Side-by-side comparison
| UTOPAY | NOWPayments | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | 1.5% of the received amount + network fee | 1% service fee on its pricing page; 0.5% commonly quoted without conversion; volume discounts |
| Coins and networks | USDT, ETH, BNB, POL, DAI and more on 10 EVM networks; Bitcoin, Tron, Solana, TON being connected | 350+ currencies, including Bitcoin and TRC-20 |
| Where the money goes | Forwarded on-chain to your wallet on every payment; never held on a balance | Payout wallet or custody balance, depending on settings |
| Start without an account | Yes — POST /v1/crypto/pay with your wallet address | Account and API key required |
| Card payments | Yes — cards, Apple Pay and more in the same account | Fiat features via partners |
| CMS plugins | WooCommerce plugin, REST API | WooCommerce, Shopify and other plugins |
| Alerts | Signed webhooks, Telegram alerts, test mode | IPN callbacks, dashboard |
| Branding | Your name, logo and colours on the payment page | Customisable payment widget |
NOWPayments figures are taken from its public pricing page and public reviews in October 2026 and may change — check nowpayments.io before deciding.
When NOWPayments is the better choice
- You need the lowest possible percentage and process large crypto volume.
- Your customers pay mostly in Bitcoin, TRC-20 USDT or less common altcoins — today.
- You run a store on a platform and want a ready-made plugin without any code.
When UTOPAY is the better choice
- You want each payment forwarded to your own wallet immediately, with nothing left on a third-party balance.
- You want to test or launch without registering: one API call with a wallet address is enough.
- You also need card payments — buyers without crypto pay by card or Apple Pay and you still receive crypto.
- Your stablecoin volume is on EVM networks (BEP-20, ERC-20, Polygon, Base), where UTOPAY is live today.
Switching from NOWPayments
The integration pattern is the same: create a payment, send the buyer to a payment page, confirm by callback. Map the fields and switch the webhook handler:
| NOWPayments | UTOPAY |
|---|---|
POST /v1/payment / POST /v1/invoice | POST /v1/crypto/payments (or /v1/crypto/pay without an account) |
price_amount + price_currency | amount + currency |
pay_currency | coin (for example bep20/usdt) |
invoice_url | checkout_url |
IPN with x-nowpayments-sig | Webhook with x-utopay-signature (HMAC-SHA256) |
Run both gateways side by side for a while if you need Bitcoin or TRC-20 until those networks are live on UTOPAY.
Updated · UTOPAY team