs All-In Processing

Traditional payment setups charged separately for every layer:

• Monthly gateway fee: $15 to $30/month for gateway access (Authorize.Net, NMI, and similar standalone gateways)
• Per-transaction gateway surcharge: $0.05 to $0.15 per transaction on top of the processing rate
• Processing rate: the percentage plus per-transaction fee for each payment
• Statement fee, batch fee, PCI fee, and annual fee as additional line items

Modern all-in-one processors (Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Coastal Pay) bundle the gateway into the processing rate, so you pay one fee that covers everything. The distinction that still matters: some all-in-one providers also add per-transaction gateway surcharges on top of their stated rate even though they do not charge a monthly subscription. Always verify the full per-transaction cost, not just the monthly fee.

What Coastal Pay Eliminates

Coastal Pay’s gateway charges $0/month and $0 per-transaction gateway surcharge. The flat 2.5% + $0.15 is the complete cost. No monthly gateway subscription. No separate per-transaction gateway charge. No statement fee. No batch fee.

Here’s Why Many Businesses Want to Avoid Monthly Gateway Costs

A monthly gateway fee sounds minor until you calculate its impact on a business with variable or seasonal volume – or a multi-location operator paying it per location.

The Fixed Fee Problem for Variable Volume Businesses

A $25/month gateway fee costs $25 in January when the business processes $5,000 and $25 in July when it processes $80,000. The effective gateway fee rate is 0.5% of volume in July but 0.5% of volume in January as well – except in January it represents a proportionally much larger share of revenue. For a seasonal business (a beach retailer that does 70% of annual revenue in three months, a tax preparer with a heavy February-April season), a gateway fee that runs all year when income does not is a genuine cash flow problem.

The Multi-Location Multiplication Problem

Some processors charge the gateway fee per location rather than per merchant account. A 10-location chain on a $25/month per-location gateway fee pays $250/month – $3,000/year – in gateway fees before a single transaction is processed. Coastal Pay’s $0 gateway fee applies to the entire merchant account regardless of the number of connected locations, terminals, or channels.

The Forecasting Problem

Fixed monthly fees combine with variable processing fees to produce a monthly cost that is harder to forecast and explain to finance teams than a single flat rate. “Our payment processing cost is 2.5% of card revenue plus $0.15 per transaction” is a single-line forecast. “Our payment processing cost is 2.7% plus $0.15 per transaction plus $25 gateway fee plus $7.50 statement fee plus $0.10 per batch” requires a more complex model and produces variance each month.

How Do Stripe, Square and PayPal Handle Gateway Pricing?

All three major platforms – Stripe, Square, and PayPal – bundle their gateway into their processing service and charge $0/month on standard plans. The difference is in how their per-transaction rates compare to Coastal Pay and what features each includes or excludes at that rate.

Side-by-Side: Monthly Fee and Per-Transaction Rate

Important Caveats Per Provider

• Stripe: $0 monthly on standard plan is accurate. Higher-tier Stripe features (Stripe Billing advanced, Stripe Sigma, Stripe Radar for Fraud Teams) carry additional costs. In-person Stripe Terminal hardware is proprietary and cannot be reprogrammed for another processor.
• Square: $0 monthly on the free plan. Square for Retail Plus ($60/month per location) and Square for Restaurants ($60/month per location) are separate software subscription tiers that many businesses use. The $0 gateway fee is accurate for payment processing but the software subscription adds meaningful cost for businesses using Square’s POS features.
• PayPal: $0 monthly is accurate. The $0.49 per-transaction fee is the highest in this comparison and produces a significantly higher total cost at any reasonable transaction count, particularly for low average ticket businesses.
• All three: Operate as PayFac (Payment Facilitator) sub-accounts, which carries account stability risk at higher volumes. All three can hold funds or restrict accounts through automated risk systems without a defined maximum hold duration. See the Coastal Pay article on why payment processors hold funds for a detailed analysis.

What Makes Coastal Pay’s Gateway Different on Pricing?

Coastal Pay’s payment gateway charges $0/month for gateway access. This is the same as Stripe, Square, and PayPal. The difference is what you get at that $0 monthly fee and what the per-transaction cost is.

