On Thursday WePay -- an online payments platform with clients like Meetup, GoFundMe, and FreshBooks -- announced that its clients can now accept Apple Pay on the Web, along with Android Pay.
Some of WePay's other clients include Zoho, Chargebee, Invoice Ninja, and Constant Contact. To use Apple Pay, shoppers must typically have at least an iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, or Touch ID-equipped MacBook Pro. On other Macs, people can use a linked iPhone or Apple Watch.
WePay joins the ranks of a number of other payments platforms with Apple Pay, such as Stripe and Shopify. Such backend support can be critical, since many websites can't afford to build and run their own infrastructure.
Apple Pay first reached the Web in Sept. 2016, alongside iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. While the technology was initially available on a relative handful of websites like Wayfair and StubHub, it has since come to thousands.
In terms of general support, Apple Pay is now offered by 36 percent of U.S. merchants -- more than one-time leader PayPal, which doesn't depend on specialized hardware at payment terminals.
Nevertheless, compatibility at physical outlets in the U.S. has been one of Apple's biggest obstacles. Chains have been slow to upgrade with NFC-ready terminals, and smaller businesses may often have to turn to readers from the likes of Square.