Payment Processors · 2026 reliability ranking
Most Reliable Payment Processors (2026)
We ranked 15 payment processors by real-world reliability over the last 90 days, using 158 status page incidents and our own around-the-clock uptime checks. When a payment processor has an outage, card payments fail at the counter and online checkouts return errors, so sales stop even though the shop is open. Problems further down the chain, such as delayed payouts or broken dashboards, can hold up cash flow and refunds for days. Because a small business usually relies on a single processor, that provider's track record on downtime and payout delays affects revenue directly.
Last updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| # | Vendor | Score | Uptime (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BraintreeBraintree is PayPal's payment gateway and merchant account service for online and in-app card, wallet and PayPal payments. | 94.0 | 99.97% |
| 2 | PaddlePaddle is a merchant of record for software and digital-product companies, handling checkout, subscription billing and sales tax. | 93.6 | 99.96% |
| 3 | PayPalPayPal is a digital payments company whose business products include online checkout, in-person card payments, invoicing and payment APIs. | 90.6 | 99.93% |
| 4 | StripeStripe is an online payments platform from Stripe, Inc. that provides card processing APIs, hosted checkout, invoicing and billing tools. | 89.7 | 99.99% |
| 5 | CloverClover is a point-of-sale hardware and software platform owned by Fiserv. | 87.8 | 99.88% |
| 6 | Shift4 PaymentsShift4 is a Pennsylvania-based payment processor that provides card processing, gateway and funding services to merchants in hospitality, retail and e-commerce. | 57.8 | 99.36% |
| 7 | SumUpSumUp is a London-headquartered payments company offering card readers and point-of-sale software, including a restaurant POS. | 54.2 | 98.98% |
| 8 | Square PaymentsSquare Payments is the card processing service from Block, Inc.'s Square, used for in-person, online and invoice payments. | 53.3 | 98.93% |
| 9 | StaxStax (formerly Fattmerchant) is a Florida-based payment processor that sells subscription-priced card processing with a merchant dashboard and payments API. | 49.0 | 98.48% |
| 10 | MollieMollie is an Amsterdam-based payment service provider offering online and in-person payments, mainly to European businesses. | 47.2 | 98.29% |
| 11 | Authorize.netAuthorize.net is a payment gateway owned by Visa that connects merchants' websites, virtual terminals and point-of-sale apps to their card processors. | 39.3 | 97.93% |
| 12 | GoCardlessGoCardless is a London-based provider of bank-debit and open-banking payments for recurring and one-off collections. | 38.0 | 97.84% |
| 13 | WorldpayWorldpay is a merchant acquirer and payment processor, now owned by Global Payments, that serves businesses in-store and online across many countries. | 34.0 | 97.05% |
Payment Processors reliability at a glance
- Across the 13 ranked payment processors, average 90-day uptime is 98.97%. Reliability scores range from 94.0 (Braintree) to 34.0 (Worldpay).
- Together they published 158 incidents in the last 90 days, 26 of them partial or major outages.
- The typical vendor takes 4h 34m to resolve an incident. Stripe is fastest, at 19m on average.
- Worldpay reported the most incidents (50 in 90 days).
What to check before you choose a payment processor
- Authorization (whether cards go through) matters most. Payout delays hurt cash flow but don't stop sales.
- Check the components for your region: many processor incidents only affect one country or data center.
- If card payments are most of your revenue, ask whether you can fall back to a second processor.
- Watch how fast incidents are acknowledged. When cards are declining, a silent status page is the worst outcome.
90-day uptime history
Each bar is one day. Hover a bar for that day's uptime and incidents.
1. Braintree
99.97% uptime · 2 incidents · avg resolve 2h 7m2. Paddle
99.96% uptime · 2 incidents · avg resolve 2h 19m3. PayPal
99.93% uptime · 3 incidents · avg resolve 3h 3m4. Stripe
99.99% uptime · 28 incidents · avg resolve 19m5. Clover
99.88% uptime · 6 incidents · avg resolve 1h 55m6. Shift4 Payments
99.36% uptime · 5 incidents · avg resolve 19h 29m7. SumUp
98.98% uptime · 5 incidents · avg resolve 19h 59m8. Square Payments
98.93% uptime · 12 incidents · avg resolve 12h 49m9. Stax
98.48% uptime · 4 incidents · avg resolve 21h 59m10. Mollie
98.29% uptime · 25 incidents · avg resolve 3h 24m11. Authorize.net
97.93% uptime · 8 incidents · avg resolve 1d12. GoCardless
97.84% uptime · 8 incidents · avg resolve 1d 19h13. Worldpay
97.05% uptime · 50 incidents · avg resolve 4h 34m- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Being tracked (not ranked yet)
These vendors join the ranking once we have enough evidence: at least 14 days of data, and for vendors with a quiet status page (silent for a year, or for 90 days while their competitors report several incidents), 30 days of our own independent monitoring.
Recent Payment Processors incidents
Elevated Instant Payouts failures
Affected: Stripe core components
INC0713069 - We have resolved issues with Authorization & Payments.
Affected: Authorization & Payments
INC0712171 - We are aware of potential issues with a Third Party
Affected: Authorization & Payments
INC0710790 - We are investigating potential issues with payment refunds.
Affected: Authorization & Payments
INC0709613 - WPG - Maintenance Extended - Degradation of service
Affected: Authorization & Payments
INC0708391 - Biller Solutions - We are investigating issues with Authorization & Payments
Affected: Authorization & Payments
Head-to-head comparisons
Related rankings
Frequently asked questions
What is the most reliable payment processor?
Based on the last 90 days of data, Braintree is the most reliable payment processor we track, with a reliability score of 94.0/100 and 99.97% uptime.
How do you measure payment processor reliability?
We poll each vendor's public status page every few minutes, record every incident, and run our own uptime checks against each vendor's login and customer-facing pages. Uptime (40%), incident frequency (20%), average time to resolve (20%) and transparency (20%) combine into one score out of 100.
How often are these rankings updated?
Continuously. Status pages and uptime checks run every five minutes and scores are recalculated several times an hour.
Can vendors pay to rank higher?
No. Sponsored placements are clearly labelled, shown separately from the rankings and never change a vendor's score.