The Payments Pendulum Is Swinging Back, and That's a Good Thing

A few years ago, the playbook for software platforms was clear: own your payments. Become a payment facilitator, control the merchant experience end to end, and capture every basis point of revenue along the way.

Today, a lot of those same platforms are reconsidering.

Our partner Payroc recently pointed out a shift happening across the SaaS world. Software companies that pushed hard to own payments are realizing that owning payments means owning compliance, risk, underwriting, and a support burden that has nothing to do with the product they actually set out to build. What looked like a revenue opportunity turned into an operational distraction. Industry research backs this up: building a true payment facilitation model requires real payments expertise and real capital, and it is simply not the right fit for every software company. Many are finding that the model still does the most for the bottom line is the one that demands the least from their engineering and support teams.

So platforms are moving back toward referral and managed partnership models. Not because they are settling for less, but because they have done the math. A referral relationship still creates real revenue. It just does not require building a compliance function or fielding merchant support tickets at 11pm. The best payment model in 2026 does not look like the best payment model in 2020. It looks like focus.

This is exactly the gap ActivityPay was built to close, specifically for activity based businesses and the software partners who serve them.

We are not a software company. We are a payment gateway that integrates with the booking and reservation platforms operators already use, whether that is a recreation center, a camp, a tour operator, or a youth sports complex. For our ISV partners, we run a dedicated referral program where our agents manage the relationship directly. That means tailored, customized pricing programs built around how activity businesses actually operate, not a generic merchant rate sheet. It means white glove onboarding and ongoing support handled by real people who know this space. And it means our ISV partners get to keep doing what they do best, which is building excellent software, while we handle the part that was never their core business in the first place.

The shift is not a step backward. It is software companies getting clear about where their value actually lives. If payments has started to feel like a distraction rather than a differentiator, that is usually the signal that it is time for a guide, not another thing to manage yourself.

Curious what a tailored referral partnership with ActivityPay could look like for your platform? Reach out and let's talk.