The Best Payment Gateways In South Africa

Which Payment Gateway Is Best For Your E-Commerce Store?

It's quite a well-known fact that most retail businesses are rapidly moving towards e-commerce. This is due to the increased growth of online stores and their online presence, which has created a niche. People these days need products at their comfort. As a new or existing store, you have probably considered taking your business online. While there are structured means to brand, design, advertise and sell products on the internet, payment gateways are still a challenge. How do get payments products offered? How do you also make payments for services or products you have acquired? As a retail store or any type of store in South Africa, the most important tool is an e-commerce website. This is the governing point of your e-commerce store. Before you acquire a payment gateway, you need to put into consideration two things.

Security and Integration

Security: All transactions generated by an e-commerce website are captured far away from the real business, by a service provider. You need to consider how to secure the connection between your website and the service provider is. This protects your retail store from hacking cases.

Integration; Most payment gateways have requirements that need to be fulfilled, in order to fully integrate with any website. You have to make sure your e-commerce website is compatible with the payment gateway you are picking. In South Africa, many payment options can suit your e-commerce website. Every payment gateway is best suited for specific websites. The most predominant requirement for any gateway is the need for an internet merchant account. This is an account that links your e-commerce website to your bank. However, most payment gateways have scrapped off this requirement, allowing the start-up to register accounts for free.

Before you build your eCommerce store, you should consider taking a free 14 day trial with Shopify, most of the top South African payment gateways are supported by them and the support and additional plug-ins are the best on the market. Plus you can build the entire store yourself.

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The first big decision you will have to take is, will you go for a payment gateway that requires you to have a registered Internet merchant account with a South African bank or will you go for one that does not require you to register. Setting up an Internet merchants account with your bank can sometimes be a lengthy process and in some cases the bank first wants to see your completed eCommerce website before giving you the account facility. This is not ideal if you are in a hurry to get up and running.

For smaller vendors that want to get started quickly and avoid monthly charges, the non merchants account options are usually better.

Larger vendors will benefit more from having an Internet merchants account with their bank, and will in most cases find the overall payment gateway fees to work out less costly, depending on transaction volumes. To assist you with making the right decision right from the start, Honeywhale have analysed the various payment gateways based on the key considerations that every new eCommerce entrepreneur needs to evaluate.

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Best All-rounder Payment Gateway - PayFlex

Payflex offers a very simple fee structure, with no upfront fees or fees for refunds, failed payments or authorizations. Payflex simply charges a per-transaction fee on successful transactions only. They have Partnership Managers that will communicate and discuss the details with you – their philosophy is to keep it simple and transparent. Payflex works very differently from every other payment gateway as they allow your customers to pay for their items over a period of time in 4 equal payments. This option alone can open so many opportunities for your eCommerce store as opening doors for your customers to have different payment options can only bring in more sales. Payflex has ready-to-go integrations for Woocommerce, Shopify, Magento V1 & V2 and Opencart that will allow you to integrate Payflex into your online store in no time. Payflex also offers a detailed API integration for custom-built websites (For more info visit their developer page).  

Honeywhale highly recommends adding Payflex as one of your payment solutions as it is simple-to-integrate, secure and partnered with many eCommerce platforms. Payflex also gives additional payment options for your customers and is used on large or small South African eCommerce Stores.

So if you would like to add Payflex to your eCommerce store, please complete Payflex's merchant enquiry form or send them an email with your details to grow@payflex.co.za. Their sales team will then give you a call and get you up and running in as little as a day.

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Best for Startups Payment Gateway - PayFast

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PayFast is the easiest payment gateway to get started with. The reason for this recommendation is that you do not need to have an Internet merchants account to get started. Once you sign up for PayFast, you can immediately start accepting bank transfers from your website.

The process for accepting credit cards and other forms of payment is also quite simple. You just need to do a short business verification and then you are all set. Payfast also does not charge you setup or monthly fees, their guides are very informative so any eCommerce store owner will be able to integrate Payfast into their online store.

Honeywhale highly recommends Payfast for easy and quick setup of a payment gateway for your eCommerce store.

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Best for larger e-commerce store functionality - PayGate

PayGate is one of South Africa's first payment gateways. The company started in 1996 and their solution can be found on many websites in the country. Originally their services were more focused to cater for larger eCommerce vendors but they have made big strides towards catering for startup vendors with the introduction of their PAYCOLLECT offering, which does not require a bank Internet merchants account.

The company places a huge focus on making life easier for eCommerce developers. Their developer resources include API documentation and instructions for setting up shopping carts and eCommerce platforms. These cart and platforms include Zen Cart, OSCommerce, CS Cart, Magento, VirtueMart, WordPress eCommerce, WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, Shopify and other.

In addition logo packs with the PayGate logos, bank required Card Association logos and payment method logos are also available for quick inclusion into sites.

