Switching costs vary sharply: popular platform merchants face a 10 to 15 minute install while bespoke platforms face weeks of developer time, but sometimes providers will sometimes fund that development if the scenario is right.
5 Key Facts
Off-the-shelf platform switches (Shopify, WooCommerce) are a 10 to 15 minute app install.Bespoke integrations require developer resources measured in weeks, not days.Faster payouts (1 to 2 days versus 3 to 5) are a real, quotable switching benefit.Providers sometimes fund development costs, with £3k to £5k credits a known pattern for large accounts.Account-suspension risk reduction is an underrated reason to add a second provider.
Merchants weighing a provider change compare headline rates and stop there. The decision lives or dies on switching cost, and switching cost splits into two categories so different they barely share a name.Path one: plug and play
On packaged platforms (Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce), switching means installing an app and entering credentials. The process runs 10 to 15 minutes. There is no engineering project, no QA cycle, no rollback plan.
What that quarter-hour buys:
- Better rates at volumes where your current provider has stopped competing for the business
- Faster payouts, with some providers settling in 1 to 2 days versus 3 to 5 on platform defaults
- Reduced suspension risk, because platform-native processing concentrates account-health decisions in one provider's hands
For any merchant on a packaged platform, the switching-cost objection is essentially gone. What remains is diligence: compare effective rates, not headline ones, and check the contract's exit terms before signing.
Path two: bespoke integration
Custom platforms are a different calculation. A direct integration means developer time for the build, edge-case handling (3DS, retries, partial captures), a QA cycle, and a cutover plan with rollback. The cost is measured in developer weeks, and the internal calendar matters as much as the fee savings.
The mitigation most merchants never ask for: providers want large accounts and will sometimes fund the switch. Development-cost credits in the £3k to £5k range are a known pattern for serious volume. It never hurts to ask, and at the right size it transforms the business case.
Which merchants overpay for switching
What the free audit looks like
Tonkr prices the switch before you commit to it. The free audit tells you the gap between your current effective rate and the market, the realistic switching cost for your stack, and whether a provider will fund the move. If the maths does not favour switching, we say so. If it does, the negotiation is on a success basis.
What would switching actually save you?
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