Build vs Buy for Acquirers  

Acquirers are at a crossroads when it comes to orchestration technology: do they invest in building their own solution and risk getting saddled with a tech dodo, or do they jump on board with a partner? Our new whitepaper dives into the pros and cons of each route and explains why partnering with a payment orchestrator is often the smarter, more cost-effective choice. 

The build approach: is it worth it?

In-house payment solutions may seem like the best way to stay in control, but building your own payment infrastructure is a massive undertaking. Acquirers that choose this route face several significant challenges: 

• High development and maintenance costs

Developing a reliable in-house payment platform requires substantial investment, not just in the initial build, but in ongoing maintenance, upgrades and compliance with industry standards. The costs quickly stack up, and what was once a valuable project can become a financial drain. 

• Slow time to market 

The time required to develop a custom solution means that it’s often outdated by the time it’s launched. The pace of change in payments is relentless, and waiting years for a system to be ready could put your business behind competitors. 

• Resource-heavy 

Maintaining a proprietary system requires a dedicated, skilled team to handle everything from development and testing to security and compliance. The drain on internal resources can take focus away from your core business operations, which may ultimately hurt your long-term growth. 

Why buying into orchestration makes sense

Instead of building from the ground up, acquirers have another option: buying into an independent payment orchestration platform. This approach offers several key advantages: 

• Speed and efficiency 

By partnering with a payment orchestration provider, acquirers can quickly integrate new payment methods and features into their systems without the lengthy and costly development process. These platforms are built to evolve with the market, meaning you’ll have access to the latest technology and services as soon as they become available. 

• Cost-effectiveness 

Partnering with a payment orchestration platform helps you avoid the expensive upfront costs and ongoing maintenance required by in-house solutions. Instead of sinking funds into infrastructure, you can leverage the orchestrator’s existing systems and technology, which reduces both capital and operational expenses. 

• Scalability and flexibility 

As your business grows, so do your needs. With orchestration, you gain the flexibility to scale without major infrastructure changes. Orchestration enables you to integrate multiple payment providers and methods easily, giving you the agility to support new markets, regions or payment types without building new systems. 

• Focus on merchant value 

Payment orchestration enables acquirers to focus on what they do best - serving merchants - while the orchestrator handles the heavy lifting of technical projects, partnership management and keeping up with payment methods. You can provide better services to your merchants, such as optimising routing, increasing authorisation rates, or offering additional features, all without getting bogged down by the complexities of upgrading and maintaining your own infrastructure. 

The role of payment orchestration in a multi-acquirer world

As outlined in our whitepaper, How to Keep Your Customer in a Multi-Acquirer World, acquirers are facing increasing pressure to meet merchant’s growing expectations for flexibility, agility and access to a diverse range of payment solutions.  

Merchants no longer want to rely on a single provider. They need the flexibility to select the best payment method for each transaction - whether based on geography, cost, or transaction type. Payment orchestration enables acquirers to offer this flexibility without the need to build out a complex ecosystem themselves. 

As Chris Jones, Managing Director at PSE Consulting, notes: “The pace of change is now beyond that which any banking institution is capable of responding to, and that pace of change is going to accelerate with the role of embedded finance, marketplaces, analytics and orchestration.” 

This is exactly where payment orchestration shines. Rather than being tied down by legacy systems, acquirers can easily expand their payment methods and services through an orchestrator, offering merchants the flexibility they need to stay competitive.  

A distribution layer for success 

Rather than going through the cumbersome process of building and maintaining a custom platform, acquirers can benefit from orchestration’s pre-built services. Orchestration enables acquirers to offer multi-provider flexibility; an important feature as merchants expand globally or need region-specific payment options. 

Charlotte Al Usta, Principal at Flagship Advisory Partners, sums it up: “Transaction routing is a core argument for a lot of merchants as a cost-saving and cost efficiency component. You don't need to maintain all these different direct integrations with all the different acquirers across geographies. Everything is connected via the payment orchestrator in one platform. You have a really good overview in terms of the flows, you can easily reallocate some of the volume to one provider versus another if you realise that the authorisation rates are not good.” 

Some orchestrators also offer white-label solutions, meaning you can maintain your brand while benefiting from the operational efficiency of integrated platforms. This enables you to scale your offerings and to access target volumes that might have otherwise been out of reach – all with relative ease and at a much more palatable cost than building in-house. 

The verdict: build or buy? 

Building your own payment solution is a huge commitment. It's like deciding to build your own car instead of simply buying a reliable one. Sure, you can have all the bells and whistles, but you'll spend a lot of time and money just making sure it works - and that’s before it needs to be updated, fixed or re-tuned. 

Now, payment orchestration is like buying the best car on the market - ready to go, easy to maintain and built to keep running smoothly for the long haul. It lets you skip the headaches of building and managing infrastructure, and instead, focus on what you do best: serving your merchants and giving them the smooth, flexible payment solutions they need. 

In an industry where every transaction counts, you need something that’s quick to adjust, that can handle the complexities that come with global payments, and still delivers the kind of reliability merchants expect. With payment orchestration, you're not just keeping up; you’re staying ahead. 

Ready to rethink your payment strategy? Download our whitepaper now to discover how you can retain more merchants and scale your business with payment orchestration.