On the other hand, the main advantage of a direct merchant account is customizability and price. Direct merchant accounts allow merchants much more opportunity to fully optimize their solution to fit their business needs. The perceived complexity of a direct merchant account, particularly in juxtaposition to a pay-as-you-go solution like Stripe, is only a result of the plethora of options available to those merchants who choose a direct merchant account. With a direct merchant account, merchants are locked into neither a POS system nor an eCommerce shopping cart, and are free to integrate reporting in addition to other customizations. Additionally, direct merchant accounts generally have a lower total cost, assuming the merchant is processing over the rule of thumb threshold of $2500/month.