Choosing a crypto payment gateway: Nectar.Pay vs BitPay vs CoinGate
Every crypto payment gateway promises the same thing — take Bitcoin and stablecoins at checkout. The real difference is what happens the second your customer hits send. With BitPay and CoinGate, the coins land in their account and you wait for a payout, minus roughly 1%. With Nectar.Pay, the coins land in your wallet and we never touch them.
A custodial gateway is a payment processor plus an exchange account you didn't ask for. Nectar.Pay derives an address from your own xpub — there is no Nectar balance to withdraw, because the money was never ours.
1% of $50k/mo is $500/mo. 1% of $500k/mo is $5,000/mo for the exact same API call. A flat $0–$99 membership doesn't get more expensive because you had a good quarter.
Custodial processors can hold, review, or close a merchant account — and the funds sitting in it. Non-custodial settlement removes that failure mode entirely.
Side by side, feature by feature
Compiled from each provider's public pricing and documentation. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it the same day.
| Feature | Nectar.Pay | BitPay | CoinGate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-custodial — funds settle to your wallet | On-chain, direct | Custodial | Custodial |
| Percentage taken from each sale | 0% | ~1% per tx | ~1% per tx |
| Flat monthly pricing | $0–$99/mo | ||
| Merchant KYC required to start | KYC-optional | ||
| Branded in-person terminals | 1,200 shipping | Partner POS | |
| First-party merchant map | /where | Directory | |
| Multi-chain (BTC, EVM, Solana, Tron, L2s) | 8+ chains | ||
| Payout freeze / account-closure risk | We hold nothing |
Nectar.Pay vs BitPay
BitPay is the oldest name in the category and it shows: broad coin support, mature invoicing, and enterprise integrations. It is also fully custodial. Payments settle into BitPay's system, merchants complete business verification before going live, and roughly 1% of every transaction stays behind. For a store doing serious volume, that percentage becomes the single largest line item in the stack.
Nectar.Pay keeps the parts merchants actually want — hosted infrastructure, multi-chain support, webhooks, WooCommerce and PrestaShop plugins — and removes the escrow. Funds go straight to your wallet, the merchant KYC step is optional, and the bill is a flat membership instead of a slice of revenue.
Nectar.Pay vs CoinGate
CoinGate is the friendlier European option: clean checkout, fiat settlement to SEPA, and a long list of supported assets. The trade-off is identical to BitPay's — custody plus about 1% per transaction, with the account verification and payout schedule that custody requires.
If fiat settlement is a hard requirement, a custodial gateway is a reasonable choice. If you want to actually hold the crypto you earn — or you're selling in person and need real hardware on the counter — non-custodial is the only model that gets you there. Nectar.Pay ships branded terminals, a public merchant map, and sub-15-second confirmations on fast chains like Base and BSC.
So what should you actually pick?
- You want automatic fiat conversion and bank settlement: a custodial gateway like BitPay or CoinGate fits, and you pay ~1% for it.
- You want to keep the crypto: go non-custodial. Nectar.Pay settles on-chain to an address only you control.
- You sell in person: you need hardware, not just a checkout page — that's the terminal fleet.
- Your volume is growing: flat monthly pricing beats a percentage the moment you're past a few thousand dollars a month.
Crypto payment gateway FAQ
- What is a crypto payment gateway?
- A crypto payment gateway lets a business accept Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other digital assets at checkout or in person. It generates a payment request, watches the blockchain for the funds, and confirms the sale. The critical difference between gateways is who holds the coins after the customer pays — the merchant, or the gateway.
- Is BitPay or CoinGate custodial?
- Both BitPay and CoinGate take custody of incoming funds and settle to the merchant afterwards, which is why both require business verification and can freeze or delay payouts. Nectar.Pay is non-custodial: payments land in the merchant's own wallet address directly on-chain.
- Which crypto payment gateway has the lowest fees?
- BitPay and CoinGate charge roughly 1% of every transaction, so cost scales with revenue. Nectar.Pay charges a flat monthly membership ($0–$99) and takes 0% of transaction volume — the only cost per payment is the network's own gas fee, paid by the customer's wallet.
- Can I accept crypto in person, not just online?
- Nectar.Pay ships branded countertop and mobile terminals — about 1,200 in production — alongside a WooCommerce plugin, PrestaShop module, and REST API. BitPay and CoinGate are primarily online checkout products.
Keep 100% of what you earn.
Connect a wallet, print a QR, get paid on-chain. No custody, no percentage, no leash.