Searching for a payment gateway turns into a confusing battle to figure out which companies offer the best rates, which of them are helpful for processing payments in various countries and how the systems integrate with your own online store. The 2Checkout solution serves as a wonderful option, since it integrates well with tools like Shopify, Bigcommerce and more. In this 2Checkout review, we'll talk about its top features, language options, and much more.
The big question is: what happens when you implement 2Checkout to process all of your payments? Are you going to be satisfied with the fees? Will you receive your payments in a reasonable time period? That’s what we want to look at today, so keep reading to examine this in-depth 2Checkout review. It may just end up working wonders for your online business.
2Checkout Review: Top Features and Products
Along with full PCI-compliance, you receive quite a few perks when opting for the 2Checkout payment processor. For example, you get:
- No charges or responsibility for disputed or fraudulent charges. (Keep in mind transaction disputes have a charge attached to them.)
- People can use multiple payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards and PayPal.
- Your site is able to process 87 different currencies in 15 languages. This connects you to over 200 countries for international selling.
- Advanced fraud protection prevents people from taking advantage of your company.
- Integrate with over 100 shopping carts, and select from two primary checkout options, without having the need for coding knowledge. Some of the integrations include Shopify, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce. It has several other integrations for things like booking and other ecommerce needs.
- Hosted Checkout Option – This is a standalone ordering engine that you can host yourself to support a large number of orders and lots of traffic. It's fully customizable and provides templates for you to build.
- Inline Checkout Option – Smaller merchants can embed a checkout option by using an IFrame. This provides a seamless, quick shopping experience, along with a checkout solution that's easier to configure.
- Offer recurring billing on your website so that your customers are charged on a monthly or yearly basis. This is ideal for bringing in more money and to make payments quick and easy for your users.
- Use the mobile responsive checkout experience so your customers can purchase items from you while on their tablets or phones.
2Checkout Review: Ease of Use
The 2Checkout implementation is super simple, with payment API libraries available in PHP, PYTHON, RUBY, .NET, JAVA and cURL. The most popular opensource carts can integrate with 2Checkout. For example, WordPress carts and Magento have no problem combining with 2Checkout. Bits of code are given to you for inserting the payment gateway on your store, and managing your payments is pretty simple after that.
You also receive quick integrations with some of the most popular ecommerce platforms, like Shopify and Bigcommerce. The website and dashboard are easy to navigate, and it's nice to see that the developer tools are well-organized and ready for customization.
2Checkout Review: Pricing
2Checkout offers a flat-rate pricing model depending on what type of business you're running. For instance, international ecommerce stores will have a different rate than local ones. There are also some ecommerce extensions to consider into your costs–like if you plan on processing subscriptions.
Overall, the pricing is transparent and you don't have to worry about any monthly fees or hidden charges.
The 2Checkout pricing has changed drastically over the past few years. Right now, it has several plans. They're not exactly cheaper than popular solutions like Stripe and PayPal, but that depends on your situation.
Also, all of the rates are the same for merchants around the world. That's a huge plus-side for some regions.
Here's what to expect:
- 2Sell Plan – This is for those selling internationally. It has a rate of 3.5% +$0.35 per sale.
- 2Subscribe Plan – This is for those selling subscriptions. It has a rate of 4.5% +$0.45 per sale.
- 2Monetize Plan – This is for those selling digital items on a global scale. It has a rate of 6% +$0.60 per sale.
In addition, you might end up paying for some ecommerce extensions, such as the following:
- 2Convert – A tool for boosting conversions.
- 2Bill – For more complicated subscription sites.
- 2Comply – For managing taxes and VAT.
- 2Partner – For more automation and channel distribution.
- 2Service – For selling professional services.
What else should you keep in mind when thinking about 2Checkout pricing?
- You might be able to get a volume discount if you sign up for the Enterprise plan.
- There are no monthly fees or setup fees, making 2Checkout a nice option for those who don’t want to shell out a bunch of cash just to get started.
- You take on no hidden fees, like for fraud protection or recurring billing.
- You will be charged $20 for any chargeback. They do however work quite hard to prevent fraudulent chargebacks.
- Choose however you want to receive your payouts.
- If you accept payments from customers outside the United States, a fee of 1% is applied. This may change depending on the country you run your business in.
- On average, a currency conversion incurs a fee of 2-5%, on top of the daily bank exchange rate.
2Checkout Review: Security
2Checkout has advanced fraud protection, using more than 300 fraud rules whenever someone makes a purchase through your website. This is pretty impressive considering it covers all the bases you would expect.
2Checkout is PCI Level 1 certified, which is the highest level a company can have. They also have a three-tier defense strategy for detecting fraud in real-time. The goal is to call out the fraudulent activity before it happens, and it seems like 2Checkout is doing a good job of it.
Other than that, 2Checkout doesn't explain much else about its security on its website.
2Checkout Review: In-store and Mobile Functionality
A mobile optimized checkout process is provided so customers can buy products through a mobile device. This is the only method they have for collecting payments through a mobile interface. So, unlike PayPal and Square, you're not going to get a mobile swiper, and you don't get any in-store POS equipment.
2Checkout Review: Countries Served
This is one of the main reasons 2Checkout stands out to us. It supports just about every country you can think of.
Also, 2Checkout used to have different rates for merchants in all countries. That has changed with its flat-rate fees for every single country in the world.
Dozens of countries are listed here, from Albania to Germany, and Hungary to Panama. The 87 currencies and 15 languages are rather impressive as well. Overall, they list 211 markets that are available for you to choose from.
2Checkout Support
I rather enjoy the amount of support provided by 2Checkout, since the company gives you several options for contacting them or looking up your own questions.
For example, 2Checkout has an FAQ, knowledge base and policies page for you to see if your questions have been discussed in the past.
If those don’t help you out, go to the Contact page to give 2Checkout a call or send them an email. Along with a blog, and strong presences on social media, you shouldn’t have any problem getting in contact with the 2Checkout support team.
Who Should be Using 2Checkout?
2Checkout is an international payment processor, which runs as a third-party system and transfers money from buyer to seller after the buyer checks out on your online store. The 2Checkout company has a striking similarity to PayPal, so when someone goes onto your site and buys something, you can expect that the 2Checkout name will show up on their credit card bill.
The great news is that all merchants can implement 2Checkout without having different fees for different countries. The fees are higher than they used to be, but at least they're transparent.
That said, it isn’t exactly a full payment system, but you can make it look like it is with a handy integration like we talked about above (with Shopify, Bigcommerce or one of the many other integrations.)
Since 2Checkout is a third-party processor, you’ll have to implement it on your site, but you can also just use a button and have all payments go through the 2Checkout site.
The company is completely PCI-compliant, yet I would argue that it’s mainly built for online businesses that bring in less than $2,000 per month since the discount rates will most likely remain lower for those businesses, as opposed to going with an alternative payment processor.
Another useful component of the 2Checkout system is that the company has local familiarity and the ability to bring your site global, since it’s rather popular in countries where the laws may seem a little unfriendly for small businesses who want to open up new merchant accounts and bank accounts (India and Pakistan come to mind).
Over to You…
If you’ve had a chance to try out 2Checkout before, let us know how you’ve felt with the services in the comments section below. Overall, the 2Checkout system has several benefits, but once again, it’s the perfect choice for companies that either have only a few thousand dollars in monthly sales or those that want to get around some of the laws you might encounter in developing economies.
If you have any questions about this 2Checkout review, or if you would like to learn more about 2Checkout as a payment processor for your online business, drop a line in the comments below.
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