Payment Gateway Development from A to Z
Having 34 years of experience in custom software development and 20 years in cybersecurity, ScienceSoft delivers reliable and secure payment gateways to help business in 30+ industries accept digital payments from their customers.
Payment Gateway Development: Summary
Payment gateway development helps companies introduce custom payment functionality in their web and/or mobile applications. Custom payment gateways support all required payment methods and currencies, offer advanced security of customer’s personal and payment data, seamlessly integrate with customer-facing apps and payment processing systems, and can be easily evolved with new features.
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Key project steps: feasibility study, payment gateway design, project planning, tech stack selection, payment gateway development and QA, deployment, integration, support and evolution (optionally). Timelines: 6–11 months on average. Cost: end-to-end payment gateway development may cost from $100,000 to over $300,000, depending on the solution’s complexity. Team: a project manager, a business analyst, a solution architect, a UX/UI designer, a DevOps engineer, a back-end developer, a front-end developer, a QA engineer. |
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With 750+ talents on board, ScienceSoft provides all necessary skills to cover the end-to-end development of a custom payment gateway and ensure its compliance with relevant security standards.
A Sample Architecture of a Payment Gateway by ScienceSoft
Below, ScienceSoft shares a sample architecture of payment gateways we create, describes essential solution integrations and payment handling flow.
An online payment gateway serves as a bridge that enables instant and secure transfer of a customer’s personal and payment information between an application that hosts a checkout page (e.g., a merchant’s website, a customer portal) and one or several payment processing systems. The latter can be provided by a financial institution (an acquiring bank), independent payment processing providers (e.g., PayPal, Authorize.Net, Stripe, BitPay), or the company (in case of relying on in-house payment processing). The payment gateway verifies sensitive data provided by a customer (purchasing details, billing address, a credit card number, etc.), encrypts and stores it in a PCI DSS compliant storage. Once a payment transaction is authorized in a payment processing system, approved in a payment processing network (e.g., ACH network, a card network, a crypto coin’s network), and settled between the customer’s bank and a company’s bank, a payment gateway automatically communicates payment success or decline to the customer.
A payment gateway integrates with an accounting system to instantly transfer data on the successful payments and receive triggers to timely charge due payments (e.g., recurring payments). Additionally, the solution may be connected to a data analytics system to share relevant data required to analyze cash inflow and customer payment behavior.
If you plan to monetize your custom payment gateway by offering it to other companies for a fee, the solution can be equipped with ready-to-use APIs to enable prompt and easy integration with customer-facing apps of the authorized merchants.
When to Opt for a Custom Payment Gateway
From ScienceSoft’s experience, companies looking to implement payment functionality in their web and/or mobile application often have doubts about whether they should rely on a market-available payment gateway or build their own custom solution. So far, integrating a prebuilt payment gateway remains a more popular option, as it offers a fast and easy way to enable digital payments. However, an off-the-shelf gateway is not always the most economically feasible option. Prebuilt gateways can bring high fees for third-party payment gateway providers’ services. They may also require substantial efforts on customization and establishing smooth integration with the required apps.
ScienceSoft suggests opting for a custom payment gateway in the following cases:
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You need a payment gateway providing specific capabilities, e.g., support for all required payment methods, including crypto payments, sophisticated recurring payments, AI-powered fraud detection, or on-demand scalability to handle the growing amount of payment transactions during peak times. |
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You need a solution that can be easily evolved with new functionality as your business grows or transforms. |
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You want to smoothly and cost-effectively integrate a payment gateway with your existing software (e.g., an ecommerce website, a customer portal, a mobile banking app, an accounting system). |
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You want to monetize your payment gateway by allowing other companies to use it for a fee. For example, if you own an ecommerce marketplace, you can offer the merchants to accept payments via your custom-made payment gateway and charge them for this service. |
Note: If you choose to develop a custom payment gateway, you take full responsibility for obtaining PCI DSS compliance. Here at ScienceSoft, we are ready to provide a full scope of PCI compliance services to help you implement and maintain proper storage, processing, and transfer of cardholder data according to PCI standards.
1
A feasibility study
Duration: 1–3 weeks.
