Sponsored guest post by the PSPDex editorial team. PSPDex compares 200+ payment processors at pspdex.com.
Every payment processor markets itself the same way. Low fees, instant approval, no hidden costs. The real numbers sit behind a sales sheet, and the differences that matter, custody, settlement, and who gets declined, rarely appear on a pricing page at all.
PSPDex exists to close that gap. As an independent directory of over than 200 payment processors. Every listing is researched from the provider’s own published pricing, documentation, and terms, then scored editorially.
PSPDex is a payment processing matcher, not a just a directory
The core of PSPDex is the processor matcher. A merchant can answer four questions: monthly volume, the payment methods they need, their website or app stack, and their business category. The matcher compares those answers against every listing in the directory and returns three shortlisted providers in 30 seconds. 
That order matters. Most merchants start with a brand name and work backwards into fees and eligibility. The matcher starts with the business and works forwards. A high-risk merchant never sees the providers who would decline them. A low-volume merchant never sees the interchange-plus plans that only pay off above $50k a month. Merchants weighing a full payments overhaul can also read how enterprise payment optimization with Bitcoin and Lightning works in practice.
What the Bitcoin and Lightning index shows
Our Bitcoin and Lightning processor index tracks 28 providers, and the spread across them is wider than most merchants expect.
On fees, the range runs from zero to about 1%. BTCPay Server, LNbits, Speed, Wallet of Satoshi, Blink, and Alby all list a 0% starting rate. Hosted gateways cluster at 1%: BitPay charges 1% plus 25 cents, OpenNode and Coinsnap charge a flat 1%. Swiss Bitcoin Pay is the cheapest hosted flat rate in the index at 0.21%. Zaprite takes a different route entirely, a $25 monthly subscription with a 0% starting rate, built for merchants who would rather pay a flat bill than a percentage of every sale.
On editorial scores, the open-source end leads. LNbits tops the index at 4.8 out of 5. Swiss Bitcoin Pay and Blink follow at 4.7. Zaprite, Voltage, and Square sit at 4.6. The pattern is consistent: the providers built specifically for Bitcoin and Lightning outscore the general processors that added Bitcoin as a feature.
Custodial gateways such as BitPay, OpenNode, and CoinGate handle the wallet, the exchange rate, and the conversion, and settle in fiat. Self-hosted tools such as BTCPay Server and LNbits charge nothing because there is no processor to charge; the merchant runs the stack and holds the keys. Lightning-native providers such as Voltage, Zaprite, IBEXPay, and lipa sit between the two, with invoicing, point of sale, and fiat settlement in EUR or CHF built around the Lightning Network rather than bolted onto a card platform.
The filters merchants use most tell the same story: Lightning support, self custody, and automatic conversion for anyone pricing in fiat. Those choices decide the shortlist better than the fee does.
Declined by Stripe or Square? PSPDex has alternatives
A large share of the merchants who find PSPDex arrive with the same story. They were declined by Stripe, or their Stripe account was closed without warning, and they need a working checkout this week. The decline is rarely personal. It is the risk model. Industries with elevated chargebacks or regulatory complexity sit outside what mainstream processors will underwrite.
That is why PSPDex maintains a dedicated high-risk category and why our guide to the best Stripe alternatives remains one of the most-read comparisons on this site. A high-risk merchant account from a specialist acquirer costs more, typically 3% to 6% plus a rolling reserve of 5% to 10%, but it does not vanish overnight. And a growing number of declined merchants add a Bitcoin and Lightning rail alongside it, because a payment that settles finally, in seconds, to a wallet they control cannot be frozen by anyone’s risk model.
The risk lens when choosing merchant accounts
PSPDex sorts every provider by risk tier, because eligibility is where merchants waste the most time. Standard-risk businesses get self-serve onboarding and flat or interchange-plus pricing. High-risk industries, digital content, CBD, supplements, travel, telehealth, and subscriptions, need one of the nine specialist providers on the directory who underwrite what mainstream processors decline. Above roughly $1M a month, everything is negotiable and direct acquirers quote real interchange-plus savings.
Bitcoin and Lightning sit inside that lens as the second rail. A Lightning payment is final, so there is no chargeback window and no rolling reserve. Settlement lands in seconds in a wallet the merchant controls. For a merchant paying 3% to 6% on a high-risk card account, or rebuilding after a freeze, that is not ideology. It is arithmetic.
How to use the directory
Start with the matcher, then read the full listings for your three. Compare the effective rate, not the headline rate. Check the custody model and the settlement currency before the fee. SaaS companies can narrow further with the Stripe alternatives built for SaaS billing. Then run your chosen Bitcoin or Lightning provider in parallel with cards for a month before you rely on it.
The full directory, with fees, settlement options, and editorial scores for every provider, is in our processor listings. The card networks are not going anywhere. Neither is the second rail. The merchants who plan for both are the ones who never have a very bad week.
