We're going to do something unusual for a company blog post: give you a genuinely balanced comparison between NovaPay and the traditional payment processors. No cherry-picked metrics, no straw man arguments, no fine print that contradicts the headline. Just an honest assessment of where NovaPay wins, where traditional processors still have advantages, and who we're actually built for.
We think this approach will earn your trust more than another "we're amazing and everyone else is terrible" sales page. And trust matters when you're choosing who handles your money.
The Traditional Landscape
Canadian payment processing is dominated by a handful of legacy players. According to IBISWorld's industry analysis, the top five processors control over 70% of the Canadian market:
- Moneris — jointly owned by RBC and BMO, the largest processor in Canada. Strong bank integration, limited innovation.
- Global Payments (formerly TSYS/Heartland) — massive global operation, strong enterprise features, complex pricing.
- Chase Paymentech (now part of JPMorgan) — large-volume focused, less suited to SMBs.
- Square — modern interface, simple pricing, limited customization. Popular with micro-businesses.
- Stripe — developer-focused, dominant in e-commerce, bundled pricing that favors them at scale.
Each of these companies has strengths. But they also share common limitations that we built NovaPay to address.
Pricing: Where the Real Differences Are
Traditional Processors
Most legacy processors use bundled or tiered pricing. You get a single quoted rate (e.g., 2.65% or 2.9% + $0.30) that includes interchange, assessments, and the processor's markup in one opaque number. On a basic debit transaction where interchange is $0.07, you're still paying the full bundled rate. The processor pockets the difference, and you have no visibility into the split.
Tiered pricing is even worse: your processor sorts each transaction into "qualified," "mid-qualified," or "non-qualified" tiers and charges different rates for each. You have zero control over which tier a transaction lands in, and the criteria are often designed to maximize how many transactions fall into the expensive tiers.
NovaPay
We use interchange-plus pricing exclusively. Every statement shows three things:
- The interchange fee charged by the card network (this is the same regardless of processor)
- The assessment fee from Visa/Mastercard (also the same for every processor)
- Our markup (the only part that varies between processors, and the only part we control)
Our typical markup for Canadian businesses: 0.25% – 0.45% + $0.08 per transaction, depending on volume and business type. That's it. No tiers, no bundles, no mystery math.
For a business processing $500,000 annually, the difference between bundled 2.9% pricing and our interchange-plus model typically works out to $4,000 – $8,500 in annual savings. We've detailed how to calculate your own savings in our guide to hidden processing fees.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Contract Terms
- Traditional: 1-5 year contracts with auto-renewal clauses. Early termination fees of $250 – $500+. Cancellation windows as narrow as 30 days before auto-renewal.
- NovaPay: Month-to-month. Cancel anytime with 30 days notice. No early termination fees. If we're not earning your business, you're free to leave.
Deposit Speed
- Traditional: Typically 2-3 business days for deposits. Some offer next-day for an additional fee ($5 – $25/month).
- NovaPay: Next-business-day deposits standard. No additional fee. Your money is in your account by the morning after you process it.
Equipment
- Traditional: Often pushed into terminal rental agreements at $35 – $89/month. Over a 4-year lease, a $500 terminal costs you $1,680 – $4,272. Equipment is returned at end of lease.
- NovaPay: Purchase terminals at cost ($300 – $600 for modern tap-capable units). You own them outright. If you have compatible equipment from a previous processor, we'll reprogram it at no charge.
Support
- Traditional: Call centers with long wait times, multiple transfers, and agents reading from scripts. Moneris and Global Payments both have documented customer complaints about support accessibility on platforms like Trustpilot and the BBB.
- NovaPay: Canadian-based support team. Phone calls answered by humans. Average response time under 4 hours for non-urgent issues, under 1 hour for critical issues. Your account has a dedicated contact who knows your business.
Technology
- Traditional: Most legacy processors offer basic terminal processing and a web dashboard that looks like it was built in 2012. API access is limited or requires enterprise-tier pricing. Integration documentation is often poor.
- NovaPay: Modern merchant dashboard with real-time analytics, transaction search, and reporting. Clean API for developers building custom integrations. Full compatibility with major POS systems and e-commerce platforms.
PCI Compliance
- Traditional: Charge a PCI compliance fee ($79 – $120/year) plus a monthly PCI non-compliance fee ($19.95 – $39.95) if you haven't completed their questionnaire. Many businesses pay the non-compliance fee for years without realizing it.
- NovaPay: PCI compliance assistance is included in onboarding. We walk you through the self-assessment questionnaire and ensure you're compliant before you process your first transaction. No compliance fees, no non-compliance penalties.
Where Traditional Processors Still Win
We promised honesty, so here it is. There are scenarios where a traditional processor may be the better fit:
- Enterprise volume — if you're processing $10M+ annually, the largest processors can negotiate interchange rates directly with card networks in ways that smaller processors can't. At that scale, Moneris or Global Payments may offer marginally better interchange pricing.
- Bank integration requirements — if your business requires deep integration with RBC or BMO's banking infrastructure (e.g., for treasury management or automated clearing), Moneris's bank ownership gives them a structural advantage.
- International presence — if you need processing in 30+ countries with local acquiring in each market, Global Payments and Chase Paymentech have infrastructure we can't match today.
For the vast majority of Canadian businesses — those processing $100,000 to $5,000,000 annually, operating domestically or in North America, and wanting transparent pricing with actual human support — NovaPay is built for you.
The $10,000 Web Development Credit
Here's something no traditional processor will ever offer: when you onboard with NovaPay for payment processing, you're eligible for up to $10,000 in credit toward a single web development project from Nova Web.
That means a custom website, a full e-commerce platform, or a booking and CRM system — one project, up to $10,000 in value. For most small businesses, that completely covers a professional website or custom platform. A free website, funded by switching to a processor that already saves you money.
The logic is straightforward: NovaPay and Nova Web are part of the same ecosystem. We'd rather invest in building you a platform that processes more transactions through NovaPay than spend that money on advertising. You get better processing rates and a custom digital platform. We get a long-term processing relationship.
This credit is available exclusively to businesses onboarding for NovaPay payment processing services, and is limited while space is available. Once our current onboarding capacity is filled, the offer adjusts.
How to Get Started
- Request a free payment audit — send us your last three processing statements. We'll do a line-by-line analysis and show you exactly what you'd save with NovaPay. No commitment required.
- Review the comparison — we'll present a side-by-side of your current costs versus NovaPay, including all fees, so you can make an informed decision.
- Onboard and claim your web development credit — if the numbers make sense, we handle the entire migration. Zero downtime, and your web development credit is activated as soon as processing begins.
The best payment processor is the one that's transparent about their pricing, doesn't lock you into contracts, and actually picks up the phone when you call. We built NovaPay to be that processor. The web development credit is our way of proving it.
See the full details on our card payments page, or browse our project portfolio to see what your $10,000 credit could build.