Payment Gateway Implementation Cost 2026

Feature	Vendor	Hosted checkout
Stripe	~1 day	1-2 weeks
PayPal	~1 day	1-2 weeks
Square	~1 day	1 week
Braintree	~1 day	1-2 weeks
Helcim	~1 day	1 week
Adyen	N/A	Custom timeline per certification scope
Worldpay	N/A	Custom timeline per certification scope
Authorize.net	~1 day	1-2 weeks

Implementation cost line items

Developer time: hosted-checkout integrations on flat-rate vendors (Stripe Checkout, PayPal Smart Buttons, Square Web Payments SDK) are typically a single day. Custom API integrations on the same vendors are documented in their integration guides as one to two weeks.
PCI scope: tokenised hosted-checkout = SAQ-A. Custom API capturing card data = SAQ-D or worse.
Sandbox / test-card setup: included by all major vendors at no charge.
Certification: enterprise IC+ vendors (Adyen, Worldpay, Checkout.com, Chase Payment Solutions, Fiserv, Elavon) require certification of card-data flow before go-live; timeline is set per engagement, not published as a single duration.
Recurring-billing migration: card-on-file portability between gateways is governed by the network's account-updater rules; Adyen, Stripe, and Braintree all support card portability with proper agreements.