The best ecommerce checkouts in 2022

When you’re aspiring to give your shoppers the best experience possible, the default checkout in your ecommerce platform likely isn’t good enough. They’re often outdated, have a poor user experience, and you’re limited on ways to boost your conversion and retention.

This is where third-party checkouts can make a huge difference to your sales, as they give you many options

Industry newcomer Fast recently closed, having run out of investment, which was a big blow for the ecommerce businesses who were using their checkout service. But fortunately, there are still many alternatives available, many of which actually offer better and more varied functionality than Fast.

In this article, we’re going to look at these ecommerce checkout options, so you can find the best solution for you, whether you’re coming from Fast, or simply want to improve your customer experience.

Rally – Best full checkout upgrade

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You probably won’t be surprised to see us put Rally at the top of our own list, but we wouldn’t do this if we didn’t 100% believe that our checkout is the best solution.

It’s a full checkout replacement, it’s perfect for SMEs, and we designed it to be a decentralized checkout solution that works with your existing ecommerce platform.

Unlike some on this list, our checkout is not just a button that you embed on your site, but provides an entire checkout replacement that seamlessly integrates into your existing shop.

Rally also makes it easy to implement one-click buying, and add post-purchase offers that can boost your average order value by 12% immediately. You can also embrace emerging technologies by accepting cryptocurrencies and selling NFTs alongside your existing products.

• Easily implement one-click checkout
• Boost conversion with post-purchase offers
• Seamless integration with WooCommerce, Swell and BigCommerce
• Accept cryptocurrency payments
• Sell NFTs alongside physical products
• Pick and choose your front-end and back-end services

In fact, Rally is the best value full checkout replacement: we only charge 0.5% for companies with less than $5m revenue (no monthly fee).

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Bold Checkout – good for developer heavy e-commerce brands

Boasting the likes of Staples as customers on their homepage, Bold Checkout is an option targeted more at larger enterprises. But with their higher price tag comes some appealing customization options, so you can really control the look and feel of your checkout.

You can customize the look, flow and functionality, as well as configure a custom URL and choose between one and two page checkouts.

Similar to Rally, they offer a headless API so merchants can have more control over the platforms they use for their shop.

• Custom checkout flows
• Multiple payment methods
• One-click checkout
• Personalized offers
• A/B testing

Bold charges 1% transactions fees, plus $39.99 per month

Bolt – Fast checkout replacement but with some major questions to answer

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Similar to Bold in more than just name, Bolt is another checkout solution targeted at larger corporations.

Unfortunately for them this includes their flagship customer Forever 21, who are currently suing Bolt, claiming the company “has utterly failed to deliver on the technological capabilities that it held itself out as possessing.”

This is especially untimely for Bolt, who have also seen a drop in customers over recent months.

If you ignore the bad press though, Bolt does claim to make it easier to add a checkout to more places, such as social feeds and digital publications. They do so using a checkout popup that can be easily embedded on any page. Here's a page explaining why we think that's the wrong choice.

This has pros and cons. A popup modal checkout can be quite limiting for an ecommerce site.

With it being a modal and not something we control it's hard/impossible to add extra fields if needed.

– G2 Reviewer ‘Danny H’

If you don’t need as much control over your shop's checkout though, Bolt does make it simple to get started, and offers pre-built integrations that include tax providers and shipping software.

• One-click checkout
• Embed on social media & publications
• Modal popup
• Pre-built integrations

Bolt charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, with an additional 1% fee for international transactions

PayPal – Basic checkout, but no ownership

Probably the most well-known on this list, PayPal’s checkout solution is worth considering largely for its diverse financing options. They allow you to accept payment in the form of debit or credit card, PayPal credit, and rewards balances.

Also, because of the popularity of the brand, their checkout comes with some built-in trust from customers who will likely have used them for years.

It’s worth noting though that there have been numerous reports over the years of PayPal banning merchants, and funds being frozen, often without clear reason. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use their checkout, but it’s worth doing your research.

• Diverse payment options
• Integrates with more ecommerce platforms
• Standard and advanced integrations available
• Used by millions of people worldwide

PayPal charges 1.2% + $0.30 per transaction

Stripe – good for developers

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Although not a plug and play solution, Stripe is a good option if you have a dedicated dev resource available to implement their checkout.

It supports over 25 languages and allows multiple payment methods. This also makes it a good option if you make a lot of international sales.

Their checkout is also compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay, which makes it particularly useful if most of your sales are carried out on mobile.

• Provides detailed developer documentation
• Mobile-ready
• Supports over 25 languages
• Customization and branding
• Automatically collect taxes

Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

(Image credit: stripe.com)

Schedule a free demo to see how Rally—the only full checkout replacement on this list—can help you boost your conversion.

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