Flat Rate Across All Channels – Not Just One

Stripe’s $0/month gateway fee accompanies a 2.9% + $0.30 online rate but a different 2.7% + $0.05 in-person rate. Square’s $0/month gateway fee accompanies different rates for online (3.3% + $0.30) versus in-person (2.6% + $0.10) versus invoiced (3.3% + $0.30). Coastal Pay’s $0/month gateway fee accompanies the same flat 2.5% + $0.15 regardless of whether the transaction is in-person, online, via payment link, via virtual terminal, or via email invoice. One rate. All channels. No rate lookup per transaction type.

All Payment Methods at the Same Rate

Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, Klarna, Afterpay, Coinbase, and ACH are all available in one Coastal Pay merchant account at no additional monthly activation fee. The per-transaction rates for card-equivalent wallet payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay) are the same flat 2.5% + $0.15. ACH is available at a flat per-item rate. No separate agreements. No additional monthly fees per payment method.

True Merchant Account, Not a PayFac Sub-Account

While Stripe, Square, and PayPal operate as PayFac platforms where every merchant is a sub-account under the platform’s master merchant, Coastal Pay provides true merchant accounts backed by 13 acquiring bank relationships. This means defined underwriting at account opening, more predictable account stability, and a direct phone escalation path at 888-266-1715 for account issues – rather than a self-serve portal and automated risk management system.

Dual Pricing for Near-Zero Effective Rate

Coastal Pay’s dual pricing program allows merchants to display a card price and a lower cash/ACH price simultaneously, legally in all 50 states, without card network registration. Merchants who implement dual pricing effectively shift the 2.5% + $0.15 processing cost to card-paying customers while offering an equal or lower price to cash and ACH customers. Effective card processing cost approaches near zero. Stripe, Square, and PayPal do not offer a comparable full dual pricing program.

How to Compare Your Total Cost Across Providers

The monthly gateway fee comparison is only the first step. The total monthly cost depends on your volume, transaction count, and which channels you use. Use this simple formula and the two scenarios below to calculate your own comparison.

The Formula

Monthly processing cost = (Monthly volume x rate) + (Transaction count x per-transaction fee) + Monthly fixed fees

Scenario 1: Growing E-Commerce Store ($10,000/Month, 200 Transactions)

• Coastal Pay (2.5% + $0.15): ($10,000 x 0.025) + (200 x $0.15) + $0 = $250 + $30 = $280/month – $3,360/year
• Stripe (2.9% + $0.30): ($10,000 x 0.029) + (200 x $0.30) + $0 = $290 + $60 = $350/month – $4,200/year
• Square online (3.3% + $0.30): ($10,000 x 0.033) + (200 x $0.30) + $0 = $330 + $60 = $390/month – $4,680/year
• PayPal (2.99% + $0.49): ($10,000 x 0.0299) + (200 x $0.49) + $0 = $299 + $98 = $397/month – $4,764/year
• Annual savings: Coastal Pay vs Stripe = $840/year. Coastal Pay vs PayPal = $1,404/year.

Scenario 2: Mid-Size Multi-Channel Retailer ($50,000/Month, 1,000 Transactions)

• Coastal Pay: ($50,000 x 0.025) + (1,000 x $0.15) + $0 = $1,250 + $150 = $1,400/month – $16,800/year
• Stripe online: ($50,000 x 0.029) + (1,000 x $0.30) + $0 = $1,450 + $300 = $1,750/month – $21,000/year
• Square online: ($50,000 x 0.033) + (1,000 x $0.30) + Square Retail Plus ($60 x locations) = $1,960+ /month – $23,520+/year
• PayPal: ($50,000 x 0.0299) + (1,000 x $0.49) + $0 = $1,495 + $490 = $1,985/month – $23,820/year
• Annual savings: Coastal Pay vs Stripe = $4,200/year. Coastal Pay vs PayPal = $7,020/year.

