Payment gateways in South Africa: fees, methods and developer experience compared

Start with how your customers pay, because that narrows the field faster than any fee table. Then compare fees, payout terms and developer tooling within the shortlist. Our verdicts by type of business:

• Online store selling mostly to South Africans by card: Paystack or Peach Payments. Their card rates are close, so decide on payout timing, extra payment methods and how their test integrations feel to your developers.
• Store where customers prefer paying from a bank account: Ozow, which publishes the lowest bank-payment rate and says its payments involve no credit card chargebacks and no reverse transactions^{[Ozow FAQ, checked 2026-11-05]}.
• Store that wants instalments, scan-to-pay and store cards through one gateway: Payfast, which lists 18 or more payment methods^{[Payfast home page, checked 2026-11-05]}, at a higher card rate.
• Business that needs Capitec Pay, PayShap Request and card payments together, or variable recurring payments: Stitch, which offers Capitec Pay, Capitec Pay VRP and PayShap Request^{[Stitch, checked 2026-11-05]}, or Ozow, which offers Capitec Pay VRP^{[Ozow, checked 2026-11-04]} and publishes rates for Capitec Pay^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]} and PayShap Request^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]}.
• Small business selling in person as well as online: compare Yoco, SnapScan and Stitch Express, covered in the in-person section below.
• Store with many customers abroad: Paystack, whose international card rate carries the lowest percentage in the table below.

This page is the index for the gateways section of our South African payments guide. The sections below go deeper, with links to a full comparison or build guide for each gateway. For four of these gateways side by side in more depth, read Payfast vs Paystack vs Ozow vs Peach Payments.

These are the rates each gateway publishes for South African merchants, for the methods most online businesses switch on.

Published online fees at South African payment gateways

Gateway	Local cards	International cards	Instant EFT or pay by bank	Capitec Pay	Monthly fee
Paystack	2.9% + R1	3.1% + R1	EFT 2%, no flat fee	Not verified	Not verified
Payfast	3.2% + R2	Not verified	Instant EFT 2% + R2	2% + R2	None
Peach Payments	2.95% + R1.50 excluding VAT (Growth plan)	3.50% + R1.50	Pay by Bank 1.50% + R1.50 (all banks except Capitec)	1.50% + R1.50	No account fee on the Growth plan; R200 a month to store cards
Ozow	2.85% (minimum R1)	3.5% (minimum R1)	Pay by Bank 1.5%, minimum R1	1.5%, minimum R1	Not verified
Stitch Express	2.95%	3.4%	Not verified	2%	Not verified
iKhokha	From 2.85%	Not verified	Not verified	Not verified	Not verified

Last verified: 2026-11-04. Sources, checked 2026-11-04 to 2026-11-05: Paystack pricing, payfast.io fees page, payfast.io home page, Peach Payments fees page, Ozow pricing page, Stitch Express pricing, ikhokha.com pricing page. Rates as each provider publishes them for South African merchants. We re-check every fee against the provider's own pricing page regularly; the date above is the latest check. Paystack, Payfast, Peach Payments, Stitch Express and iKhokha publish their rates excluding VAT; Ozow's pricing page does not say, so confirm VAT before comparing. Not verified means we have not confirmed a published rate.

Read the table with four cautions.

Most rates exclude VAT, but not every page says so. Paystack^{[Paystack pricing, checked 2026-11-04]}, Payfast^{[payfast.io fees page, checked 2026-11-05]}, Peach Payments^{[Peach Payments fees page, checked 2026-11-04]}, Stitch Express^{[Stitch Express pricing, checked 2026-11-05]} and iKhokha^{[ikhokha.com pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]} quote their rates excluding VAT. Ozow's pricing page does not say either way, so confirm VAT with Ozow before you compare its rates with the others.

Fixed fees change the picture for small baskets. Paystack adds R1^{[Paystack pricing, checked 2026-11-04]}, Peach Payments R1.50^{[Peach Payments fees page, checked 2026-11-04]} and Payfast R2^{[payfast.io fees page, checked 2026-11-05]} to each card payment. On a small order the fixed part can cost more than the percentage; on a large one it barely registers.

Bank payments are cheaper everywhere. Every gateway in the table that publishes both rates charges less for a bank payment than for a local card. A checkout that makes bank payments easy lowers your costs whoever you pick.

Some fees sit outside the table. Payfast charges R8.70 excluding VAT per payout, and immediate payouts cost 0.8% excluding VAT with a R14.00 minimum^{[payfast.io fees page, checked 2026-11-04]}. Peach Payments charges R200 a month if you tokenise cards^{[Peach Payments fees page, checked 2026-11-04]}, and Ozow charges R3 per payout^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]} and R3 per refund^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]}. Ask every provider for payout, refund, chargeback and account fees in writing.

