Stripe, PayPal, and Square get all the press. But from these payment big guys, a new wave of payment tools is being built. They are more niche-focused, faster, cheaper, and in several cases, solving problems the big players have ignored.

10 of these payment tools are mentioned in this comprehensive guide.

They range from invoicing platforms for freelancers to B2B cross-border infrastructure. None of them is a household name yet, and they should be.

The 10 tools at a glance.

Let’s get started.

1. Tiun

First on the list is Tiun. A payment tool targeted at the modern founder. 

It is an AI-powered platform that offers backend services like authentication, a customer database, payments, and analytics that are designed to work together from day one as a system.

For individuals or businesses, Tiun lets you spin up and integrate all of these services via skills and MCP with production-grade code in five minutes (without ever having to leave Claude Code or Cursor) so you can ship fast and scale your business.

In contrast to point solutions, Tiun brings user, payment, and product usage data together under one hood. This lets you correlate data across the entire customer lifecycle and generate unique insights to understand what works, what to improve, and what to build next.

The best parts of Tiun:

• You get options like one-time payments, subscriptions, and usage-based billing.

• Gives you user profile and account management components.

• Comes with pre-built checkout overlay components.

• Merchant of Record (tax compliance and chargebacks handled).

• You have a unified customer database (auth + billing) in one record.

2. Damisa

For businesses that are demographically limited because of payment, Damisa gives you the foundation to regularly move money around the world (Africa, LATAM, MENA, Europe, or the US). 

For global businesses that have outgrown their personal bank accounts but don't need the overhead of a full corporate banking relationship, Damisa offers a middle path.

The mechanism built into the platform converts fiat to regulated stablecoins and settles on-chain in under 24 hours.

This covers:

• Global B2B collections (fiat and digital currency).

• Automated payouts and disbursements

• Multi-currency fiat accounts (70+ currencies).

• Treasury management and FX exposure mitigation.

• Virtual IBANs for automated reconciliation.

3. Blip Payments

Blip Payments is for European businesses that currently manage their payment flow through separate systems. For example, some businesses manage in-store terminals, online payment gateways, and subscription billing through separate systems. Blip Payments solves this disjointed flow.

It manages both online and in-store payments anywhere you do business.

Businesses (especially European ones) can now get card terminals, online payment acceptance across all major card networks, digital wallet support, and subscriptions with built-in growth analytics using Blip.

If you’re creating a business for the post-ChatGPT world and need a payment infrastructure that handles both online and in-store payments, Blip Payments gives you the foundation to build on.

Key features:

• Card terminal (in-store payments), online payment gateway, and subscription billing.

• All major card acceptance.

• Digital wallet support: Apple Pay, Google Pay.

• WooCommerce, Wix, and QuickBooks integrations.

• Multi-country support across Europe.

4. UpGate

First, UpGate is a full-suite payment orchestration platform. Second, it hosts payment features for businesses across different verticals, and one of these features is Payment Links.

It lets you generate customisable payment URLs directly from your dashboard with no developer integration or hosted payment page to build. You just fill in the required details, get a live preview of exactly what the customer will see, confirm, and share the link.

If you regularly invoice clients, send one-off payment requests, or operate in contexts where embedding a full checkout page isn't practical, this feature gives you a simple and practical way to get paid without the full payment infrastructure overhead.

Key features:

• Payment links (customisable, generated via back office).

• Centralised risk engine (fraud rules, alerts, and actions across all processors).

• High-risk industry support (iGaming, adult, Forex, dating, streaming).

• Performance analytics and approval rate monitoring.

• E-commerce platform integration (Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, Magento, referenced for partners).

5. Petl Pay

Let’s start by listing out two problems with most invoicing tools:

• They stop at billing the client. 

• They don't handle project-based work with variable contributors. 

Petl Pay sits in the gap between these two problems. 

Content marketing agencies, design studios, and other project-based businesses that win a client contract and then deliver the work using a mix of contractors and subcontractors spend too much time turning these activities into invoices, splitting payments, and reconciling across currencies. 

Petl Pay solves this with a chat-native workflow. You connect Petl to your existing tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, or WhatsApp. From then on, creating a project, raising an invoice, checking what's outstanding, preparing a pay run, and initiating contractor payments all happen through conversation.

For agencies that want a payment system adapted to the AI world, Petl Pay is the right platform for you.

Key features:

• Project creation and contributor management

• Invoice generation from logged work.

