Elavon vs CSG Forte
payment processing head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
| Starting price | Interchange-plus merchant processing | Quote-based |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Company size | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | Infor | QuickBooks |
| Vendor | Elavon, Inc. | CSG Forte |
Our take
Where Elavon leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 9 of the 23 capabilities where they differ (led by virtual terminal and multi-currency processing).
- Stated Infor integration the alternative doesn't list.
Where CSG Forte leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 14 of the 23 capabilities where they differ (led by machine-learning fraud detection and ivr / phone payment acceptance).
- Stated QuickBooks integration the alternative doesn't list.
Where they differ
The 23 capabilities (of 50 in the payment processing taxonomy) where the evidence separates them, biggest gaps first. “Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
| Capability | ||
|---|---|---|
| Virtual terminalPayment Acceptance & Channels | Core strength Virtual terminal | Not evidenced |
| Machine-learning fraud detectionFraud, Risk & Authentication | Not evidenced | Core strength PaymentsProtection.ai AI/ML fraud detection across ~215M annual transactions |
| IVR / phone payment acceptancePayment Acceptance & Channels | Partial Mail order / telephone order (MO/TO) acceptance, not an explicit automated IVR product | Core strength IVR phone payments with customizable business rules |
| Multi-currency processingGlobal Reach & Money Movement | Supported Global currency conversion | Not evidenced |
| Global payoutsGlobal Reach & Money Movement | Not evidenced | Supported Payouts to vendors, staff and customers |
| Chargeback & dispute managementFraud, Risk & Authentication | Supported Chargeback management portal with tracking | Not evidenced |
| Identity verification & sanctions screeningFraud, Risk & Authentication | Not evidenced | Supported Payment verification, validation and account-ownership authentication |
| Recurring / subscription billingBilling & Receivables | Supported Card-on-file for recurring/repeat transactions | Not evidenced |
| Automated dunning & retryBilling & Receivables | Not evidenced | Supported Direct Fund Recovery: automated NSF/ACH re-presentment |
| Compliant credit-card surchargingBilling & Receivables | Supported Credit card surcharging | Not evidenced |
| Embedded lending / business capitalEmbedded Finance & Platform Payments | Supported Merchant funding, including a faster-funding option | Not evidenced |
| White-label embedded-payments SDKEmbedded Finance & Platform Payments | Not evidenced | Supported Low-code/no-code embedded-payments components |
| Point-to-point encryption (P2PE)Tokenization & Security | Not evidenced | Supported P2PE terminals |
| PCI DSS Level 1 certified infrastructureTokenization & Security | Partial PCI DSS compliance validation support offered; not stated as own Level 1 cert | Core strength PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II certified infrastructure |
| WebhooksDeveloper Platform & Checkout Tools | Not evidenced | Supported Webhook integration patterns for ERP/CRM/billing systems |
| Hosted / embeddable checkout componentsDeveloper Platform & Checkout Tools | Not evidenced | Supported Forte Checkout hosted/embeddable payment form |
| Native mobile SDKsDeveloper Platform & Checkout Tools | Not evidenced | Supported React Native SDK |
| Sandbox / test environmentDeveloper Platform & Checkout Tools | Not evidenced | Supported REST API with sandbox environment and code samples |
| Native ERP module / embedded processingERP & Accounting Integration | Supported CenPOS gateway markets itself as integrating with DMS/ERP systems; documented integration with Infor Distribution FACTS/SX.e | Not evidenced |
| Automated GL posting & bank reconciliationERP & Accounting Integration | Supported Infor Distribution FACTS electronic-payments integration guide documents payment posting | Not evidenced |
| ACH / bank transfer processingPayment Acceptance & Channels | Supported ACH and ECS electronic/paper check acceptance | Core strength ACH/eCheck with Standard and Same Day ACH; Direct Fund Recovery re-presentment |
| Automatic account / card updaterFraud, Risk & Authentication | Supported Account Updater for automatic expired-card refresh | Core strength Account Updater for Visa, Mastercard and Discover |
| Tokenized card vaultTokenization & Security | Core strength 'Safe-T' combined authentication, encryption and tokenization | Supported Tokenization to reduce merchant PCI scope |
Both grade identically on the other 27 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Elavon, CSG Forte.
Elavon vs CSG Forte — FAQs
Is Elavon or CSG Forte better for ERP integration?
They state different ERP coverage: Elavon lists Infor; CSG Forte lists QuickBooks.
Which is cheaper, Elavon or CSG Forte?
Neither publishes a list price — both quote. Ask each for the all-in first-year cost at your seat count, as one number, and compare those.
Get pricing for both
Tell us your ERP, seat count and must-haves and we'll come back with an independent view of what Elavon and CSG Forte should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.