Take online payments without building an online store

A payment link is a hosted checkout page with its own URL. Put that URL behind a “Pay deposit,” “Buy gift card,” or “Pay invoice” button and you can take a card without building a product catalogue.

If the payment belongs to a quoted job, use the quote-to-payment workflow to keep the accepted scope, invoice reference, currency, and payment record together. Its downloadable Invoices worksheet tracks follow-ups without replacing your books.

Verified payment-link pricing for Canada and the United States

Provider	Monthly	Online card rate	Best for
SquareSquare Payment Links Checked 2026-09-12· Recheck due; confirm with provider	CA$0/moUS$0/mo	2.8% + CA$0.303.3% + US$0.30	Businesses that already use Square in person or want the simplest dashboard. Watch: US rate shown is for new Square customers. Processing, international-card, dispute, and optional product fees can differ.
StripeStripe Payment Links Checked 2026-09-12· Recheck due; confirm with provider	CA$0/moUS$0/mo	2.9% + CA$0.302.9% + US$0.30	Online-first businesses that may later need subscriptions or custom workflows. Watch: Extra charges can apply to international cards, currency conversion, disputes, and optional features.

Choose Square or Stripe

Choose Square when you already use Square in person, want one familiar dashboard, or value the shortest setup.

Choose Stripe when the business is online-first or may later need subscriptions, software integration, or more customized payment workflows.

The free route has no monthly payment-link charge in the verified plans above. The limitation is the per-transaction fee and the simpler sales workflow.

Create and test the link

1. Open the account in the business’s legal name.
2. Complete identity and bank verification.
3. Create one clearly named product, deposit, or customer-entered amount.
4. Configure taxes only after confirming the business’s obligations.
5. Add a plain refund, cancellation, and fulfilment statement.
6. Set the receipt sender name and support contact.
7. Run a test payment the way your provider supports. Stripe: switch to test mode (a sandbox), create the same link there, and pay it with one of Stripe’s test card numbers. Stripe doesn’t allow live payments made only to test. Once the test works, create the live link and use that one on your site. Square: there’s no test mode for payment links created in your Square Dashboard, so the usual check is one small real payment from your own card, refunded straight away. Square keeps its processing fee on a refund, so the test costs you that fee.
8. Check the receipt, the refund process, and the mobile layout. When the first real payment arrives, check the payout status and how the charge appears on the customer’s bank statement.
9. Add the link to the website.

Never collect card details in an ordinary contact form, email, or text message.

Canada

Use a CAD account and confirm Canadian-dollar settlement. The table shows the standard domestic online-card rate; international cards, currency conversion, disputes, and optional features can add costs. Tax varies by the business’s registrations and transaction, so configure GST/HST and QST only from qualified advice or confirmed obligations. Interac e-Transfer remains a practical manual option for invoices when both sides are comfortable with it. Use a business account, match the payment to the invoice, and never treat a screenshot as proof of cleared funds.

United States

Use a USD account and confirm US-dollar settlement. The table shows the standard online-card rate from each provider’s US page. ACH can cost less where the provider and payment-link flow support it, but authorization, return, and timing rules differ from cards. Sales-tax obligations vary by location, product, service, and nexus. A checkout toggle does not decide where the business must register or collect.

Deposits, tips, disputes, and deactivation

State whether a deposit is refundable and when the balance is due. Enable tips only where customers reasonably expect them. Keep delivery evidence, signed approvals, and customer correspondence in case of a dispute. A payment link does not prevent chargebacks. If a notice arrives, follow the dispute response guide: confirm it in the processor dashboard, record the actual deadline, investigate the reason, and use the required evidence process. Do not issue a separate refund during an active dispute without checking provider instructions.

Payment processors can delay payouts or restrict an account during risk review. Keep account information current, respond through the official dashboard, and retain another invoice-payment path for business continuity.

Upgrade trigger

Move to a real store when customers need a cart, live inventory, shipping rules, many variants, customer accounts, or enough products that individual links are hard to maintain. Until then, a tested payment link is the cheaper and simpler system.