A payment gateway allows merchants to receive payments from customers by connecting payment processors and merchant account providers. It is an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes payments between both parties. This enables merchants to process multiple transactions including electronic checks, ACH, credit, and debit cards in either real-time or digitally.  A payment gateway protects credit card details by encrypting sensitive information such as card numbers, to ensure the information passed between the merchant and customer is secured. In simple words, payment gateway works as the middlemen between the customer and merchant. An online payment gateway makes it simple to integrate necessary software for merchants. Need of Payment Gateway Does every traditional business owner think that what is the need for a payment gateway as a middleman? Then we have the answer - if the customer card cannot be swiped on a POS terminal, as you normally do while processing payment