How to Run Your Own Comparison

1. Pull last 3 months of processing statements – get total fees paid and total volume processed
2. Calculate your current effective rate: total fees / total volume
3. Calculate your transaction count and average ticket size
4. Plug your volume and transaction count into the formula above for each provider
5. Add any monthly fixed fees (gateway subscription, software tier, statement fees) to each provider’s total
6. Multiply the monthly difference by 12 for annual savings

Or: call 888-266-1715 and Coastal Pay’s team runs this comparison for you using your actual statements in approximately 15 minutes.

Get a Side-by-Side Savings Review With Coastal Pay

What Types of Businesses Gain Most From a No-Fee Gateway?

While every business benefits from $0/month gateway pricing over a gateway-fee-carrying processor, certain business types see particularly large advantages from Coastal Pay’s specific combination of $0 gateway fee plus flat rate plus dual pricing plus ACH.

Startups and Micro-Merchants

A startup processing $3,000/month pays exactly the same effective rate per dollar as a business processing $300,000/month with Coastal Pay – and pays $0/month in gateway access regardless of volume. There is no revenue threshold required to avoid the gateway fee. The first transaction costs the same per-dollar as the millionth transaction.

Seasonal and Event-Driven Businesses

A seasonal business that closes for 4 months per year – a ski rental shop, a summer camp, a beach boutique – pays $0 in gateway fees during its off-season months. The gateway remains available but costs nothing when it is not used. A traditional $25/month gateway fee costs $100 in off-season fees for zero processing volume.

Multi-Location Retail and Hospitality

For a 10-location retail chain, Coastal Pay’s $0 gateway fee produces $0 in gateway overhead regardless of location count. No per-location gateway subscription. No per-terminal gateway fee. The entire chain processes under one merchant account at one flat rate from one gateway configuration. Adding a new location requires connecting it to the existing gateway – no new gateway subscription, no new gateway fee.

E-Commerce and Subscription Businesses

For pure online businesses, Coastal Pay’s flat 2.5% + $0.15 online rate compares favorably to Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 and Square’s 3.3% + $0.30, with the same $0 monthly gateway fee. Recurring billing is included. ACH for subscription payments is bundled at flat per-item rate – significantly cheaper than Stripe’s 0.8% ACH for high-value subscriptions.

B2B Service Businesses

Professional services firms, consultants, and B2B businesses that invoice clients and collect payment via payment links or virtual terminal benefit from Coastal Pay’s same 2.5% + $0.15 rate across all channels – including the virtual terminal and payment link rates that Stripe and Square price at higher rates than their in-person transactions. The ACH option for large invoices further reduces cost for B2B businesses collecting five-figure payments.

Businesses Considering Dual Pricing

Any business in the restaurant, retail, hospitality, or service industry that wants to implement dual pricing to shift card processing costs to card-paying customers and achieve near-zero effective processing cost benefits from Coastal Pay’s gateway-level dual pricing program – unavailable from Stripe, Square, or PayPal in comparable form.

What Questions Should You Ask Before You Pick a Gateway?

Use this checklist with any payment gateway provider, including Coastal Pay, before signing up. Get written answers to each question – verbal assurances about fees are not binding, but written rate sheets and agreements are.

Fee Questions

• “What is your monthly gateway fee? Is it $0 on all plans, or only on certain tiers?” – Coastal Pay answer: $0 on all accounts, no tier required.
• “Is there a separate per-transaction gateway surcharge on top of the processing rate?” – Coastal Pay answer: No. The 2.5% + $0.15 is the complete per-transaction cost.
• “What is the rate for online transactions versus in-person versus keyed or virtual terminal?” – Coastal Pay answer: Same flat 2.5% + $0.15 for all channels.
• “Are there statement fees, batch fees, PCI fees, or annual fees?” – Coastal Pay answer: None of these.
• “Is there an early termination fee or minimum contract period?” – Ask Coastal Pay directly at 888-266-1715 for current contract terms.
• “What is the chargeback fee per dispute?” – Ask Coastal Pay at 888-266-1715 for current chargeback fee structure.
• “What are the fees for ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other alternative payment methods?” – Coastal Pay answer: ACH is flat per-item rate; Apple Pay and Google Pay process at the same 2.5% + $0.15 card rate. No separate monthly activation fee per payment method.

