The weAudit Gateway Scorecard · No. 4
Paya Review: The Sage Gateway, Its Fees, and Our Rating
The gateway baked into Sage and dozens of other ERPs, graded the way we grade everything: by what it actually costs merchants.
3.75
out of 10
Last updated July 2026
4
Owners in seven years
Sage, then private equity, then public shareholders, then Nuvei. Four owners in seven years, and in 2024 Nuvei itself was taken private by Advent International, making it five hands the keys have passed through. When a company gets traded this often, ask what the asset really is. It is not the technology. It is 100,000 merchants embedded so deep inside their accounting software that they never shop the fees.
The Paper Trail
Who Owns Paya?
2006
Founded as Sage Payment Solutions
2017
Sold to private equity, rebranded Paya
Public via SPAC in 2020
2023
Acquired by Nuvei
$1.3 billion
The Asset Is You
Every buyer in this chain paid for the same thing: merchants funneled in by their ERP who rarely leave. Captive revenue is the most valuable revenue in payments, and if you run Paya through Sage, you are the asset on somebody’s balance sheet.
Follow the Money
The $1.3 Billion Question
Nuvei paid $1.3 billion for Paya in 2023. Nobody spends $1.3 billion out of generosity. That price was a calculation: the buyer looked at 100,000 merchants locked inside their accounting software, paying fees they never negotiated and rarely question, and decided that stream was worth $1.3 billion, and then some. Captive revenue commands premium prices for a reason.
So ask the question nobody asks: how much must a gateway be making on merchants for a fourth owner to pay $1.3 billion for it? Every markup and every downgrade since the deal closed has been funding the return on that investment. When a payments company changes hands, the merchants become the payment plan. With Paya, it has happened four times.
The Popularity Trap
Why Do So Many Merchants Run Paya?
Simple: they never chose it. Paya reaches merchants through roughly 2,000 software vendors, resellers, and integrations, with Sage as the flagship channel. When your ERP is installed, the payments module comes with it, the setup is already done, and processing just starts. Nobody ran a comparison. There was never a decision to compare.
Here is the problem. The software vendors and resellers steering merchants onto Paya are not interchange experts. They are channel partners, and channel partners earn revenue share on your processing. The party recommending your gateway gets paid more when you pay more. That is not a conspiracy theory. That is how integrated payments distribution works, and it is why the default option in your ERP deserves more scrutiny than any option you would have picked yourself.
The Scorecard
How Paya Scores
Captivity
2/10
Captive by Design
Paya’s merchants arrive through their software, not through a decision, and they stay for the same reason: leaving feels like surgery on your accounting system. That captivity has a price. When a provider knows you cannot easily go, there is no competitive pressure on your rates, and the reseller channel’s revenue share is baked into what you pay. The switching pain is real, but it is routinely dwarfed by the cost of staying. Merchants just never run that math, which is exactly what the model counts on.
Interchange
3/10
Optimization on Their Terms
Paya markets Level 2 and Level 3 data optimization for B2B, and to its credit, the capability exists. But capability inside a captive bundle is not the same as savings in your account. Whether your transactions actually qualify depends on your specific integration and setup, and the benefit flows through pricing the same party controls. In our audits of Sage-era integrations, the gap between the optimization being marketed and the interchange actually clearing is where the money goes missing.
Legacy Tech
3/10
The Sage Era Never Ended
The core gateway still carries its Sage Payment Solutions DNA, and it shows. Compared to modern data-enhanced gateways that fix interchange automatically on the back end, the Paya experience feels like the software it ships inside: functional, dated, and dependent on how it was configured years ago. Four ownership changes in seven years are not usually accompanied by heavy investment in the underlying plumbing.
Credit Where Due
7/10
Deep ERP Roots and Real ACH
Credit where it is due: Paya’s integrations into Sage and other ERP, nonprofit, government, and healthcare systems are deep and battle-tested, its ACH capability is genuinely strong, and it moves roughly $45 billion a year for 100,000 merchants. The embedded model is not evil by nature. It solves a real workflow problem. Our issue has never been whether it works inside your software. It is what the convenience quietly costs.
“You didn’t choose Paya. Your software did.”
Beyond the Scorecard
Are You Even on the Right Gateway?
A scorecard tells you about the gateway. An audit tells you about YOUR gateway, on your card mix, your industry, and your statements. Every weAudit engagement reveals:
✓Whether you are on the right payment gateway for your business, or quietly paying for the wrong one
✓Missed interchange qualifications and forced downgrades
✓Incorrect setups: interchange flags, MCC codes, shopping carts, and gateways
✓Hidden, inflated, and made up fees buried in your statement
✓Processor markups and kept interchange rebates
✓PCI non-compliance fees you may not even owe
✓Contract traps: auto renewals, exit penalties, and terms working against you
✓Incorrect MCC codes costing you specialty interchange rates
✓And much more. If it is on your statement, we audit it.
Common Questions
Paya FAQ
Does Paya support Level 2 and Level 3 processing?
Paya markets Level 2 and Level 3 data optimization for B2B transactions, and the capability exists on the platform. Whether YOUR transactions actually qualify is a different question that depends on your integration, your setup, and how it has been maintained. Interchange rules change every April and October, and in our audits, the gap between marketed optimization and actual qualification is where merchants lose the most money.
How much does Paya cost?
There is no simple published rate card. Most merchants get Paya through a software vendor or reseller, and pricing is set channel by channel, with the partner’s revenue share built in. Two merchants running the same ERP can pay very different rates depending on which reseller set them up. If you have never seen your pricing broken out line by line, that is not an accident.
Do I have to use Paya with Sage?
No, and this is the most expensive misconception in the Sage world. Paya is the default, not the requirement. Defaults are rarely audited, which is exactly why they are profitable. Sage merchants have alternatives that integrate with their ERP while fixing interchange automatically on the back end, and the difference on a B2B card mix is substantial.
Who owns Paya?
Nuvei, which paid $1.3 billion for it in February 2023. Before that: founded by Sage as Sage Payment Solutions in 2006, sold to private equity firm GTCR in 2017 and rebranded Paya, taken public via SPAC in 2020. And in 2024, Nuvei itself was taken private by Advent International. Five hand-offs, one constant: the merchants paying the fees.
Should I switch away from Paya?
It depends on your card mix, your volume, and what your current setup is actually qualifying for, which is exactly what an audit determines. Sometimes the answer is renegotiation. Often, for B2B merchants on Sage, the answer is a data-enhanced gateway that integrates with the same software and fixes interchange automatically. Upload a statement and we will tell you which one you are.
Are You Paying the Software Tax?
If your payments run through Paya because your ERP put them there, your statements will show exactly what the default is costing you in channel markups, downgrades, and optimization that never actually happened. Upload a statement and we will show you, line by line. No obligation. Just answers.
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Written by the team at weAudit, founded by a Former Executive for the World’s Largest Credit Card Processor. Forbes Business Council. Entrepreneur Contributor.
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