The Processor Scoreboard

CyberSource

Visa’s own payment gateway, and through it the owner of Authorize.net. It is reliable, everywhere in enterprise commerce and strong on fraud tools. It is also unpublished on price, billed in pieces, and has no complaint file of its own. And in one client’s case, its premium price bought no better protection than a $20-a-month gateway.

Written by Robert Day, Founder and Managing Partner of weAudit.com, previously an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, the world’s largest card processor. Published October 2026.

45out of 100

Regulatory and Legal20 / 25

Fee Practices4 / 25

Complaints and Resolution8 / 20

Transparency5 / 15

Sales Channel8 / 15

What to know before you sign.

Premium price, basic protection. A retailer weAudit works with pays CyberSource over $16,000 a month because it is sold as the best. A bot attack still got through, and the retailer paid over $300,000 in authorization fees for it.
The card network owns the gateway. Visa sets interchange and, through CyberSource and Authorize.net, owns two of the most widely used gateways in America.
Fees in pieces, published nowhere. In one package weAudit reviewed: a $350 registration fee, a $250 monthly minimum, 12.4 cents a transaction and $100 a month for support, before any card processing.
Data supported, not enhanced. In weAudit’s audit work, CyberSource has not filled in missing Level 2 and 3 data. On one client’s business cards we estimated about $108,000 a year in savings from a data-enhanced gateway.

Two weAudit scores, two different questions. This rating scores CyberSource as a company, on how it treats merchants. Our CyberSource gateway scorecard grades it as a payment gateway, on what it costs you, and scores it 4.0 out of 10.

Who you are signing with

CyberSource was founded in 1994, bought Authorize.net in 2007, and was bought by Visa for $2 billion in 2010. It now sits inside Visa Acceptance Solutions. It is a gateway, not an acquirer: your card processing runs through a separate acquirer, and CyberSource bills for the gateway, its modules and support on top. Many merchants reach it through software such as ERP and e-commerce platforms that bundle it in.

Fee practices: unpublished, and billed in pieces

CyberSource does not publish pricing. What weAudit has seen in client files, with no client named:

Charge	As quoted in one gateway package
Registration	$350, “reduced from $495”
Monthly minimum	$250, “reduced from $495”; later offered at $225
Per transaction	12.4 cents
Technical support	$100 a month, “reduced from $200”
Card processing	Billed separately by the acquirer; one client paid a bundled 2.75% plus 35 cents

Sources: weAudit client records, 2020 and 2024, with no client named; CyberSource does not publish pricing. Reviewers also report charges for fraud screening, tokenization and account management. Your contract shows what applies to you.

A list of “reduced” prices against a standard price nobody can look up is a negotiating position, not a price. And the gateway bill is only part of it: on a business-to-business account, the interchange lost when Level 2 and 3 data is incomplete can cost far more than the gateway itself. See Level 3 credit card processing.

A $16,000-a-month gateway and a $300,000 bot attack

A national retailer weAudit works with uses CyberSource and pays it more than $16,000 a month, on the reasoning most enterprises give: CyberSource is the best, and fraud protection is what you are paying for. Then a bot attack hit, the kind where automated scripts fire thousands of card authorizations at a checkout to test stolen card numbers.

CyberSource did not stop it. Every one of those attempts was an authorization, and every authorization carries fees, so the retailer ended up paying more than $300,000 in authorization fees for traffic that was never a sale, and it was still trying to get refunds months later. Basic velocity limits catch this kind of attack on gateways that cost $20 a month. Paying for the most expensive name in the market did not buy better protection; it bought a bigger bill when protection failed.

If you pay for premium fraud tools, ask what they would have done in a bot attack: what velocity limits are switched on for your account, who is alerted, how fast attempts are blocked, and who pays the authorization fees when they are not. Get the answer in writing.

Source: weAudit client records, 2026, with no client named. Counted in Fee Practices: a premium price that left the merchant paying for an attack its gateway did not stop.

