iKhokha vs Payfast

Card machines have upfront pricing (for example, iK Flyer Lite from R699; iK Flyer R1,499; iK POS R7,499) and Tap on Phone is advertised as free, which helps with predictability. Online pricing is publicly shown in percentage terms (for example, 2.85% excl. VAT for local card online payments; Instant EFT and international card rates differ). Total cost can still vary by device and operating model, so merchants should validate all applicable fees for their chosen setup.

Payfast is commonly positioned as transaction-fee-based for Aggregation with no monthly fees, and offers a separate Gateway option for merchants with their own merchant account. However, a complete current pricing table and fee tiers could not be consistently verified from publicly available sources in a single, up-to-date reference. That makes side-by-side cost forecasting less straightforward until you confirm the exact fees for your account type and payment methods.

iKhokha supports in-person card payments via card machines and Tap on Phone, plus online payments via gateway, payment links, invoices, and buy buttons. It is well suited to merchants combining counter sales with remote orders. Payment-method breadth beyond cards and key online options is less clearly positioned than Payfast’s “18+ methods” claim.

Payfast supports 18+ payment methods and includes online checkout features like subscriptions (tokenization), split payments, refunds, and payment requests. It also supports multi-currency pricing, which can matter for South African merchants selling internationally. For purely in-person acceptance, Payfast is not positioned as a hardware-first POS provider, so many merchants pair it with separate in-store tools.

iKhokha supports popular SME platforms like Wix and WooCommerce and offers an iK Pay API with developer documentation. For straightforward ecommerce and payment link workflows, this is often sufficient. The overall plugin ecosystem appears narrower than Payfast’s broad platform coverage, which can matter for less common stacks.

Payfast advertises 70+ plugins and platforms, plus APIs and SDKs for custom integrations. Separate documentation paths for Aggregation and Gateway can help different merchant types implement correctly. This breadth typically reduces integration time for established ecommerce stacks and marketplaces.

iKhokha bundles payments with invoicing, dashboards/insights, a webstore option, and add-ons like a debit card for payouts and access to cash advance funding (up to R1 million advertised). This reduces the need for separate tools for early-stage and growing SMEs. Some of these features are South Africa-specific, which is great locally but less relevant if you operate across multiple African markets.

Payfast provides solid operational payment features such as refunds, split payments, payout handling, subscriptions, and payment requests. These are valuable for ecommerce operations and marketplaces. It is less positioned as an all-in-one SME business suite, so merchants may still need separate tools for invoicing, storefronts, and broader operational reporting.

iKhokha promotes same-day payouts via a debit card and also offers cash advance funding, which can be meaningful for SMEs managing stock and payroll cycles. This can reduce reliance on external lenders for short-term liquidity. Exact payout timelines can vary by product and risk checks, so merchants should confirm settlement terms for their account.

Payfast markets immediate payout access (within minutes) as a benefit, which can help ecommerce businesses with tight cash flow. Payout timing in practice can depend on merchant profile, account configuration, and compliance checks, which are not fully verifiable in a single public source. If payout speed is mission-critical, confirm realistic settlement windows during onboarding.

iKhokha is a well-established South African merchant platform with broad adoption among SMEs and supports major card acceptance in-person and online. However, prominent public claims like a specific PCI-DSS level are less consistently cited in easily verifiable sources compared with Payfast. Merchants with strict vendor risk requirements may need to request compliance documentation directly.

Payfast is commonly described as PCI-DSS Level 1 and is positioned as trusted by a large merchant base (for example, 80,000+ merchants is widely cited). These signals can matter for businesses that need strong assurances for online payment processing. As with any payment provider, merchants should still review dispute handling, chargeback processes, and account controls.

iKhokha is built explicitly for South African business owners and supports both web and mobile apps that fit local merchant workflows. Its in-person acceptance options and SME tools map well to common South African retail and services use cases. Availability outside South Africa and cross-border expansion support is less clearly positioned.

Payfast is strongly oriented toward South African merchants and widely used for local ecommerce. Multi-currency pricing can make it easier to sell internationally from South Africa, even if your operations remain local. Like iKhokha, it is not a pan-African gateway by default, so businesses expanding into multiple African countries may still need additional local PSP coverage.