Loop Crypto vs. Helio
Introduction
Helio is a platform that enables merchants and creators to accept crypto payments. If you are looking to implement crypto or stablecoin payments and are assessing Helio vs. Loop Crypto, this article is for you.
Read on to see why merchants that need a solution that helps them grow sales, integrates with their existing billing system, and scales with them select Loop Crypto over Helio.
Why companies choose Loop
When evaluating crypto payment solutions, companies primarily choose Loop for these reasons:
Integrations - Loop is integrated directly into payment platforms like Stripe, Chargebee, Xero, QuickBooks, and OpenPay, meaning merchants have one system of record for all their payments and access to these powerful billing systems and their rich features and integrations.
All payment types: Loop supports all payment types: invoices, one-time purchases, subscriptions, and metered billing. It also offers a broad range of network and token support, allowing crypto to work for any business model.
Flexibility: Loop is flexible enough to build custom in-app billing experiences for merchants that want more control over their payment experience.
Track record: Loop has helped top companies process millions in payments across EVMs and Solana.
Integrations
Loop offers an unmatched suite of integrations that allows merchants to plug crypto and stablecoin payments into their existing billing systems. This includes integrations with platforms like Stripe, OpenPay, Chargebee, Xero, and QuickBooks. This is extremely valuable as it allows merchants to gain access to all of the functionality their existing billing systems offer, such as free trials, coupon codes, billing per unit, and many more features. There are no constraints on what functionality is available for those who pay in crypto vs. those paying in fiat.
In addition, Loop’s integration suite means merchants do not have to manage two separate billing systems. Setup is extremely straightforward, and there is no hassle of maintaining two systems, each with its own approach to product and pricing logic. Finally, using Loop’s integrations allows merchants to unlock visibility into all their transactions from one place. All payment data flows into one system, so merchants can track all open and closed invoices from one location.
All payment types
Businesses bill for many different types of payments, and their payment methods ought to support all of them. Loop enables crypto invoicing, one-time crypto payments, and crypto subscription payments without requiring locking up funds. Loop makes accepting crypto recurring payments effortless with native autopay, a feature that Helio lacks. Autopay is critical for reducing churn ensuring merchants retain their customers. When an autopay solution is not in place, churn can be up to 2x higher!
Other solutions claim to enable recurring payments, but in reality, they require locking up funds in a smart contract, managing complicated streams of tokens, or sending repeated emails with payment links. Loop is designed to make crypto subscriptions and one-time payments as straightforward as charging a credit card or bank account. These complicated lock-ups and streams add significant friction to the checkout process and increase the risk of losing a sale. With Loop, the checkout experience simply collects a wallet authorization, and then Loop is able to charge (or “pull”) the funds at the specified time.
Flexibility
For merchants that want to own the entire payment experience end-to-end, Loop offers a flexible crypto payment API and configurable checkout components. Companies can be up and running with custom payment experiences within weeks, or even days, not months (check out our Helius case study to see how). The flexibility of Loop’s APIs means that Loop can accommodate any type of pricing model and checkout configuration. In addition, our pay component makes it simple to collect payment authorization from any wallet. This allows end customers to store payment methods, so companies can bill for recurring crypto payments or provide one-click checkouts.
Track record
Loop Crypto has a track record of working with top companies to enable their crypto and stablecoin payments. This includes working with large RPC providers like Helius and leading data analytics firms like Kaito processing millions on chain and saving teams thousands of hours. Check out our blog to see more relevant case studies about how teams in web3 and beyond have implemented Loop.
Where Loop excels against Helio
If you are evaluating Loop specifically compared to Helio, here are the reasons we see merchants ultimately choose Loop over Helio.
1. Crypto autopay
For companies looking to manage subscriptions or any other type of crypto recurring payment, Loop Crypto is the clear choice over Helio. Loop offers true autopay, where a user can authorize a wallet to have funds automatically pulled on a recurring basis with no additional clicks or signing of transactions each month. This is a feature that Helio lacks. When handling any type of recurring payment, Helio allows for companies to send a series of pre-configured email reminders before a payment is due; however, each email still requires the user to take action and re-initiate the sending of funds. This additional step creates friction and a higher likelihood of churn as the customer has to re-evaluate their purchase every period.
At Loop, we find that autopay is critical for merchants that have a subscription model. In some instances, churn can be 2x higher when autopay functionality is not available. As noted above, autopay minimizes payment delays and reduces customer churn by removing friction from the renewal process—customers don't need to make an active decision each month to continue your service. Additionally, autopay typically results in fewer failed payments compared to manual invoicing, as payment information is securely stored and processed automatically when due, ensuring consistent and timely receipt of funds that improves merchants’ financial stability and forecasting capabilities. If a payment is missed, Loop has built a system to automatically notify and retry the payment over a given grace period. This eliminates manual follow-up work and helps companies retain revenue.
