The number of people worldwide who use digital payments is estimated to reach 4.9 billion by 2025. It’s hardly surprising that an ever-increasing number of ISVs and SaaS companies are looking to capitalize on this trend — especially as revenues generated by global payment facilitators continue to show upward growth.
It can be quite daunting for ISVs and SaaS companies to navigate these waters without the guidance of intuitive plug-and-play solutions that can help them implement a payments ecosystem.
In this article, we compare Stax Connect and NMI Gateway — two solutions that can help ISVs become a payment facilitator quickly and easily. Let’s see how they stack up against each other.
TL;DR
- NMI (Network Merchants, Inc.) is a leader in payment processing and caters to ISVs, ISOs, and fintech innovators that are looking to create a new pillar of revenue by facilitating payments.
- Features of the NMI Payment Gateway include white-label capabilities, a suite of add-ons like fraud detection, reporting and dashboards, tokenization, and more.
- Stax Connect features all of the same as NMI Payment Gateway, and more, such as: bank sponsorship, risk management, various pre-built enrollment options, and more.
NMI Payment Gateway Features
NMI (Network Merchants, Inc.) is a leading payments processing company that offers full commerce enablement from a single platform. However, unlike most payment processing companies, NMI doesn’t cater to merchants but to ISVs, ISOs, and fintech innovators looking to create new revenue streams by facilitating payments for their customers.
Here are some of its most notable features:
- Modular and customizable: NMI’s platform is highly modular, so ISVs can just use the exact components they want. It lets you white-label their products according to your brand guidelines, and also offers a suite of add-ons (like fraud detection or a mobile payment app) if you want more functionality at a later stage.
- Dashboard and reporting: NMI provides your customers access to detailed dashboards that show a unified view of their transactions, regardless of the sales channel they use. These dashboards also deliver deep insights into customer behaviors and trends.
- Tokenization: NMI offers a unified token vault that uses a single token to securely store each buyer’s payment information. This reduces the risk for ISVs and their customers as they don’t need to handle or store this information directly.
- Multiple payment methods: NMI supports a wide range of payment methods, including online, mobile, in-store, and unattended/self-service transactions. It also offers easy-to-use SDKs and APIs to help you integrate its payment applications into your devices/systems.
- Highly flexible: NMI’s platform is both device and OS agnostic, and doesn’t limit the choices of ISVs and SaaS companies with regards to devices, vendors, and methods. For example, if you want to offer POS devices to your customers, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from because NMI pre-certifies the most popular devices with the largest acquirers and processors. You can also integrate NMI’s features into your own devices.
Stax Connect is an end-to-end payment facilitation solution from Stax designed for ISVs and SaaS companies. The company has a stellar reputation for its customer service and has processed more than $23 billion in payments. The Stax Connect solution can help ISVs build an entire payments ecosystem from scratch in as little as 30 days.
In addition to offering the same capabilities as NMI (i.e., flexibility, customization, reporting, etc.), Stax has several other notable features including:
- Bank sponsorship: Getting a bank sponsorship is usually one of the biggest bottlenecks for ISV or SaaS companies looking to facilitate payments as the process is both time-consuming and complicated. Stax Connect eliminates this hurdle by letting you leverage its relationship with one of the world’s largest sponsor banks.
- Risk management: Stax Connect’s in-house risk management team monitors and validates all your transactions while ensuring the highest level of PCI DSS compliance with ROC and SOC 2 certifications.
- Pre-built enrollment platform: Stax Connect is designed to enable merchants to start accepting payments in as little as 20 minutes of getting started. No need to hire a team of analysts or wait for underwriting approval. By validating each business using AML, KYC, OFAC, and credit checks, Stax accelerates merchant enrollment and onboarding while minimizing costs for ISVs.
- Tokenization: Like NMI, Stax Connect also offers tokenization of payment information, so you can offer both one-time and recurring payment options to your customers without having to handle sensitive payment information directly.
- Dashboard and reporting: Stax Connect offers an interactive dashboard (Command Center) that allows you to view and manage your enrollment pipeline and all transactions on your platform. The Command Center also allows you to assign unique access levels and roles to your support team members.
NMI Payment Gateway API Integrations
NMI offers multiple options for ISVs to integrate payments into their software solutions. The simplest option is to use the NMI Payment API (which works for both web-based and non-web-based applications) but in this case, the ISV needs to pass a PCI vulnerability scan first.
ISVs can also use the Collect.js popup form to securely capture payment data. This generates a token that is passed through the Payment API or the Collect Checkout (a checkout page hosted on NMI servers that integrates into most web-based payment workflows). In both cases, the merchant website is prevented from handling payment information directly.
NMI also offers mobile SDKs for integrating payments into iOS and Android apps, and an EMV chip card SDK for interfacing with hardware terminals. They also offer integrations with many third-party shopping carts such as PrestaShop and Magento.
Stax Connect, on the other hand, offers its Stax API for SaaS vendors and ISVs to integrate payments into their platforms to empower and own the enrollment, customer and payments ecosystem. This includes integrating payments into your platform or website, and allowing for easy and secure creation of automatic recurring payments invoices, subscriptions, and disputes (with tokenization).
It also offers the Stax Mobile SDK for integrating payments into iOS and Android apps, and tokenizing payment methods securely on them. You can develop a fully customizable payment form using the Stax.js JavaScript library from Stax Connect that enables tokenization and ensures PCI compliance.
NMI Pricing
NMI doesn’t disclose pricing information on its website, but given that NMI doesn’t work with merchants directly, working with its ISOs and resellers may impact the ultimate price that a merchant will pay.
