Payment providers let a business accept cards, wallets and bank payments online or in person, then pay the money into its bank account. European businesses often prefer a provider licensed and run in Europe that supports local payment methods and settles in euros. The strongest European options are Adyen (Netherlands) for large merchants selling online and in stores, Mollie (Netherlands) for small and mid-size businesses selling online and Checkout.com (United Kingdom) for high-volume online merchants and marketplaces.
Best first. Headcount and founding year come from LeadWave's database; prices, hosting and G2 ratings from each company's own pages and G2, checked in November 2026.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Founded | Employees | G2 rating | Free plan | Paid plans from | Your data | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Adyen | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 2006 | — | 4.0 (44 reviews) | No | — | — | No |
2 Mollie | Amsterdam, Netherlands | — | — | 4.3 (12 reviews) | No | — | — | No |
3 Checkout.com | London, United Kingdom | 2012 | 1,001–5,000 | 4.6 (71 reviews) | No | — | — | No |
4 Worldline | Paris, France | — | — | — | No | — | — | No |
5 Nexi | Milan, Italy | — | — | — | No | — | — | No |
6 Viva.com | Athens, Greece | 2000 | — | — | No | — | — | No |
7 Paddle | London, United Kingdom | 2012 | 397 | 4.5 (239 reviews) | No | — | — | No |
8 GoCardless | London, United Kingdom | 2011 | 501–1,000 | 4.6 (321 reviews) | No | — | — | No |
9 Payplug | Paris, France | 2012 | — | — | No | €10/month | — | No |
10 SumUp | London, United Kingdom | 2012 | 2,741 | — | No | — | — | No |
11 Payone | Frankfurt, Germany | — | — | — | No | — | — | No |
12 Unzer | Berlin, Germany | — | — | — | No | — | — | No |
13 Trustly | Stockholm, Sweden | 2008 | — | — | No | — | — | No |
Each page ranks the European options for that tool's users and says how each one compares.
Payment processing and acquiring for large merchants
Dutch payment platform that processes and acquires online, in-app and in-store payments through one integration. Charges a fixed processing fee plus a payment-method fee, with no setup or monthly fees.
Self-serve online payments for European businesses
Dutch payment provider with self-serve sign-up, payment links, invoicing, recurring payments and pay-per-transaction pricing. Licensed by the Dutch central bank; bought GoCardless in September 2026.
Payment processing for high-volume online businesses
London payment processor for large online businesses, with its own acquiring, fraud tools and payouts. Prices are set per merchant on interchange++ terms.
Merchant acquiring, terminals and online payments
French payments group offering in-store terminals, online payment gateways and omnichannel acceptance to merchants of all sizes across Europe.
Card acquiring, terminals and ecommerce payments
Italian payments group that merged with Denmark's Nets and Italy's SIA. Offers merchants card terminals, ecommerce payment gateways and acquiring, and runs card services for banks.
Online and in-store payments with a business account
Greek payment provider, formerly Viva Wallet, offering online checkout, card terminals and phone payments together with a business account. JPMorgan Chase holds a 48.5% minority stake.
Merchant of record for software companies
Sells software and apps on the vendor's behalf as merchant of record, so it takes the payment and handles sales tax, VAT, fraud and chargebacks. Charges 5% plus 50¢ per checkout transaction.
Direct Debit and pay-by-bank payments
Collects recurring and one-off payments straight from bank accounts through Direct Debit and open banking, for subscriptions and invoices. Part of Mollie since September 2026.
Online and in-store payments for French SMEs
French payment provider for small and mid-size merchants, with online checkout, payment links and in-store payments. Part of BPCE Merchant Services, the payments arm of a French banking group.
Card readers and payments for small businesses
Card readers, point-of-sale apps, payment links and online checkout for small merchants. The default pay-as-you-go plan has no monthly fee; Payments Plus lowers fees for €19 a month.
Payment acceptance for German merchants
Frankfurt payment provider owned by Worldline and DSV, the German savings banks' service group. Offers online payments, card terminals and acquiring for merchants in Germany.
