NOWPayments vs CoinGate 2026: Fees, Licences and Who Should Pick Which

The prices look close until you decide which coin to accept and where the money should end up.

Pick CoinGate for bank settlement, NOWPayments for USDT

CoinGate is the stronger starting point for an EU or UK shop that wants euros in a bank account. NOWPayments is the stronger starting point for a business its terms permit that wants USDT or a wider range of coins paid into its own wallet. Both depend on approval and on your industry.

Our verdict

CoinGate

#1 Best overall · 2026#2 Lowest fees · 2026#1 Stablecoins · 2026Our pick: Bank settlement and checkable licences

Start with CoinGate if your country is supported and you want bank settlement through a named, licensed company. The trade-offs: Standard settles weekly, USDT isn't listed, quotes carry a margin, and SWIFT withdrawals can get expensive.

81

/100

#1 of 27 · Best overall

Best for

• Approved merchants wanting euro bank settlement
• Businesses that want to check a regulator's register
• Stores whose buyers can use USDC or other listed assets

Not for

• USDT-dependent checkouts
• Businesses outside its country list
• Shops requiring daily bank arrival

Visit site See the fees

Our verdict

NOWPayments

Our pick: USDT and a broader coin range

Start with NOWPayments if your business qualifies and your buyers need USDT or smaller coins. Paying straight to your wallet suits a business that's comfortable handling crypto. Its fixed-rate fee is described two different ways, discounts need approval, and we couldn't find a full price for euro bank withdrawals.

63

/100

#8 of 27 · Best overall

Best for

• Approved businesses taking USDT
• Merchants comfortable receiving crypto
• Stores needing a wider coin selection

Not for

• Businesses caught by its country restrictions
• Merchants who need a named licence in the documents
• Shops that need euro bank withdrawals fully priced before approval

Visit site See the fees

Prices in the comparison rows and the calculations below are the percentage fee only. Network fees, quote margins, bank charges and account-specific charges come on top, and a charge nobody has published isn't zero. The scores compare what the providers publish, and a higher score doesn't make an excluded business eligible.

CoinGate

81/100

4 – 2

NOWPayments

63/100

6.7

Cost

6.7

8.0

Fiat cash-out

6.0

10.0

Licence

0.0

8.0

Coins and networks

10.0

10.0

Integrations and API

7.0

10.0

Features

10.0

6.0

Support and reliability

9.0

6.0

Onboarding

3.0

	CoinGate	NOWPayments
Score	81/100 · #1	63/100 · #8
Payment fee	1%	1%
Cost on $10k/month	$100	$100
Pays out to bank	EUR, GBP, USD	EUR
Stablecoin networks	USDC: Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism · EURC: Ethereum	USDT: TRC20, BSC, ERC20, Solana, Polygon · USDC: ERC20, Polygon, Solana · DAI: ERC20 · TUSD: Standard, TRC20 · USDP: ERC20 · BUSD: BSC · GUSD: ERC20 · USDD: TRC20 · PYUSD: ERC20 · USDE: ERC20
Coins	12	300
Custody	Custodial	Custodial or non-custodial
Merchant KYC	Required	Not stated
Rolling reserve	Not stated	Not stated
Licence	Crypto-Asset Service Provider (MiCA), Bank of Lithuania; licence No. 2, authorization code LB002323 (LB002323); Payment institution, Bank of Lithuania (EMT operations); licence No. 60, authorization code LB002324 (LB002324)	Not stated
Plugins	WooCommerce, Wix, Magento 2, WHMCS, OpenCart, PrestaShop	WooCommerce, WooCommerce (CoderPress WordPress.org package), WHMCS
Legal entity country	Lithuania	Not stated
Founded	2014	2019

For more on either one, read our CoinGate review or NOWPayments review.

Your country can settle the choice before price does

CoinGate's supported-country page, which we read on 11 October, lists the EU, UK, Canada, Australia and Singapore and leaves out the US, UAE and Russia.^[4] Its terms require your location and operations to be inside that list.^[6]

NOWPayments' terms, updated 31 August 2026, exclude residents or citizens of the EU, UK, US and UAE, and people located in or resident in Russia.^[21] They don't say how a company with owners or directors in those places is treated, so ask for a written decision if that applies to you.

