Payment gateways in Canada: which one you have, and what to check before you change it.

A payment gateway carries a card sale from your website, store or billing software to the company that processes it. Most Canadian merchants already have one. It came with a plugin, a software subscription or a processing contract, and its name is rarely on the invoice. We find it with you, then check the whole setup behind it before anything changes: the account, the processor, the software, the currency and saved cards.

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A shop owner at a Montreal counter comparing a printed statement with checkout settings on a tablet.

Reviewed by the CleverPays payments team · Last reviewed

The short answer

  • A gateway is not a processor. The gateway moves the card details. The processor approves the sale and settles the money. Most of what you pay comes from the processing.
  • You probably already have one. If you take cards online, by phone or from invoices, a gateway is in the chain. It may carry another company's name.
  • Your software decides which gateways fit. Each platform documents its own connectors. The tables below show which names appear where.
  • One currency per account is common. Several gateways set each account to CAD or USD. A second currency usually means a second account.
  • Nothing changes until it is checked. Changing processor, keeping saved cards or keeping recurring billing depends on your account. We confirm it in writing first.

Gateway or processor?

A payment gateway passes the card details from your checkout to a processor and brings the answer back. The payment processor approves the sale and settles the money into your merchant account, which pays out to your bank.

  1. Your website, store or billing software
  2. The gateway
  3. The company that processes your card payments
  4. Your merchant account
  5. Your Canadian bank account

Some gateways are sold on their own, for a business that already has a merchant account. Some are bundled with one. Some belong to the company that processes the payments, so both come as one product. Your statement and the plugin name in your software usually tell you which you have. You can also compare the gateways side by side.

Find your gateway

Look for these names on your statements, in your software's payment settings, or in the portal address you log in to.

8 software products checked

  • Authorize.Net

    Payment settings in your software, an API login ID, its Customer Information Manager

    WooCommerce, BigCommerce, HighLevel, Checkfront, Cin7 Core, NetSuite through a connector

    Canada: CAD through processors on its own list. One currency per account. Its eCheck is US ACH, not Canadian PAD

    Check my setup

  • NMI

    Often under a reseller's own brand. Portal at secure.nmi.com. A Gateway ID and Security Key

    Shopify, HighLevel, BigCommerce, QuickBooks Online, WooCommerce through third-party plugins

    Canada: USD and CAD "based upon payment processor". Canadian bank accounts by transit and institution number. No Canadian office. Interac not documented

    Check my setup

  • Bambora

    Bambora or Beanstream web addresses, moving to Shift4 addresses. Settlement line "BAM" on your bank statement

    WooCommerce, Maxio

    Canada: Each account is CAD or USD. Help centre in English and French. Part of Shift4 since 2 March 2026; addresses change by 31 December 2026

    Check my setup

  • Moneris Gateway

    "Moneris Gateway merchant account", a Store ID and API Token, the Merchant Resource Center, Moneris Checkout

    Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce B2C Commerce

    Canada: Canada only, settles in CAD, including foreign-currency pricing. Interac Debit through Apple Pay and Google Pay. French site

    Check my setup

  • Clover Gateway

    "Clover Payments" plugin, the Clover Dashboard login, Hosted Checkout. Formerly Payeezy

    WooCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce

    Canada: Each account is CAD or USD. Interac on Clover devices only, not online. Canadian site in English and French

    Check my setup

  • Shift4

    Shift4 Customer Hub login, a dev.shift4.com dashboard, "Shift4 for WooCommerce", a Shift4-branded Bambora portal

    WooCommerce, Salesforce B2C Commerce

    Canada: Processing in Canada and the United States per Shift4. No Canadian office or pricing page on shift4.com. Interac on Shift4's own platforms not documented

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  • Cybersource

    "Cybersource, a Visa solution", the Business Center portal, plugins named "Visa Acceptance Solutions"

    WooCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, NetSuite, Salesforce

    Canada: No Canadian site. Settlement currency follows the account behind it, so CAD is confirmed per setup. Apple Pay and Google Pay listed for Canada. Interac not documented

    Check my setup

  • Windcave

    The Payline portal, Paylink, PayMoto, PxPay. Formerly Payment Express

    WooCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce, NetSuite

    Canada: Contracts through Windcave Canada Limited in British Columbia, since 2021. No Toronto office. CAD listed in its WooCommerce guide. Interac terms conflict between its pages

    Check my setup

Gateways by software

"Third-party plugin" means a company other than the gateway built and maintains it. For online stores, see ecommerce payments; for NetSuite, see NetSuite payment processing.

