An aggregated merchant account (also called a payment facilitator or “PayFac” model) allows multiple businesses to share a single master merchant account under a platform provider. This is the model used by popular gateways like Stripe, Square, and PayPal, making it faster and easier for small businesses and startups to start accepting payments without going through a traditional underwritten merchant account approval process.

With aggregated accounts, onboarding is quick, but merchants don’t own their individual MID (merchant ID)—they operate as sub-merchants. This can lead to faster signups but also comes with limitations like frozen funds, stricter risk monitoring, and less flexibility for high-risk industries.

In this section, TheFinRate explains how aggregated merchant accounts work, who should use them, and the best providers in 2025. We also compare them to dedicated merchant accounts so you can determine the right fit for your business based on size, risk level, and processing volume.