CoinGate asks for company documents, a live identity check for the person registering, IDs for directors and owners holding 25% or more, and proof of your operating address.^[13] Have that paperwork ready before you pick a launch date, and don't count on skipping ID checks at either provider, because they can also come up once payments are flowing. This is general information, not legal advice.

Both start at 1%, but the total cost differs

At 1%, a $10,000 month costs $100 in fees. CoinGate's fee help confirms that rate with no setup or monthly charges.^[11] NOWPayments' fee answer gives 1% without exchange and 1.5% with conversion, fixed rate or fee-paid-by-user.^[16]

That's before blockchain fees and bank charges. CoinGate's commercial policy also adds an unpublished risk margin to its payment quotes, on top of the fee.^[2] NOWPayments' bank charges aren't fully published. So compare what your customer sends with what you receive, not just the percentage.

The €50 SEPA minimum is an amount you must withdraw. The €50 SWIFT minimum is a fee. The CoinGate fee guide and NOWPayments fee guide cover the rest of the charges.

NOWPayments' help pages quote different rates

Budget 1% or 1.5% until your account says otherwise. NOWPayments' help article on fees, checked on 14 October, says identity and business approvals together reduce same-coin fees to 0.5%, though it's unclear whether your account would get that.^[17] The September Integration Guide quotes the fixed-rate fee at 1%, while the fee answer says 1.5%.^[18] Get the fixed-rate figure into your written quote.

At $10,000, a half-point difference is $50 a month.

Direct-wallet payments and held balances have different costs

With direct-wallet payments, NOWPayments describes one network fee paid by the buyer for sending and two more deducted as the payment is processed and delivered to your wallet. Its Custody flow cuts that to one transfer on your side, then the withdrawal itself. Batching withdrawals means fewer external transfers, but your money sits with a third-party custodian in the meantime.

Its Custody help describes external withdrawals and mass payouts as zero service fee plus one network fee per payout.^[19]

CoinGate says the buyer pays the sending fee on incoming payments.^[9] Its pricing page calls ordinary crypto withdrawals free, but its fee help talks about transfer fees covering network costs, and neither says every network charge is waived for every destination. Look at the withdrawal preview before you send.

Small orders magnify network costs; SWIFT magnifies frequent withdrawals

Both can look cheap on the fee and still cost more by the time you hold usable money. The examples below are made up. One uses dollars and one uses euros, and we don't convert between them.

The SWIFT fee and weekly Standard settlement come from CoinGate's pricing page.^[1]

CoinGate lists its bank options; NOWPayments' euro withdrawals need confirmation

CoinGate lists euros through SEPA or SWIFT, and dollars and pounds through SWIFT only.^[3] SEPA is the euro bank-transfer system; SWIFT is the international one. A settlement schedule tells you when CoinGate releases funds, not when your bank credits them.

CoinGate's withdrawal help says requests are reviewed by hand, usually within hours, or up to 24 hours for larger withdrawals or extra checks. Crypto then needs network confirmation, and banks add their own processing time and business-day limits.^[12] If wages or suppliers depend on a specific date, keep a cash buffer.

NOWPayments' terms define bank withdrawal as euros only, and it requires Custody and a USDT-on-TRON balance.^[21] Its Integration Guide describes partner business verification, activation and conversion before you can withdraw. We couldn't find the conversion charge, minimum, total transfer cost or arrival time, so you'd need a quote from your account before comparing it with CoinGate's SEPA service.

If you normally receive crypto directly, bank withdrawal also changes who holds your money, because it runs through Custody and a partner.

NOWPayments has USDT; CoinGate's USDC list includes Base

USDT is the clearest currency difference. CoinGate's acceptance list has 12 assets and omits USDT. It lists USDC on seven networks, including Base and Solana; EURC is listed on Ethereum.^[3]

NOWPayments' coin list advertises more than 300 cryptocurrencies. It names USDT on TRON, BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon, and USDC on Ethereum, Polygon and Solana.^[22] The tables leave out legacy Omni and the wound-down EURT, following Tether's current protocol information.^[27]

Both list USDC on Solana, but only CoinGate's list names USDC on Base. Before relying on any pair, look at the asset and network in the live payment quote; a coin can work on one network and not another. If Tether is essential to you, compare other providers too.

