# Multiple Payment Gateways for OTT | Vodlix **Source:** https://vodlix.com/features/multiple-payment-gateways **Summary:** Run several payment providers together so each market can pay the way it actually pays, with different sets for subscriptions and purchases and a wallet behind them. **Publisher:** Vodlix --- Run several providers at once, because being payable in a second country usually means supporting how that country actually pays. - **Feature Plan:** 2 - core-platform ## A Card Form Is Not a Payment Strategy Card ownership is high in some markets and low in others, and a service that only accepts cards has quietly decided which countries it operates in. Running several gateways together is how that decision gets made deliberately. ### The Checkout Decides Your Map Operators think carefully about which territories they have rights for and then accidentally narrow that list at the payment screen. If the only way to pay is a card, then your addressable audience is the portion of each market that holds one, which in some countries is nearly everybody and in others is a minority. That is a significant commercial decision to make by omission. Supporting more than one gateway is not about redundancy or about negotiating fees, though both are real. It is about being payable by the people you already have the rights to serve, and it usually costs less effort than the rights negotiation did. #### Several running together Providers are enabled independently rather than one being the platform default, so a market that needs a local method gets it without disturbing anywhere else. #### Different sets for different sales The providers allowed for one off purchases can differ from those used for recurring plans, because the two carry different risk and different economics. #### One wallet behind them Any provider can fund a balance, after which purchases draw against it. That turns a market with awkward payment infrastructure into one top up rather than one obstacle per transaction. ### Local Methods Are Not a Nicety In a number of the markets where streaming is growing fastest, the dominant way people pay for things is not a card. It might be mobile money, a bank transfer initiated from an app, or a regional provider nobody outside that country has heard of. Offering only international card processing in those places does not produce fewer sales, it produces almost none, and the mistake is invisible from a head office where everybody has a card in their pocket. The practical test before entering a market is not whether your gateway supports the currency but whether it supports how people there actually pay. The full provider list available on the platform is covered under [payment gateway integrations](/features/payment-gateway-integrations). ### The Wallet Absorbs the Friction Where payment infrastructure is awkward, the worst design is one that makes somebody navigate it on every purchase. A balance changes the shape of the problem. The viewer deals with the difficult part once, topping up through whatever method suits them, and every subsequent purchase becomes a confirmation rather than a payment. That matters most for transactional catalogues, where the difference between a two tap purchase and a two minute one is the difference between an impulse and an abandoned basket. It also means a renewal can draw against a balance rather than depending on a card being present and valid, which is described under [automated billing](/features/automated-billing) and the [subscribers manager](/features/subscribers-manager). ### The Apps Are a Separate Question None of this applies inside the mobile apps, and it is worth being clear about that rather than letting it surprise you at review. Purchases made in an iOS or Android app go through the store, using the store billing, at the store commission, regardless of which gateways you have configured. Your own providers govern the web and anywhere else you sell, which in practice means most operators run two parallel arrangements and accept that the prices will not match exactly. Planning for that early is considerably cheaper than discovering it during a submission, and the detail is covered under [gateway level packages](/features/gateway-level-packages). **Q: Why run more than one payment gateway?** Because being payable in a second country usually means supporting how that country actually pays. A service that only takes cards has decided its addressable market at the checkout rather than deliberately. **Q: Can different gateways be used for different products?** Yes, the providers allowed for one off purchases can differ from those used for subscriptions. The two have different risk profiles and different economics, so treating them separately is usually deliberate rather than accidental. **Q: What if my market does not use cards much?** Then card processing alone will produce almost no sales there, and the mistake is invisible from an office where everybody has a card. Mobile money, bank transfer and regional providers are what make those markets work. **Q: How does a wallet help?** It moves the friction to one moment. The viewer tops up through whatever method suits them, and every purchase after that is a confirmation. For transactional catalogues that is the difference between an impulse and an abandoned basket. **Q: Do these gateways apply inside the mobile apps?** No. Purchases made in an iOS or Android app go through the store billing at the store commission regardless of what you have configured. Most operators end up running two parallel arrangements. **Q: Is running several gateways more work to maintain?** Somewhat, since each is a credential and a relationship. The comparison worth making is against the revenue from a market you otherwise cannot serve, which is usually a considerably larger number than the maintenance. **Q: Can I test them before taking real money?** Yes, test mode puts payments through your gateways without charging anybody. It is worth using properly, because a misconfigured gateway looks identical to a working one until money is supposed to move. **Q: How do I know which providers to enable?** Ask how people in that market already pay for things rather than which providers support the currency. Those are different questions, and the second one is the one that produces a checkout nobody completes.