PayFabric Review: Pricing, Fees, and What to Expect

PayFabric is a cloud-based payment gateway that’s built for one specific purpose: processing credit cards and ACH payments directly inside an ERP, CRM, or accounting software.

This isn’t a payment processor that most businesses randomly stumble into. So if you found it, you’re likely researching because you’re already using or considering one of the tools that integrates with PayFabric. This is the real reason why this provider exists.

So this review is going to be a little different from a typical payment processor review.

We’re not just asking the question, “Is PayFabric good?” The better question is if PayFabric’s integration is valuable enough to justify using EVO and Global Payments behind the scenes — and the extra costs that come with this setup. 

For some businesses, the answer might be yes. But if you’re only considering PayFabric because you think it will lower your credit card processing fees, you need to be careful. 

What PayFabric Actually Is (and Who’s Behind It)

PayFabric isn’t really a standalone payment processor. It’s a brand name used for marketing purposes, sitting on top of a three-layer corporate stack:

• PayFabric: The gateway and integration product that was originally developed by Nodus Technologies (a software company that specialized in payment integrations for Microsoft Dynamics).
• EVO Payments: Acquired Nodus back in 2018 and folded PayFabric into its B2B integrated payments division. If you look at the fine print on PayFabric’s website today, the legal entity is “EVO Merchant Services, LLC, a Global Payments company doing business as PayFabric.”
• Global Payments: Finalized its acquisition of EVO in March 2023 for roughly $4 billion. So Global is ultimately setting the pricing strategy on PayFabric accounts.

This distinction matters more than you might realize.

Because signing up for PayFabric is more than just a standard gateway service. You’re getting a merchant account with EVO, which means your rates, fees, and future increases are all stemming from Global Payments. 

I’ve written extensively about Global Payments and EVO Payments on this site, and neither has a great track record when it comes to pricing. (Spoiler alert: it always ends up being more expensive for merchants).

There’s Only One Real Reason to Use PayFabric: Software Integrations

PayFabric exists solely to embed payment processing into enterprise business software. That’s the entire value proposition. And it’s unique in the sense that it integrates with ERPs and CRMs that don’t always have an extensive list of supported payment processing options. Such as:

Microsoft Dynamics

• Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Dynamics 365 Finance (AX)
• Dynamics 365 Sales & Customer Service (CRM)
• Dynamics GP
• Dynamics SL

Sage

• Sage Intacct
• Sage 300

SAP

• S/4HANA (including Cloud)
• Business One
• Business ByDesign
• Commerce Cloud
• Subscription Billing
• ERP Central Component (ECC)

Others

• Acumatica
• Oracle Financials / eBusiness Suite (via an Oracle-validated payment adapter)

If you’re running one of these systems, the appeal for PayFabric is obvious. You can process payments within your ERP and payments automatically get applied to outstanding invoices, plus all card data is stored in PayFabric instead of your own systems.

You’re also getting a customer payment portal, embedded payment links, recurring payment support built around the same accounts receivable workflows, and reconciliation is much simpler. 

For B2Bs with heavy AR processes, this automation is genuinely useful and a real time-saver. 

PayFabric isn’t trying to compete with Square at a coffee shop counter. It’s built for businesses that need payments wired into the software running their back office. Wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, and professional service firms with invoice-heavy receivables are all better candidates. 

But here’s my honest assessment: The integration is the whole product. All of the payment processing itself is just standard EVO/Global processing with more markup. You need to ask yourself if paying a premium for this integration is worth it for your business. 

PayFabric Pricing for Integrated Credit Card Processing

PayFabric doesn’t publicly publish its pricing anywhere. Instead, every rate conversation goes through a sales rep, and your quote will ultimately depend on your software, volume, and frankly, how good you are at negotiating. 

And the pricing on PayFabric accounts is going to closely mirror what you see from EVO and Global Payments, only it’s going to be even more expensive due to the integration you’re seeking. Here’s what you can expect:

Tiered Pricing by Default

EVO loves to put merchants on tiered pricing models, in which transactions get sorted into three buckets: qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified.

The sales rep quotes you at the lowest qualified rate, and that’s the number they focus on when trying to get your business. But in B2B environments (which is exactly who PayFabric serves), most of your transactions are going to either be keyed, card-not-present, corporate, or purchasing cards. 

These almost never hit the qualified pricing tier, and the rate you end up paying will be widely different from what you were quoted. 

The only way to avoid this is by getting on interchange-plus pricing, in writing, before you sign your contract. Don’t let them dangle a low qualified rate in front of you that your transaction mix will never actually learn. 

Frequent Rate Increases

This is a major part of the Global Payments playbook that catches merchants completely off guard. 

If you look at EVO’s latest price changes, they’ve increased rates three consecutive years in a row. Global also increases its base rates regularly, and increases the price of miscellaneous fees that are all part of their markup. 

