FinanceLayer vs. third-party BNPL
A BNPL provider lends your customer the money and bills you 4–6% of the order for it. FinanceLayer works the other way around. You write the plan, the customer's bank pays you on the dates you picked, and you hold the goods until the last installment clears. The 4–6% never leaves your account.
Layaway for your store.Without the 6% BNPL fee.
Your store runs the plan instead of a BNPL provider. You pick the terms, the customer pays you by ACH, and the goods stay on your shelf until the last installment clears. No Affirm, no Klarna, no Afterpay taking a percentage on the way past.
Same payment plan. A sixth of the cost to you.
Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay underwrite the loan, and their fee comes out of your order to pay for it. FinanceLayer isn't lending. You write the terms, the customer's bank pays you directly, and the fee is $9 a month however big the order gets.
You keep 99% or more of the order
You set the installment terms
Paid by bank transfer, not card
Your store name on the agreement
Your customer signs up for nothing
Flat monthly fee, no cut per order
E-signed ACH authorization on file
Works on every Shopify plan
What it costs you on a $1,000 order
Merchant fees sourced from public pricing pages (affirm.com/business/pricing, klarna.com/business, afterpay.com/merchant, shopify.com/shop-pay-installments) as of April 2026. Shop Pay Installments merchant fee estimated from Shopify's stacked Payments + Affirm rate disclosures. Compliance note: FinanceLayer is scheduling and documentation software, not a lender. Merchants using 5+ installments or charging interest should consult counsel on TILA and state RISA requirements.
Your customer signs your agreement, not Klarna's.
Every plan is an ACH authorization they e-sign: the amounts, the dates, and the account it comes out of, all on one page. Your store name sits at the top of it, and there's nothing for them to sign up for.
- E-SIGN Act compliantWe record the signer's name, the timestamp, and the IP address on every agreement, so you can show who agreed to what and when.
- Your store name, not a BNPL logoThey see who they're actually buying from. Nobody else's brand is on the page.
- They can sign it on a phonePhone, tablet, laptop, whatever they open the email on.
This agreement authorizes ACME Supply Co. to collect installment payments via ACH bank transfer.
IP 174.21.•••.24
Key differences
- They underwrite the loan, so they decide who gets approved
- They take a cut of every order, typically 4–6% + $0.30
- Their logo is on the agreement at checkout, not your store name
- Your customer has to open an account with them first
- They write the chargeback and dispute rules
- You decide who gets a plan, on whatever rules you already use
- Flat monthly subscription, and no cut of the order on top of it
- Your store name on the agreement and on the emails
- Nothing for the customer to sign up for
- Installments pull from their bank through Stripe Financial Connections
Compliance note: FinanceLayer is scheduling and documentation software. It is not a lender. Merchants using 5+ installments or charging interest should consult counsel regarding Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and state retail installment sales act (RISA) requirements.
Run merchant-held layaway
Request early access and write your first plan. No underwriter in the middle and no percentage off the top. It's scheduling and paperwork, and the goods stay with you until the customer finishes paying.