How Vendors Want to Get Paid in 2026: ACH, Digital Wallets, or Paper Checks?
We surveyed 417 small and mid-sized vendors about how they prefer to get paid, and the results revealed a surprising shift. ACH and direct deposit rank first at 27.1%, followed closely by digital wallets such as PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle at 25.2%. Digital wallets have now surpassed paper checks, which account for 19.2% of preferences.
How vendors rank payment methods
ACH leads the list, but digital wallets are less than 2 points behind. Paper checks, once a common choice for smaller jobs and slower-paying clients, now rank third.
Credit cards account for 14.1%, wire transfers for 10.8%, and virtual cards for 2.4%. Overall, vendors are increasingly favoring faster, bank-to-bank and app-based payment methods.
Payment preferences vary by company size
The overall ranking combines several very different groups. Payment preferences change significantly based on company size.
Solo vendors strongly prefer digital wallets. Half of them, 50.0%, choose PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or a similar app—more than double any other option. Paper checks rank second at 26.9%, while ACH accounts for only 11.5%. For a one-person business, a digital wallet may be faster and easier to set up than a business bank account designed for ACH payments.
Preferences change once a business adds employees. Among vendors with 2 to 10 employees, paper checks lead at 32.5%, followed by digital wallets at 28.1%.
ACH becomes the clear leader among vendors with 11 or more employees. Its preference rises from 29.9% among vendors with 11 to 25 employees to 39.3% among vendors with 51 to 100 employees. Digital wallet preference moves in the opposite direction, falling to roughly 13% to 17% among vendors with more than 25 employees.
Credit card preference follows a different pattern. It rises from 15.5% among vendors with 11 to 25 employees to 26.7% among vendors with 26 to 50 employees, then falls to 18.0% among the largest vendors.
The takeaway is clear: digital wallets are primarily a solo-operator preference. Once a vendor has employees and more formal processes, ACH becomes the default, likely because it integrates with the accounting software used to manage the business.
Why paper checks are losing ground
The survey suggests that vendors are not attached to paper checks. Checks are slower, often require a trip to the bank, and leave the payment timeline entirely in the client’s hands—the same issue vendors cite when discussing late payments.
Digital wallets solve a practical problem for solo vendors: they move money quickly, and many operators already use these apps personally. ACH solves a different problem for larger vendors. It works with the accounting systems they already use for invoicing and reconciliation.
Cost may also influence these preferences. Processing fees are the second-biggest payment-related frustration vendors report, cited by 22.1% of respondents. Credit card and virtual card payments also tend to carry higher transaction costs. That may explain why both rank near the bottom overall and why larger vendors, which may be better able to absorb percentage-based fees, are more likely to use cards.
The tradeoff: more apps, more friction
The growth of digital wallets does not eliminate payment-related challenges. Some vendors are already managing more payment apps than they would like.
"I would like to consolidate payments into just a handful of options. People want us to accept some obscure app payment I've never heard of, and there's no way to keep up with all of them."
-Property Improvement vendor, 2 to 10 employees
This highlights the downside of offering too many digital options. More choices for clients can mean more apps for vendors to track, reconcile, and support.
The goal is not simply to replace paper checks with digital payments. Vendors need a small, consistent set of fast payment options—not a different app for every client.
What this means
There is no single preferred payment method for all vendors. Solo operators tend to prefer wallet apps they already use, while vendors with employees generally prefer ACH because it fits into their existing accounting processes.
Payment tools serving this market should support both methods effectively instead of focusing only on the largest overall category.
Vendors are already moving away from paper checks. ACH and digital wallets together account for 52.3% of payment preferences, and that share will likely continue growing. The opportunity is not to convince vendors to adopt digital payments. It is to help them accept fast, convenient payments without requiring a new app for every client.
Payment method preference is just one of six themes we found in the 2026 Vendor Payment & Portal Report. Want to learn more? Check out the full report, or read the recap of all six findings here.