Adyen vs Checkout.com: Which PSP for Your Platform?

Adyen and Checkout.com are the two enterprise payment processors that come up in almost every platform’s PSP evaluation. Both serve large, global merchants. Both offer direct acquiring. Both claim to solve the same problem: reliable, high-performance payment processing at scale.

So which is right for your platform?

The honest answer: both are strong. They’re built for different priorities, and the right choice depends on what your platform values most. This guide covers the real differences — geography, pricing, product depth, and commercial flexibility — without the usual vendor spin.

There is also a third option that most comparisons skip: using both simultaneously through a PSP-neutral infrastructure layer. More on that below.

Adyen vs Checkout.com: Side-by-Side Comparison

	Adyen	Checkout.com
Founded	2006, Amsterdam	2012, London
Ownership	Publicly traded (Euronext Amsterdam)	Private (last valued at $11B)
2025 Revenue	€1.96B	Not publicly disclosed
Processed Volume	€1.6T+ annually	Not publicly disclosed
Direct Acquiring	30+ countries	50+ markets
Platform Product	Adyen for Platforms	Custom enterprise agreements
Pricing Model	Interchange++ (transparent)	Custom enterprise (opaque)
Core Strengths	Unified stack, stability, enterprise retail	Performance optimisation, commercial flexibility
Best For	Platforms wanting one consolidated stack	Platforms prioritising conversion and negotiated terms
Compliance	PCI DSS Level 1	PCI DSS Level 1

Where Adyen Wins

1. Unified Platform Architecture

Adyen’s single-platform philosophy is genuinely differentiated. Processing, acquiring, risk, data, and value-added services run on the same infrastructure. There is no patchwork of acquired products or third-party dependencies behind the facade.

For platforms, this matters because it eliminates the data fragmentation that plagues multi-vendor payment stacks. Settlement data, dispute management, and analytics all live in one place, under one API contract.

2. Adyen for Platforms

Adyen’s dedicated platform product handles the complexity of onboarding sub-merchants, managing split settlements, and distributing funds. It was designed for marketplaces and SaaS platforms that want to embed payments without becoming a payment company themselves.

The product has matured significantly since launch. Platforms building on Adyen for Platforms get access to Adyen’s acquiring network, risk tools, and reporting — all surfaced through a single integration.

3. Transparent Interchange++ Pricing

Adyen publishes its processing fees. The Interchange++ model means platforms pay card network interchange (set by Visa and Mastercard), plus a small, disclosed markup. There are no surprises, no bundled rates obscuring margin, and no renegotiation needed every year.

For finance teams and CFOs who want predictable cost of revenue, this pricing model is considerably easier to model than opaque enterprise quotes.

4. Public Company Stability

Adyen is publicly traded on Euronext Amsterdam. Quarterly earnings, audited financials, and public accountability are part of the package. For enterprise procurement and vendor risk teams, that transparency reduces perceived counterparty risk compared to a privately held alternative.

This matters less for early-stage platforms, but becomes a meaningful consideration when the platform itself is enterprise-grade or publicly traded.

Where Checkout.com Wins

1. Aggressive Commercial Terms

Checkout.com built its reputation partly by being commercially flexible in ways that larger, more bureaucratic processors would not match. Negotiated rates, volume-based incentives, and custom commercial structures are a known part of their enterprise sales approach.

For high-volume platforms with leverage in commercial negotiations, this flexibility can translate into meaningfully lower per-transaction costs compared to a more standardised pricing model.

2. Performance Optimisation Focus

Checkout.com has invested heavily in intelligent routing, authorisation optimisation, and real-time analytics built around conversion improvement. Their product positioning is explicitly performance-oriented: the claim is that routing intelligence and issuer relationships produce higher authorisation rates.

For platforms where basis-point improvements in approval rates compound at scale, this focus is a genuine differentiator. A 0.5% improvement in authorisation rate across €5B in annual volume is worth tens of millions.

3. Broader Direct Acquiring Coverage

Checkout.com offers direct acquiring in 50+ markets, compared to Adyen’s 30+. For platforms with significant payment volume in emerging markets, Southeast Asia, or markets where Adyen’s direct acquiring is not available, Checkout.com’s geographic footprint may cover more of the relevant territory.

Direct acquiring — rather than using third-party acquirers — generally produces better data, faster settlement, and more control over dispute handling.

4. Enterprise Flexibility

Checkout.com’s privately held structure gives it commercial agility that a public company trading on quarterly earnings cannot always match. Large custom deals, bespoke integration support, and flexibility on contract structure are areas where Checkout.com’s sales organisation has historically moved quickly.

Why Platforms Are Moving Beyond the Adyen-vs-Checkout Question

Here is the frame that most comparisons skip.

Both Adyen and Checkout.com are excellent PSPs. The question is not which is objectively better — it is whether locking your platform into any single PSP makes strategic sense.

