Shuttle vs PayFac-as-a-Service (Payrix, Finix)

Two Approaches to Platform Payments

PayFac-as-a-Service (PFaaS) and Shuttle both solve the same problem: platforms want to embed payments. But they take fundamentally different paths to get there, and the path you choose determines how much compliance burden you carry, how fast you go to market, and what your payment operations look like in year three.

PayFac-as-a-Service (Payrix, Finix) lets platforms become payment facilitators without building the PayFac infrastructure from scratch. You act as the merchant of record, underwrite your sub-merchants, and own the payment flow end to end. Payrix (acquired by Worldpay/FIS in 2022) focuses on ISV and SaaS embedded payments. Finix is VC-backed and positions itself as "payments infrastructure for platforms." Both give you deeper control over payment economics and the merchant relationship — in exchange for taking on PayFac obligations.

Shuttle is a PSP-neutral payment layer. It lets platforms embed multi-PSP payments through a single integration — supporting 40+ gateways, multiple channels (checkout, voice, links, AI), and white-label merchant tooling. Platforms monetise payments through revenue share without becoming a PayFac, a sub-PayFac, or any variant in between.

The fundamental question: do you need to be a payment facilitator, or do you need payments to work inside your platform?

Side-by-Side Comparison

Where PayFac-as-a-Service Wins

Margin Control

This is the core argument for PFaaS. As a PayFac, you set the merchant's processing rate. You keep the spread between your rate and interchange-plus. For platforms with high transaction volume, the per-transaction margin on PFaaS is structurally higher than a revenue-share model. If payment revenue is your primary margin driver, that pricing power matters.

Ownership of the Merchant Relationship

When you're the PayFac, you own the full merchant relationship — underwriting, risk decisions, pricing, settlements, and disputes. You don't depend on an intermediary for any of these. For platforms that want total control over the merchant payment experience, PFaaS delivers that control.

Payment Economics Depth

PFaaS platforms give you access to interchange data, settlement mechanics, and acquiring economics that a payment layer abstracts away. If your business model depends on understanding and optimising payment economics at the interchange level — if you're building pricing strategies around BIN-level cost data — PFaaS gives you the levers.

Embedded Financial Services Path

Becoming a PayFac is often the first step toward embedded lending, embedded insurance, or embedded banking. If your long-term strategy involves becoming a financial services platform, PFaaS is a stepping stone toward that future. The compliance infrastructure you build for PayFac supports these adjacent products.

Where Shuttle Wins

No PayFac Compliance Burden

This is the structural difference. When you become a PayFac — even through a PFaaS provider — you take on real obligations:

• Merchant underwriting: You evaluate and approve every sub-merchant

• KYC/AML: You perform identity verification and anti-money-laundering checks

• Risk monitoring: You monitor transactions for fraud, chargebacks, and suspicious activity

• Regulatory compliance: You comply with card network rules, state money transmitter laws (in the US), and evolving regulation

• Dispute management: You're in the chain for chargeback representment

These aren't one-time costs. They scale with your merchant count and compound with geographic expansion. A platform with 500 merchants has materially different compliance overhead than one with 50.

Shuttle absorbs all of this. The platform's compliance obligation is minimal — you're embedding a certified payment layer, not operating as a financial institution.

PSP Flexibility

PFaaS platforms typically route all transactions through their acquiring partner. If an enterprise customer says "we process through Worldpay" or "we have negotiated rates with Adyen," the PFaaS model can't accommodate that. The customer either processes through your PayFac's acquirer, or they don't use your platform.

Shuttle supports 40+ gateways. Enterprise customers bring their existing PSP. There is no transaction routing conflict.

Multi-Channel Coverage

PFaaS platforms focus on online checkout — card-not-present transactions through web and mobile interfaces. Shuttle covers channels that PFaaS doesn't:

• Voice payments: PCI-compliant DTMF capture, agent-assisted payments, AI voice agent payments

• Payment links: White-label links sent via SMS, email, or chat

• AI agent payments: Consumer card capture through AI voice and chat agents

• Chat payments: Secure payment capture within messaging interfaces

For platforms with contact centre operations, field service teams, or AI agent deployments, these channels are not optional — and building them on top of a PFaaS model means separate integrations with separate PCI implications.

Faster Time to Market

Going live as a PayFac — even through PFaaS — takes time. You need sponsor bank approval, underwriting workflows, compliance documentation, and risk monitoring infrastructure. Payrix and Finix handle some of this, but the platform still builds and manages merchant onboarding, KYC flows, and risk policies. Timelines of 3-9 months are standard.

Shuttle's pre-built, white-label components — onboarding, checkout, merchant portal — are production-ready. Platforms go live in weeks.

Enterprise PSP Mandates

Enterprise customers with existing PSP relationships will not abandon negotiated rates and established compliance certifications to process through your PayFac. This is the same lock-in problem that affects Stripe Connect and Adyen for Platforms — and it applies equally to PFaaS.

