The Front Desk Review

Best Payment Processors · head-to-head

Authorize.net vs Stax (by Fattmerchant)

A sourced, side-by-side comparison for payment processors. Authorize.net has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.

Authorize.net has the lower entry price — Authorize.net starts at $25/mo, Stax (by Fattmerchant) at $99/mo. Free tier: Authorize.net No, Stax (by Fattmerchant) No. HIPAA: Authorize.net No, Stax (by Fattmerchant) No.

As of 2026-09-03 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

Authorize.net

$25/mo entry
Entry price$25/mo (All-in-One)
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)No
SOC 2—
GDPR—
Best forEstablished SMBs wanting a gateway-only solution with their own merchant account

Stax (by Fattmerchant)

$99/mo entry
Entry price$99/mo (Subscription (up to $150K/yr))
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)No
SOC 2—
GDPR—
Best forEstablished SMBs processing $120K+/year wanting to eliminate percentage markups

Sources — Authorize.net: authorize.net (verified 2026-09-03) · Stax (by Fattmerchant): staxpayments.com (verified 2026-09-03)

Key features

Authorize.net: Established payment gateway with 25+ years in market (Visa subsidiary); Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) with customizable rules; Account Updater to automatically refresh stored card data; Recurring billing and subscription payment management; Supports Tap to Pay on mobile and eCheck/ACH payments

Stax (by Fattmerchant): 0% interchange markup — flat per-transaction cents only above direct interchange cost; Subscription model saves high-volume merchants vs. percentage-based processors; All-in-one: invoicing, recurring billing, virtual terminal, and reporting included; PCI DSS compliant platform; Dedicated account manager on higher tiers

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