Platforms that process payments on behalf of merchants or sub-users face a specific set of constraints that single-PSP architectures handle poorly:

Coverage gaps. No single PSP covers every market, every payment method, and every merchant type equally well. Adyen is stronger in some verticals; Checkout.com in others. A platform serving merchants across multiple verticals and geographies will find edge cases where the chosen PSP underperforms.

Negotiating leverage. Platforms locked into a single PSP have no credible alternative when renewal time arrives. PSPs know this. Platforms with multi-PSP infrastructure — even if they route 90% of volume through one provider — can negotiate from a fundamentally different position.

Resilience. Single-PSP platforms carry concentration risk. When a PSP has an outage (and they do), the platform’s entire payment capability goes down. Multi-PSP routing removes that single point of failure.

Merchant preference. Some large merchants have existing PSP relationships and pricing they are not willing to abandon. A platform that can accommodate merchant-side PSP preferences — rather than forcing a switch — has a material advantage in enterprise merchant acquisition.

PSP-neutral infrastructure allows platforms to connect multiple PSPs behind a single integration, unified checkout experience, and common data layer. Adyen and Checkout.com both become options in the routing logic rather than existential commitments.

When to Choose Adyen

Adyen is the stronger default for platforms that:

Want a single consolidated stack with no third-party dependencies in the critical path
Are building on Adyen for Platforms and need the full suite of sub-merchant management tools
Value pricing transparency and want predictable, auditable cost of revenue
Operate primarily in markets where Adyen has strong direct acquiring coverage
Are enterprise procurement-led, where public-company financial stability simplifies vendor risk

When to Choose Checkout.com

Checkout.com is the stronger default for platforms that:

Have significant volume and commercial leverage to negotiate aggressive rates
Are optimisation-focused and want to squeeze authorisation rate improvements from intelligent routing
Operate in geographies where Checkout.com’s direct acquiring coverage exceeds Adyen’s
Need commercial flexibility that a larger, publicly traded processor is not positioned to offer
Are digital-native businesses where Checkout.com’s enterprise team has deep vertical knowledge

When to Use Both

Platforms that have reached meaningful scale — typically processing over £50M annually on behalf of merchants — frequently find that the Adyen-vs-Checkout.com choice is a false one. The answer is both, routed intelligently based on merchant type, geography, transaction characteristics, and conversion performance.

This is not a theoretical architecture. It is how the most sophisticated platforms operate. The infrastructure that makes it practical is a PSP-neutral layer that sits between the platform and its PSPs, handling routing decisions, unified settlement, and a single integration surface.

Shuttle Global supports both Adyen and Checkout.com — alongside 38+ other PSPs — under a single white-label integration. Platforms connect once to Shuttle’s infrastructure and get access to the full PSP network, with routing decisions made programmatically based on real performance data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Adyen or Checkout.com cheaper?

Adyen publishes Interchange++ pricing, which is transparent and auditable. Checkout.com pricing is custom and enterprise-negotiated, which can result in better rates for high-volume platforms with leverage. Without a specific volume and commercial negotiation in hand, a direct cost comparison is not meaningful. Platforms processing over £50M annually should negotiate with both.

Which PSP has better authorisation rates?

Both Adyen and Checkout.com invest significantly in authorisation optimisation. Performance varies by market, card type, merchant category, and transaction profile. The honest answer is that neither is universally better — which is an argument for testing both rather than assuming one outperforms.

Can a platform use both Adyen and Checkout.com at the same time?

Yes. PSP-neutral infrastructure like Shuttle allows platforms to route transactions across multiple PSPs simultaneously. This is increasingly common among large platforms for resilience, optimisation, and commercial leverage.

Does Adyen for Platforms replace the need for a separate platform infrastructure layer?

Adyen for Platforms handles sub-merchant onboarding and split settlements within the Adyen ecosystem. It does not provide PSP-neutral routing, multi-channel payments (voice, chat, AI agents), or the ability to use non-Adyen processors. For platforms that need flexibility beyond the Adyen stack, a neutral layer sits alongside rather than replacing Adyen for Platforms.

How is Checkout.com’s financial stability?

Checkout.com is privately held. Its valuation fell from a peak of approximately $40B to around $11B following broader fintech market corrections. It remains a significant, well-capitalised business. Platforms running vendor risk assessments should review Checkout.com’s financial disclosures available through their enterprise sales process.

Which PSP is better for voice and AI agent payments?

Neither Adyen nor Checkout.com provides native voice checkout or AI agent payment capability out of the box. Platforms building multi-channel payment flows — including voice, chat, and agent-initiated payments — typically add a specialised layer on top of their PSP. See our guide on agentic payments for platforms.

Work With Both — Without Locking Into Either

Shuttle Global is the PSP-neutral payments infrastructure for platforms. Connect Adyen, Checkout.com, and 38+ other processors through a single integration. White-label checkout, voice payments, AI agent support, and unified settlement data — without rebuilding your payment stack every time your PSP strategy changes.

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