Shuttle removes the obstacle. The enterprise customer's PSP works within your platform's payment infrastructure.

The PayFac Question

Every platform that considers PFaaS needs to answer one question honestly: does your business need to be a payment facilitator, or does it need payments to work?

Becoming a PayFac makes sense when:

• Payment revenue is your primary business model, not a supplement to your SaaS revenue

• You have the resources to build and maintain a compliance function (legal, risk, operations)

• You process enough volume that interchange-level margin control meaningfully impacts your economics

• You plan to expand into embedded financial services (lending, banking, insurance)

• You're willing to accept the regulatory risk that comes with being in the payments chain of custody

For most SaaS platforms, payment revenue is a valuable supplement — not the core business. The platform's differentiation is its software, its workflow, its industry expertise. Payments need to work reliably, support enterprise customers, and generate revenue. They don't need to be a compliance operation.

The analogy: you wouldn't build your own cloud infrastructure to save on hosting margin (unless you're AWS). Most platforms shouldn't become payment facilitators to save on transaction margin — unless payments are genuinely the product.

PFaaS providers have done a good job lowering the barrier to becoming a PayFac. But "lower barrier" isn't "no barrier." The compliance obligations are real, they scale, and they don't go away. The question is whether the margin upside justifies the operational cost — and for most platforms, it doesn't.

When to Choose PayFac-as-a-Service

• Payment revenue is your primary margin driver — you're building a payments business, not just embedding payments

• You want full control over merchant pricing — you set rates, you keep the spread

• You're prepared to build a compliance function — underwriting, KYC, risk monitoring, dispute management

• You have high transaction volume that justifies the fixed cost of PayFac operations

• You plan to expand into embedded financial services — lending, banking, insurance — and need the regulatory infrastructure

• You only need single-acquirer, single-channel (online checkout) coverage

• You have 6+ months before payment capabilities are commercially critical

When to Choose Shuttle

• Payments supplement your SaaS revenue — you want to monetise without becoming a financial institution

• Enterprise customers mandate their PSP (or you expect they will)

• You need multi-channel payments — voice, payment links, chat, AI agents — not just checkout

• You want to go live in weeks, not months

• You don't want PayFac compliance obligations — underwriting, KYC/AML, risk monitoring, regulatory reporting

• You operate across regions and need PSP coverage beyond a single acquiring partner

• You want PSP negotiating leverage — the ability to route between gateways based on pricing and performance

• You want pre-built, white-label merchant tools — onboarding, checkout, portal — without building them yourself

FAQ

Is PFaaS the same as being a full PayFac? Not exactly. PFaaS providers like Payrix and Finix handle much of the infrastructure — the processing platform, sponsor bank relationships, and settlement mechanics. But the platform still takes on significant obligations: merchant underwriting decisions, KYC/AML compliance, risk monitoring, and dispute management. It's lighter than building a PayFac from scratch, but heavier than embedding a payment layer.

Can I switch from PFaaS to Shuttle later? Yes, though the migration involves transitioning your merchant base from your PayFac structure to Shuttle's model. Merchants would be re-onboarded through Shuttle's white-label flow, and you'd select PSPs for their transaction routing. The transition is incremental — you don't need to migrate all merchants at once.

What's the margin difference in practice? PFaaS margins are typically higher per transaction — you set the merchant rate and keep the spread above interchange. Shuttle uses a revenue-share model with lower per-transaction margin but zero compliance overhead. The net margin depends on your volume, your compliance costs, and how much you'd spend building and maintaining underwriting, KYC, and risk operations. For most platforms under $500M in annual processing volume, the compliance costs of PFaaS erode the margin advantage.

Can Shuttle support the same transaction volume as PFaaS? Yes. Shuttle's infrastructure is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and processes across 40+ gateways. Volume is not a constraint — in fact, multi-PSP routing can improve authorisation rates and reduce concentration risk compared to single-acquirer PFaaS models.

Do I lose control over the merchant experience with Shuttle? No. Shuttle's checkout, onboarding, and merchant portal are white-labelled to your platform. Your merchants see your brand. You control the experience — you just don't carry the compliance burden of being the payment facilitator behind it.

Related Reading

• How to Get Payments Off Your Product Roadmap — why payments shouldn't consume your engineering bandwidth

• Shuttle vs Stripe Connect — how single-PSP lock-in limits your platform

• Shuttle vs Building In-House — the real cost of building payment infrastructure yourself

• How Platforms Monetise Payments Without PSP Lock-In — revenue share vs PayFac vs referral models compared

• PayFac Alternatives for Platforms — the full landscape of PayFac alternatives

• Embedded Payments Without Becoming a PayFac — why most platforms don't need to be a PayFac

Embed payments without becoming a PayFac. Shuttle gives your platform 40+ PSPs, multi-channel payments (including voice and AI), and white-label merchant tools — through a single integration. Monetise transactions through revenue share. No underwriting, no KYC obligations, no regulatory burden.

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