ScienceSoft’s consultants thoroughly analyze our clients’ unique payment handling needs and existing IT infrastructure to help assess the economic feasibility of custom payment gateway development for each particular business. Based on the analysis results, we introduce a list of tangible benefits that a custom payment gateway can bring to the company, as well as a high-level estimation of development costs and a ROI calculation.
2
Payment gateway design and project planning
Duration: 4–7 weeks.
ScienceSoft’s team provides a detailed list of requirements for the payment gateway, which describes:
- All the functional capabilities a payment gateway should provide.
- The types of data the solution should be able to process (e.g., customers’ personal information, credit card data, e-wallet credentials).
- Non-functional requirements for the payment gateway (e.g., performance, scalability, availability, integrity).
- Security and compliance requirements to be met (e.g., PCI DSS for secure credit card payments processing, AML and KYC requirements to prevent payment fraud).
- Requirements for the visual style, structure, and contents of a checkout page.
A well-designed requirements specification provides a basis to create:
- Architecture design for a payment gateway and its interactions with the required systems.
- A feature set for a custom payment gateway, including security features.
- UX and UI design of a checkout page.
- Integration API design to enhance the payment gateway’s integration capabilities.
- A development project plan, including project objectives and KPIs, deliverables, schedule, and a risk mitigation plan.
3
Tech stack selection
Duration: 2–3 weeks.
ScienceSoft defines the techs and tools required to build an online payment gateway and integrate it with relevant corporate solutions and external systems. We compare the available techs and tools in the context of documented business requirements and create an optimal tech stack with attention to the client's priorities (e.g., fast development, minimized project cost).
Best practice: We use frameworks and ready-made components where possible to streamline payment gateway development, ensure high quality of the solution, and optimize the project cost.
4
Payment gateway development
Duration: 4–7 months, depending on the solution’s complexity.
The development of a payment gateway with ScienceSoft usually includes the following stages:
- Establishing development and delivery automation environments (CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, etc.).
- Developing the back end of a custom payment gateway, including integration APIs.
- Developing a customer-facing checkout page and admin interface to monitor the payment gateway performance.
- Implementing a secure database to store the sensitive data provided by customers.
- Running quality assurance procedures in parallel with development to validate payment gateway’s quality and fix the defects before the gateway is deployed.
Best practice: In payment gateway creation projects, ScienceSoft employs an iterative approach to software development to introduce the fundamental functions first and enable faster payback from the payment gateway implementation.
We can deliver an MVP of a custom payment gateway in 3–5 months and consistently grow it to the full-featured solution with major releases every 2–3 weeks.
5
Payment gateway deployment
Duration: 1–2 weeks.
Once the payment gateway has passed functional and non-functional (incl. security) testing, ScienceSoft’s team configures the solution’s infrastructure, backup and recovery procedures, and proceeds with automated deployment of the payment gateway.
Best practice: To ensure that a payment gateway’s infrastructure is well-protected, ScienceSoft recommends implementing authorization controls for APIs, DDoS protection algorithms, firewalls, IDSs / IPSs, DLP systems, and other security tools.
6
Integration with other systems
Duration: 1–8 weeks, depending on the integration complexity.
ScienceSoft’s team implements and tests the gateway integrations with required systems (an app that hosts a checkout page, payment processing systems, accounting software, etc.) to ensure the seamless and secure data flow between the parties involved in payment initiation and settlement processes.
7
Support and evolution of a payment gateway (optionally)
Duration: continuous.
ScienceSoft’s team:
- Monitors the payment gateway performance and fixes possible issues (e.g., insufficient payment processing speed, payment data processing errors).
- Scales the solution to handle the growing amount of payment transactions.
- Upgrades the payment gateway functionality when required (adds new payment currencies, payment methods, UI elements, etc.).
- Performs regular audits of payment gateway compliance with PCI DSS and other relevant data security standards and regulations.
Consulting on payment gateway implementation
- Analyzing your business needs and eliciting requirements for a payment gateway.
- Designing an optimal architecture, feature set, and tech stack for a payment gateway.
- Preparing a plan of integrations with the required systems.
- Consulting on security and compliance.
- Delivering a roadmap for payment gateway implementation, including cost and time estimates and a risk mitigation plan.
End-to-end payment gateway development
- Analyzing your payment handling needs.
