The market gives you three ways to add payments. Only one lets you own the experience without carrying the infrastructure.

Every payments guide frames the same tradeoff: refer out for speed and give up control, or build for control and take on the cost, the risk and the years. That tradeoff is a habit, not a law. The question worth answering is narrower: what must stay yours, and what should never have been your job. Your brand, your checkout, your merchant relationship and your economics stay yours. Licensing, certifications, connector maintenance and compliance were never your product.