Payment gateway Pakistan comparisons usually start with fees. They should start with a different question first, are your customers local or international. Shopify Payments does not work in Pakistan at all, so every store owner here is already forced into a third-party gateway from day one, and that gateway needs to be chosen differently depending on whether you’re selling to customers inside Pakistan or accepting international payments from abroad.
Domestic options, PayFast, Safepay, JazzCash, Easypaisa and direct bank merchant accounts, handle local card and wallet payments well. International options, 2Checkout, Payoneer and similar cross-border processors, exist specifically because none of the domestic gateways can settle payments in foreign currency to an overseas account. Mixing this decision up is the single most common reason Pakistani merchants end up frustrated with the gateway they picked.
This piece breaks both categories down by real fees, setup requirements and who each one actually fits. If you haven’t settled on a platform yet, this decision connects directly to the Shopify vs WooCommerce platform choice, since your platform affects which gateways plug in natively and which need extra integration work.
Payment gateway Pakistan options: Domestic vs International at a glance
Every payment gateway Pakistan businesses can actually use falls into one of two buckets. Domestic gateways settle payments from Pakistani customers into a Pakistani bank account, and international gateways settle foreign currency payments from customers abroad.
A store selling only to local buyers never needs the international side, and a store selling only to customers in the US or UK never needs most of the domestic side. Confusing the two, or trying to force one gateway to do both jobs, is where most of the frustration in Pakistan’s ecommerce community actually comes from.
| Gateway | Type | Best For | Local Payments | International Payments | Typical Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PayFast | Aggregator (PSP) | General ecommerce, one integration for cards, wallets and transfers | Yes | No | 2–3.5% |
| Safepay | Aggregator | Shopify/WooCommerce stores prioritizing embedded checkout | Yes | Limited | Custom, sales-led |
| JazzCash | Mobile wallet (PSO) | Wallet-first customer base | Yes | No | 1–2% |
| Easypaisa | Mobile wallet (PSO) | Wallet-first customer base | Yes | No | 1–2% |
| PayPro | Aggregator | Subscriptions, invoicing, B2B collections | Yes | No | Custom, sales-led |
| Bank Merchant Account (HBL, Bank Alfalah, etc.) | Direct bank acquiring | High-volume businesses with negotiation leverage | Yes | Limited | Negotiated |
| 2Checkout (Verifone), Payoneer | International processor | Selling to customers abroad | No | Yes | Varies by route |
| XPay | Aggregator | Shopify checkout conversion | Yes | Limited | Custom, sales-led |
This is a starting map, not a final decision. The sections below go deeper into each row.
Why this feels more confusing than it should
Search Shopify’s own merchant community and you’ll find dozens of Pakistani sellers running into the same wall, Shopify Payments simply isn’t available here, third-party international processors frequently reject Pakistani business applications outright, and options like Stripe often require a registered company (an LLC or equivalent) that many small sellers and dropshippers don’t have. This isn’t a sign you’re doing something wrong, it’s a structural gap in how global payment infrastructure treats Pakistan, and it’s exactly why understanding the domestic-versus-international split matters more than comparing fee percentages first.
Domestic gateways: for customers paying from inside Pakistan
1. Payfast
PayFast is one of the most established local aggregators, licensed by the State Bank as a Payment Service Provider. It routes card payments, wallet payments and bank transfers through a single integration, with typical merchant discount rates in the 2 to 3.5 percent range depending on payment method and volume, though PayFast doesn’t publish a fixed rate publicly, so actual pricing comes from a sales conversation.
2. Safepay
Safepay has built its reputation specifically around Shopify and WooCommerce integrations, with an embedded checkout that keeps customers on your site rather than redirecting them to a separate payment page. For stores where checkout drop-off is a real concern, that difference in experience matters more than a small difference in fee percentage.
3. JazzCash & Easypaisa
JazzCash and Easypaisa are Pakistan’s two dominant mobile wallets, both operating as SBP-licensed Payment System Operators, and both offer direct merchant integrations with typically the lowest wallet fees in the market, often around 1 to 2 percent. Given how many Pakistani shoppers pay through mobile wallets rather than cards, integrating at least one of these directly, or through an aggregator like PayFast that already includes them, is close to non-negotiable for a domestic-focused store.