CoinGate has licences you can check in a regulator's register

The Bank of Lithuania register lists UAB Decentralized, linked to CoinGate, as a payment institution and a crypto-asset service provider, with both licences valid from 16 December 2025.^[15] We read that entry directly. It lists both codes without saying which code is which licence.

The NOWPayments terms we read come from FD Transfers LLC and name no licence, though a registration could exist elsewhere, so ask which company contracts with you and which permission covers your service. A licence wouldn't guarantee approval, payout timing or refunds anyway.

Act quickly on suspended payments and close unused accounts properly

If a payment is unsuccessful or suspended, CoinGate's special terms charge 1% of the amount received per day from the payment date. The charge is waived only if you make a refund claim and provide any requested information within 100 days; after that the fee eats up the amount.^[5] On a $200 payment that's $2 a day unless the waiver applies.

Dormant accounts carry a different charge. Under the general terms effective 1 January 2026, an account with 12 months of no customer-initiated transactions and six months of unanswered due-diligence requests is charged 2% of the remaining balance weekly, minimum €10. The terms say fees are calculated without deduction during the first 350 days, and balances below €10 have a special immediate-closure rule. A fee waiver on reactivation is possible but not guaranteed.^[6] Older help describes 0.5% monthly instead, and we can't say which would apply to your account.^[14]

CoinGate supports full and partial refunds; the buyer supplies a wallet and confirms by email. Its pricing page and fee explanation list €0.25, plus 0.1% when currencies differ. The refunds page's own summary says refunds are free otherwise, which conflicts with its flat-fee FAQ.^[8] Until you've seen the fee preview, don't promise customers a free refund.

NOWPayments' refund help says recovering a payment sent on the wrong network, in the wrong asset or below the minimum depends on conditions, with network costs borne by the partner or customer. Once a completed payment reaches your wallet, refunding it is up to you.^[23] Its terms allow extra recovery charges, and the 20 business days it mentions is for extracting assets, not for every refund.

Choose by approval, receiving currency and customer habits

If neither fits, our NOWPayments alternatives page compares other options. If your industry is restricted, the guide to high-risk payment options helps you frame what to ask, and you'll need written acceptance of your business. A plugin or account-registration button isn't industry approval.

CoinGate publishes email support for Standard and a dedicated team for Enterprise. NOWPayments advertises 24/7 support on its pricing page.^[20] We haven't measured how fast either team responds or resolves problems, so ask who handles a frozen payment outside your working hours.

Move only after approval and a tested checkout

Set the switch date after approval and testing; there's no standard month-long overlap to plan around.

1. 
   01

   Get approved and pick where money lands

   Get country and industry acceptance, then settle on a wallet or bank destination, the fees and the settlement schedule. Finish any company checks before you promise a launch date.

2. 
   02

   Test checkout and notifications

   Use the provider's sandbox (its test environment) to run paid, underpaid and expired invoices. Make sure each payment notification updates the right order and can't trigger fulfilment twice.

3. 
   03

   Explain changed coins to buyers

   Moving to CoinGate means losing USDT, which isn't on its acceptance list. Moving to NOWPayments may add coin and network choices, so tell buyers exactly which network to use and how refunds work.

4. 
   04

   Reconcile and close the old account

   Save your order, fee and payout records and keep track of payments and refunds still open. Keep your login until those are done, then withdraw what you can and ask for closure instructions.

Both describe sandboxes: NOWPayments for simulated payments through its API (the interface a custom integration uses), and CoinGate in its API guide.^[24][10] CoinGate also publishes preformatted report exports; whether their fields suit your accounting import is something you'd have to test.

CoinGate's plugin page names WooCommerce, Wix and WHMCS among its examples.^[7] NOWPayments lists WooCommerce version 2.0.0, updated in April 2026.^[25] Its WHMCS page still names version 1.2, updated in March 2022, compatible up to WHMCS 7.9.^[26] We haven't tested either plugin, so check compatibility against your store's current version.

Our processor selection guide has the wider checklist.

NOWPayments vs CoinGate FAQ

Updates: 14 October 2026: rechecked CoinGate's accepted assets (including Bitcoin Cash) and NOWPayments' standard fees and account discounts. 11 October 2026: corrected the quote-margin and fee details, euro withdrawal conditions, network costs and migration advice, and fixed some dead links. First published 6 October 2026.