As mentioned in our Integration Overview, whether you are taking In Person payments or Online Payments, there are three integration types you might consider using in your integration with PaymentExpress. Each integration has unique advantages as well as certain limitations, so we're going to list them out here for you.

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You Don't Have To Pick Only One

One of the great things about integrating with PaymentExpress is that we are ready and prepared for all of the different integrations you may need. If you need to do a Hosted Checkout for your In Person payments and an Embedded Checkout on your online portal, we're ready and willing to tackle that!

Hosted Checkout

A Hosted Checkout is a checkout where your software will direct the customer (or cashier) to a PaymentExpress hosted web page which will be used to complete the remaining portion of the checkout process, at which point the user can be directed back to your site/software.

Why You Might Choose Hosted Checkout

• Hosted Checkouts are the lowest code integration type. They require minimal effort to integrate into your existing application due to the nature of the handoff process.
• Hosted Checkout pages can be customized to continue to look like your application.
• Most Hosted Checkouts have built in support for the PaymentExpress digital wallet, allowing users to register for an account, save tender information for faster future checkouts, view previous transactions, etc.
• Hosted Checkout is one of our most common integration types, and as such will often be the first integration type to get new features, such as new tenders (e.g. hosted checkout was the first to support Apple Pay).
• Hosted Checkouts for In Person payments handle all interaction with the PIN Pad, and thus do not require the client to write any code that does so.

Why You Might Not

• Hosted Checkouts, while customizable for look and feel, require that the user leaves your application and completes their process in PaymentExpress.

Embedded Checkout

An Embedded Checkout is much like a Hosted Checkout, but provides the possibility of keeping the customer or cashier in your software and workflow, potentially making for a more linear user experience for your users. It offers almost all of the same benefits as a Hosted Checkout, but with this big upside.

Why You Might Choose Embedded Checkout

• Embedded Checkout is still a very low code integration type. It requires the same pre-payment work as a Hosted Checkout, but with the benefit that with a small amount of code, the Payment Widget populates right in your application.
• As new features become available, such as new tender types (i.e. Apple Pay), they will automatically be made available to you with no required code change on your end.
• Embedded In Person Checkouts also handle all interactions with the PIN Pad, and thus do not require the client to write any code that does so.

Why You Might Not

• Some clients prefer the distinct separation of their application and PaymentExpress, despite the upsides that a direct embedding provides.

Direct Payments

A Direct Payment integration is an integration where the client codes directly against our APIs for processing payments, meaning they are responsible for item handling, fee calculation and display, collecting card information (either online or using a PIN Pad for In Person), and directly instructing our APIs to process a payment. This integration type is not right for most use cases.

Why You Might Choose Direct Payments

• You already have a fully fledged system for accepting tender information (Credit Card or eCheck), and want to maintain control over the full flow of the process.

Why You Might Not

• This is far and away the highest code integration for a client. It will require the client or their other vendors to code capabilities for collecting card information, PIN Pad integration for In Person payments, and proper security controls around handling and encrypting tender information.
• With a direct integration, any new features made available through PaymentExpress will either be inaccessible for you and your users, and/or they will require code changes to occur in your platform to enable them.