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CBD sellers have struggled finding payment processors that can serve them properly since the inception of their industry. Traditional payment processors either refuse to serve them at all, or provide sub-par processing services rife with fees, holds, and freezes that often catch these clients off-guard.
Luckily, as the industry has grown and some payment processors have begun serving them, while others have sprung up with the aim of providing purpose-driven service designed specifically for these high-risk industries.
Our third-party research team analyzed over 30 payment processing firms to find the top CBD payment processing companies, and ranked them based on the following criteria:
- Value Score: A 1.0-5.0 score that we use to summarize the value a payment processor provides CBD companies specifically. Based on factors like pricing, fee transparency, industry-specific features, security, ease of use, and more.
- Year Established: CBD payment processors with a longer tenure in such a young industry get a small bump in our ranking algorithm as they’ve demonstrated an ability and intention to serve CBD companies even when it wasn’t common.
- High-Risk Specialization: Some generalist/traditional payment processors will serve CBD businesses, but high-risk specific providers get priority on our list since they tend to have features built specifically for these industries, providing more comprehensive service.
- Dedicated Account Manager: CBD businesses often run into freezes, holds, flags, chargebacks, and other issues that require swift action to remedy. Firms that assign dedicated account managers to every client get a bump in our rankings because they enable faster and more industry-appropriate action.
- Instant Onboarding: High-risk clients often struggle to find the right processor, trying multiple before finding the right one, so processors with instant onboarding get a bump for providing an easy transition and reducing downtime.
Below are our rankings of the top CBD payment processing companies after considering all of the factors above, including their client specialty:
The Top CBD Payment Processing Companies of 2025
*Cannabis, vape, and liquor specialist, not specialized for other high-risk industries
Seamless Chex
Seamless Chex is the best all-round CBD payment processor on the list. This is a result of their exceptionally high acceptance rate, upfront underwriting to ensure no surprise freezes or holds, and services specially designed for CBD and other high-risk clientele like advanced chargeback management, fraud protection, stringent security standards, rapid dispute resolution, and more. They are also designed for scalability, with low, transparent fees and full support for high-volume merchants.
Everything about Seamless Chex is built from the ground up to serve CBD and other high-risk businesses, not simply accommodate a few industries. They provide a dedicated account manager for all their clients, and instant onboarding ensures that CBD companies that have had their accounts suddenly frozen or held by an existing provider can avoid unnecessary downtime in transition.
- Value Score: 4.8
- Year Established: 2012
- High-Risk Specialization: Yes
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: Yes
- Contact: SeamlessChex website
Merrco Payments
Merrco Payments is a high-risk payment processor serving cannabis, vape, and liquor companies specifically. This isn't where the specificity ends, though, as they are also a Canadian company built to serve Canadian clients. They offer the same strict PCI DSS compliance and fraud protection as Seamless Chex, a wide range of payment solutions, and easy API and POS integrations.
While they do support US companies, they are more experienced with Canada-specific regulations regarding this industry and would be better suited for clients subject to them. The only drawbacks present in their reviews are some reports of slow onboarding and criticisms of their customer service.
- Value Score: 4.5
- Year Established: 2016
- High-Risk Specialization: Yes*
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: Merrco Payments website
Payzli
Payzlie is the last high-risk specialist on the list, but like Merrco, they have a more narrow specialty than this. Their site only lists three industries: Beauty & wellness, restaurants & bars, and CBD & hemp. While this does mean they still accept CBD clients, it doesn’t demonstrate the same hyper-focused expertise as a CBD-only provider like Merrco, or the adaptability and larger support infrastructure of a versatile high-risk processor like Seamless Chex. As a result, they provide a bit less value, though they still offer a quality CBD payment processing platform, and their reviews prove it.
- Value Score: 4.3
- Year Established: 2019
- High-Risk Specialization: Yes
- Dedicated Account Manager: Yes
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: Payzli website
Clearent
Clearent is a generalist payment processing platform that offers embedded payment solutions geared primarily toward online sales. While they aren’t a high-risk processor generally, they do serve some high-risk industries, and these include CBD companies. They have high-end online payment processing capabilities, but their merchant accounts aren’t as well-featured to handle the issues these types of firms face in terms of higher chargeback and fraud rates. They offer dedicated account managers to their larger clients, but they don’t clarify if this applies to smaller clients, which makes it unclear if many (if any at all) CBD clients get this level of support.
That being said, they still offer a great online payment processing product, they have solid reviews, and are now backed by a larger company with a good reputation.
- Value Score: 3.9
- Year Established: 2005
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: Unclear
- Instant Onboarding: No
- Contact: Clearent 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. While they are not a high-risk specialist, and don’t serve a particularly wide variety of high-risk businesses, they do usually accept CBD companies.
While they are known for quality customer support and simple, convenient mobile payments, 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 CBD retailers at risk of unexpected account flags, freezes, or holds. We recommend Square only if having a pioneer in mobile payment support is a dealbreaker.
- Value Score: 3.7
- Year Established: 2009
- High-Risk Specialization: No
- Dedicated Account Manager: No
- Instant Onboarding: No
Contact: Square website
