Choosing an e-commerce payment platform is about more than just comparing two rates on a pricing page. Between subscriptions, fixed fees, surcharges on international cards, and opaque pricing models, the actual cost can vary significantly from one provider to another, even when the offers seem similar on paper. Before signing with a PSP, you need to understand what you’re actually paying for each transaction and compare what’s truly comparable.
To give you a concrete example, let’s take a look at three providers that often compete with one another in the French market: Payplug, Mollie, and Easytransac.
What You're Really Paying With Every Online Payment
A card transaction always consists of three key components:
- Interchange fee: the customer's bank's commission
- Accepted payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, CB
- PSP Margin: Technology, Acquisition, Services
👉 From there, there are two options:
Blended model
- flat rate (e.g., 1.75%)
- everything is mixed together
- simple for you but unclear
👉 Model suitable for small volumes.
Structured model (sometimes called Interchange++)
This "IC++" rate is more transparent and more accurate, as it reflects the actual costs.
PSP Margin + Scheme Fees (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) + Interchange
- costs that are closer to reality (e.g., 1.2% + €0.15)
- best possible optimization
- more difficult to understand but more economical
👉 A model designed for larger volumes, facilitating rate negotiations and cost optimization.
Payplug: A French standard, but keep an eye on the total cost
Payplug has a strong presence among French small and medium-sized businesses.
💸 IC++ Pricing
- Eurozone Card: 1.1% to 1.5% + €0.25
- Card: 2.9% + €0.25
- monthly subscription (approx. €10–€30)
✔️ Highlights
- strong French support
- Seamless CMS integration
- suitable for small and medium-sized businesses
❌ Limitations
- subscription fees that are weighing on profitability
- little room for optimization
- The actual cost depends heavily on the volume
Mollie: easy to set up, but quickly becomes expensive internationally
Mollie stands out for its simplicity. There’s no subscription fee, a blended rate of around 1.2% plus €0.25 for French cards, and plug-and-play integration with most CMS platforms. When it comes to payment methods, the options are extensive: credit cards, instant bank transfers, Bancontact, iDEAL, Klarna, and more, depending on the country.
For a merchant who is just starting out or looking to avoid any commitments, this is an attractive option.
The downside becomes apparent as the mix of payment methods diversifies. For business cards or cards issued outside the SEPA zone, rates can rise significantly (up to 1.8% or even higher, depending on the case), without you having much leverage to optimize them.
💸 IC++ Pricing
- Eurozone Card: 1.2% + €0.25
- Cards used outside the Eurozone: 3.25% + €0.25
- up to 1.8% or more, depending on the card
✔️ Highlights
- no subscription
- extremely easy to deploy
- extensive European coverage
❌ Limitations
- rapidly rising costs:
- business cards
- cards outside Europe
- no transparency regarding the breakdown
- difficult to optimize
Easytransac: a focus on optimization rather than a standard rate
Easytransac takes a different approach. Rather than a single rate advertised on the homepage, the approach is closer to the actual cost of the transaction, with optimization based on usage profiles: monthly volume, card/wallet mix, channels (online, payment links, POS terminals/SoftPOS), and geographic regions.
The advantage is better cost control as your sales volume increases, and consistency if you sell both online and in-store: you avoid having to deal with multiple service providers with differing pricing models. The omnichannel approach is built in from the start, which simplifies margin management.
💸 IC++ Pricing
- Eurozone: 1.2% + €0.15
- Outside the Eurozone: 2.7% + €0.25
- Optimization by transaction volume
✔️ Highlights
- better cost control
- Online and in-store consistency
- scalable
❌ What you need to know
- less "plug-and-play"
- requires careful consideration of its model
👉 Here, we don't sell a standard rate → we optimize actual costs.
The key takeaway
The right question isn't "Which rate is the lowest?" The lowest rate on a website is almost always based on a transaction volume, a mix of cards, or an average order value that doesn't match yours.
The real question is: Which pricing model is best suited to my current volume and growth trajectory? For a small startup, a simple blended model may be sufficient. For an e-commerce business with moderate volume, Payplug or Mollie remain a reasonable compromise. For an SME that wants to control its costs over the long term and maintain consistency between its online and physical channels, an optimized approach like Easytransac’s becomes more relevant.
In a nutshell
An e-commerce payment platform is more than just a technical tool. It directly impacts your profit margin, conversion rate, and customer experience at the most critical moment of the purchasing journey. As your business grows, "simple" models often become the most expensive—not because they’re poorly designed, but because they’re no longer tailored to your specific needs.
Before signing a contract or renewing with a payment service provider (PSP), take 30 minutes to look at the issue from a different angle: calculate your actual costs based on your latest statements, identify the items that really add up, and then compare the offers. If you want to challenge your current costs, the Easytransac team can provide you with a detailed cost estimate based on your transaction volumes.
Who we are
With more than 60,000 customers, Easytransac capitalizes on a decade of expertise in various payment solutions (distance selling, ecommerce, convenience selling, cashless, mobile payment...).
Easytransac is at the forefront of innovation in the ecosystem of electronic payments and hybrid and cashless solutions that meet the requirements of e-tailers, event professionals and SMEs.
Our platform simplifies transactions and enriches the user experience, thanks to an intuitive interface and real-time tracking, while ensuring security at every payment.
Got a project? Don't wait any longer! Contact our teams HERE.
