Best Payment Gateway for South African Online Stores (PayFast, Yoco, Ozow, Paystack)

Key takeaways

• On published fees, Ozow is the cheapest of the four. Bank payments like Pay By Bank and Capitec Pay cost 1.5%, and local cards cost 2.85%, with no monthly or setup fees.
• Yoco charges 2.95% (excluding VAT) on local online transactions, has no recurring fees, and plugs into WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Shopstar.
• Paystack charges 2.9% + R1 on local transactions, 2% on Capitec Pay and Ozow EFT, and 3.1% + R1 on international cards, with next-day settlement.
• PayFast offers the widest range of payment methods (cards, instant EFT, SnapScan, Mobicred, Payflex and more), but its card fee of 3.2% + R2 is the highest of the four.
• All four quote fees excluding 15% VAT, so add VAT when you compare totals.

For most South African online stores, Yoco is the easiest all-round choice: 2.95% on local transactions, no monthly fees, and ready-made plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Shopstar. If cost is your top priority, Ozow has the lowest published fees: 1.5% on bank payments and 2.85% on cards. Choose Paystack if you sell to customers outside South Africa, and PayFast if you want the widest choice of payment methods, including buy-now-pay-later and SnapScan.

All four are legitimate, popular options. The right one depends on how your customers pay and what your store runs on.

The fees at a glance

| |PayFast | Yoco | Ozow | Paystack | |:--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | |Local cards | 3.2% + R2 | 2.95% | 2.85% (lower above R250k/month) | 2.9% + R1 | |Instant EFT / Capitec Pay | 2% + R2 | Not published separately | 1.5% (min R1) | 2% | |International cards | Not published | Not published | 3.5% | 3.1% + R1 | |Monthly / setup fee | Not stated | None | None | None | |Payout to your bank | R8.70 standard; 0.8% (min R14) immediate | Up to 2 business days | Next-day settlement included | Next working day (T+1) | |Other methods | SnapScan, Scan to Pay, Mobicred, Payflex, MoreTyme, Zapper, store cards, Apple/Google/Samsung Pay | EFT | PayShap, BNPL, vouchers, crypto, Apple/Google Pay | Apple Pay mentioned |

All fees exclude 15% VAT. They come from each company's own pricing page, checked October 2026. Volume discounts are available from PayFast (over R50,000 a month), Ozow (Enterprise from R1.5 million a month) and Paystack (custom plan).

What does R10,000 in monthly sales actually cost?

Say you run a small online shop in Durban selling 20 orders of R500 each a month, so R10,000 in sales. Here's what each gateway would take, on published fees, before VAT.

If every customer pays by card:

Gateway	Calculation	Fees
Ozow	2.85% × R10,000	R285
Yoco	2.95% × R10,000	R295
Paystack	2.9% × R10,000 + 20 × R1	R310
PayFast	3.2% × R10,000 + 20 × R2, plus four standard payouts at R8.70	≈ R395

If every customer pays by instant EFT or Capitec Pay:

Gateway	Calculation	Fees
Ozow	1.5% × R10,000	R150
Paystack	2% × R10,000	R200
PayFast	2% × R10,000 + 20 × R2	R240
Yoco	Not published separately	—

Add 15% VAT to each figure for the true cost. The takeaway is simple: nudging customers towards bank payments saves real money, and the cheapest and most expensive card options are about R110 a month apart at this volume. That's roughly R1,300 a year, enough to pay for your website hosting.

Ozow: cheapest on published fees

Ozow started as an instant EFT specialist and now does cards too. Its pricing page lists:

• Bank payments (Pay By Bank, Capitec Pay, Nedbank Direct EFT, Absa Pay): 1.5%, minimum R1
• Local cards: 2.85%, dropping to 2.75% above R250,000 a month and 2.65% above R500,000
• International cards: 3.5%
• Apple Pay and Google Pay: included in card payments
• PayShap requests and crypto: 1.5%
• Buy now, pay later: 4.99% + R4
• No monthly subscription or setup fee, and next-day settlement included

Why choose it: if lots of your customers pay straight from their bank, which South Africans increasingly do with Capitec Pay and PayShap, Ozow's 1.5% is the lowest rate here.