- Conceptualizing the payment gateway.
- Architecture design.
- Payment gateway development.
- Integrating the payment gateway with the required systems.
- Implementing security policies, procedures, and controls for cardholder data to achieve PCI DSS compliance.
- Quality assurance.
- Support and evolution (if required).
Why Choose Payment Gateway Development with ScienceSoft
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Project Manager
Plans the payment gateway project (goals, timeline, budget), prioritizes the scope of work and monitors its execution, coordinates the project team, reports the progress to the stakeholders.
Business Analyst
Elicits and documents functional and non-functional requirements for the payment gateway, analyzes technical capabilities and limitations of the existing IT infrastructure.
Solution Architect
Designs the architecture of the payment gateway solution, including integration points with the required systems.
UX/UI Designer
Designs the UX and UI of a customer-facing checkout page and the back-office UI to monitor the payment gateway’s performance.
DevOps Engineer
Containerizes the components of the payment gateway solution and configures CI/CD pipelines for streamlined testing and facilitated deployment.
Back-end Developer
Delivers the back end of the payment gateway (including integration API code) and fixes defects reported by QA engineers.
Front-end Developer
Delivers the UI of a customer-facing checkout page and an admin panel and fixes defects reported by QA engineers.
QA Engineer
Designs and implements a test strategy, a test plan, and test cases to perform functional (incl. integration) and non-functional testing (e.g., security, performance, and usability testing).
Payment Gateway Development: A Success Story by ScienceSoft
Payment Gateway Development for a Messaging App with 900M+ Active Users
ScienceSoft designed and implemented a custom payment gateway to provide seamless payment experience for 900M+ active users of Viber, a messaging app that operates in more than 190 countries. Particularly, our team:
- Created the checkout page fully compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Android and iOS browsers, and more.
- Integrated the payment gateway with PayPal and a card network (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) to support the most popular payment methods.
- Designed a payment module architecture that enables fast and easy integration of new payment methods.
- Implemented a range of security tools to protect the system against XSS and CSRF attacks.
ScienceSoft’s Tech Stack for Payment Gateway Development
In payment gateway development projects, ScienceSoft’s team usually relies on the following tools and technologies:
Databases / data storages
SQL
Our Microsoft SQL Server-based projects include a BI solution for 200 healthcare centers, the world’s largest PLM software, and an automated underwriting system for the global commercial insurance carrier.
We’ve implemented MySQL for Viber, an instant messenger with 1B+ users, and an award-winning remote patient monitoring software.
ScienceSoft's team has implemented Oracle for software products used by GSK and AstraZeneca. We’ve also delivered Oracle-based SCM platform for Auchan, a retail chain with 1,700 stores.
ScienceSoft has used PostgreSQL in an IoT fleet management solution that supports 2,000+ customers with 26,500+ IoT devices. We’ve also helped a fintech startup promptly launch a top-flight BNPL product based on PostgreSQL.
NoSQL
ScienceSoft used MongoDB-based warehouse for an IoT solution that processed 30K+ events/per second from 1M devices. We’ve also delivered MongoDB-based operations management software for a pharma manufacturer.
Cloud databases, warehouses and storage
AWS
We use Amazon Redshift to build cost-effective data warehouses that easily handle complex queries and large amounts of data.
We use Amazon DynamoDB as a NoSQL database service for solutions that require low latency, high scalability and always available data.
Azure
We leverage Azure Cosmos DB to implement a multi-model, globally distributed, elastic NoSQL database on the cloud. Our team used Cosmos DB in a connected car solution for one of the world’s technology leaders.
Azure SQL Database is great for handling large volumes of data and varying database traffic: it easily scales up and down without any downtime or disruption to the applications. It also offers automatic backups and point-in-time recoveries to protect databases from accidental corruption or deletion.
Google Cloud Platform
We use Google Cloud Datastore to set up a highly scalable and cost-effective solution for storing and managing NoSQL data structures. This database can be easily integrated with other Google Cloud services (BigQuery, Kubernetes, and many more).
Back-end programming languages
Practice
19 years
Projects
200+
Workforce
60+
Our .NET developers can build sustainable and high-performing apps up to 2x faster due to outstanding .NET proficiency and high productivity.
