You can take payments directly on your own website — invoice links, bank payments, cards — without adding a separate invoicing app, and for most businesses that invoice their customers it's meaningfully cheaper than the QuickBooks-and-card-reader stack. The catch is that most website builders don't do it natively, so owners end up paying for a website subscription, an invoicing tool, and card processing fees on top. Whether you're a consultant, a caterer, a designer, or a repair shop, here's how on-site payments actually work, what each payment method really costs, and when the flat-fee model saves you real money.
Why take payments on your website instead of a separate app?
- One less subscription: invoicing apps run $20–$40/month before you process a dollar. If the website you already pay for sends the invoice, that line item disappears.
- One less login for you, zero setup for the customer: they get a link, open it on their phone, and pay. No account, no app download.
- The money and the marketing live together: the same site that won the customer closes the sale — which matters more as AI answers, not ads, start sending the customer to you directly.
What does it cost to accept a payment online?
There are two lanes, and knowing the difference is most of the game. Card payments cost roughly 2.9% plus 30 cents at standard processing rates — fine for small tickets, painful on a $12,000 project ($350+ in fees). Bank payments (ACH) move the same money for a fraction of the cost, which is why they're the default for invoice-sized amounts. On Tibly, bank payments are all-in at a flat rate by plan as of July 2026: 2% on Lite, 1% on Starter, and 1% capped at $25 per invoice on Growth — so a $100,000 invoice on Growth still costs $25, not $1,000. There's a $2 minimum per invoice and no monthly payments fee: you pay only when an invoice gets paid.
1%
all-in bank payment fee on Starter and up
$25
the most a bank payment ever costs on Growth, even at $100k
$0
monthly payments fee — pay only when an invoice gets paid
How does invoicing from your website actually work?
Three steps, all on the site you already run. You create the invoice in seconds — amount, description, customer. The customer gets a link that works on any device and pays by bank or card, their choice, right on your site. Then the money lands: standard payouts arrive on Stripe's regular schedule at no charge, and if you're in a hurry, instant payouts run 3% on Lite and Starter or 1.5% on Growth, with a 50-cent minimum. Growth also syncs everything to QuickBooks if your bookkeeper lives there.
When should you still use cards?
Small tickets and speed-sensitive moments. A $150 session or service call by card costs a few dollars and the customer can pay in ten seconds from a text on their phone. The honest rule: cards for convenience under a few hundred dollars, bank payments for anything invoice-sized. Offering both on the same page and letting the customer choose converts better than forcing either lane — and since the card fee passes through at standard rates either way, you're not subsidizing the convenience.
What about deposits and partial payments?
Send them the same way. A deposit is just an invoice for part of the work — a retainer for a consultant, half up front for an event, a booking fee for a photographer — and getting it paid by bank link the day the customer says yes, instead of waiting on a check, is the single fastest cash-flow improvement most small businesses can make. Each partial invoice carries its own link, so there's no chasing: the customer pays the milestone from the same thread where they approved it.