Payments and point-of-sale software for retailers
Berlin payment provider, formerly heidelpay, offering online payments, card terminals and point-of-sale software for retailers. KKR, its former majority owner, handed control to lenders in 2023.
Pay-by-bank payments without cards
Swedish open banking payment provider: shoppers pay straight from their bank account instead of with a card. Used by more than 9,000 merchants, including PayPal.
LeadWave's database has 238 companies headquartered in Europe that our Fintech list matches, most of them in the United Kingdom (91), Germany (25), France (19), the Netherlands (13) and Sweden (9). Here are the 15 largest; all 238, with their CEOs' contacts, are in the Europe SaaS companies list.
| Company | Country | Employees | Funding | CEO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Checkout.comcheckout.com | United Kingdom | 1,001–5,000 | — | Guillaume Pousaz |
| 2SumUpsumup.com | United Kingdom | 2,741 | $1.4B | Daniel Klein |
3 Backbasebackbase.com | Netherlands | 1,207 | — | Jouk Pleiter |
4 Mambumambu.com | Germany | 816 | $448.3M | Eugene Danilkis |
| 5GoCardlessgocardless.com | United Kingdom | 501–1,000 | — | Matt Robinson |
6 iZettleizettle.com | Sweden | 730 | $326.2M | Jacob de Geer |
7 Lunarlunar.app | Denmark | 569 | — | Ken Villum Klausen |
8 NOVObanknovo.com | Netherlands | 550 | — | Darrell Burns |
9 Payhawkpayhawk.com | United Kingdom | 477 | — | Hristo Borisov |
| 10Paddlepaddle.com | United Kingdom | 397 | $93.3M | Christian Owens |
11 Spendeskspendesk.com | France | 378 | $198.6M | Rodolphe Ardant |
12 intelliflointelliflo.com | United Kingdom | 201–500 | — | Nick Eatock |
13 PPROppro.com | United Kingdom | 201–500 | — | Philipp Bock |
14 Rapydrapyd.net | United Kingdom | 201–500 | — | Omer Priel |
15 Thought Machinethoughtmachine.net | United Kingdom | 201–500 | — | Paul Taylor |
Showing the 15 largest of 238. Headcount is the latest known figure.
A company counts as European if it's headquartered in Europe: the EU, the EEA, Switzerland, the UK, or elsewhere in geographic Europe, never Russia or Belarus. Headquarters means where it's run from, not a registered office. Companies founded in Europe but headquartered elsewhere today are listed separately, and a non-European owner is always named.
Each company was checked against its own legal notice, pricing page and data-processing terms, and its G2 page. The order weighs how fully each one replaces the US leaders, its track record and its ratings. No company paid to be listed or ranked.
Adyen (Netherlands) for large merchants selling online and in stores, Mollie (Netherlands) for small and mid-size businesses selling online and Checkout.com (United Kingdom) for high-volume online merchants and marketplaces. Each is headquartered in Europe; the table compares their hosting, prices and G2 ratings.
LeadWave's database lists 238 European Fintech software companies, most of them in United Kingdom (91) and Germany (25). All of them, with their CEOs' contacts, are in our list of 4,000+ European SaaS companies.
Mollie lists 1.80% + €0.25 for EEA consumer cards, Payplug 1.5% + €0.25 online plus a €10 monthly Starter fee, Viva.com 2.19% + €0.24 for online payments in Ireland, and Paddle 5% + 50¢ as merchant of record. Adyen and Checkout.com quote interchange++ prices per merchant.
A merchant of record sells your product to the customer in its own name, so it takes the payment and handles sales tax, VAT, invoices and chargebacks. Paddle from London works this way. With Adyen, Mollie and most others, you remain the seller.
SumUp, Viva.com, Adyen, Worldline, Nexi, Payone, Unzer and Payplug offer card readers or in-store payments as well as online payments, so one provider can cover a shop and a website.