Practice
25 years
Projects
110+
Workforce
40+
ScienceSoft's Java developers build secure, resilient and efficient cloud-native and cloud-only software of any complexity and successfully modernize legacy software solutions.
Practice
10 years
Projects
50+
Workforce
30
ScienceSoft's Python developers and data scientists excel at building general-purpose Python apps, big data and IoT platforms, AI and ML-based apps, and BI solutions.
Practice
10 years
Workforce
100
ScienceSoft delivers cloud-native, real-time web and mobile apps, web servers, and custom APIs ~1.5–2x faster than other software developers.
Practice
16 years
Projects
170
Workforce
55
ScienceSoft's PHP developers helped to build Viber. Their recent projects: an IoT fleet management solution used by 2,000+ corporate clients and an award-winning remote patient monitoring solution.
Practice
4 years
ScienceSoft's developers use Go to build robust cloud-native, microservices-based applications that leverage advanced techs — IoT, big data, AI, ML, blockchain.
Front-end programming languages
Languages
Practice
21 years
Projects
2,200+
Workforce
50+
ScienceSoft uses JavaScript’s versatile ecosystem of frameworks to create dynamic and interactive user experience in web and mobile apps.
JavaScript frameworks
Practice
13 years
Workforce
100+
ScienceSoft leverages code reusability Angular is notable for to create large-scale apps. We chose Angular for a banking app with 3M+ users.
Workforce
80+
ScienceSoft achieves 20–50% faster React development and 50–90% fewer front-end performance issues due to smart implementation of reusable components and strict adherence to coding best practices.
ScienceSoft uses Meteor for rapid full-stack development of web, mobile and desktop apps.
By using a lightweight Vue framework, ScienceSoft creates high-performant apps with real-time rendering.
With Next.js, ScienceSoft creates SEO-friendly apps and achieves the fastest performance for apps with decoupled architecture.
When working with Ember.js, ScienceSoft creates reusable components to speed up development and avoid code redundancy.
Mobile
Practice
16 years
Projects
150+
Workforce
50+
ScienceSoft’s achieves 20–50% cost reduction for iOS projects due to excellent self-management and Agile skills of the team. The quality is never compromised — our iOS apps are highly rated.
Practice
14 years
Projects
200+
Workforce
50+
There are award-winning Android apps in ScienceSoft’s portfolio. Among the most prominent projects is the 5-year-long development of Viber, a messaging and VoIP app for 1.8B users.
Practice
11 years
Projects
85+
Workforce
10+
ScienceSoft cuts the cost of mobile projects twice by building functional and user-friendly cross-platform apps with Xamarin.
ScienceSoft uses Cordova to create cross-platform apps and avoid high project costs that may come with native mobile development.
ScienceSoft takes the best from native mobile and web apps and creates the ultimate user experience in PWA.
Practice
8 years
Projects
300+
ScienceSoft reduces up to 50% of project costs and time by creating cross-platform apps that run smoothly on web, Android and iOS.
ScienceSoft will save you from double or even triple expenses associated with platform-specific coding by creating cross-platform apps in Flutter.
With Ionic, ScienceSoft creates a single app codebase for web and mobile platforms and thus expands the audience of created apps to billions of users at the best cost.
Clouds
Real-time data processing
DevOps
Containerization
Automation
CI/CD tools
Monitoring
Cost Factors of Payment Gateway Development
Based on ScienceSoft's experience in payment software development projects, we defined the general cost factors that apply to the majority of payment gateway development use cases:
- Requirements to the functional capabilities of a payment gateway, its performance, scalability, availability, and security.
- The number and complexity of integrations with relevant software (customer-facing web and mobile apps, payment processing systems, accounting software, data analytics solutions, etc.).
- The required modifications of the integrated web and mobile apps, both on the technical level and on the app logic level.
- Whether the payment gateway is going to be monetized or not: the former calls for the ready-to-use integration API development.
- Requirements for the appearance, structure, and contents of a checkout page.
- The need to obtain and maintain PCI DSS certification.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an international payment gateway software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. We provide end-to-end custom software development services to help companies design and build reliable and secure payment gateway solutions tailored to their specific payment handling needs. In our payment gateway development projects, we employ robust quality management and data security management systems backed by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certification.