You do need a Merchant Account to setup PayGate but luckily they have an option where you can avoid the Mercahnt Account route, the PayCollect option. They also charge a once off activation fee ranging from R0 to R200. PayGate also charge a monthly fee that range from R0 to R450 per month. PayGate is a well-known and established payment gateway, their services are secure and their service is applauded.

Best for International Payments - Peach Payments or Paystack

Peach Payments and Paystack are the only South African payment Gateways that allow International Customers to pay into your South African eCommerce Store.

Peach Payment

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Peach Payments enables businesses to easily accept payments on their websites and mobile apps. They build online payments systems for Africa.

Their goal is to deliver brilliant experiences for our customers and users. In everything they do, they strive to make it as easy as possible for their merchants to focus on their business while they take care of your payment needs. Businesses that are selling any product or service through digital channels can use Peach Payments to manage payments seamlessly. They integrate with WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Magento -- the leading eCommerce platforms globally -- and Peach Payment's modern API allows for custom integrations. Today Peach Payments work with businesses in South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius, and are rapidly expanding their presence to other countries across the continent.

World-class payments infrastructure

• Accept payments from users across the globe
• Support for multiple channels and interfaces
• Enterprise grade security
• Scalable and reliable global platform

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Protect : Advanced fraud detection tools

• Real-time checks to screen transactions
• Custom setup for each merchant
• Blacklists to protect merchants from  
  repeat fraudsters

Advanced Real-Time risk checking

• Real-time risk checking and reporting to merchant
• 120+ advanced algorithms to detect and prevent fraud
• Integrations with 3rd party risk service providers such as Retail Decisions

Flexible Implementation

• Custom risk rules and algorithms tailored to merchant profile
• Selectively apply rules to transactions to optimize costs
• Unified view on fraud prevention across all channels including mobile apps

Minimize chargebacks

• Block suspect transactions from being presented to acquirers
• Platform-wide card blacklists to block known stolen cards
• Monitor chargeback rates in merchant console

Optimize conversion

• Increase accuracy in identification of fraudulent transactions to minimize impact on conversion
• Flag transactions for manual review instead of rejecting to reduce false positives
• Optimize the use of additional authentication tools such as 3DSecure

Ready to get started?

Paystack

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Modern online and offline payments for Africa

Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world.

Give your customers the gift of modern, frictionless, painless payments. Integrate Paystack once and let your customers pay you however they want.

• Card
• Bank Account
• Bank Transfer
• USSD
• Visa QR
• Mobile Money
• POS (Coming soon)

Enjoy phenomenal transaction success rates

We automatically route payments through the most optimal channels, ensuring the highest transaction success rates in the market.

Build custom payments experiences with well-documented APIs

Developers love Paystack's thorough, well-documented APIs that let you to build everything from simple weekend projects, to complex financial products serving hundreds of thousands of customers. If you can imagine it, you can build it with Paystack.

• Collect one-time and recurring payments from your app or website
• Make instant transfers
• Retrieve all your transaction and customer data
• Verify the identity of customers

Build custom payments experiences with well-documented APIs

Developers love our thorough, well-documented APIs that let you to build everything from simple weekend projects, to complex financial products serving hundreds of thousands of customers. If you can imagine it, you can build it with Paystack.

• Collect one-time and recurring payments from your app or website
• Make instant transfers
• Retrieve all your transaction and customer data
• Verify the identity of customers

Trusted by 60,000+ businesses

Thousands of organizations of all sizes trust Paystack to grow their business.

Paystack for Global Brands

• Paystack helps international technology companies get paid quickly and securely by customers in Africa.

Paystack processes over 50% of all online transactions in Nigeria

We have a robust suite of well-documented payments APIs and deep knowledge of the Nigerian payments landscape, making us ideal partners for international technology companies looking to accept payments in Nigeria.

Paystack for Entrepreneurs

• Paystack helps entrepreneurs like you accept payments online. Fast set up. Quick payouts. No long stories.

Get paid even if you don’t have a website

Create a Payment Page in 2 mins with Paystack, and share that link via SMS, Instagram DM, WhatsApp chat, or however you communicate with your customers.

• No developers needed
• Your customers will be able to click and pay you instantly

Paystack for Large Organizations

A complete payments solution to power all scales of growth

Paystack helps many of the largest corporate and government organizations in Nigeria get paid quickly and securely.

Detailed reporting for accounting, reconciliation, and audits

Export your payments data however you want, whenever you want.

• Download granular transaction, customer, and error rate data
• Receive daily and weekly automated email reports
• Pull in your payments data into your internal dashboards and accounting/reporting tools

Simple, fair pricing

Paystack only makes money when you do.

