Payment Gateway Integration in a Web or Mobile App

Duration: 1–3 weeks.

ScienceSoft starts any payments integration project with a thorough analysis of a client’s needs and expectations. We closely collaborate with project stakeholders to collect the answers to the following key questions:

• What payment methods should the payment gateway support? (a credit/debit card, an e-wallet, crypto, etc.)
• In which regions should payments be available? (globally or in specific countries)
• What volume of transactions should the solution be able to process? (daily, monthly, during peak periods, etc.)
• Are there any specific requirements for the customers’ checkout experience? (in-app payments only or redirect is possible)

After that ScienceSoft’s consultants analyze the company’s existing IT infrastructure and the applications to be integrated with an online payment gateway to understand their capabilities and constraints. Also, we define the data to be shared (customers’ personal information, credit card data, etc.), figure out how it should flow and whether it needs to be transformed into a different format.

One more important point to analyze is potential regulatory risks and compliance requirements. This helps ensure the online payment gateway will meet PCI DSS requirements for secure credit card payments processing, AML and KYC requirements to prevent payment fraud, other industry- and region-specific regulations.

Once the analysis is done, ScienceSoft’s consultants prepare a detailed list of requirements for the integration solution, which describes:

• All the capabilities that the payments integration in the mobile and/or web app should provide.
• The required data inputs, outputs, and attributes of the online payment gateway.
• Non-functional requirements for the integrated system (availability, integrity, scalability, maintainability, performance, security, etc.).

Duration: 2–5 weeks.

Upon forming a high-level vision, ScienceSoft proceeds with the design of a payments integration solution. This step involves making several important technical decisions:

1. Deciding on the preferred type of an online payment gateway to integrate:
   • a market-available payment gateway:
     • a hosted payment gateway.
     • a self-hosted white-label payment gateway.
   • a custom payment gateway.
2. (In case of opting for third-party software) Choosing an optimal prebuilt payment gateway according to the client’s specific criteria and business priorities. We at ScienceSoft perform a detailed comparative analysis of possible solutions to recommend the one that offers the required features and ensures economic feasibility.
3. Defining the appropriate payments integration pattern depending on the selected type of a payment gateway:

• Embedding payment buttons and redirect scripts into the checkout interface.
• Relying on ready-to-use integration APIs provided with market-available online payment gateways.
• Designing custom APIs to integrate custom online payment gateways or smoothly connect OOTB solutions with the existing customer-facing applications.

A payment gateway type and an integration pattern, as well as functional and non-functional requirements to the payments solution, provide a basis to design the integration architecture.

Additionally, ScienceSoft designs a custom payment gateway and creates a custom UI of a checkout page, if required.

Duration: 1–2 weeks.

During this stage, ScienceSoft introduces a detailed integration project plan, which defines:

• Project deliverables.
• Project duration and budget.
• Critical milestones, objectives, and KPIs for the project.
• Project-associated risks and the ways to mitigate them.
• Expected TCO and ROI of the integration solution.

Duration: 2–3 weeks.

ScienceSoft defines the techs and tools required to integrate a payment gateway with your web and/or mobile app, relevant back-office systems (e.g., accounting software), and an external payment processing system. We compare various integration techs and tools in the context of the documented business requirements and select the optimal ones.

Best practice: In our payments integration projects, ScienceSoft’s team relies on well-established platforms, frameworks, and ready-made components where possible to streamline integration implementation, ensure its high quality, and optimize the project cost.

Duration: 2–8 weeks, depending on the chosen integration pattern (custom payment gateway development and integration may be significantly longer than integrating a market-available solution).

The implementation of payments integration with ScienceSoft usually covers:

1. Developing and deploying a custom web and/or mobile payment gateway (if required).
2. Depending on the chosen type of a payment gateway and an integration pattern:
   • Developing and installing custom integration APIs.
   • Setting up ready-to-use APIs.
   • Building payment buttons, redirect scripts, webhooks, and other required components and incorporating them into the checkout interface.
3. Establishing further integrations with the required solutions (a web and/or a mobile app, a payment processing system, accounting software).
4. Implementing security tools (authorization controls for APIs, transaction validity confirmation mechanisms, DDoS protection algorithms, firewalls, IDSs / IPSs, DLP systems, etc.) to ensure protection of the integrated system and the sensitive data it processes and stores.

ScienceSoft’s team performs quality assurance of each component of the solution in parallel with coding to eliminate possible vulnerabilities and logic errors and guarantee proper functioning of all uni- or bidirectional queries between the connected applications.

Note: Before launching the payment features in your app, you need to establish a merchant account with a bank to receive customer payments. In case of relying on a prebuilt payment gateway, you also need to establish a merchant account with a payment processor (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net) to manage the received funds.

Prior to payment gateway implementation in the real environment, you need to obtain PCI DSS compliance. This is critical in the case of building a custom payment gateway or setting up a self-hosted OOTB solution.

Duration: continuous.

• Fixing payment gateway performance and scalability issues, if any.
• Adjusting the payments integration solution’s functionality to the changing business needs (e.g., adding new payment methods).
• Monitoring and maintaining payment gateway compliance with PCI DSS and other relevant data security standards and regulations.