Merchant Account and Payment Gateway

If you wish to accept transactions using SOLO Server's optional integrated e-Commerce, it is necessary for your company to acquire a merchant account and a SOLO Server-compatible payment gateway.

Merchant Account

A merchant account is a type of account that allows your business to accept credit cards as a method of payment. There is a wide variety of online merchant account providers from which to choose; in fact, your local bank will likely be able to provide you with a merchant account.

Each SOLO Server Author can be configured to use their own merchant account, but only one merchant account can be used at any given time.

The following merchant account providers are currently supported by SOLO Server:

Note that PayPal Payments Standard, Dibs Debitech Web, and RBS Worldpay are not compatible with Payment Plans.

In addition, if using Authorize.NET, you must store full credit card information in order to use the payment plan feature (which is not recommended).

For additional information, read our post What are some options for obtaining a merchant account?

Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a service that interfaces between the SOLO Server cart and the merchant account. Credit card approval requests are relayed from the SOLO Server cart to the bank through the payment gateway much like a credit card swipe terminal is used in a retail environment. The SOLO Server cart supports many popular payment gateways as a vehicle for submitting transactions to your merchant account.

Quite often, the provider of a merchant account can offer its clients a "bundle," which may include a payment gateway, such as with PayPal.

If you already have a merchant account but need a compatible payment gateway, please contact our support team for further assistance.

Configuring Your Payment Gateway in SOLO Server

If you are using SOLO Server Shared URL, you must open a support ticket when you are ready to configure PayPal or any other merchant account associated with your Author ID.

If you are using SOLO Server Self-Hosted or SOLO Server Dedicated URL, here are the steps for adding your PayPal Merchant Account to your cart. For other cases, refer to the Merchant Account Field List.