Shuttle vs Checkout.com for Platforms

Two Models for Platform Payments

Checkout.com Platforms and Shuttle both let platforms embed payments. But they come from fundamentally different starting points:

Checkout.com Platforms is Checkout.com's product for platforms and marketplaces. It lets platforms onboard sub-entities and process their transactions through Checkout.com's acquiring network.

Shuttle is a PSP-neutral payment layer. It lets platforms embed multi-PSP payments through a single integration, supporting 40+ gateways, multiple payment channels, and white-label merchant tooling.

The core difference: Checkout.com Platforms makes Checkout.com your sole processor. Shuttle lets merchants choose their processor, including Checkout.com.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Where Checkout.com Wins

Be honest about this: credibility matters.

Payment performance optimisation

This is Checkout.com's genuine edge. Their intelligent retry logic, network tokenisation, and account updater capabilities are best-in-class for maximising authorisation rates. If your platform's merchants are losing revenue to declined transactions, Checkout.com's performance stack is serious.

Direct acquiring in key markets

Checkout.com is a principal member of card networks and a direct acquirer in the UK, Europe, US, and MENA. This means fewer intermediaries, faster settlement, and often better interchange rates for high-volume merchants in those regions. For platforms concentrated in these geographies, Checkout.com's acquiring economics can be very competitive.

High-risk and complex verticals

Checkout.com has built deep expertise in verticals that many PSPs avoid: gaming, crypto, travel, and fintech. If your platform operates in one of these sectors, Checkout.com understands the risk profile, regulatory requirements, and chargeback patterns. Their underwriting appetite for complex verticals is broader than most acquirers.

Scale and throughput

Checkout.com is engineered for high-volume merchants processing at enterprise scale. If your platform's merchants individually process very large volumes, Checkout.com's infrastructure handles it without performance degradation. They're built for the kind of throughput that gaming and travel platforms demand.

Identity and KYC capabilities

Checkout.com's acquisition of Ubble gives them integrated KYC and identity verification for merchant onboarding. For platforms in regulated markets where identity verification is critical, this is a meaningful addition to the onboarding flow, especially in European markets where Ubble has strong document verification coverage.

Where Shuttle Wins

PSP flexibility: the structural difference

This is not a feature comparison. It's an architectural divide.

Checkout.com Platforms routes every transaction through Checkout.com's network. If a merchant needs Worldpay, Stripe, Adyen, a regional acquirer, or any other PSP, Checkout.com cannot support it. This is the same single-PSP limitation that applies to Stripe Connect and Adyen for Platforms.

Shuttle connects to 40+ PSPs. Merchants choose their gateway, or your platform sets which provider handles each payment type.

Why this matters: Enterprise merchants frequently mandate their PSP. They have existing contracts, negotiated rates, and banking relationships. "Switch everything to Checkout.com" is not always an option, especially when a merchant already has interchange-plus rates they've spent years negotiating with another acquirer.

The further upmarket your platform moves, the more this matters.

Enterprise deal enablement

Here's the scenario that plays out repeatedly: your platform lands an enterprise customer. They want embedded payments. But they already process through Worldpay, or Adyen, or a regional acquirer with rates that Checkout.com can't match for their specific volume and geography.

With Checkout.com Platforms, the conversation stalls. The enterprise customer won't switch processors just to use your platform.

With Shuttle, if their PSP is one of the 40+ Shuttle supports, you configure it for them. Your platform keeps one integration to maintain, and there is no PSP migration conversation.

Multi-channel coverage

Checkout.com covers online and in-app payments, payment links and MOTO. Shuttle covers:

• Embedded checkout

• PCI-compliant voice payments (IVR, agent-assisted, AI voice agents)

• White-label payment links (SMS, email, chat)

• Chat agent payments

• AI voice agent payments

If your platform serves contact centres or runs AI voice agents, the difference is card capture inside the call, for a person or an AI agent, on each merchant's own compatible gateway. This is particularly relevant for platforms building on agentic payment infrastructure where voice and chat are primary payment channels, not secondary.

White-label everything

Checkout.com Platforms onboards sub-entities through Hosted Onboarding or its API, and every sub-entity processes on Checkout.com. Shuttle's merchant experience is white-label, with onboarding, portal and payment pages branded as your platform, and it works whichever of the 40+ gateways each merchant uses.