4. PayPro
PayPro leans toward a different use case, digital invoicing, recurring billing and an over-the-counter cash collection network, which fits subscription businesses, education platforms and B2B invoicing better than a standard product checkout.
Bank merchant accounts: HBL, Bank Alfalah and similar
Banks like HBL, Bank Alfalah, MCB and UBL offer direct merchant acquiring services outside the aggregator model. This route usually means a longer application process, more documentation, financial statements and proof of business turnover, and a negotiated rate rather than a published one. It only makes sense once you have real transaction volume to negotiate with, an established business relying on an aggregator like PayFast for its first year and switching to a direct bank arrangement once volume justifies the negotiation is a completely normal progression, not a sign the first choice was wrong.
International gateways: for customers paying from outside Pakistan
If your store sells to customers in the US, UK or Gulf, none of the domestic gateways above can settle that payment for you. This is where 2Checkout (now branded Verifone) and Payoneer come in, both explicitly built to let Pakistani merchants receive international card payments and route the money into a local or Payoneer-held account. XPay, built by PostEx, has also positioned itself around this gap with an embedded on-site checkout aimed at conversion rather than a redirect flow.
Approval for these is genuinely harder than for domestic gateways. Expect to provide business registration documents, and in some cases a functioning website with clear refund and privacy policies already live before an application is even reviewed. Sole proprietors and dropshippers without formal company registration hit this wall most often, worth confirming your specific registration status against a provider’s requirements before building your whole payment flow around one option.
Pakistani sellers of digital products or software specifically, rather than physical goods, have one more option worth knowing about, Paddle. It works as a merchant of record rather than a standard gateway, meaning it handles global sales tax and VAT on your behalf alongside payment processing, which matters if you’re selling a SaaS product or digital course to buyers across multiple countries at once.
What actually matters more than the fee percentage
A one percent difference in MDR sounds significant until you compare it against the things that actually affect daily operations. Settlement speed varies meaningfully, some gateways settle funds to your account the next business day, others take three to five days, which matters directly for cash flow if you’re a smaller operation.
Chargeback and dispute handling policy varies too, a gateway with a slow or unclear dispute process can freeze funds during a resolution period regardless of how low its fee was. Checkout experience also affects conversion more than most merchants expect, Baymard Institute’s checkout research has repeatedly found that a complicated or unfamiliar checkout flow is one of the leading reasons shoppers abandon a cart, and a redirect to a separate payment page is exactly the kind of friction that shows up in that research. Plugin support for your specific platform, WooCommerce or Shopify, determines how much developer time setup actually costs versus how much the gateway claims it will.
All of these gateways operate under State Bank of Pakistan regulatory oversight, as PSPs, PSOs or under separate bank licensing, which is worth confirming for any gateway before signing up, since it’s the baseline signal that a provider is legitimate and not simply an unregulated reseller.
Quick decision snapshot
- Selling mainly to customers inside Pakistan, want one easy integration → PayFast or Safepay
- Most of your customers pay through mobile wallets → JazzCash or Easypaisa directly, or an aggregator that includes both
- Subscription billing, invoicing or B2B collections → PayPro
- High transaction volume, ready to negotiate a direct rate → Bank merchant account (HBL, Bank Alfalah, similar)
- Selling internationally, customers pay in USD, GBP or similar → 2Checkout/Verifone or Payoneer
- Shopify store prioritizing checkout conversion → Safepay or XPay for their embedded checkout flow
What you’ll need before applying to any gateway
Regardless of which category you land in, every payment gateway Pakistan providers offer asks for roughly the same baseline documents, SECP business registration, a National Tax Number, a business bank account, and a live website with a working SSL certificate and clearly visible refund and privacy policy pages. Getting these ready before you start applying shortens the approval timeline meaningfully, since incomplete documentation is the most common reason an application stalls.
If you’re not sure which combination of domestic and international gateways actually fits how your business sells, or you’re wondering whether you can change gateways down the line, Digiteazy’s ecommerce team can map that out alongside your platform setup. Switching a gateway later is usually possible on both Shopify and WooCommerce without rebuilding your store, though it does mean re-testing your checkout flow and updating any saved customer payment methods, so it’s worth getting the choice right the first time rather than treating it as easily reversible.
