Benchmarking & intelligence for businesses that accept card payments

See your business with greater clarity.

“Know the Depth.”

Sondara helps businesses benchmark performance, identify opportunities, and make better-informed decisions.

No switching required. No obligation. Just your own numbers, measured and made clear.
Your effective rate
3.41%
Field median
2.58%
Your practice
3.41%
Field median
2.58%
Top quartile
2.07%
Economic opportunity / yr $14,200
Illustrative — a sample Soundings Report
What is a Sounding?

Before entering unfamiliar waters, navigators took a sounding — lowering a weighted line to measure the true depth beneath the vessel, and recording what they found. The goal wasn’t movement. It was understanding. Only once the depth was known could the safest course be set.

Sondara applies the same principle to your economics. We take the sounding first — then we advise.

A Sounding is a measurement of where you stand — the economics beneath the surface.

Take a Sounding
Taking soundings for businesses that accept cards, including
DentalVeterinaryChiropracticOptometryCPA & AccountingLegalTherapyConsultingEngineering
Start with payment economics

A Sondara Sounding measures what you’re paying, how you compare, and where opportunities may exist — the clearest, most immediate place to begin.

The problem

Your statement was never written to be read.

Payment pricing runs on confusion, not value — a low rate to start, then fees you can’t decode and no one can quite explain. And no statement actually prints your true rate; you only find it by dividing the fees by your own volume. That one number is what we measure first.

The wound isn’t the rate — it’s the surprise. So we do the opposite: every fee measured and shown, no silent increases, and we guide you through the entire switch, step by step.

How we work

The sounding comes before the decision.

Sound

Measure what’s actually beneath the surface — your real numbers, checked.

Chart

See your position against practices like yours.

Advise

Evidence-based judgment on the safe course, with the work shown.

Steward

We keep sounding over time, so the course stays true.

The Sounding

Start with a sounding of what you pay to get paid.

Send us a recent statement. Within days, we’ll show you — in your own numbers — your true effective rate, how it compares to well-run practices in your field, and where the opportunities are.

  • Your true effective rate, measured from your real statement.
  • Every fee read line by line — standard, negotiable, or unnecessary.
  • A benchmark against your field, from the Sondara Index.
  • A clear, conservative figure for the annual opportunity.
Take a Sounding

No charge. No obligation. And if it makes sense to move, we give you the exact plan and guide you through it. Most readings returned in 3–5 business days.

The Soundings Report — SummaryConfidential
Interchange & assessments Wholesale$3,180
Processor markup Markup$9,840
PCI & statement fees Service$1,260
Batch & misc. fees Service$640
Annual opportunity$14,200
The Sondara Index

The benchmark behind every Sounding.

Every Sounding deepens the Sondara Index — the field-by-field benchmark we’re building from real readings. As it grows, it’s how you’ll see, with evidence, exactly where you stand.

Explore the Intelligence
Cost of payments as % of revenue — by field
Dental
2.9%
Veterinary
2.6%
Legal
2.2%
CPA
2.0%
Therapy
3.1%
Illustrative figures · the Index sharpens with every Sounding
From real statements

We don’t ask you to take our word for it. We show you the reading.

A sample of what reading real merchant statements turns up — cross-industry and anonymized. Illustrative of the patterns, not a promise of your result. Read the full Sounding →

Same card acceptance
~2× the cost
A tiered “discount” billed about 5.4% where a clean cost-plus account ran about 2.5%.
The double-charge
No single rate
A percentage “discount” plus separate card-brand fees — so no one true rate sits on the page.
Length is opacity
2 vs 92 pages
The clearest statement we read was two pages; the most opaque ran ninety-two.
Small tickets pay most
~1.5% from $0.25
A flat per-item fee quietly adds about 1.5% on a $17 average ticket.

Anonymized, desk-derived findings (June 2026). The patterns are real; your number is your own.

1
Your true effective rate — the number no statement prints
9+
Professional fields we serve
0
Pressure tactics, countdowns, or fine print
“Now I understand what is actually going on — and I can decide with confidence.”
— Managing partner, multi-location dental group
For referral partners

Refer a sounding your clients will thank you for.

When you send a client to Sondara, they get an evidence-based reading of what they’re really paying and how they compare — no obligation, nothing to buy. You get the credit for sending someone who measures, not someone who sells.

Become a Partner
From the Research Center

Soundings on the economics of running a business.

Start with one statement

See what’s beneath the surface of your economics.

It takes one statement and a few minutes. The reading is ours to take and yours to keep.

Take a Sounding