Choosing a payment gateway in India: the differences that actually matter
Rates are broadly similar. Settlement timing, failure handling, and refund flow are where the real differences show up.
Compare settlement cycles before you compare rates. A gateway that settles on T+2 rather than T+1 is holding a day of your revenue permanently. Over a year, for a business with steady volume, that matters more than a fraction of a percent in fees.
Ask what happens to a failed payment. Some gateways retry automatically, some leave the customer at a dead end. If a parent's UPI payment fails and nothing tells them, your collection rate takes the hit rather than the gateway's.
UPI-only is genuinely enough for many Indian businesses, and it is the cheapest route by a distance. Cards and net banking are worth adding when you have customers who need them, not as a default.
Whatever you pick, insist on webhook-based confirmation rather than trusting the redirect back to your site. Customers close tabs, networks drop, and a payment that succeeded at the bank but never got recorded in your system is the worst outcome of all.
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