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5 Best FirstData Alternatives

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedJun 20232 min read

Are you looking for alternatives to FirstData? You’ve come to the right place. Taking into account reliability, ease of use, and affordability, we’ve put together a list of the best FirstData alternatives.

FirstData alternatives

In no particular order, below are the best 5 FirstData alternatives.

1. Square Point of Sale

Square Point of Sale provides all the tools necessary to grow your business. The software allows you to sell in-store, via ecommerce and over the phone. There are also features for tracking customer preference and feedback, which can be used to build customer profiles and create target email marketing campaigns.

Additionally, you can also use the inbuilt sales and inventory reports to keep a close eye on your sales performance. This sales data can be accessed from any device and is updated in real-time. You can also set daily stock alert emails to notify you when items are low in stock.

With Square POS, there are no setup fees or monthly subscription fees. You only pay when you take a payment at a rate of 1.75% of the transaction cost. The POS hardware starts at £16 + VAT.

2. Lightspeed Retail

Lightspeed Retail is a commerce platform tailored to independent retailers. As an all-in-one brick-and-mortar management system, the platform connects retailers to both their online and physical operations from any device.

The software allows retailers to access sales reports instantly, as well as gather data on their best-selling items and create customer profiles in order to provide a more personalised marketing service. There are also options to manage loyalty programs in order to incentivise customers to make return visits. The system additionally offers tools for inventory management, expansion and global payments management.

The Standard plan for omnichannel businesses costs £110 monthly, although discounts are available with annual subscriptions. There is also the Lean plan which is slightly cheaper, as well as the premium plans: Advanced and Enterprise. These are considerably more expensive but come with more extensive features.

3. QuickBooks Point of Sale

QuickBooks POS is an online solution that integrates with QuickBooks and offers tools for managing inventory and sales, as well as features for automatically depositing payments into QuickBooks Online. It can be accessed anywhere and from any device with internet connection, and is ideal for existing customers of QuickBooks who will already be familiar with the platform and able to navigate the POS easily. At the time of writing, plans start at £3/month.

4. Vend

Vend is a cloud-based POS and retail management software that allows retailers to operate their business from a variety of locations. Included in the software are solutions for inventory management, customer loyalty management and analytic reports. Vend can also integrate with a number of other payment platforms, including Xero, Shopify, Square and PayPal. It is also notably a main retail partner in Apple’s Global Mobility Partner Programme.

Subscription plans with Vend start at £49/month for the Lean plan.

5. GoCardless

As a global leader in recurring payments, and the world's largest bank to bank direct debit platform, GoCardless is made for recurring payments.

GoCardless focuses on collecting payments from customers via direct debit, and payments are notably pull-based, i.e., initiated by the business. This helps to radically reduce late payments, as control over payments lie in the hands of the company itself.

GoCardless collects payments by seamlessly working with a customer’s existing billing software or payment gateway, and integrates with over 200 partners, including Recurly, Zuora and Salesforce.

There are no setup costs or hidden fees, and the standard plan comes with no monthly fee but just a simple charge per transaction in the UK and Eurozone.

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GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.