PayHawk! Electronic Merchant Systems! Two amazing merchant service providers. Who’s the better of the two? What do they do best? Who are they? In this article, you’ll learn all about each and be able to make a more informed, non biased decision on the better of the two for you. With that being said, let’s jump right in!
What is Electronic Merchant Systems
Electronic Merchant Systems is a merchant service provider located in Illinois and has a focus on both online commerce and local commerce. EMS is well known online for their ‘business on the go’ approach by offering mobile tools that can be accessed from a laptop, smartphone and tablet.
What is PayHawk
PayHawk is a merchant service provider that is located in Georgia. PayHawk is focused on local commerce and online commerce. PayHawk is well known for its sandbox API and outstanding customer service with dedicated account management.
Fee Showdown
When it comes to choosing a payment processing provider or merchant service provider it’s important to keep in mind its fee schedules. Oftentimes payment processing charges fees that are typically a fixed percentage of a transaction plus pennies on the dollar. PayHawk uses a sliding scale format that has one fixed quoted price and never changes. EMS offers a similar fee schedule, but does have varied fee schedules depending on the solution type – for example, manually entered cards may result in a different fee than an automated solution.
In the next section, we’ll show you in table format a breakdown on the fee schedules.
Fees
Now let’s talk about fees in a more visualized manner. Below you will find a table with the pricing charts for a quick comparison to help you make a better decision on the best merchant service provider for your business.
| Type | PayHawk | Electronic Merchant Systems |
| Online Payments | 2.2%-3.0% | ? |
| ACH Transfers | Free | ? |
| Recurring/Subscriptions | Free | ? |
| Invoicing | Free | ? |
| API Connections | Free | ? |
The short summary here is that EMS is not transparent when it comes to fees, they’re very much hidden from the main website.
Winner: PayHawk
Customer Service
Customer service is a very important component to merchant services. This section has a clear winner, PayHawk.
EMS offers a support and customer service solution that is not uniquely based on your company, there is no dedicated account management. PayHawk offers a unique approach by offering 24/7 access to an account manager who knows, loves and understands your business.
Winner: PayHawk
Contracts
The elephant in the room… contracts! PayHawk has no contracts at all, you’re free to join and cancel as you please, and if you’re unhappy PayHawk will even help you cancel.
EMS? They have a time contract, and will hit you with a $595 cancellation fee if you wish to cancel.
The quick summary? PayHawk wins.
Winner: PayHawk
Integration Options
EMS is very closed source when it comes to integration options. They have their own solutions and integrate mostly internally.
PayHawk is a sandbox API and natively integrates with nearly every CMS on the market, and integrates with any tool that has an open API. Natively, PayHawk also integrates with QuickBooks.
Winner: PayHawk
Security
Security is another important factor in merchant service providers. Rest assured, both merchant service providers follow regulator requirements such as PCI compliance.
EMS is closed source and does not discuss its security technology stack, other than saying it’s secure.
PayHawk offers several unique security features including fraud prevention/detection and chargeback assistance. The technology stack powering PayHawk is built by the masters at Visa and the Veri-line of companies.
Winner: PayHawk
Settlement Timeframes
Settlement timeframes matter for many, if you need or want your funds daily, you should be allowed to do that. Both PayHawk and EMS allow for daily, weekly and monthly settlements, however, PayHawk offers the unique ability to settle at any time during the day, which does not require you to wait for the end of the day for an EOD settlement.
Winner: PayHawk
Feature Compassion
Let’s talk about features. In this section, you can quickly compare the two merchant service providers and make judgment based on feature facts.
| Feature | PayHawk | Electronic Merchant Systems |
| Payment Gateway with API | X | Limited |
| Major Payment Methods | X | X |
| Fraud Detection | X | X |
| Reporting and Analytics | X | X |
| Integration Options | Sandbox API | Limited |
| Dedicated Support | X | – |
| Bill Presentment | X | Limited |