SoftwareGateways with a documented connector
WooCommerceAuthorize.Net, NMI (third-party plugin), Bambora, Moneris Gateway (third-party plugin), Clover Gateway, Shift4, Cybersource, Windcave
ShopifyNMI, Moneris Gateway, Clover Gateway, Cybersource, Windcave
Adobe Commerce (Magento)Moneris Gateway, Clover Gateway, Cybersource, Windcave, NMI (third-party plugin)
BigCommerceAuthorize.Net, NMI, Cybersource
NetSuiteAuthorize.Net (through a connector), Cybersource, Windcave
QuickBooks OnlineNMI (Bill Connect), Moneris Gateway (sales data sync only, not payments)
Acumaticanone documented. Acumatica ended Authorize.Net support on 30 June 2025
HighLevelAuthorize.Net, NMI

What to check before you change anything

Currency

Many gateway accounts are set to one currency. Bambora, Clover and Authorize.Net each document a CAD or USD setting per account, and Moneris Gateway settles in CAD. If you bill American customers in USD, check whether you need a second account and whether your software can send each sale to the right one.

Saved cards and recurring billing

Stored cards live in the gateway's vault or in your software, and the billing schedule can run in either place. Where they sit decides what survives a change of account or processor. We check before anyone promises a card will carry over.

The software connector

Your software company maintains the connector, not the gateway. Each one documents what it supports: saved cards, subscriptions, refunds, 3-D Secure, Apple Pay. Read the version you have installed. If you also take payments in store, see POS integrations.

3-D Secure 2 is set per gateway, and per account

Every gateway on this page documents 3-D Secure 2, and only Windcave's hosted page has it on by default. Moneris needs a call to Sales Support, Clover a switch in the Merchant Dashboard, NMI and Cybersource a priced extension, Bambora an enrolment by support, and Authorize.Net's own fields for it are marked deprecated. Each gateway page has a 3-D Secure section with the detail, and the compare table has a column for it. Why it matters: card-testing bots run stolen card numbers through online checkouts by the thousand, and Visa's guidance says every attempt, approved or declined, can carry authorization and gateway fees, with disputes on the ones that go through. Visa's merchant guide lists 3-D Secure authentication among the controls, next to CAPTCHA, velocity limits and device checks. Turn it on before the first attack; we check that it is live and that your checkout sends it. See 3-D Secure in Canada, or the sixty-second version.

Card testing: every gateway has controls, none are on by default

Each gateway on this page documents velocity limits, AVS and card code checks, IP blocking and a scoring tool, under its own names: Kount on NMI and Moneris, Risk Thresholds on Bambora, Decision Manager on Cybersource, transaction filters on Authorize.Net, rules on Shift4 and Windcave, reCAPTCHA on Clover. Most need the customer IP and billing address sent by your plugin, and several are priced add-ons or must be requested from support. Each gateway page has a card-testing section with the detail.

Where CleverPays fits

The gateway company owns and runs the gateway. The company that processes your card payments approves and settles them. Your software company maintains its connector. The card networks set their own rules. CleverPays makes none of the gateways on this page.

We can read your statement and name the gateway on it. We can check the setup with you: which account, which processor, which software, CAD or USD, saved cards and recurring billing. We can say in writing what can change and what cannot. Where we can set up the account, we will say so in writing; where we cannot, we will tell you. We can connect and test what we set up, and stay your contact in English and French. For the fee lines behind a gateway, see card processing fees in Canada.

Check my gateway setup

Sources

Product and company names on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. CleverPays is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

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Common questions

For card payments online, by phone or from invoices, yes. Some providers bundle them as one product, so you may hold both under one contract.

Not sure which gateway you have?

Send us a statement or a screenshot of your payment settings. We name the gateway, check the setup and tell you plainly what can change.

Check my gateway setup

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