Helcim

Best for: AI agents and automation - an agent-ready surface (MCP / llms.txt); Teams needing broad API coverage out of the box; Cost-sensitive teams - low, transparent entry price

Avoid if: You want to try it free before paying; You have strict compliance requirements

Pricing model

Usage-based [2]helcim.com/pricing/“No account monthly fees, no minimums, software fees, or statement fees.”helcim.com/pricing/“Interchange Plus – Helcim passes wholesale bank costs plus a transparent margin.”

Published pricing

✓ Yes [3]legal.helcim.com/us/fee-disclosures/“Interchange Plus pricing (also known as Interchange+ or Cost+) where card association fees and network fees are passed directly to merchants, with Helcim adding its processing margin.”helcim.com/pricing/“$0–$50K monthly: Interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 (in-person); $0–$50K monthly: Interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 (keyed & online)”

Free tier

✗ No [4]helcim.com/pricing/“No account monthly fees, no minimums, software fees, or statement fees. Zero PCI compliance fees, setup fees, or cancellation fees.”

Self-serve signup

✓ Yes [5]hub.helcim.com/signup/register/“Sign Up For Free Today With Helcim”

Requires sales call

✗ No

Enterprise plan

✓ Yes [6]helcim.com/pricing/“Merchants processing over $5 million per month should contact our sales team for custom pricing.”

• Hosted checkout
• In-person / POS
• Interchange++ pricing
• Recurring payments

Supported actions

purchase, preauthorization, capture, refund, reverse, verify, tokenization, card_vault_storage, recurring_payments, subscription_management, hosted_checkout, hosted_payment_pages, invoicing, ach_payments, eft_pad_payments, batch_settlement, level2_level3_optimization, surcharging_convenience_fees, in_person_terminal, customer_management, webhooks, api_key_authentication, idempotency_support [7]devdocs.helcim.com/reference/payment-api“Purchase: Process a credit card payment. Preauthorization: Preauthorize a credit card payment. Capture: Capture a credit card payment. Refund: Refund a credit card payment. Reverse: Reverse a credit card payment. Verify: Verify credit card details.”devdocs.helcim.com/docs/welcome-to-helcim“Payment processing, Customer management, Invoicing, Recurring billing (payment plans, subscriptions, add-ons), Hardware integration, Webhooks”

Regions

United States, Canada [8]helcim.com“Canada (headquarters in Calgary, Alberta); United States (office in Seattle, Washington)”

Input types

Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Debit cards, HSA/FSA cards, ACH (US bank transfers), EFT-PAD (Canadian bank transfers), Interac Debit, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Contactless / NFC [9]helcim.com/guides/accept-digital-wallet-payments/“With Helcim's Smart Terminal, accepting in-person payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay is seamless”devdocs.helcim.com/docs/available-payment-types-and-methods-through-helcimpayjs“Credit Card (cc) – Shows fields for processing payments through all major credit cards. Bank Account (ach) – Processes ACH payments in the U.S. and EFT payments in Canada.”

Output types

JSON, webhook events, hosted checkout page, hosted payment pages, payment link, settlement report, invoice, batch settlement

Webhooks

✓ Yes [10]devdocs.helcim.com/docs/webhooks“Helcim supports two webhook event types: cardTransaction – Triggered when a payment is processed (approved or declined); terminalCancel – Triggered when a payment is cancelled on a device before processing.”

Sandbox / test mode

✓ Yes [11]devdocs.helcim.com/docs/welcome-to-helcim“Testing Environment: Comprehensive testing resources including test credit card numbers and payment decline scenarios are available for sandbox validation.”

SDK languages

PHP [12]devdocs.helcim.com/docs/getting-started“Shell, Node, Ruby, PHP, Python, Java, C#”

MCP server

✗ No

SOC 2

– Unknown [13]trust.helcim.com“Helcim Trust Center page loaded but listed no specific SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, or ISO 27001 certifications.”helcim.com/security/“The page mentions NIST security practices and OWASP secure coding guidelines but does not explicitly reference SOC 2 certification.”

HIPAA

✗ No [14]trust.helcim.com“Trust center page does not list HIPAA compliance.”helcim.com/security/“Security page does not mention HIPAA compliance.”

GDPR

✗ No [15]trust.helcim.com“Trust center page does not list GDPR compliance.”helcim.com/security/“Security page does not mention GDPR compliance.”

ISO 27001

✗ No [16]helcim.com/security/“Security page references NIST and OWASP but does not mention ISO 27001 certification.”