For Local Transactions

2.9% + ZAR 1

• ZAR 1 fee waived for transactions less than ZAR 10
• No upfront or monthly fees
• All payouts are free

For International Transactions

2.9% + ZAR 1

• Get paid by your customers from all over the world
• International cards are charged and settled in Rand by default

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Best for eCommerce + Card Machine Payments- YOCO

Start accepting card payments and grow with Yoco

• Accept all major cards - Accept credit and debit cards online and in-person.

• No monthly fees. Ever - Only a small fee per transaction that drops the more you sell.

• 130 000 merchants - Yoco is already trusted by small businesses all over SA.

Accept card payments in person.

Sign up and order your card machine in 5 minutes. Yoco will deliver for free in 3 working days.

Card machines for small businesses

• Accept any major card - Tap, swipe or insert to get paid.

• Own. Don't rent - With no monthly fees at all.

• Free delivery nationwide - Within 3 working days.

Take card without a card machine

With payment links, plugins, QR codes and more, you don't need a card machine to take card payments with Yoco.

• Accept all major cards - Accept any credit and debit card online with Yoco.

• No monthly fees. Ever - Only a small fee per transaction that drops the more you sell.

• Sign up for free - There's no cost to start and no contract to sign.

Send a link. Get paid online.

• You don't need a card machine to accept card payments with Pay by Link.

1. Create your payment link.

Download the Yoco App, create a sale and choose Pay by Link as the sale method.

2. Send your payment link.

Send the payment link to your customers on WhatsApp, email, SMS or social media.

3. Get paid safely online.

Your customer enters their card details and pays you from anywhere in the world.

Instant payment notifications.

Every sale you make – through Pay by Link or a Yoco card machine – is created and recorded in your Yoco App.

• Get instant notifications when an online payment is made.
• Get confirmation when the money is in your account.
• Send professional invoices and follow up on outstanding payments in-app.

Take payments on your website with Yoco

• Grow your business - Manage sales and performance with Business Portal and the Yoco App.

• No monthly fees. Ever - Only a small fee per transaction that drops the more you sell.

• Sign up for free - Set yourself up to accept card payments in under 10 minutes.

Integrate Yoco payment gateway with your online store to make selling simple.

• No upfront costs.
• Transaction fees capped at 3.40% (ex. VAT).
• Set up and start selling in 5 minutes.
• Simple, quick checkout process.
• PCI compliant and 3DS-enabled.
• Fully integrated with all Yoco payment solutions

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Best for Affordability for SME's - OZOW

Merchant Benefits

Secure, instant and irrevocable bank-to-bank payments.

Irrevocable payments

Once a payment has been confirmed, the transaction is irrevocable with no charge backs .

No credit card required

Receive payments directly from your customer's cheque, savings or credit account - credit cards aren’t necessary.

No registration

Shoppers do not need to enter into a lengthy registration process, you simply log in using your internet banking details.

Simple process

Experience less abandoned carts and many more happy customers by integrating Ozow's simple payment solution.

Instant notifications

Merchants are notified instantly if and when one of their customers have made any transactions through Ozow.

Increased sales

Entice new customers by providing them with an Ozow easy, Ozow fast, and Ozow trusted card-free payment solution.

Customer Benefits

Easy, Fast and Trusted online payments for your customers.

Card-free

Don’t have your card on hand? No problem. Access all of your accounts Ozow safely and Ozow easily with your internet banking.

Fast payments

Ozow’s payment gateway is Ozow simple and Ozow fast that customers can make a payment in 60 seconds or less.

No registration needed

Make payments on Ozow easily and securely, without the hassle of registration. All you need is an internet banking profile.

Ozow payments are free

Customers who pay through Ozow only have to pay the merchant, enjoying no additional hidden charges when paying online.

Instant

Now there is no need for customers to send proof of payment, or make merchants wait for money to reflect in their bank account.

Hassle Free

Ozow simplifies the customer’s EFT payment experience so that it is Ozow much faster, Ozow much easier, and Ozow convenient.

OZOW will help you integrate their payment solution into your business.

No monthly subscriptions or set up fees

Only pay a percentage of your successful transaction value processed through Ozow.

Notes:

• All fees and prices exclude Value-Added Tax (VAT).
• Through Ozow, there are no hidden additional costs payable by the business to the banks.
• Package allocation with related billing and service activation is subject to review and approval of Ozow in its sole discretion.
• Monthly processing and transaction fees are billed in arrears.
• Fees and Prices quoted do not apply to high-risk merchants.
• Terms and Conditions apply.

Ready to sign up with Ozow?

Before we get started, there are a few things to keep in mind.

No hidden costs

There are no hidden costs payable by the merchant to the banks.

Activation

Activation is subject to review and approval of Ozow at its sole discretion.

Monthly Billing

Monthly transaction fees are billed in arrears.

High Risk Merchants

OZOW prices quoted do not apply to high risk merchants.

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