Why we don't recommend a processor

What quote marketplaces are, what using one costs you beyond money, and why this site skips it.

This site doesn't rank processors, doesn't have a "best for small business" list, and won't ask for your contact details. That's a deliberate choice, and it's worth explaining why.

Most places you'd go for this comparison aren't neutral

Search for a card-processing calculator and most of what comes back falls into a few categories: a calculator built and hosted by a processor itself, designed to show that you're overpaying your current provider so you'll switch to theirs; a calculator from a larger payments company that pivots into pitching its own products; a comparison site whose table of processors reads like it exists to route you toward one of them; and quote-matching services, sometimes called processor marketplaces.

What a quote marketplace does

A quote marketplace asks you to fill in a form with your business details — usually your name, phone number, email, and monthly card volume — in exchange for "matching" you with processors. Commonly, that means several processors' sales teams receive your information and follow up directly, typically by phone and email, each competing to win your account — which can genuinely get you a handful of quotes without seeking each one out yourself, but can also mean fielding sales calls from several companies who all now have your number. Other marketplaces work more like a broker: they vet the quotes themselves before passing them on to you, and some offer ongoing support after you've signed up, rather than simply handing your details to every processor in their network. Either way, the marketplace itself is commonly funded by referral or commission relationships with the processors it works with.

There's nothing dishonest about that model — it's a real service, and some people want exactly that. It's just a different trade than a self-serve tool: you're giving up your contact information and some privacy in exchange for someone else doing the outreach for you.

What this site does instead

This calculator runs the same flat-rate and interchange-plus arithmetic on the numbers you type in, shows you both results side by side, and doesn't send your inputs anywhere. There's no sign-up, no contact form feeding a sales pipeline, no affiliate links, and no processor paying to be recommended — this site has no partner processors to favour. It's supported by advertising, the same way most free tools on the web are, not by steering you toward a particular provider.

If you want to go get quotes after using it, that's entirely up to you — this page just means you're doing it with a clearer idea of what "flat rate" and "interchange-plus" actually mean for your own numbers first.