Payment orchestration has become one of the most talked-about topics in the payments industry. But as more vendors try to latch onto the term, it’s also become one of the most misunderstood.
According to Juniper Research, the value of digital wallet transactions is projected to exceed $12 trillion by 2026, up from around $7.5 trillion in 2022. As payment volumes grow, so does the need for infrastructure that can scale. That’s where orchestration comes in—but not every tool labeled as “orchestration” actually delivers it.
This article clears the air by laying out what payment orchestration is not. If you’ve ever been told that adding a few payment methods through a gateway counts as orchestration, or that spreading volume across two acquirers checks the box, this guide is for you.
Let’s break it down.
A payment gateway offering a dozen payment methods might sound like orchestration. But there’s a difference between availability and control.
When a gateway lists multiple APMs (alternative payment methods), it’s typically limited to what fits within its own infrastructure. You might get access to cards, wallets, and local methods—but only through the configurations that the gateway supports. You can’t choose how they’re presented at checkout, route them dynamically, or optimize based on performance.
Real orchestration gives you full control over how, when, and where payment methods appear. It allows you to customize logic across providers, prioritize certain methods by region, and shift strategies as business needs change. A gateway, even with a long list of APMs, is still a single point of integration—and a single point of failure.
If you’re locked into a gateway’s menu of options, that’s integration. Not orchestration.
Some providers market payment orchestration as the ability to route transactions between a couple of acquirers. While that’s a useful feature, it’s only one piece of a much larger picture.
Basic volume splitting, often used for redundancy or fee optimization, is just a routing rule. True orchestration gives you the intelligence behind that rule. It lets you route based on conditions like region, payment method, transaction value, card type, or even real-time performance. It also allows for fallback logic when a provider goes down, retry strategies for failed payments, and advanced workflows tailored to your business model.
Think of it this way: routing alone is like choosing between two roads. Orchestration is having a GPS that analyzes traffic, weather, tolls, and destination preferences—and then picks the best route for each trip.
Without that layer of intelligence and flexibility, you’re not orchestrating. You’re just switching lanes.
Tokenization is often listed as a feature of orchestration, and while it plays a critical role in secure payment storage, it doesn’t equal orchestration on its own.
Many businesses implement tokenization to reduce PCI scope and safely store card details for recurring billing. This can be done through a gateway, processor, or vault provider. But if that token is locked into one provider’s ecosystem, your flexibility stops there. You can’t use that token across multiple PSPs, nor can you migrate it easily without re-collecting card data.
Payment orchestration platforms go beyond basic tokenization. They support agnostic vaulting, which gives merchants the ability to manage, migrate, and use tokens across multiple endpoints. This means no vendor lock-in, easier switching between providers, and more control over your customers’ stored credentials.
If your token strategy doesn’t support portability or dynamic routing, it’s a building block—not orchestration.
To understand how agnostic vaulting works, take a look at this breakdown on Gr4vy’s approach.
Plenty of payment providers advertise “orchestration” because they offer a long list of add-ons or plugins. You integrate once, and they promise access to tools like fraud prevention, analytics, and even localized checkout pages.
But here’s the catch: these features are usually bundled within their own ecosystem. You can’t swap out providers freely. You can’t decide which fraud tool to use in one market and a different one in another. You’re confined to what the platform supports—and how they choose to implement it.
True orchestration doesn’t just aggregate tools. It gives you the freedom to choose the best ones for your business and connect them without rewriting your backend. It’s about flexibility, not bundling.
A long list of features behind a single integration is helpful. But without the ability to customize, scale, and replace parts independently, you’re still playing by someone else’s rules.
Switches and aggregators are often confused with orchestration because they sit between your checkout and a processor. But their role is much narrower.
A payment switch typically acts as a router. It takes transaction data and forwards it to a chosen PSP. It may offer basic failover, but it lacks the intelligence, observability, and customization that orchestration provides.
A payment aggregator (think Stripe or PayPal) simplifies onboarding by grouping multiple merchants under a single master account. While this is helpful for small businesses or early-stage platforms, it doesn’t offer the control enterprises need—especially when it comes to data ownership, scaling across markets, or managing PSP contracts directly.
Payment orchestration, on the other hand, is about unifying your payment stack while keeping it modular. You own the contracts. You decide how traffic flows. You can plug in fraud tools, manage retries, optimize for approval rates, and localize checkout—all from one central layer.
If your setup can’t do those things, it’s not orchestration. It’s just another routing tool.
Many providers claim orchestration because they offer a wide range of payment methods—cards, wallets, bank transfers, and more. While that variety is important, simply offering access doesn’t make it orchestration.
Why? Because orchestration is about how those methods are managed, routed, and optimized in real time.
Let’s say you offer Apple Pay, Klarna, and local bank transfers in different regions. If each one requires a separate integration, or if you can’t customize their availability by geography, checkout flow, or customer profile, you’re just stacking options—not orchestrating them.
A true orchestration layer lets you:
It’s not just about having more options. It’s about managing them intelligently. Without that, you’re adding complexity, not improving performance.
For a deeper dive into optimizing payment methods by market, check out this article on Europe’s most popular methods.
Payment orchestration is not a gateway, an aggregator, or a bundle of pre-set features. It’s a framework that gives you full control over your payment stack.
At its core, orchestration is about decoupling your payments from individual providers and centralizing everything behind one intelligent layer. It’s what allows you to route transactions across multiple PSPs, automate retries, manage tokens across regions, and adapt quickly to new regulations or customer preferences.
With orchestration, you can:
It’s not about reducing complexity by giving up control. It’s about simplifying your stack while gaining the freedom to build the best experience for each market.
If you want to understand how orchestration fits into a broader payments strategy, this guide on what a payment orchestration platform is and why your business needs one is a great place to start.
Is using multiple payment methods the same as orchestration?
No. Supporting many payment methods is only one piece. Orchestration manages how those methods are presented, routed, and optimized in real time across providers.
Can a single PSP offer orchestration?
A PSP may offer some orchestration features, but true orchestration is provider-agnostic. It should give you the flexibility to work with multiple PSPs without lock-in.
Is routing between acquirers enough to qualify as orchestration?
Not quite. Routing is one capability, but orchestration also includes retry logic, token management, checkout customization, analytics, and more.
Why do businesses confuse orchestration with gateways or aggregators?
Because some providers market orchestration as just a mix of features. In reality, orchestration is a foundational infrastructure layer—not just a toolset.
What’s the value of orchestration if I already use a good PSP?
Even with a reliable PSP, orchestration lets you reduce downtime risk, expand globally faster, and negotiate better terms by not relying on a single provider.
If you’ve heard the term “payment orchestration” and thought it sounded like a fancy way to describe a gateway or a routing tool, you’re not alone. The payments space is full of overlapping claims. But the truth is simpler: orchestration is about control, flexibility, and scale.
It’s what turns a complex payments setup into something that works for your business—not the other way around.
If you’re evaluating your current infrastructure or looking for a better way to manage payments across providers, methods, and markets, contact Gr4vy to explore how true orchestration can help you move faster and build smarter.
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