UK software providers lose revenue over payment integrations

Payroc has published research showing that most UK software providers have lost revenue because payment integrations were slow or complex. The findings are based on a survey of 250 UK respondents at independent software vendors.

Among those surveyed, 94% said their organisation had lost revenue as a result of payment integrations that were slow or difficult to complete. Three-quarters said they had delayed or decided against adding a new payment function because the cost or complexity of integration was too high.

The results point to broader friction in how software companies add payment tools to their products. Payment systems are often central to how software vendors generate income or serve customers, yet connecting providers appears to consume time and budget that businesses would prefer to use elsewhere.

Lock-in is another theme in the data. Eighty per cent of UK respondents said the cost and complexity of switching providers would make them less likely to move, even if they were unhappy with their current provider.

That suggests dissatisfaction alone may not be enough to trigger a switch if the operational burden of migration is seen as too great. The research also found that payment providers broadly meet current needs, even as integration work continues to strain software firms.

What matters

When asked what mattered most in selecting a payment provider, UK respondents ranked security and fraud prevention first at 36%. Ease of integration followed at 32%, underlining the importance of both risk controls and implementation effort in buying decisions.

The figures suggest software providers are weighing technical simplicity against trust and resilience in payment workflows. For companies handling card transactions and customer data, reducing integration effort does not remove the need for confidence in how systems manage fraud and security.

Across the UK, US and Canada, Payroc surveyed 750 senior leaders and developers at independent software vendors and software providers. The wider findings showed that 97% of respondents said slow or complex payment integrations had cost them revenue, while 73% had delayed or dropped a payment feature because integration was too costly or complex.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to influence that process. Across all three markets, 96% of respondents said AI had already helped their organisation make payment integration faster, easier or more cost-effective.

The international data also found that three-quarters of respondents said their organisation would be ready to adopt AI-powered or agentic payment integrations within seven to 11 months. Nearly half said they expected such integrations to become standard within one to two years.

Security concerns

In the UK, however, security remains the main barrier to wider AI adoption in payment integration. Thirty-nine per cent of respondents identified security as the top obstacle to adopting AI-powered or agentic integrations.

That reflects a tension in the market. Software companies want faster ways to add payment tools, but they also face pressure to maintain clear controls around fraud, accountability and customer data.

The international results mirrored that concern. Security was the most cited barrier to adopting AI-powered or agentic payment integrations across all respondents at 43%, followed by the cost of adoption at 38% and organisational risk at 36%.

Paul Vienneau, Chief Technology Officer at Payroc, commented on the findings and the operational effect of integration work on software businesses.

"Most software companies aren't unhappy with their payment provider, but they are paying for integration in ways that rarely show up on a balance sheet: launches that slip, features that never get built, markets they don't enter. AI is starting to change that, and Payroc for Developers is built so teams can integrate payments in minutes rather than months," said Vienneau.

The research covered founders, chief technology officers, chief product officers, chief revenue officers, technical leads, software engineers, developers and integration engineers. It highlights how payment integration has become not only a technical issue but also a commercial one for software providers trying to launch products and add new services without long implementation cycles.