Crypto payment buttons

The lowest-effort way in, and what it costs#

A hosted invoice or payment button means the provider renders the payment page and you link to it. No server code, no webhook handler in the first version, no key management. For testing whether your customers will pay in crypto at all, it is the correct amount of work.

What you give up is control of the checkout experience and, usually, automatic order reconciliation. Payments arrive in a dashboard rather than in your order system, and somebody matches them by hand. That is fine at low volume and stops being fine quickly.

When to graduate to a real integration#

When manual reconciliation costs more than an afternoon a month, or when a missed payment reaches a customer before it reaches you. Both thresholds arrive sooner than merchants expect, and both are cheaper to plan for than to hit.

The graduation is not a rebuild. Every provider on this list that offers a button also offers webhooks, so the second version adds a handler rather than replacing the first. The webhooks guide covers what that handler has to do.

Most providers offer this, so price on other things#

Hosted invoicing is close to universal in this category, which means the button itself is not a differentiator and should not drive the choice. Rate, asset coverage, custody and settlement all still apply exactly as they do elsewhere in this index.

Sort this list on whichever of those matters to you rather than on the feature it is named after. The main ranking applies the full weighted method across the same providers.

The expiry problem buttons make worse#

A hosted invoice fixes a rate for a window and then expires. A customer who opens the page, wanders off and returns twenty minutes later finds a dead invoice, and with a button integration nobody on your side knows it happened.

The quote-lock entry explains why the window exists and why it cannot simply be made long. The practical mitigation is to check the window length at your shortlisted providers, because it varies more than the rates do.

What happens when a customer underpays#

They will. Wallets that subtract the network fee from the send amount produce invoices short by a few cents routinely, and with a hosted button you find out when the customer emails asking where their order is.

Ask each provider what its hosted invoice does in that case: settle partially, hold, or expire. The underpayment entry covers why the situation is so common, and the answer varies enough across this list to be worth checking before you pick.

Buttons and donations#

A payment button is close to ideal for donations, where there is no order to reconcile and no fulfilment to trigger. Asset breadth matters more here than anywhere else, because a donor holding an unusual asset is a donor you either accept or lose.

NOWPayments publishes the widest asset list in this index and serves nonprofits explicitly, which is why it heads most sensible orderings of this list for that use.

The point-of-sale variant#

Several providers here extend the hosted-invoice idea to a physical counter, rendering a QR code on a tablet or phone. It is the same integration shape with the same reconciliation caveat, and it suits a small retailer testing acceptance without touching the till system.

The constraint is confirmation time rather than software. A customer standing at a counter will not wait for block confirmations on a slow chain, so the network on offer matters more in person than online.

Before you paste the button in#

Decide who checks the dashboard and how often, because that person is your entire payment reconciliation process until you build something. Write it down rather than assuming it.

Then run the integration checklist anyway. Most of it applies to a button integration, and the items that do not are the ones you are deliberately deferring rather than the ones you get to skip.

The dashboard is your reconciliation, so name its owner#

With a hosted button, payments land in a provider dashboard rather than in your order system, and somebody matches them by hand. That person is your entire payment operations function until you build something.

Write down who it is and how often they check. A button integration with nobody watching produces customers waiting on orders that were paid for days ago.

What to do when volume outgrows it#

Add a webhook handler rather than replacing the provider. Every provider on this list that offers a button also offers callbacks, so version two is an addition and not a rebuild.

The webhooks guide covers what that handler must verify, and signature checking belongs in the first version of it rather than the second.

The expiry window is worth asking about#

A hosted invoice fixes a rate for a window and then dies, and with a button integration nobody on your side learns that it happened.

Window lengths vary more across this list than the rates do. Ask each shortlisted provider for the number before choosing on price.

Donations are the strongest case#

There is no order to reconcile and no fulfilment to trigger, which removes the main drawback of a button integration entirely.

Asset breadth matters more here than anywhere else, because a donor holding an unusual asset is a donor you either accept or lose.