For platforms positioning themselves as the payments provider to their merchants, white-label is essential.

Pre-built components

Shuttle is a single API integration with pre-built checkout, onboarding and portal components.

One integration for every merchant's PSP

With Shuttle, one integration serves every merchant, whatever their PSP. Your highest-volume enterprise merchants, who are the most likely to mandate their own PSP, are served on the same integration.

The Single-PSP Problem

Every PSP-owned platform solution, such as Checkout.com Platforms, Stripe Connect and Adyen for Platforms, shares the same structural limitation: all transactions go through that PSP.

This works well when:

• Your merchants are in markets where that PSP has strong acquiring

• Your merchants don't have existing PSP commitments

• Your merchants are small enough that they don't negotiate their own rates

It breaks down when:

• Enterprise merchants mandate their own PSP

• Regional coverage requires acquirers the PSP doesn't support

• Merchants have pre-negotiated rates with other processors that Checkout.com can't match

• Your platform needs payment channels the PSP doesn't offer

Checkout.com Platforms is a strong product if your entire merchant base will process through Checkout.com. But the question platforms need to ask is: will EVERY merchant, in EVERY market, for EVERY use case, be willing to process exclusively through Checkout.com?

For most platforms moving upmarket, the answer is no.

When to Choose Checkout.com

• Your platform's merchants are concentrated in UK, Europe, US, or MENA

• You operate in complex verticals (gaming, crypto, travel, fintech) where Checkout.com has deep expertise

• Maximising authorisation rates is your top priority and you want best-in-class retry logic

• All your merchants will process through Checkout.com, with no PSP mandates

• You don't need card capture inside voice calls

When to Choose Shuttle

• Your merchants need or demand PSP choice

• You sell into enterprise where PSP mandates are common

• You operate across geographies where no single PSP has optimal coverage

• You need card capture inside voice calls, alongside payment links and checkout

• White-label merchant experience matters to your brand

• You need to support merchants who already have negotiated rates with other acquirers

When to Use Both

Checkout.com can be one of the 40+ PSPs available through Shuttle. Platforms that value Checkout.com's authorisation rate optimisation in specific markets can put the merchants or entities that trade in those markets on Checkout.com, while other merchants use other PSPs. This gives you Checkout.com's performance where it's strongest, plus flexibility everywhere else.

FAQ

Is Shuttle trying to replace Checkout.com?

No. Shuttle is not a PSP: it doesn't process transactions itself. Shuttle connects platforms to PSPs, including Checkout.com. If Checkout.com is the right PSP for a merchant, their payments go through Checkout.com. The difference is that Shuttle doesn't require ALL merchants to use Checkout.com.

Can I migrate from Checkout.com Platforms to Shuttle?

Merchants with their own Checkout.com account can connect it to Shuttle, and new merchants can choose their PSP. Saved cards stay with the gateway that stored them.

How does pricing compare?

Checkout.com charges its own processing fees. Shuttle's own fees sit on top, whichever supported PSP each merchant uses. The net cost depends on volume, merchant mix and PSP rates.

Does Shuttle support the same complex verticals as Checkout.com?

Shuttle is PSP-agnostic, so vertical expertise depends on the PSP processing the transaction. If a gaming merchant processes through Checkout.com via Shuttle, they get Checkout.com's gaming expertise. If a merchant in another vertical needs a specialist acquirer, that merchant can use it instead, if it is one of the 40+ gateways Shuttle supports. The platform gets the best of both worlds.

Related Reading

• When Your SaaS Outgrows Stripe Connect: the same single-PSP problem applies to Stripe Connect

• Shuttle vs Stripe Connect: the Stripe comparison

• Shuttle vs Adyen for Platforms: the Adyen comparison

• How to Get Payments Off Your Product Roadmap: the hidden cost of maintaining payment infrastructure

• Agentic Payments for Platforms: taking payments through AI agents

• Shuttle vs Worldpay for Platforms: another enterprise PSP comparison

• Adyen for Platforms Alternatives: the full landscape of single-PSP alternatives

Need PSP flexibility that Checkout.com can't offer?

See how platforms use Shuttle to connect Checkout.com and the other supported gateways (40+ in all), with voice payments, AI agent channels and white-label merchant experiences.

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