What to watch: check that Ozow plugs neatly into your platform before you commit. We couldn't confirm its plugin coverage for every store builder from its pricing page. Its international card fee (3.5%) is also higher than Paystack's.

Yoco: easiest all-rounder

Yoco is best known for its card machines, but its online gateway is a strong option on its own.

• 2.95% (excluding VAT) on local transactions, free to join, and no recurring fees
• Plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Shopstar, plus API keys for custom sites
• Money arrives within 2 business days, with instant payment notifications
• Card payments must be at least R2. EFTs have no minimum.

Why choose it: if you also sell in person at a market or from a shop, using Yoco for both keeps all your sales in one dashboard. The broad, official platform support also means less setup hassle for a small store.

What to watch: Yoco's gateway page quotes one 2.95% rate and doesn't publish a separate instant EFT fee, so if bank payments matter to you, ask Yoco first. Its general fees FAQ also says "online transactions cost 0.5% more than card machine fees", so check the rate on your own plan.

Paystack: best for selling beyond South Africa

Paystack, owned by Stripe, launched in South Africa in 2023 and is well known elsewhere in Africa. Its South African pricing page lists:

• Local transactions: 2.9% + R1 (the R1 is waived under R10)
• Capitec Pay and Ozow EFT: 2%, no flat fee
• International transactions: 3.1% + R1, charged and settled in rand by default
• Next working day (T+1) settlement
• No setup or monthly fees. Transfers out to bank accounts cost R3 each.

Why choose it: if a good share of your customers are outside South Africa, Paystack's international rate is the best of the ones we could find. It's also a natural pick if you sell in other African markets where Paystack operates.

What to watch: for a purely local store, Paystack's flat R1 per transaction makes it slightly more expensive than Yoco or Ozow on small orders.

PayFast: the most ways to pay

PayFast is one of South Africa's longest-running gateways, and its strength is choice. Its fees page lists:

• Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and store cards: 3.2% + R2
• Instant EFT and Capitec Pay: 2% + R2
• SnapScan and Scan to Pay: 3.5% + R2
• Mobicred: 3.2%
• Payflex (buy now, pay later): 5.45% + R5
• MoreTyme: 5.5% + R2
• Zapper and Scode: 4.5% + R5
• Payouts: R8.70 for a standard payout, or 0.8% (minimum R14) for an immediate one. Refunds cost R2.

Why choose it: if your customers want to pay with store cards, SnapScan or buy now, pay later, PayFast covers more of those options than anyone else here. Offering BNPL on higher-priced items like furniture or electronics can lift sales.

What to watch: on plain card payments, it's the most expensive of the four. That R2 flat fee hurts on small orders. On a R100 item, PayFast takes R5.20 before VAT, while Ozow takes R2.85.

Which one should you choose?

• Small store that just wants it to work, especially on Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix: Yoco.
• Price-sensitive store with lots of Capitec Pay or EFT customers: Ozow.
• Selling to customers outside South Africa or across Africa: Paystack.
• Higher-priced products where buy now, pay later helps, or customers who love SnapScan and store cards: PayFast.
• Also selling in person: Yoco, so in-store and online sales live in one place.

Many stores run two gateways: a cheap main one, plus PayFast or Paystack for the payment methods the first doesn't cover. Most store platforms let you show both at checkout.

Three tips to cut your payment fees

1. Promote bank payments. Put Capitec Pay or instant EFT first at checkout. At 1.5% to 2%, it costs less than cards.
2. Watch flat fees on small orders. If your average order is under R200, a gateway with no per-transaction flat fee (Ozow or Yoco) saves more than the headline percentage suggests.
3. Ask for volume pricing once you grow. PayFast offers custom rates above R50,000 a month on average, and Ozow and Paystack also have enterprise or custom plans.

And remember all these fees exclude VAT. If you're VAT-registered, you can usually claim it back as input tax.