How to choose a monetization strategy for your SaaS platform
A short guide for software platforms that want payments to pay, without handing control of a single transaction to someone else.
Your users already pay. The question is where.
Most platforms earn their place by doing one job well. Once customers trust you with the work, they ask the obvious next question: can we pay here too? Say yes, and every transaction your users make inside your product is revenue your platform can keep.
But payments bring a second question: who decides whether a payment should move at all? A charge sent to the wrong payee, for the wrong amount, or twice, is not a pricing problem. It is a control problem. And it lands on your support team first.
Two ways to earn from payments
Both paths earn money the same way: your users pay to move money, and your platform keeps part of what they pay. They differ in who sets the price, who carries the cost underneath, and how much of the operation you run yourself.
Approval Layer
Best when you already take payments and like your processor. You want control added, not a rebuild.
Your users: pay on the rails you already have.
ezpymt: decides each payment first, signs the record.
Nothing structural on top of what you pay today. Your users keep paying your processor; ezpymt governs the flow.
What you get- Live in weeks, not quarters, with no re-platforming
- Your bank and processor relationships stay yours
- Proof for every payment, signed as it happens
- Your processor and bank stay where they are
- Your margin follows your existing pricing
Governed Payments
Best when you want the price itself to be yours to set, and the margin that comes with it.
Your users: pay inside your product.
Your platform: sets the price and collects the fee.
You carry the underlying network and processing cost. Published rates to plan from: card in person 2.4% + 15¢, online 2.7% + 20¢, bank 0.5% capped at $3.95, vendor payout $1.49.
What you get- Your price list: flat, tiered, or custom per customer
- Room to steer volume toward cheaper bank payments
- One dashboard and one fee report for every channel
- Prices that move when network costs move
- A team across product, sales, legal, risk, and finance
Which path fits you?
Three honest questions sort most platforms. Answer them in order.
- Do your users pay through your platform today?No: go to 2. Yes: go to 3.
- Do you need to be live fast, without hiring a payments team?Yes: Approval Layer. Governed payments on the rails you already have.
- Do you want to set the price your users pay?No: go to 4.
- Can you staff a dedicated payments team?Yes: Governed Payments. Your price, your margin, with a team to run it.
No to a fast launch, and no payments yet? You can also start with Governed Payments and build it properly from day one. Either way, the path can change later. The checks and the signed record carry across.
The real cost of setting your own price
Setting your own price sounds like free margin. In practice you are taking on a small finance business inside your software business.
Your price list
Segment pricing, foreign exchange, add-ons like faster payouts, and a competitor quoting against you.
Your contracts
Every user agrees to your price in writing, and again when it changes.
Your pricing engine
Rules in code, across every method and currency. One account covering in-store, online, QR, link, invoice, and memberships keeps it to one build.
Your cost watch
Network costs move constantly, and your margin moves with them unless you track and reprice.
Your users' reporting
They will ask what each payment cost. Receipts on every sale, each sale matched to its deposit, answer first.
Your margin watch
Revenue and cost, side by side, every week.
Your team
Product, design, data, engineering, sales, marketing, support, legal, risk, compliance, finance. One person each at $100,000 is about $900,000 a year.
On $1,000
- Card online, 2.7% + 20¢
- $27.20
- Bank, 0.5% capped at $3.95
- $3.95
$23.25 saved on one payment.
Starting with ezpymt
Either path covers more than online checkout: terminals and tap to pay in person, QR codes, pay-by-link, invoices, and recurring memberships all land in one account. Agent ezPay™ is live in production: the agent asks, ezpymt decides. Activation follows your approved integration.
Apply
Tell us about your business.
Get approved
We confirm the payment methods for you.
Start selling
Run a test payment, then go live.
- No setup fees
- Next business day or instant payouts. The payout fee is shown before you confirm.
- Test before you go live
- Volume pricing available over $100,000 a month. Talk to us.
- One clear fee report, receipts attached to every sale, every sale matched to its deposit
Earn from payments, and know why every one of them moved.