Multi-PSP or payment orchestration: Which is best for your business?
In today's digital economy, businesses must navigate the complexities of online payments to offer seamless, flexible, and reliable payment experiences.
Whether you’re expanding into new markets, adding local payment methods, or optimising for performance and cost, how you manage your payment providers can have a major impact.
As a result, many businesses are shifting away from traditional single-provider setups in favour of using multiple PSPs (payment service providers) or payment orchestration models.
But what’s the difference between the two, and which one is right for your business?
Multi-PSP vs payment orchestration
Multi-PSP Integration involves a business connecting with multiple payment service providers to process transactions. This strategy allows companies to offer a variety of payment methods, enhance redundancy, and potentially negotiate better transaction fees. However, managing multiple PSPs individually can be complex and resource-intensive.
Payment Orchestration refers to the use of a unified platform that manages multiple PSPs and payment methods through a single integration. This approach streamlines the payment process, offering benefits such as intelligent transaction routing, improved approval rates, and simplified reporting. By centralising payment operations, businesses can reduce technical overhead and respond more swiftly to market changes.
Adopting a payment orchestration platform can address these challenges by providing a centralised system to manage various payment providers and methods, thereby enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving the overall payment experience for both businesses and their customers.
| Criteria | Multi-PSP | Payment orchestration |
|---|---|---|
| Integration effort | High – multiple direct builds | Low – one unified integration |
| Time to market | Slower | Faster |
| Flexibility | Moderate | High – switch providers easily |
| Maintenance burden | High | Low – centralised updates |
| Smart routing and optimisation | Limited or manual | Built-in and automated |
| Cost efficiency | Varies by setup | Often better via optimisation tools |
| Risk management | Decentralised | Centralised dashboards and controls |
What is causing the shift away from single PSP partnerships?
Several factors are driving the move to multi-PSP and orchestration approaches:
- Global reach – Access to local payment methods and acquiring in multiple regions
- Resilience – Reducing dependency on a single provider
- Performance – Smart routing helps maximise approval rates and minimise latency
- Cost efficiency – Ability to route transactions based on fees or FX rates
- Operational simplicity – Especially with orchestration platforms that reduce integration and maintenance work
At Back Market, the global marketplace for refurbished electronics, these considerations played a key role in shifting their strategy:
“We have been moving away from one single PSP… to an orchestration model where we have multiple PSPs. We reduced costs by 30% by generating competition between our PSPs. We also managed to be more local when it goes down to certain alternative payment methods.”Riccardo Argenta, Global Payment Senior Lead Manager, Back Market
TeamViewer faced its own challenges. The integration of PSPs was complex due to TeamViewer's internal structure for recurring transactions, leading to the adoption of a payment orchestration platform.
“In the past, it was much more complex because we have a very complex internal structure - how we process transactions, especially the recurring transactions. Therefore, we integrated a payment orchestration platform last year. This gives us the opportunity to connect PSPs quicker or better use the PSPs that are already connected to the payment orchestration.”Stefan Weyl, Payment Manager, TeamViewer Germany
When a multi-PSP approach makes sense
A direct multi-PSP setup may still be the right choice in specific scenarios:
- You have unique or niche requirements that orchestration platforms can’t support
- Your team has the technical capacity to manage multiple integrations and updates
- You require full control over each PSP relationship, including custom terms or data routing
For Back Market, localising the payment experience while maintaining cost control was key:
“We try to work with local partners that match Back Market’s needs in terms of cost and performance. But we’re also looking at what the consumer wants – providers that offer familiar, local payment methods”.
Back Market saw a 30% reduction in costs by focusing on local partners and APMs preferred by their customers.
When payment orchestration is the better choice
Most businesses today are finding orchestration platforms better suited to modern payment needs. Orchestration makes sense if:
- You’re expanding quickly into new markets or payment methods.
- You want to reduce internal development time and technical debt.
- You’re looking for optimised performance with minimal manual effort.
- You need better visibility across all payments and providers.
- You want to test, switch or combine PSPs without re-building integrations.
TeamViewer turned to a payment orchestration platform to overcome integration friction:
““We integrated a payment orchestration platform last year. “This gives us the opportunity to connect PSPs quicker or better use the PSPs already connected. The integration part is done by the orchestration platform, and we just need some smaller amendments in our integration.”
While they noted they’re still early in the process, orchestration has already simplified the complex structure tied to their recurring payments.
While they noted they’re still early in the process, orchestration has already simplified the complex structure tied to their recurring payments.
Weighing up the pros and cons of multi-PSP vs payment orchestration models
Both multi-PSP and payment orchestration models aim to offer flexibility and resilience, but they achieve it in different ways. Multi-PSP gives you more control, while orchestration gives you speed, efficiency, and simplicity.
As payments become more complex, the case for orchestration grows stronger. It’s not just about reducing the operational burden; it’s about unlocking better performance, lowering costs, and getting to market faster.
The real-world experiences of businesses like Back Market and TeamViewer show the tangible benefits of orchestrating payments - from cost savings and better localisation to solving technical bottlenecks in global commerce.
If you're scaling, entering new regions, or dealing with high transaction volumes, payment orchestration may be the strategic edge your business needs. However, another approach is to partner with a PSP like Ecommpay, which has payment orchestration built into its payment stack.
This model allows you to streamline complex payment operations through a single integration, eliminating the need for a standalone payment orchestration provider. This approach supports global expansion by giving you access to a vast range of local and international payment methods, while also driving higher authorisation rates and significantly reducing transaction costs.