Stax, on the other hand, never works with any third-party or external sales agents. It strives to provide tailor-made pricing for every business depending on their unique needs with no tiers or upcharges.
Stax Connect also offers its partners the chance to participate in generous revenue-sharing programs, while also providing dedicated marketing and sales support to help them maximize conversions. Get in touch with the Stax Connect team today for a consultation to see what works best for your business.
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NMI Payment Gateway Pros and Cons
The good thing about NMI is that it offers a wide range of options and add-ons, so ISVs can customize the solution according to their specific needs, the vertical they’re serving, and their target audience. It also supports multiple payment methods including online, mobile, in-store, and self-service, and offers several SDKs and APIs for easy integration.
On the flip side, though, they don’t have too many customer reviews available online. Besides, the company works with ISOs and resellers who have a general tendency of not disclosing hidden fees and quoting higher fees.
The great thing about Stax Connect is that it eliminates the need for a bank sponsorship and allows ISVs to leverage their existing relationship with one of the largest sponsor banks so that they can build a complete payments ecosystem in as little as 30 days.
Its pre-built enrollment platform greatly simplifies enrollment and alleviates any underwriting woes so that customers can start accepting payments in just 20 minutes while ensuring PCI compliance.
Stax also has an amazing customer support team that has received several glowing recommendations across many channels. The only drawback is that they offer their services only to companies that have a presence in the US.
Customer Support
NMI offers phone support to its customers. Users can also submit support tickets through their website. The website also offers an extensive knowledge base and developer documentation for most scenarios, so users can find most of the information on their own.
Stax has a stellar customer support team known to go above and beyond to help a customer. To help ISVs facilitate payments as quickly as possible, a dedicated support team works side-by-side with them to clear all hurdles and roadblocks. Stax Connect partners also benefit from having a dedicated partner success manager to liaise with for a more personalized experience.
Users can also contact Stax’s customer support team via phone, fax, live chat, or submit a support request through their website. Stax Connect also offers an extensive knowledge base and developer documentation for just about every scenario.
Customer Ratings and Reviews
As mentioned earlier, NMI doesn’t have a lot of reviews online. NMI has a 3-star rating on Trustpilot based on two reviews.
On the other hand, Stax has glowing recommendations on almost every review site and forum. They have a 4.1-star rating on Forbes Advisor, a 5-star rating on Merchant Maverick, and a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot based on 611 reviews. Stax also has a 4.4-star rating from US News, which ranked them as the best credit card processing company of 2021.
You can also see how Stax supported Big Time with their platform growth by offering supreme customer support and services in the video below.
Final Verdict: NMI Payment Gateway Vs. Stax Connect
Both NMI and Stax offer robust solutions for ISVs to start facilitating payments quickly with little to no developmental efforts.
By comparison, Stax has been lauded for its customer support and service on every major review site/forum. Its custom pricing, revenue-sharing programs, and marketing/sales support are designed to set its ISV partners up for success so that they can maximize profits and offer great experiences to their customers.
FAQs about NMI vs Stax Connect
Q: What is NMI (Network Merchants, Inc.), and how does it support ISVs?
NMI is a leading payments processing company that offers full commerce enablement from a single platform. However, unlike most payment processing companies, NMI caters not to merchants but to ISVs, ISOs, and fintech innovators looking to create new revenue streams by facilitating payments for their customers. NMI’s gateway is modular, customizable, and supports multiple payment methods.
Q: How does Stax Connect help ISVs and SaaS companies facilitate payments?
Stax Connect is an end-to-end payment facilitation solution designed for ISVs and SaaS companies. Stax’s solution accelerates merchant enrollment, offers risk management bank sponsorship, and allows for easy and secure creation of automatic recurring payments, invoices, and subscriptions. Stax Connect also offers tokenization of payment information, eliminating the need for handling sensitive payment information directly.
Q: What are the API integration options provided by NMI and Stax Connect for facilitating payments?
NMI offers multiple options for payment integration, including the NMI Payment API for web-based and non-web-based applications, mobile SDKs for iOS and Android apps, and an EMV chip card SDK for interfacing with hardware terminals. Stax Connect offers its own Stax API, enabling vendors to integrate payments into their platform or website, and the Stax Mobile SDK for integrating payments into mobile apps.
Q: What sets Stax Connect apart from NMI Payment Gateway?
Stax Connect is known for its bank sponsorship feature, which allows ISVs to start facilitating payments quickly. It also provides an in-house risk management team and a pre-built enrollment platform that simplifies enrollment and compliance. Stax Connect’s customizable pricing, revenue-sharing programs, and dedicated marketing and sales support are designed to set up their partners for success.
Q: How do NMI and Stax handle customer support for their users and partners?
NMI offers phone support and also allows users to submit support tickets through their website. Stax is known for its stellar customer support team offering help via phone, fax, live chat, or by submitting a support request through their website. Stax Connect also provides a dedicated partner success manager to liaise with for a more personalized experience.
Q: What is the feedback from customers and reviews for NMI and Stax?
NMI has a limited number of online reviews, with a 3.3-star rating on Trustpilot and a 2-star rating on CardFellow. On the other hand, Stax has gathered glowing recommendations on virtually every review site and forum. They have a 4.1-star rating on Forbes Advisor, a 5-star rating on Merchant Maverick, and a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot based on numerous reviews.
Q: What is the verdict on choosing between NMI and Stax Connect for ISVs?
Both NMI and Stax offer robust solutions for ISVs to start facilitating payments quickly with little to no developmental efforts. However, Stax has been lauded for its superior customer support, custom pricing, and revenue-sharing programs, which are generally preferred in the reviews. However, the choice between NMI and Stax ultimately depends on the specific needs, verticals, and target audience of the ISVs.