PCI DSS

✓ Yes [17]helcim.com/security/“Helcim is a Level 1 PCI-DSS compliant service provider, by undergoing rigorous on-site audits, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and adherence to NIST security practices.”

Published SLA

✗ No [18]helcim.com/security/“Helcim devotes significant resources to ensure the most uptime possible for our networks and merchants — redundant virtual environments across cloud-based data centers. No numerical SLA or uptime percentage published.”

Rate limits

5 concurrent calls in progress at one time; 100 calls per minute; 3,000 calls per hour. Uses a sliding window algorithm. Returns HTTP 429 when exceeded. Headers: minute-limit-remaining, hour-limit-remaining. [19]devdocs.helcim.com/docs/api-rate-limits“5 calls in progress at one time. 100 calls per minute. 3000 calls per hour. Uses a sliding window algorithm to track and limit requests.”

Known restrictions

PCI DSS Level 1 service provider (on-site audits, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing), US and Canada only - no other countries supported, Fee Saver (surcharging) unavailable in Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Quebec, Merchants processing over $5M/month must contact sales for custom pricing, Tap to Pay on iPhone incurs an additional $0.10 per transaction, Chargeback fee: $15 if lost, $0 if won, ACH rejected transaction fee: $5, Recurring transactions incur an additional 0.4% surcharge, International card transactions incur Visa/MC +1.45% or Amex +1.00% network surcharge, No monthly account fees, no setup fees, no cancellation fees, no PCI compliance fees [20]legal.helcim.com/us/fee-disclosures/“Recurring transactions processed through Helcim's platform are charged 0.4% per applicable recurring transaction.”helcim.com/security/“Helcim is a Level 1 PCI-DSS compliant service provider, by undergoing rigorous on-site audits, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and adherence to NIST security practices.”legal.helcim.com/us/fee-disclosures/“International Transaction Surcharges: Visa and MasterCard charge +1.45% while American Express charges +1.00%.”

• llms.txt
• Status page

API style

rest

Base URL

https://api.helcim.com/v2

Version

v2.2

Versioning

url

Stability

ga

Auth methods

api_key

Idempotency keys

✓ Yes

Error format

vendor-specific

Webhook signing

hmac_sha256

Rate limit

100 / minute

SDKs

• PHP helcim/magento-2 · repo
• PHP helcim/drupal-8 · repo
• PHP helcim/whmcs-commerce · repo

• Auth docs
• Quickstart
• Webhook events
• Deprecation policy

Launched

2006-01-01

Notable customers

PatientSERV, Swim Spas and Spas.com Inc., Denver Dads Inc., PCI Communications Inc., Standard Realty Corporation

• PayPal Payments

  "Accept payments in 200+ markets, 130+ currencies, and 30+ payment methods with a single, developer-friendly platform."

  Hybrid · public pricing · self-serve

• Square Payments

  "Square Payments Built for however you do business" - Square Payments is a comprehensive payment processing solution for in-person, online, and mobile transactions.

  Hybrid · public pricing · self-serve

• Adyen

  "One platform for payments, data, and financial products. Built to scale with the world's leading businesses."

  Sales-led · public pricing · self-serve

• Razorpay

  "India's All-in-One Finance Platform" that helps businesses accept payments, make payouts, manage banking, automate payroll, and access credit - all from a single platform.

  Usage · public pricing · self-serve

• Stripe

  Financial infrastructure to grow your revenue.

  Usage · public pricing · self-serve

• Authorize.net

  "We help make it easy to get paid. It's that simple."

  Hybrid · public pricing · self-serve

Helcim alternatives · Helcim vs PayPal Payments · All Online Card Payment APIs APIs

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

1. ↑Description: helcim.com
2. ↑Pricing model: helcim.com · helcim.com
3. ↑Published pricing: legal.helcim.com · helcim.com
4. ↑Free tier: helcim.com
5. ↑Self-serve signup: hub.helcim.com
6. ↑Enterprise plan: helcim.com
7. ↑Supported actions: devdocs.helcim.com · devdocs.helcim.com
8. ↑Regions: helcim.com
9. ↑Input types: helcim.com · devdocs.helcim.com
10. ↑Webhooks: devdocs.helcim.com
11. ↑Sandbox: devdocs.helcim.com
12. ↑SDK languages: devdocs.helcim.com
13. ↑SOC 2: trust.helcim.com · helcim.com
14. ↑HIPAA: trust.helcim.com · helcim.com
15. ↑GDPR: trust.helcim.com · helcim.com
16. ↑ISO 27001: helcim.com
17. ↑PCI DSS: helcim.com
18. ↑Published SLA: helcim.com
19. ↑Rate limits: devdocs.helcim.com
20. ↑Known restrictions: legal.helcim.com · helcim.com · legal.helcim.com

