There is no single "unicorn" payment gateway in India that gives you 10/10 support, sub-1.5% MDR, and instant 5-minute onboarding. You almost always have to pick your trade-off based on your stage. Here is the practical breakdown based on actual startup usage: Best Support: Easebuzz/ Razorpay Razorpay's support is notoriously bot-heavy . Unless you are generating high monthly volume or roasting them on X/LinkedIn, getting an edge-case account hold resolved can take days. Easebuzz is a hidden gem for small-to-mid merchants because they actually assign reachable account managers instead of pushing you into automated ticketing loops. Most Affordable Fees: Easebuzz & PhonePe PG Standard MDR across Razorpay/Cashfree sits around 1.95%–2% + 18% GST. Easebuzz often offers aggressive introductory rates (~1.5% + GST). Pro-tip on fees: Don't obsess over saving 0.2% on MDR if your checkout success rate drops. Razorpay and Cashfree have higher payment success rates, which easily offsets a slightly higher fee. Easy Onboarding: Razorpay Razorpay is still king for dev onboarding and UI/UX. Their sandbox, API documentation, and pre-built checkout UI (like Magic Checkout) save weeks of engineering time. Catch: You need a registered business entity (Sole Proprietorship, LLP, or Pvt Ltd) with GST. Unregistered individuals will get stuck on KYC. The Strategy Most Founders End Up Using: For Domestic Payments (UPI / Cards): Use Razorpay as your primary gateway for maximum checkout conversion. Keep Easebuzz integrated as a backup/fallback route in case Razorpay hits bank downtime or flags your account. For International Payments & SaaS : Standard Indian PGs hit high failure rates for foreign cards due to strict 3DS/RBI rules. Use a Merchant of Record (MoR) like Paddle or Dodo Payments. They act as the reseller, handle foreign taxes/VAT automatically, and settle payouts cleanly to your Indian bank account as zero-rated export revenue.