Complaints

CyberSource has no Better Business Bureau profile of its own; complaints about it are filed against Authorize.net. Reviewers have described merchants who signed up for Authorize.net’s gateway finding themselves enrolled in processing through CyberSource as well, and charges continuing after the gateway was cancelled. Enterprise users on software review sites praise its reliability and fraud tools and criticize slow support and monthly account-management fees.

Regulatory and legal

We found no regulatory actions against CyberSource itself. Its owner, Visa, has been sued by the US Department of Justice over its debit network, and a company owned by the card network sits on both sides of the merchant’s cost. We hold back points for that structure, not for any finding against CyberSource.

Transparency and sales channel

No published pricing and a complaint file folded into another brand earn a low transparency score. CyberSource sells mostly to enterprises, directly or bundled inside software, with fewer of the sales-floor complaints we see from smaller sales organizations, which keeps its sales channel score in the middle.

If you use CyberSource

Get every gateway fee in writing: minimum, per transaction, modules and support.
Ask whether your software sends complete Level 2 and 3 data, because CyberSource will not fill it in.
Check your business-card sales for downgrades on the acquirer’s statement.
Get the statements audited before you renew.

Independence, right of response and corrections. weAudit takes no money from any processor, ISO or referral arrangement, and no company can pay to change its score. CyberSource may submit a response or correction at any time, and we will review it and update this rating if the evidence warrants. Scores reflect the evidence available at publication. See the full Processor Scoreboard and our Authorize.net fees page.

Common questions

Who owns CyberSource?

Visa. Visa bought CyberSource for $2 billion in 2010, and CyberSource also owns Authorize.net. CyberSource is now part of Visa Acceptance Solutions.

What does CyberSource charge?

CyberSource does not publish its pricing. In one gateway package weAudit reviewed, CyberSource quoted a $350 registration fee, a $250 monthly minimum, 12.4 cents per transaction and $100 a month for technical support, each described as reduced from a higher standard price. Card processing is billed separately by the acquirer.

Is CyberSource a data-enhanced gateway?

In weAudit’s audit work, CyberSource has not filled in missing Level 2 and Level 3 data the way a data-enhanced gateway does. Supporting the data is not the same as enhancing it. If your software does not send every field, business-card sales can downgrade to higher interchange.

Why can’t I find CyberSource on the BBB?

CyberSource does not have its own Better Business Bureau profile. Complaints about it are filed against Authorize.net, which it owns.

How is this rating different from the CyberSource gateway scorecard?

This rating scores CyberSource as a company, on how it treats merchants: 45 out of 100. Our gateway scorecard grades it as a payment gateway, on what it costs you, and scores it 4.0 out of 10.

Does CyberSource protect against bot attacks?

Not reliably, in weAudit’s experience. A retailer paying CyberSource over $16,000 a month was hit by a bot attack that CyberSource did not stop, and paid over $300,000 in authorization fees as a result. Ask your gateway which velocity limits are active on your account and who pays when they fail.

Is CyberSource a good choice for enterprise merchants?

It is reliable, widely integrated and strong on fraud tools, which is why enterprises use it. The cost is in what it does not show you: unpublished fees, module and support charges, and the interchange you lose if your data is not complete.

Send us the statements. We will tell you what is in them.

Our first audit is free and takes about five minutes of your time. We check your CyberSource gateway bill and your acquirer’s statement together, including downgrades from incomplete data, and tell you what you should be paying. If there is nothing to find, you will know that too.

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About this rating: scored on weAudit’s five categories, Regulatory and Legal (25), Fee Practices (25), Complaints and Resolution (20), Transparency (15) and Sales Channel (15). Evidence was gathered in October 2026 from weAudit’s own client records with no client named, public company history, Better Business Bureau records, and independent review sites, credited by name where cited. CyberSource is a trademark of its owner.