Three providers do not fit the table neatly. We have not verified a published Yoco online card rate, so Yoco is not in it. Flutterwave publishes 4.8% for international cards^{[Flutterwave, checked 2026-11-04]} in South Africa. And SnapScan, a scan-to-pay app, starts at a standard rate of 2.95% excluding VAT, falling as a business grows^{[snapscan.co.za merchant page, checked 2026-11-04]}.

If you would rather hand over the comparison and the build, Mctaba Labs payment integration builds on these South African gateways.

Because the gateway sells a bundle. Its rate covers the card scheme costs, the acquiring bank, fraud screening, 3-D Secure, the hosted checkout and its own margin.

Interchange, the slice that goes to the bank that issued the card, is set by the SARB. The SARB interchange determination implemented on 16 March 2015 set 0.44% for debit and 1.48% for credit on card-present purchases where both issuer and acquirer are EMV compliant^{[SARB, checked 2026-11-05]}, and other transaction types, online payments among them, carry different rates. Treat those figures as an anchor, not today's full rate card.

A bank merchant account prices card acceptance with less bundled on top. From 1 March 2026, FNB's merchant pricing lists 1.80% for debit and credit in its 'FNB banked, card present' column at an annual turnover of up to R500,000, falling as turnover rises; rates exclude VAT^{[FNB Business Annual Pricing Guide, checked 2026-11-05]}. That is lower than any online gateway rate in the table, but it is a card-present rate, and you build or buy the online checkout and fraud tooling yourself.

Our verdict: a high-volume business with steady card sales and an engineering team can save by going closer to the bank. A business that wants many payment methods behind one integration is better served by a gateway. Capitec merchant rates vs aggregators works through the gap in detail.

Cards alone leave money on the table in South Africa. The methods worth considering:

• Cards and wallets. Still the default. Stitch Express prices local cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay at the same 2.95% excluding VAT^{[Stitch Express pricing, checked 2026-11-05]}.
• Pay by bank (Instant EFT). Cheaper than cards at every gateway that publishes both rates, and at Ozow free of chargebacks. Paystack carries Ozow's EFT^{[Paystack docs, checked 2026-11-04]} alongside Capitec Pay^{[Paystack docs, checked 2026-11-04]} inside its own checkout, and charges 2% with no flat fee^{[Paystack pricing, checked 2026-11-04]} for the EFT.
• Capitec Pay. Capitec reported more than 26 million active clients in its FY2026 results^{[Capitec results, checked 2026-11-04]}, and Capitec Pay lets them pay from their account without a card. Published rates include 1.5% (minimum R1) at Ozow^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]} and 2% + R2 excluding VAT at Payfast^{[payfast.io fees page, checked 2026-11-04]}. See Ozow vs Capitec Pay.
• PayShap Request. Request-to-pay on the instant rail: PayShap Request went live in December 2024 with eight banks^{[PayInc Business Report 2025, checked 2026-11-04]}, and Stitch said in August 2026 that its PayShap Request runs on a multi-acquirer architecture with automated routing^{[Stitch blog, checked 2026-11-05]}. Ozow prices PayShap Request at 1.5%, minimum R1^{[Ozow pricing page, checked 2026-11-04]}.
• Buy now, pay later. Payfast lists Payflex, MoreTyme and Mobicred, and Stitch added buy now, pay later for South African merchants in May 2026^{[Stitch blog, checked 2026-11-05]}. See BNPL integration in South Africa.
• Scan-to-pay. SnapScan and Zapper both appear on Payfast's method list; see our pages on SnapScan for online merchants and Zapper.

Consumer habits back a broad checkout. In Stitch's 2026 Consumer Payments Report, the new payment methods consumers had tried in the past 12 months were led by one-click wallets at 58%, then BNPL 39%, Capitec Pay 37% and PayShap 35%^{[Stitch blog, checked 2026-11-05]}.

Every gateway here publishes developer documentation. What differs is the shape of the API and how much working code you get.

Where each gateway's developer documentation lives, and what stands out

Gateway	Developer docs	Worth knowing before you build
Paystack	paystack.com/docs (API reference)	Documents Capitec Pay as an open banking method for South African businesses only
Payfast	developers.payfast.co.za	18 or more payment methods on one gateway
Peach Payments	developer.peachpayments.com	Daily settlement, the next business day
Ozow	hub.ozow.com	Guides, API reference and working code for payments, refunds and payouts
Stitch	docs.stitch.money	GraphQL API
Yoco	developer.yoco.com	APIs, SDKs and payment plugins in one developer hub
iKhokha	developer.ikhokha.com	A developer portal for its online payment documentation

Last verified: 2026-11-04. Sources, checked 2026-11-04 to 2026-11-05: Paystack docs, Paystack docs, PayFast Developer Documentation, Payfast home page, Peach Payments documentation hub, Peach Payments fees page, Ozow developer hub, Stitch developer docs, Yoco Developer Hub, ikhokha.com. Documentation locations as each provider publishes them. A link to docs is not a review: test notifications, refunds and reconciliation yourself before you commit.