These rate hikes tend to be even more drastic for PayFabric because of the integrated setup. They know that once processing has been embedded into your ERP, switching will be a logistical and expensive nightmare. So they can increase your rates substantially every year knowing there will be minimal pushback. 

But you need to stand strong against these if you end up using PayFabric. Fight against every rate increase notification, and do whatever you can to keep your base rates as low as possible, even if you’re nowhere near a contract renewal deadline. 

Padded Fees

Unfortunately, Global-owned processors have a history of layering processor markups into places that most merchants don’t think to look. 

It’s an aggressive billing tactic that’s intentionally deceptive. And while we don’t see it often, when we do, it’s almost always from a processor under the Global umbrella (which is exactly where PayFabric falls).

Padded assessments add up quickly, and they are often a sign of bigger pricing problems on your statement. I’m not saying that this is guaranteed to happen on your account (because it’s not). But it’s 100% something you need to be auditing to ensure your pass-through fees are actually being billed at cost instead of with extra margin baked in. 

Other Miscellaneous Costs Throughout Your Statement

The integration itself isn’t free. You’re going to pay extra for an integrated setup with PayFabric and whatever ERP, CRM, or accounting system you’re using. That cost needs to be factored into your overall price when you’re evaluating PayFabric against alternative solutions. 

Beyond that, you’ve got a range of other fees that commonly come up on EVO/Global accounts, including:

• AOB fees
• Ecommerce fees
• Settlement funding fees
• Risk assessment fees
• Analytics reputation management fees
• Network compliance fees
• Infrastructure upgrade fees

This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg. Most of these can either be reduced or eliminated altogether. So the takeaway here is that you should be questioning any non-transactional charge on your PayFabric statement, as it could be a pure processor markup that you’re not required to pay. 

Should You Switch to PayFabric?

The framework for this decision is actually pretty straightforward:

1. If you don’t need any of the processor integrations covered above, there’s no reason to use PayFabric.
2. If you do need integrated processing with one of those systems, see if your existing processor can support it first. 
3. If your current processor can’t support the integration, run a cost-benefit analysis to see if switching is actually worth it.
4. If you still want to switch, evaluate other options before assuming PayFabric is the best option.

For the vast majority of businesses, it’s in your best interest to keep your current payment processor. But I understand that isn’t always realistic, especially if you’re committed to an ERP integration that your processor just can’t handle.

While PayFabric does fill the gap for some of these unique software systems, it’s rarely the only game in town.

For example, Sage supports half a dozen integrated processors. One of those could easily beat out PayFabric in terms of overall service, pricing, and long-term costs. Microsoft Dynamics and Acumatica have multiple certified payment processing options as well. 

With all that said, PayFabric can definitely make sense if you’re already entrenched in one of those ERP systems and the integration will genuinely save your AR team meaningful hours. And if the alternative integrations are worse or non-existent. 

If that’s the case, just make sure you negotiate interchange-plus pricing from day one with PayFabric as the mid and non-qualified tiers will eat away at you. 

Already Using PayFabric? You Can Probably Negotiate a Lower Rate

If you’ve been processing via PayFabric for a few years, I can practically guarantee that your effective rate has creeped up since when you first signed. 

This was likely done systematically through rate increases, fee additions, and other hidden costs that we covered above. Merchants don’t realize this stuff until it’s too late and you’re suddenly paying tens of thousands more in merchant fees. 

The good news is that you don’t need to switch processors to fix this. Switching is often the worst move because once PayFabric is embedded into your workflow, ripping it out can disrupt your entire receivables process and creates reconciliation gaps during the transaction. It’s brutal for your accounting team and could take weeks to clean up. 

The smarter play is keeping the integration and leveraging your position to get better pricing. You can negotiate with PayFabric literally at any time. 

Despite their not-so-great reputations, Global and EVO have always been receptive to negotiations. We’ve negotiated directly with both of them on behalf of our clients for years, and there’s always room to remove junk fees and bring rates back down without touching your integration, software setup, or operation.

Your ERP and everything stays exactly as it is. The only thing that changes is what you pay. 

Final Verdict on PayFabric

PayFabric is a legitimate product that solves a real problem. It’s one of a handful of solutions that supports integrated processing and AR automation inside major ERP systems, and the gateway does exactly what it’s advertised to do.

But you need to understand what you’re actually signing up for here.

PayFabric is a Global Payments solution that’s masked behind a layer of integration-friendly branding. So when you look up the product, you don’t see the horror story reviews of Global Payments. 

When in reality, your rates are being set by a company with a long, well-documented history of rate increases and aggressive billing tactics. Global is the world’s largest payment processor, and they use that size to add pricing pressure to merchants. You need to understand this going in.

But if you’re committed to one of these specific integrations and can’t get a better deal from your own provider or an alternative processor, PayFabric is a workable option (only on interchange-plus pricing, and under the assumption you’ll monitor your statements closely).

If you don’t need these integrations, look elsewhere. And if you’re already using PayFac, don’t be afraid to negotiate better terms.