A payment gateway is a technology that acts as a bridge between an online merchant and the financial institutions involved in processing transactions. Payment hub vendors help businesses securely transmit transaction data—such as instant payments—from the merchant's website or application to acquiring bank accounts, payment processors, or other financial institutions.
Payments hubs ensure the encryption of sensitive data, verifies transaction details, and facilitates the authorization and settlement processes. It enables businesses to accept various payment methods, such as credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets, and other payment types, all while helping streamline the payment flow. This can be done for local, regional, and global payments.
On the other hand, payment hubs are centralized platforms or systems that consolidate multiple payment channels and provide a unified view and management of various payment types. It serves as a hub for processing and managing payments from different sources, such as online channels, point-of-sale (POS) systems, mobile devices, and other payment interfaces. A payments hub allows businesses to handle diverse payment methods, currencies, and payment service providers (PSPs) through a single interface. It often includes features like transaction routing, reconciliation, reporting, and fraud management. Both can help in the prevention of payment fraud.