2. Integrations
As noted earlier, Loop Crypto offers out-of-the-box integrations with existing billing systems. This makes implementation simple and means merchants are not stuck managing separate billing systems for each payment method. Crypto is simply another payment method that can be turned on. With Helio, there are no integrations with other billing management platforms where fiat payment options would be available. All pricing logic would need to be recreated in Helio, and all transaction data would live there as well.
This lack of integrations with traditional billing systems is a major drawback and results in additional setup and ongoing maintenance work. Loop Crypto integrates with the billing tools that merchants already use like Stripe, OpenPay, and Chargebee. This allows merchants to handle fiat and crypto payments in the same platform. Helio does offer integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce that enable one-off payments for e-commerce merchants on those platforms; however, this is the extent of their integrations.
3. Fiat and crypto integrated into the same billing system
As alluded to in the prior section, one of the most powerful benefits of using Loop Crypto is that it allows all fiat and crypto payments to sync to the same billing system. This is a critical point for merchants as they consider setting up their financial operations to maximize payment options for their customers while minimizing operational complexity. While Loop does not directly handle fiat payments, merchants can utilize our integrations with billing systems as noted above. This allows merchants to simply plug in crypto as another payment method within their existing flows.
Helio does offer a pay with card feature, but this feature still ultimately requires users to pay with crypto. In other words, Helio’s fiat payment option is really a card-to-crypto payment option. For example, it prompts a customer to buy stablecoins with a credit card, sets up a wallet, and then has the customer use those stablecoins to make a payment. For non-crypto native customers, this is likely going to be complex. It will also be expensive as this process incurs fees both to convert the fiat to crypto as well as to send the crypto. It is important to note that using a credit card to purchase crypto also tends to result in high rejection rates.
Loop’s integrations with OpenPay, Stripe, and Chargebee solve this issue and allow customers to use a credit card via a typical checkout flow. Crypto and fiat are side-by-side options that end users can select as desired.
Comparative analysis
For merchants and payment platforms, Loop offers the most flexible crypto and stablecoin payment platform. We support a range of payment use cases, including crypto subscription payments, crypto invoicing, and one-time crypto payments.
Relevant case studies
As you evaluate crypto payment providers, be sure to check out our case studies. We have worked with leading brands like Helius, Privy, Kaito, and Pinata powering their checkout experiences. Our case study with chainEDGE is a particularly good example of a merchant who switched to Loop Crypto because they were looking for a reliable payment solution that offered autopay and would help them reduce churn. You can read more about how chainEDGE uses Loop for crypto subscription payments.
A payment processor, like Loop Crypto, handles this complexity and provides a crypto payments API and tooling that are easy to use. This allows for the secure and quick transfer of funds from the customer’s wallet to the merchant’s wallet. You can check out this article about payment processing in web3.
FAQ
How do I accept crypto payments for my business?
A crypto payment processor facilitates digital transactions between merchants and their customers enabling merchants to accept various forms of crypto payment. Merchants that accept crypto payments, especially recurring crypto payments, need to work through various complexities related to accepting payment on multiple networks, in multiple tokens, and from various types of wallets.
A payment processor, like Loop Crypto, handles this complexity and provides a crypto payments API and tooling that are easy to use. This allows for the secure and quick transfer of funds from the customer’s wallet to the merchant’s wallet. You can check out this article about payment processing in web3.
What is a crypto payment processor?
A crypto payment processor facilitates digital transactions between merchants and their customers enabling merchants to accept various forms of crypto payment. With Loop, we make it easy to accept stablecoins, ERC-20 tokens (tokens deployed within the Ethereum ecosystem and popular layer 2 networks), or SPL tokens (tokens deployed within the Solana ecosystem).
Merchants that accept crypto payments need to work through various complexities related to accepting payment on multiple networks, in multiple tokens, and from various types of wallets. Loop handles this complexity and provides APIs and tooling that are easy to use. This allows for the secure and quick transfer of funds from the customer’s wallet to the merchant’s wallet.
Can I accept crypto payments for subscriptions?
Yes! Loop works with recurring subscription payments. We work similar to credit cards - a customer authorizes their wallet to be charged, and each billing period the wallet is charged without the end customer having to take action.
How does Helio work?
Helio is a platform that enables merchants and creators to accept crypto payments. The platform works across blockchain networks like Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, Base, and Bitcoin. Helio was founded in 2022 and acquired by MoonPay in 2024.