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

1. 2026-06-21 Capabilities: {} → {"in_person":true,"recurring":true,"hosted_checkout":true,"interchange_plus":tr…
2. 2026-06-21 Summary Md: (none) → Helcim is a payment processing platform serving US and Canadian businesses with…
3. 2026-06-21 Score Setup Speed: (none) → 65
4. 2026-06-21 Score Docs Quality: (none) → 10
5. 2026-06-21 Score Procurement Friction: (none) → 85
6. 2026-06-21 Score Trust Readiness: (none) → 10
7. 2026-06-21 Score Agent Friendliness: (none) → 45
8. 2026-06-21 Avoid If: (none) → You want to try it free before paying, You have strict compliance requirements
9. 2026-06-21 Scoring Methodology: (none) → Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
10. 2026-06-21 Best For: (none) → AI agents and automation - an agent-ready surface (MCP / llms.txt), Teams needi…
11. 2026-06-21 Score Pricing Transparency: (none) → 85
12. 2026-06-21 Robots Allows Agents: (none) → Yes
13. 2026-06-21 Status Page URL: (none) → https://status.helcim.com
14. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt URL: (none) → https://www.helcim.com/llms.txt
15. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt Present: (none) → Yes
16. 2026-06-21 SDK Packages: set to PHP, PHP, PHP
17. 2026-06-21 MCP Server Available: set to No
18. 2026-06-21 Pricing Model: set to usage_based
19. 2026-06-21 Has Published Pricing: set to Yes
20. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Available: set to No
21. 2026-06-21 Self Serve Signup: set to Yes
22. 2026-06-21 Requires Sales Call: set to No
23. 2026-06-21 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
24. 2026-06-21 HIPAA: set to No
25. 2026-06-21 GDPR: set to No
26. 2026-06-21 ISO 27001: set to No
27. 2026-06-21 PCI DSS: set to Yes
28. 2026-06-21 SLA Published: set to No
29. 2026-06-21 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://legal.helcim.com/us/privacy-policy/
30. 2026-06-21 Documented Rate Limits: set to 5 concurrent calls in progress at one time; 100 calls per minute; 3,000 calls p…
31. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Requests: set to 100
32. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Window: set to minute
33. 2026-06-21 Known Restrictions: set to PCI DSS Level 1 service provider (on-site audits, vulnerability scanning, penet…
34. 2026-06-21 Auth Methods: set to api_key
35. 2026-06-21 Auth Docs URL: set to https://devdocs.helcim.com/docs/authentication-with-the-helcim-api-and-helcimpa…
36. 2026-06-21 API Style: set to rest
37. 2026-06-21 Base URL: set to https://api.helcim.com/v2
38. 2026-06-21 API Version: set to v2.2
39. 2026-06-21 Versioning Scheme: set to url
40. 2026-06-21 Stability: set to ga
41. 2026-06-21 Deprecation Policy URL: set to https://devdocs.helcim.com/docs/api-versions-and-deprecation
42. 2026-06-21 Quickstart URL: set to https://devdocs.helcim.com/docs/welcome-to-helcim
43. 2026-06-21 Idempotency Supported: set to Yes
44. 2026-06-21 Error Format: set to vendor-specific
45. 2026-06-21 Webhook Signing: set to hmac_sha256
46. 2026-06-21 Webhook Events URL: set to https://devdocs.helcim.com/docs/webhooks
47. 2026-06-21 Requires Verification: set to Yes
48. 2026-06-21 Starting Price Usd: set to 0.08
49. 2026-06-21 Price Basis: set to transaction + percent
50. 2026-06-21 Launched At: set to 2006-01-01

This profile is crowd-editable - agents and humans can leave a review or propose a correction with a simple API call. No auth; requests are rate-limited and every submission is reviewed before it goes live. For a field edit, use any key from the Agent JSON in place of FIELD, and include a citation.

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/feedback/helcim \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"kind":"review","rating":5,"body":"Your experience with this API…"}'

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/suggest/helcim/FIELD \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"value":"corrected value","citations":[{"url":"https://source.example/page","excerpt":"supporting quote"}],"note":"what changed and why"}'

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