Sign up

Get paid

PaymentsCards, wallets & local methodsCheckout & LinksNo-code checkout & linksInvoicingSend and get invoices paidSubscriptionsRecurring billing & discountsPayment GatewaysRoute across processors

Sell anywhere

Online StoreBuild your storefrontProductsCatalog & inventoryOrders & FulfillmentTrack and fulfill ordersVirtual TerminalCharge cards by hand

Marketing & analytics

Email CampaignsDesign & send campaignsCustomersProfiles, spend & portalAnalyticsUnderstand your revenue

Run your business

Send MoneyInstant payouts & refundsPayout LinksPay anyone with a linkInboxSupport conversations

Payment processors

A payment processor is the service that actually moves money when a customer pays. Before you can take a live payment, you need to connect one and make it active. This is the most important setup step, and it lives in Settings under payment gateways.

How processing works in Paysio

Paysio separates card payments from bank payments:

  • Your active card processor handles all card charges. Only one is active at a time, and every card payment across links, checkout, invoices, subscriptions, and the virtual terminal runs through it.
  • A separate bank processor handles bank (ACH) payments, if you accept them.

Paysio works with four gateways, and they support different things:

  • Paysio Payments: cards and bank.
  • NMI: cards and bank.
  • Stripe: cards only (no bank/ACH).
  • Paysio Debit & Payouts: cards, bank, and payouts. This is the one that also powers sending money and payout links. See Activating Debit & Payouts.

You pick which connected gateway is active for cards, and which handles bank payments.

Paysio Payments

Paysio Payments is the built-in option: you apply for a dedicated payment account through Paysio, and its team reviews your application and sets it up for you. It is designed for businesses that want Paysio to handle processing directly, including higher-risk businesses that need specialized processing. Use Connect with Paysio to start the application.

Connecting NMI

If you have an NMI account, connect it by entering its API keys. Paste your NMI private key and public key (there are separate keys for sandbox and production), then click Save. Paysio validates and connects them. You can Disconnect later to remove them.

Connecting Stripe

For Stripe, the easiest path is Connect with Stripe, which sends you through Stripe's secure Connect flow to link your account, no keys to copy. Because Connect only provides live credentials, if you want to test in sandbox you can enter your Stripe test API keys (secret and publishable) manually. You can also connect entirely with manual API keys if you prefer.

Remember Stripe does not support bank/ACH payments, so if you need those, use a different bank processor alongside it.

Switching processors

Once more than one gateway is connected, you can switch which is active. Paysio asks you to confirm, and warns that all new charges will run through the gateway you switch to. If you deactivate your only processor, you will not be able to take payments until you activate one again.

Switching affects new charges only. Cards saved in the vault and existing subscriptions stay tied to the processor they were created on, because that is where their stored payment method lives. So changing your active processor does not move or re-vault existing customers; it only changes where fresh payments are routed.

Sandbox processing

Each processor is connected with two sets of credentials: sandbox (test) and production (live). In sandbox mode, charges route through the processor's test environment using your sandbox keys, so you can run test payments with no real money involved. In live mode, real charges use your production credentials. This is why a processor can be fully working in sandbox while you are still finishing its live setup.

Related guides