Product and Integration Questions

• “Do you support dual pricing or surcharging? Which states?” – Coastal Pay answer: Dual pricing in all 50 states, surcharging in 47 states.
• “What POS and e-commerce platforms do you integrate with?” – Coastal Pay answer: 2,000+ via the software integration directory.
• “Do you support ACH in the same merchant account as card?” – Coastal Pay answer: Yes.
• “Is API access included at no extra fee?” – Coastal Pay answer: Yes.
• “What is the account type – true merchant account or PayFac sub-account?” – Coastal Pay answer: True merchant account backed by 13 acquiring bank relationships.
• “What is the approval timeline?” – Coastal Pay answer: Approximately 2 minutes for most standard-risk U.S. businesses.

Here’s How to Get Coastal Pay’s No-Fee Gateway Set Up Fast

Getting from “I want to switch” to “I am processing live transactions” with Coastal Pay takes three steps and typically less than one business day from application to first live transaction.

Step 1: Apply and Get Approved (2 Minutes)

Visit coastalpay.com/contact-us or call 888-266-1715. Submit your business information. Most standard-risk U.S. businesses receive approval in approximately 2 minutes through Coastal Pay’s instant boarding process. Your Coastal Pay Gateway credentials are available immediately after approval.

Step 2: Connect Your Platform or POS (30 to 90 Minutes)

For plugin-based e-commerce platforms (WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento): install the Coastal Pay plugin, enter your API credentials, run a test transaction. For payment links: generate your first link from the Coastal Pay Gateway dashboard. For in-person processing: receive your pre-configured terminal and begin processing. For API integrations: access full REST API documentation at coastalpay.com/api-links. For any setup question: call 888-266-1715.

Step 3: Enable Your Payment Methods (15 Minutes)

In your Coastal Pay Gateway dashboard, enable the payment methods you want to offer: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, Klarna, Afterpay, Coinbase, ACH. Each method is enabled in a single dashboard configuration – no separate agreements per method. If you are implementing dual pricing, contact 888-266-1715 and Coastal Pay’s team configures it at the gateway level, deploys to all connected terminals, and provides compliant signage.

Explore Coastal Pay’s no-monthly-fee gateway, dual pricing program, all supported payment methods, and 2,000+ POS and software integrations.

Get Approved in 2 Minutes – $0 Monthly Gateway Fee

Call for a rate comparison: 888-266-1715

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a payment gateway that doesn’t charge monthly gateway fees?

Yes. Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Coastal Pay all charge $0/month for gateway access on their standard plans. Traditional standalone gateways (Authorize.Net, NMI) typically charge $15 to $25/month. Among the $0-gateway-fee options, Coastal Pay offers the lowest flat all-in rate (2.5% + $0.15 for all channels and all payment methods) with no additional per-transaction gateway surcharge, no statement fee, and no batch fee.

Does Coastal Pay charge a monthly gateway fee?

No. Coastal Pay charges $0 per month for gateway access. The flat 2.5% + $0.15 per transaction is the complete cost of processing – it includes the gateway with no separate monthly subscription, no per-transaction gateway surcharge, no statement fee, and no batch fee. This is confirmed in the merchant agreement at account opening.

What is the difference between a payment gateway fee and a processing fee?

A gateway fee charges for access to the technology layer that routes transactions. A processing fee charges per transaction for the card network authorization and settlement. Traditional processors charged both separately. Modern all-in-one providers like Coastal Pay bundle both into one flat per-transaction rate, so the 2.5% + $0.15 covers the gateway access and the processing cost in one charge per transaction.

How does Coastal Pay compare to Stripe for gateway fees?

Both charge $0/month. The per-transaction difference: Coastal Pay 2.5% + $0.15 all channels vs Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 online (2.7% + $0.05 in-person). At $50,000/month with 1,000 transactions online, Coastal Pay costs $1,400/month vs Stripe’s $1,750/month – an annual difference of $4,200. At $100,000/month: $8,400/year. Both have $0 monthly gateway fee; the savings come from the per-transaction rate. Call 888-266-1715 for a comparison run on your actual statement.