An online payment gateway for South African businesses to accept 18+ payment methods, manage payouts and refunds, and integrate via plugins or API on web and mobile.

Payfast Product Overview

Is Payfast Right for You?

Liners prepares and updates these highlights as product information changes. Editorial standards

Best For

  • South African SMEs
  • Online stores

What It Does Well

  • 18+ payment methods
  • Online payment gateway

Things to Check

  • Supported payment methods
  • Payout timing

About Payfast

Screenshot of Payfast website

Payfast by Network is an online payment gateway for South African merchants that need to accept card and alternative payments on ecommerce sites, invoices, and in-store.

Key capabilities include:

  • 18+ payment methods including credit cards, Instant EFT, QR codes, Mobicred, and store cards, with support for multi-currency pricing to accept payments from almost anywhere in the world.
  • Checkout and billing tools such as onsite payments, Pay Now buttons, payment requests via email, and subscriptions with tokenization for recurring card payments.
  • Operations and settlement features including immediate payout (access funds within minutes), merchant refunds, and split payments to share a transaction with a third party.
  • Integration options across 70+ plugins and platforms, plus custom integrations using APIs, SDKs, and developer documentation (including separate docs for Aggregation and Gateway).

Available on Web (merchant dashboard and login portals), Android and iOS (Payfast by Network App), and via API.

It serves businesses of all sizes, from SMEs that want a transaction-fee-only Aggregation option (no monthly fees) to larger merchants that need a Gateway solution using an existing merchant account.

Notable in South Africa for its PCI-DSS Level 1 security posture and adoption across local merchants, with the service described as trusted by 80,000+ South African businesses and backed by Network International.

Payfast Facts

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African alternative to

As of Oct 5, 2026, Payfast is rated 2.8 on the App Store from 8 reviews and 3.2 on Google Play from 118 reviews with 50K+ installs.

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Payfast Funding History

Liners compiles funding history from company announcements, investor records, and trusted reporting. We refresh it as new rounds are confirmed. How we source data

Payfast has raised $10M across 2 recorded funding events. The latest was Merger / Acquisition in Jul 2019.

Total Raised:
$10M
Latest Round:
Merger / Acquisition

Payfast Investors & Funding Rounds

Acquired by Direct Pay Online Group in 2019
Acquired by Direct Pay Online Group for $10M in 2016

Payfast Founders & Leadership Team

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Latest Payfast News & Updates

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Frequently Asked Questions About Payfast

Payfast is a payment processing platform that enables merchants to accept secure online payments through multiple methods including credit/debit cards, mobile wallets, QR codes, and instant EFT transfers. It operates as either an Aggregator (requiring no merchant bank account) or a Gateway (for merchants with existing banking relationships) and supports ecommerce, invoicing, ticketing, in-store POS, and donations.

Payfast's Aggregation solution has no monthly, setup, or hidden fees; you only pay a small transaction fee when you make a sale. The Gateway solution pricing is not specified in available information.

Payfast primarily operates in South Africa, though it enables merchants to accept payments from customers worldwide.

Creating a Payfast account requires registering online, completing a business profile, and submitting FICA documents—such as ID, proof of address, and bank confirmation—to activate the payment gateway.

Yes, Payfast is available on iOS and Android.

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