Fluid Pay Named Payment Gateway Company of the Year 2026 by CIOReview

Fluid Pay has been named Payment Gateway Company of the Year 2026 by CIOReview, recognizing the team's continued investment in a unified, channel-first payments platform built specifically for ISOs, Agents and ISVs.

The recognition coincides with a major product milestone: certified support for the ID TECH VP3350 EMV device, now available across the Fluid Pay platform. The VP3350 supports EMV chip, magstripe and contactless (NFC) transactions, and plugs directly into the same API partners already use for card-not-present processing.

"Fluid Pay was designed from the ground up as a channel-first platform. Every feature, from onboarding workflows to API design, exists to make ISOs, Agents and ISVs more effective at serving their merchants." — Nick Cucci, COO

A Gateway Built for the Channel

Fluid Pay does not board merchants directly. Instead, the platform provides the infrastructure, APIs and tools that let partners own their merchant relationships and build differentiated payment experiences on top of a single, unified system.

• ISOs and Agents get streamlined merchant onboarding, flexible pricing configuration and the ability to expand into new verticals quickly.
• ISVs and SaaS platforms leverage developer-friendly APIs to embed payments natively into their software, creating seamless experiences for end users while unlocking new revenue streams.
• Card-present and card-not-present transactions are handled through a single integration — no stitching together multiple vendors or managing disparate systems.
• Security and compliance are foundational: as a PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider, Fluid Pay delivers end-to-end encryption and tokenization across the entire platform.

Solving the Industry's Biggest Pain Points

The payments landscape has grown increasingly fragmented. Many merchants and software platforms still rely on separate providers for gateway services, fraud prevention and recurring billing — creating data silos, operational friction and revenue leakage.

"Fluid Pay was built to address these challenges head-on by consolidating critical payment functions into a single, cohesive platform. Instead of managing multiple systems, partners gain a unified infrastructure that simplifies operations, improves visibility and drives better outcomes across the entire payment lifecycle." — Theodore Cucci, CEO

Built-In Intelligence: WatchDog Fraud Prevention

A key component of the platform is WatchDog, Fluid Pay's real-time fraud detection and prevention engine. Unlike traditional systems that rely on rigid, one-size-fits-all configurations, WatchDog allows partners to tailor controls based on each merchant's specific risk profile — reducing false positives without sacrificing protection. The result: fewer chargebacks, improved merchant satisfaction and better conversion rates.

Protecting Revenue with Account Updater

One of the most overlooked drivers of revenue loss in subscription businesses is payment failure due to outdated card information. Fluid Pay's Account Updater automatically refreshes stored payment credentials with updated card details from issuing banks, helping ensure recurring transactions continue uninterrupted.

"By reducing failed payments and preventing involuntary churn, Account Updater acts as a silent revenue recovery engine — improving retention rates and increasing lifetime value for merchants operating on subscription or recurring billing models." — Jeff Rooney, CTO

A Robust and Flexible Recurring Platform

Recurring billing is no longer a niche use case — it's a core revenue model across SaaS, healthcare and membership-based services. Fluid Pay's recurring platform supports subscriptions, installment plans and usage-based pricing, with advanced retry logic, dunning management and tokenized credential storage to keep revenue streams consistent.

VP3350 EMV Support: Card-Present, Certified, and Ready to Deploy

For partners already processing card-not-present transactions through Fluid Pay, the ID TECH VP3350 extends their capabilities into card-present environments without a second gateway or a separate integration. One API. One platform. Both transaction types.

With certification complete, partners can begin deploying the VP3350 to their merchants immediately, backed by Fluid Pay's end-to-end encryption, tokenization and PCI Level 1 compliance infrastructure. The VP3350 is the first in a series of planned hardware integrations designed to give partners more options for card-present deployments.

Recognition That Reflects Momentum

Being named Payment Gateway Company of the Year 2026 reflects the momentum Fluid Pay has built through continuous investment in its platform and its partners — expanded capabilities, strengthened integrations, and tools that help partners scale faster.

You can read the full CIOReview profile here: Fluid Pay — Payment Gateway Company of the Year 2026.

About Fluid Pay, LLC

Founded in 2017, Fluid Pay™ has built a secure Level 1 PCI Compliant cloud-based payment gateway for businesses to process transactions from a variety of devices, anywhere in the world.

Fluid Pay™ works with ISOs, VARs, MSPs, and developers of all applications. Our solution is maintained 24/7/365, keeping our partners in control at all times. Our Non-Compete Commitment ensures there is no competition from the gateway and enables us to focus primarily on advancing payment technologies for our Partners.

Tired of your old gateway? So were we. Complexity. Simplified.