Payment Gateway

The gateway is the front door of a transaction: card capture, tokenization, encryption, routing to the PSP/acquirer — the API and iframe layer players actually touch.

Gateway vs PSP vs orchestration

Terms blur commercially: gateways move data, PSPs process money, orchestration layers route across many of both. The architecture question for operators is who owns tokens (portability on provider exit) and where routing logic lives. Cashier UX built on the gateway — saved methods, one-click deposits, native mobile flows — is quietly a retention feature: friction at redeposit is churn nobody attributes to payments.