TL;DR
Plutio supports four payment gateways on every invoice: Stripe (credit card and ACH), PayPal, Square, and manual bank transfer. Clients choose how to pay, and funds go directly to your own merchant account.
Plutio lets you connect one or more gateways in Settings under Integrations, then offer any combination on each invoice. The practical difference: freelancers who offer two or more payment options on invoices collect payment 3-5 days faster than those offering only one, because clients pay through the method they already have on file rather than setting up a new one.
All four gateways are available on every Plutio plan, starting at $19/month on Core. Plutio adds no transaction surcharge on top of your gateway's standard processing fees. Connect your first gateway in under 2 minutes from Settings.
What payment methods are in Plutio
Payment methods in Plutio are the gateways clients use to pay invoices: Stripe for credit cards and ACH bank debits, PayPal for PayPal balance and linked cards, Square for in-person and online card payments, and manual bank transfer for wire and direct deposit.
Each gateway connects through Plutio's Settings under Integrations. Once connected, invoices automatically include the gateways you enabled. Clients see a branded payment page listing the available options, pick one, and complete the payment without creating a Plutio account. Plutio records the transaction, marks the invoice as paid, and sends you a notification.
Online gateways: Stripe, PayPal, and Square
Stripe handles credit card, debit card, and ACH bank debit payments. ACH covers US-based bank accounts through Stripe's ACH Direct Debit, and processing fees follow Stripe's standard rates (2.9% + 30 cents for cards, 0.8% capped at $5 for ACH). PayPal processes payments through the client's PayPal balance or linked card, supporting 25 currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and AUD. Square handles card payments and supports recurring billing natively inside Plutio.
Manual bank transfer
Bank transfer in Plutio is a manual payment option. You add your bank details (account name, routing number, IBAN, or SWIFT) in Settings, and Plutio displays those details on the invoice payment page. The client initiates a wire or direct deposit outside of Plutio, and you mark the invoice as paid manually once funds arrive. Bank transfer is useful for high-value invoices where processing fees on a $10,000+ payment would cost $300 or more through a card gateway. The key advantage of bank transfer: zero processing fees from the gateway side, which on a $15,000 project invoice saves $435 compared to a 2.9% card transaction.
Switched from PayPal-only invoicing to offering Stripe and bank transfer alongside it. Clients over $5,000 almost always pick bank transfer now, and the smaller invoices come in through Stripe same-day.
Why multiple payment methods matter for freelancers
Offering a single payment gateway forces every client into one payment flow, and clients who don't use that gateway delay payment or request offline workarounds that create manual tracking outside the invoice.
A freelancer using only Stripe misses clients who prefer PayPal, international clients whose banks charge extra for card transactions, and enterprise clients whose accounts payable departments require wire transfers. On a $6,000 project, even a 5-day delay from gateway friction costs working capital that covers software subscriptions, contractor deposits, and operating expenses for the month.
HoneyBook processes all payments through its own built-in processor and does not allow connecting external gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Clients pay through HoneyBook's payment page at HoneyBook's processing rates (2.9% + 25 cents for cards, 1.5% for ACH), and funds flow through HoneyBook before reaching the freelancer's bank. Bonsai supports Stripe and PayPal but adds a 1% platform fee on top of gateway processing fees in countries where Bonsai Payments operates, increasing the effective cost on a $5,000 invoice from $145 to $195.
The most costly outcome is not a high processing fee but a lost invoice. When a client's preferred payment method isn't on the invoice, the payment sits unpaid while back-and-forth emails sort out an alternative, and on a net-14 timeline that delay can push payment past the 30-day mark.
Plutio's approach gives clients the choice without any extra cost to the freelancer. Funds go directly to the freelancer's own Stripe, PayPal, or Square account at that gateway's standard rates, with no Plutio surcharge layered on top.
How payment methods work in Plutio
Connect your payment gateways in Settings, enable them on an invoice, and clients choose how to pay when they open the payment page.
Before starting, you need an active account with at least one gateway: a Stripe account, a PayPal Business account, a Square account, or your bank details for manual transfers.
Step by step
- Step 1: Go to Settings, then Integrations. Select the payment method you want to connect: Stripe, PayPal, Square, or Bank Transfer.
- Step 2: Follow the connection flow. Stripe and Square use OAuth, so you authorize Plutio to connect to your existing account. PayPal requires your PayPal email. Bank Transfer requires entering your bank name, account details, and any routing or SWIFT codes.
- Step 3: Open a new or existing invoice. In the invoice settings, select which payment methods to offer on that invoice. You can enable all connected gateways or limit to specific ones per client.
- Step 4: Send the invoice. The client opens the payment page, sees the available payment options, and selects one.
- Step 5: The client completes payment through their chosen gateway. Plutio records the transaction, marks the invoice paid, and sends you a notification. For bank transfers, you mark the invoice paid manually once funds arrive in your account.
Practical tip: connect all four gateways once, then adjust which ones appear per invoice based on the client. Offer bank transfer on invoices above $5,000 to give clients a fee-free option, and keep Stripe and PayPal for smaller invoices where the convenience of instant card payment outweighs the 2.9% fee.
Once I added PayPal alongside Stripe on my invoices, two clients who had been paying late for months started paying the same day. They just preferred PayPal and never said anything until the option appeared.
Who needs multiple payment methods
Freelancers and agencies billing clients across different industries, countries, and invoice sizes get the most out of offering Stripe, PayPal, Square, and bank transfer together on every invoice.
Designers and developers billing $3,000 to $15,000 per project benefit from offering bank transfer alongside card payments. A client paying a $10,000 invoice by bank transfer saves $290 in processing fees compared to paying by credit card at 2.9%. For the freelancer, bank transfer means the full invoice amount arrives with no deductions, and on 10 projects a year that adds up to $2,900 in recovered revenue.
International freelancers billing clients in multiple currencies need PayPal for its 25-currency support and Stripe for its 135+ country reach. A UK-based consultant invoicing a US client in USD can offer both options and let the client pick whichever has the lower conversion fee on their end.
Freelancers exploring HoneyBook alternatives often ask whether Plutio lets them use their own Stripe or PayPal account rather than a platform-controlled processor. Plutio connects directly to the freelancer's own gateway accounts, so funds go to the freelancer's Stripe or PayPal balance without flowing through Plutio first. Freelancers comparing Bonsai alternatives find that Plutio charges no platform fee on top of gateway processing rates, while Bonsai adds 1% on Stripe and PayPal transactions in countries where Bonsai Payments operates.
Bottom line: any freelancer billing more than 5 clients per month, especially across different industries or countries, converts more invoices to paid status faster by offering multiple payment options instead of forcing every client through a single gateway.