FAQs
Q1. Why doesn’t Shopify Payments work in Pakistan?
Shopify Payments is only available in countries where Shopify has a direct banking and regulatory partnership, and Pakistan currently isn’t one of them. Every Pakistani Shopify or WooCommerce store needs a third-party gateway instead.
Q2. What’s the cheapest payment gateway in Pakistan?
Mobile wallet payments through JazzCash or Easypaisa typically carry the lowest fees, often around 1 to 2 percent, with bank transfers and Raast often under 1 percent. Card payments through any provider usually run higher, around 2.5 to 3.5 percent.
Q3. Can I use PayPal to receive payments in Pakistan?
PayPal does not offer a merchant account for businesses registered in Pakistan. Pakistani sellers wanting to accept international payments typically use 2Checkout, Payoneer or a similar processor built specifically to work around this gap.
Q4. Do I need a registered company to get a payment gateway in Pakistan?
Domestic gateways like PayFast and JazzCash can often onboard sole proprietors with basic documentation. International gateways are stricter, and providers like Stripe frequently require formal company registration, which is a common blocker for dropshippers and freelance sellers without an LLC or equivalent.
Q5. Is JazzCash a payment gateway?
JazzCash is primarily a mobile wallet, operated through Mobilink Microfinance Bank under an SBP branchless banking license, but it also functions as a payment gateway for merchants through its direct merchant integration, letting stores accept wallet payments at checkout. For ecommerce, most stores access it either directly or bundled into an aggregator like PayFast.
Q6. Which payment gateway is best in Pakistan for Shopify specifically?
Safepay and XPay are the two most commonly used for their embedded, on-site checkout that avoids redirecting customers away from the store. If you’re still deciding between Shopify and WooCommerce in the first place, that choice affects which gateways plug in natively, worth reading the Shopify vs WooCommerce breakdown first if you haven’t settled on a platform yet.
Q7. Is Payoneer legal and safe to use in Pakistan?
Yes, Payoneer is a publicly traded, regulated payments company and is commonly used by Pakistani freelancers and ecommerce sellers to receive international payments. On fees, expect roughly 1 percent on marketplace payments received plus up to about 2 percent in currency conversion markup when withdrawing to a PKR bank account, so on a $1,000 withdrawal converted to local currency, realistic total costs land somewhere around $20 to $30, and proportionally similar on smaller amounts like $100 once you account for any flat withdrawal fee.
Q8. Is Payoneer an Israeli company?
No. Payoneer Global Inc. is a publicly traded American company (Nasdaq: PAYO) headquartered in New York. Its founder has an Israeli background and the company maintains a significant office in Tel Aviv, but Payoneer itself is US-incorporated and listed.
Q9. Which Pakistani bank works with Payoneer?
Payoneer withdraws to most major Pakistani banks that support USD or PKR receiving accounts. Worth noting specifically, JazzCash has a direct partnership with Payoneer that lets freelancers withdraw funds straight into their JazzCash wallet, which is a faster route for many sellers than a traditional bank transfer.
Q10. Is Google Pay available in Pakistan?
Yes. Google Wallet officially launched in Pakistan in March 2025, with Bank Alfalah, Bank of Punjab, Faysal Bank, HBL, JazzCash, Meezan Bank and UBL supporting it at launch, and PayFast has integrated it for checkout at select online merchants. This is separate from Google Pay as a standalone online checkout button, which isn’t something most Pakistani ecommerce stores integrate the way Apple Pay or Google Pay work as checkout options in markets like the US.
Q11. Can I use Razorpay in Pakistan?
Not reliably. Razorpay is built for and primarily serves the Indian market, and it does not officially onboard Pakistani-registered businesses. A small number of Pakistani stores appear to use it through workarounds, but it isn’t a dependable choice to build a payment setup around.
Q12. JazzCash or Easypaisa, which is better for my store?
Both are SBP-licensed mobile wallets with comparable fee ranges and near-identical market reach among Pakistani mobile users. The practical answer is to support both rather than pick one, since customers tend to have a strong personal preference for whichever wallet they already use daily, and excluding either one at checkout quietly costs conversions.