• Multi-party invoicing with options to pay by bank.9 

• Stablecoin (USDC) settlement for cross-border payouts + open banking, supporting over 150 banks for instant bank-to-bank payments across the UK and EU.

• Slack, ChatGPT, and Claude integration for finance actions in chat.

6. Alunafi

Alunafi is targeting SMBs that need business banking infrastructure beyond what traditional banks offer without the complexity or cost of enterprise treasury tools. 

The team behind the platform combined a lot of payment features like multi-currency accounts, card issuance, SEPA/SWIFT transfers, and mobile access into one payment platform.

With an onboarding flow that takes minutes rather than weeks, you can get started with your business payment needs in minutes.

Some key features are:

• Multi-currency business accounts and SEPA and SWIFT transfers. 

• Virtual card and plastic card issuance (EU/EEA countries)

• Live cash flow insights and payment tracking.

• iOS and Android mobile apps.

• International IBAN and SWIFT details for receiving payments.

7. PenguinPay

PenguinPay is built around its founder, Chris Niblett's personal taste. The model is simple: before recommending anything, PenguinPay does a free review of your current payment setup, performs a cost analysis, and only then presents a tailored proposal comparing options.

Some of PenguinPay’s customers include the Newcastle Town Football Club, which got a fully integrated EPOS across its café, bar, shop, and turnstiles. 

PenguinPay is only specific to the UK market.

Key features:

• Free payment and EPOS system review.

• Tailored proposal and system recommendation

• Card payment solutions (face-to-face, e-commerce, virtual terminal)

• EPOS system sourcing and setup (Square, Shift4 SkyTab, Swoopos, etc.)

• Multi-site and enterprise capability

8. PayControl

If you have outgrown a single payment processor and are juggling multiple providers, maybe regions, or even payment types, and want one system to handle and manage everything, PayControl makes all these seamless.

It acts as a single control panel that sits in front of all your payment providers (card processors, regional acquirers, crypto and stablecoin rails, fraud detection tools) and lets a business manage them from one place instead of stitching each one together individually. 

For example, if a provider isn't performing well in a certain country, or you want to add a new payment method, PayControl lets you swap or add providers without re-engineering your whole payment setup each time.

Some of its key features include:

• Easier and merchant-friendly.

• Payment workflow automation.

• AI-powered decisioning layer.

• Fraud detection service integrations.

• Analytics and reporting.

9. NRTH

About 7.4 million people are freelancing in the UK. Of this number, a big chunk sends their invoice, the due date passes, and then spend the next few days (or even weeks) chasing invoices. NRTH is positioned as a solution to this frustration. 

Its fix is Direct Debit. Your clients sign a mandate once, and from that point, every invoice that comes out of your accounting software gets collected automatically on the due date. No chasing, no late payment, no manual bank transfers.

Can integrate with existing tools like Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage.

Key features:

• Direct Debit invoice collection with auto-retry on failed payment attempts.

• Subscription, milestone billing, and one-off payment links.

• Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage two-way sync.

• AI cash flow forecasting that can predict shortfalls and seasonality.

• Real-time payment tracking with 160+ currency support.

10. Zenpay

One of the easiest invoicing tools to use out there. 

Zenpay is making the getting-paid part of a freelancer’s journey as smooth and easy as possible. You can invoice the world from one place, without the overhead of enterprise billing platforms or the limitations of tools that only support one or two currencies.

The core workflow is this:

• You add a client

• Build an invoice with line items and tax settings

• And send it. Either directly or as a shareable link with a QR code attached. 

You also get an auto-reminder that runs in the background to flag overdue payments, and its recurring billing feature handles retainer or subscription-style engagements without requiring you to re-issue every month manually.

Key features:

• Invoice creation in 11 currencies plus shareable links and QR codes.

• Multi-currency dashboard with totals aggregated in home currency.

• Auto-reminders for late/overdue invoices.

• Recurring billing and auto-send with custom branding on invoices.

• Tax settings and VAT support.

Other tools worth keeping an eye on

These didn't fit neatly into a single category entry, but deserve a mention:

• Wise Business: Still the most practical benchmark for transparent FX and international transfers. Worth comparing any cross-border tool against.

• Polar: Open-source payments for developers and indie hackers; popular in the same circle as Tiun's target audience.

• Dodo Payments: Another Merchant of Record aimed at SaaS companies; Tiun positions directly against it on fees.

• Lemon Squeezy: MoR platform with a strong indie developer following; it lets you sell your digital products easily online.