ACH payment processing companies offer an affordable payment option that presents lower chargeback and fraud risk than any other online payment method. ACH represents the most traditional first payment option for businesses looking to process online payments, but not all processors offer the same features or user experience, sometimes adding friction to the purchase process and turning customers away.
To help businesses find the best modern ACH payment processing companies, our third-party research team analyzed over 30 payment processing firms to find the top options and ranked them based on the following criteria:
- Value Score: A 1.0-5.0 score that summarizes the value an ACH processor provides. These scores are based on factors like pricing, fee transparency, unique features, security, ease of use, and more.
- Year Established: ACH processors that have served the industry longer demonstrate an ability to maintain healthy merchant accounts for businesses of all risk profiles over the long term.
- High-Risk Support: While some generalist ACH processors will serve a few high-risk industries, high-risk businesses looking for a greater level of confidence in the health of their merchant accounts should seek out firms with comprehensive high-risk support.
- Dedicated Account Manager: Dedicated account managers ensure access to personalized support that helps resolve costly issues sooner, saving time and money for merchants.
- Instant Onboarding: Streamlined onboarding processes give firms an edge because they require less time before coming online, allowing merchants to start making money sooner.
Below are our rankings of the top ACH payment processing companies after considering all of the factors above, including their client specialty:
The Top ACH Processing Companies of 2025
Paynote
Paynote is the best all-around ACH payment processing platform on the list. They accept not only ACH payments, but also eCheck, credit card, and mobile wallet payments across essentially any legal industry and payment volume. This makes them the best option for growth-focused merchants, which comprises most sales-driven businesses looking for payment processing.
The platform is developer-friendly, meaning it integrates seamlessly with eCommerce websites, apps, and any other software-driven payment platforms that businesses use to make sales. This makes it a great option for businesses that want to reduce friction in the ACH payment process, ensuring their customers don’t feel like they need to navigate two separate platforms in order to make a purchase with a merchant.
Everything about Paynote is built to support high-risk and high-volume clients, yet they still offer tremendous value to mid- and low-risk businesses. This unique versatility is why they are the top-ranked ACH processor overall.
- Value Score: 4.8
- Year Established: 2012
- High-Risk Specialization: Yes
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: Yes
- Contact: Paynote website
SoarPay
SoarPay is another ACH processing company that supports high-risk merchants and offers specialized features to deal with high-risk and high-volume clients. While this makes them another solid partner for businesses looking to scale, they do not serve “ultra-high-risk” industries, which limits their value as a high-risk specialist. As a result, we recommend Soarpay for businesses that are eligible for their services and are looking for the cheapest possible service with basic features.
- Value Score: 4.5
- Year Established: 2015
- High-Risk Specialization: Yes
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: SoarPay website
PaySimple
PaySimple is an ACH payment processor designed to meet the needs of small businesses specifically. The lion’s share of their experience is with SaaS companies, making them our go-to option for SaaS startups looking for simple payment processing with no cutting-edge frills or features. If you’re just looking for an easy way to take ACH payments for your new SaaS business, PaySimple offers the ease and focused service that you’re looking for.
- Value Score: 3.9
- Year Established: 2006
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: Yes
- Contact: PaySimple website
Helcim
Helcim is an ACH payment processing company that specializes in affordable mobile POS systems. As a result, they are primarily built for low-volume, low to medium risk clients who want to accept payments in a small or mobile storefront. They do not serve high-risk or high-volume clients. While they aren’t the most feature-rich or versatile payment processor on the list, they offer some of the cheapest mobile POS systems of any option on the list, so we listed them as a valuable recommendation for businesses that value a low barrier to entry for this hardware.
- Value Score: 4.2
- Year Established: 2006
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: Yes
- Contact: Helcim website
Stax Payments
Stax Payments is a generalist ACH payment processing company that offers a subscription model instead of a traditional per-transaction structure. They offer tiered subscriptions and key support features like dedicated account managers, which are locked behind Ultimate subscriptions and above. While this may make them a no-go for some merchants, we give them partial credit for offering dedicated account managers since they can be guaranteed by purchasing the right tier.
They serve only a few high-risk industries, leaving many legal businesses without support, but their subscription model makes them a notably unique value that we felt was still worth recommending.
- Value Score: 3.7
- Year Established: 2014
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: Sometimes
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: Stax Payments website
Square
Square is the closest to a household name that we have on this list, as they are a chief innovator in the mobile payment processing space. They are known for quality customer support and simple, convenient mobile payments, but they charge the highest rates on the list per transaction and don’t provide dedicated account managers or instant onboarding.
They also do not underwrite up front, which leaves some higher-volume or higher-risk retailers who slip through the cracks at risk of unexpected account flags, freezes, or holds. We recommend Square only if having a pioneer in mobile payment support is a dealbreaker, and you want more features than a more affordable option like Helcim provides.
- Value Score: 3.7
- Year Established: 2009
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: No
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: Square website
Wok With the Best ACH Payment Processing Company
If you have any more questions regarding what makes Paynote the best ACH payment processing company, contact us today for more information.