Docs tell you what is possible; a test integration tells you what living with it is like. Before you commit, run the same checks against each shortlisted gateway: how notifications are signed and retried, whether a duplicate notification can double-fulfil an order, whether you can look up a payment by your own reference, how refunds work through the API, and whether payouts can be matched to orders without a spreadsheet. Best payment gateway for developers goes deeper.

Our build guides cover each major gateway in Next.js: Paystack, Payfast, Peach Payments, Ozow, Stitch and Yoco. Whichever you choose, payment webhooks and reconciliation covers the patterns that keep money and orders in step. If Paystack is on your list, the Paystack hub's developer guide to Paystack in South Africa covers it end to end.

It can. Ownership shapes roadmaps, support, and what happens to your contract after a merger.

• Paystack is part of Stripe: Paystack, which Stripe acquired in October 2020^{[Paystack, checked 2026-11-05]}, has been live in South Africa since May 2021^{[Paystack blog, checked 2026-11-05]}.
• Payfast is a product of Network International. The name Payfast remains as an ecommerce product offered by Network^{[Payfast blog, checked 2026-11-04]}, and Payfast joined forces with Paygate and SiD under Network International^{[Payfast press release, checked 2026-11-04]}. Merchants on older Paygate integrations should ask about migration.
• Stitch has grown by acquisition as well as product: Stitch acquired Efficacy Payments, which lets the group offer card acquiring^{[Stitch blog, checked 2026-11-04]}, and Stitch Express launched in-person payments and a Shopify POS integration on 12 August 2026^{[Stitch blog, checked 2026-11-04]}.

None of this makes one provider better than another. It does mean you should read the change-of-control and data clauses in your contract, and keep your own code loosely coupled to any one gateway.

Shopify. Shopify Payments is not offered in South Africa^{[Shopify Help Center, checked 2026-11-04]}, so Shopify stores connect a local provider. Shopify Payments in South Africa covers what to use instead.

WooCommerce. A common WooCommerce failure is a payment notification that never reaches the site, leaving paid orders stuck on Pending payment. WooCommerce payment gateways in South Africa covers setup and troubleshooting.

In person. Card machine pricing works differently from online rates. Yoco's pricing page lists 2.30%, falling to 1.35% on debit from R50k to R200k, with custom rates above R200k^{[yoco.com pricing page, checked 2026-11-05]}, and its plans cost R0 for Core^{[yoco.com pricing page, checked 2026-11-05]}, R249 for Plus^{[Yoco pricing page, checked 2026-11-05]} and R499 for Pro^{[Yoco pricing page, checked 2026-11-05]} a month per location. Stitch Express now covers in-person payments too, and SnapScan's scan-to-pay rate is quoted above. Yoco vs iKhokha and payments for restaurants compare the options for counter sales.

One, until a specific reason forces a second. Each extra gateway adds an integration, a notification handler, a settlement report and a reconciliation job. The reasons that justify it:

• Fees: bank payments are a large share of sales and a direct pay-by-bank contract is cheaper than your card gateway's bundled rate.
• Methods: you need a method your main gateway does not carry.
• Uptime: your business loses real money when checkout is down, and a second gateway as failover pays for itself.

When you do add one, route by payment method and keep a single internal order and payment model above both gateways. Multi-PSP orchestration and failover covers the design, and payment gateways for marketplaces covers split payouts.

1. Pull three months of orders and split them by payment method, basket size and customer location.
2. List the methods your customers ask for: cards, Capitec Pay, Instant EFT, PayShap, instalments, scan-to-pay.
3. Shortlist the gateways that offer all of them, using the verdicts at the top of this page.
4. Price the shortlist against your real mix with the fee table, adding payout, refund and account fees and VAT.
5. Run the developer checks in each shortlisted gateway's test environment.
6. Sign with one, and write down the volume or method that would justify a second.

This page covers gateways serving South African merchants. If you also sell into neighbouring countries, the rails change quickly from one country to the next, and even payments within the Common Monetary Area follow their own rules: SARB Directive 1 of 2025 treats electronic funds transfers between Common Monetary Area countries as cross-border EFTs^{[SARB, checked 2026-11-05]}. The African payment rails matrix compares rails across the continent, and payments in Southern Africa covers the region country by country.

When you are ready to build, Mctaba Labs payment integration works on South African and regional rails.