Who actually chooses a gateway
Payment providers are selected by developers and approved by finance, in that order. The developer wants documentation they can read immediately, a sandbox they can test against today, and clear answers on supported methods, settlement timing and failure handling. Anything gated behind "contact sales" removes you from the evaluation entirely. Finance then wants the commercial terms — commission, settlement period, chargeback handling — which are usually just as hidden.
What we build for a payment provider
First, public, indexable documentation with working examples, because it is simultaneously the sales material and the strongest SEO asset a payment product has. Second, self-serve sandbox access, so evaluation starts without a meeting. Third, transparent pricing: commission, settlement timing, chargeback terms, stated openly. Fourth, merchant onboarding with status tracking, since the compliance queue is where most signed merchants quietly disappear.