Online Payment Terminals

This article is for developers and partners integrating with the Surfboard Payments platform.

Surfboard has three types of online terminal. Each fits a different kind of checkout.

1. Payment Page

A payment page hosted by Surfboard. The customer is sent to a Surfboard page to pay.

Good for:

• Getting live quickly without handling card data yourself
• Keeping your PCI DSS scope small
• E-commerce stores, donations, event registrations and payment links

What you get:

• Your own branding: logo, colours, fonts
• Cards, wallets and the other payment methods active for the merchant
• 3D Secure handled for you

2. Online SDK (Self-Hosted Page)

A JavaScript SDK that puts the payment form inside your own website or web app, so you control the checkout.

Good for:

• A fully custom payment UI and customer journey
• Complex checkout flows
• Webshops, SaaS platforms and marketplaces

3. Merchant Initiated Transactions (MIT)

Lets the merchant start a payment on the customer’s behalf, typically for recurring billing, subscriptions or delayed charges.

Good for:

• Subscriptions and memberships
• Charging after the service is delivered, such as hotel check-out or car rental
• Any payment where the customer is not present

The customer authenticates once, through the Payment Page or the Online SDK, and later charges run without them.

Choosing

• Payment Page: the fastest way to go live, with the least compliance work.
• Online SDK: for a custom checkout.
• Merchant Initiated: for subscriptions and recurring billing.

Guides

• Payment Page
• Self-Hosted Checkout
• Recurring Payments