Every-thing you need to know 10 Best Payment Gateways in Pakistan

Quick answer: what is the best payment gateway in Pakistan?

A Shopify store may care most about checkout conversion. A school may need digital invoices. A SaaS business may need recurring payments. An ecommerce brand may want JazzCash, Easypaisa and Raast alongside cards. A larger company may prefer a payment gateway operated directly by its bank.

And there is another part of the payment journey that many comparisons ignore: what happens before and after the customer pays? The gateway processes the transaction. Your sales and support automation still needs to send the payment request, remind an unpaid customer, confirm a successful payment, update the order and answer questions. That is where a WhatsApp automation platform such as On Cloud API can work alongside your payment gateway rather than trying to replace it.

Before signing an agreement, compare the merchant-specific MDR, settlement terms, refund process, chargeback handling, supported cards, wallet availability and integration requirements.

If your business collects payment mainly by bank transfer rather than card or wallet checkout, also see the Transfer to Pay integration below — it is already live with On Cloud API for WhatsApp payment links and automated transfer verification.

Top 10 payment gateways in Pakistan — 2026 comparison

These positions are an editorial comparison based on breadth of ecommerce use, publicly verifiable capabilities, integration flexibility and suitability for common Pakistani online-business scenarios — not a claim that one gateway will be cheapest or best for every merchant.

Gateway-by-gateway reviews

1. PayFast — best overall starting point for Pakistani ecommerce

PayFast is operated by Avanza Premier Payment Services, which appears on the State Bank of Pakistan's authorized PSO/PSP list with a live e-commerce payment gateway.

Publicly documented capabilities around PayFast include ecommerce checkout and support for multiple Pakistani payment rails, making it a practical gateway to evaluate when a store does not want to rely on cards alone.

Why PayFast stands out: the strongest reason to shortlist PayFast is payment-method breadth. A Pakistani ecommerce customer might want to pay through a card, bank account, wallet or an instant-payment rail rather than using the same method every time. A gateway that can consolidate more of those choices can reduce the number of separate integrations a merchant has to maintain.

Best for: growing Shopify, WooCommerce and custom ecommerce businesses that want a broadly applicable local payment stack.

Things to verify before signing: ask for your actual MDR, settlement schedule, refund charges, chargeback policy, international-card terms and the exact payment methods enabled for your merchant account. Public comparison pages frequently quote different commercial figures, so pricing should be confirmed directly in your merchant proposal rather than copied from a third-party blog.

2. Safepay — best for Shopify, developers and recurring payments

Safepay has one of the more detailed public product stacks among Pakistani gateways. Its official site documents embedded and hosted checkout, Shopify integrations, WooCommerce, APIs, SDKs, payment links, subscriptions, tokenization and payment orchestration.

Safepay also publishes standard pricing publicly. At the time of this research, its pricing page lists 2.9% + Rs 30 for a successful domestic-card charge, with separate published pricing for wallets and Raast. Businesses should still check the current pricing page before making a financial decision because gateway pricing can change.

For subscription businesses, Safepay's support for recurring subscriptions and tokenized payment credentials is especially relevant.

Best for: Shopify brands, SaaS products, memberships, ecommerce companies with developers, businesses requiring payment links and merchants interested in recurring billing.

3. PayPro — best for invoices, B2B and multi-channel collections

PayPro combines gateway functionality with a broader collection model. Its official gateway documentation says it supports debit and credit cards, digital banking, digital wallets and over-the-counter payments. PayPro also offers ecommerce integration options and refund functionality.

Its wider platform is strongly focused on digital invoices and payment collection, which can make it particularly relevant for schools, service companies, B2B sellers and businesses that do not operate purely through a conventional shopping-cart checkout.

Best for: education, insurance, B2B services, invoice-based businesses and organizations collecting payments through several channels.

4. HBLPay Checkout — strong enterprise and multi-method bank gateway

HBLPay Checkout is considerably more than a simple card form. HBL says its ecommerce platform supports card payments, direct account-based payments and wallet-based payments. It also documents recurring transactions and multiple currencies including PKR, USD, EUR, GBP and AED.

HBL also provides ecommerce plugins for platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento. This makes HBLPay particularly worth evaluating for larger merchants already comfortable with a direct bank relationship.

Best for: established Pakistani companies, high-volume merchants and businesses wanting bank-backed ecommerce acquiring.

5. UBL Internet Payment Gateway — strong bank gateway with e-invoicing

UBL's Internet Payment Gateway supports Visa and Mastercard and provides multiple integration approaches. Its official material documents REST API, redirection, iframe and inline checkout, along with plugins for WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify.

One interesting differentiator is e-Invoicing. UBL lets merchants create payment invoices even when they do not have a traditional ecommerce checkout, and an API is available for generating invoices from another platform.

UBL's current FAQ says merchant settlement goes into a UBL business account and its commercial pricing varies according to the business.

Best for: established businesses already banking with UBL, ecommerce stores and companies interested in API-generated invoices.

6. Bank Alfalah Internet Payment Gateway

Bank Alfalah operates an Internet Payment Gateway powered by Mastercard Payment Gateway Services. Its current business page lists Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Google Pay, UnionPay and PayPak acceptance, PKR and USD support, Shopify integration, tokenization for recurring payments and a merchant portal.

That combination makes Bank Alfalah especially interesting for merchants that are primarily focused on card acceptance and want features associated with a large acquiring bank.

Best for: established ecommerce companies, larger merchants, international-card use cases and subscription-oriented businesses evaluating bank acquiring.

7. Meezan Bank Payment Gateway

Meezan Bank offers an ecommerce payment platform supporting Visa and Mastercard transactions. Its official product information highlights a 3DS2 payment platform as well as tokenized transactions, invoiced billing and recurring payments.

Businesses already using Meezan for their commercial banking may find the ability to keep banking and acquiring relationships within the same ecosystem attractive.

Best for: Meezan business customers and ecommerce merchants looking for a bank-operated online card-payment solution.

8. NIFT ePay

NIFT ePay is one of Pakistan's authorized PSO/PSP ecommerce gateways and appears as live on the State Bank of Pakistan's current published list.

Unlike a card-only gateway, NIFT describes ePay as supporting debit and credit cards, bank accounts and mobile wallets. Integration options include APIs, a mobile SDK, hosted checkout and redirection.

This account-and-wallet interoperability makes NIFT ePay particularly interesting where direct digital-payment infrastructure matters more than a consumer-facing gateway brand.

Best for: institutions, fintech use cases and businesses needing account, card and wallet payment infrastructure.

9. JazzCash Online Payment Gateway

JazzCash remains an important payment option because many Pakistani consumers already use its wallet ecosystem. Its corporate merchant onboarding currently exposes an Online Payment Gateway product with mobile-wallet, card, bank-account and voucher payment options.

For some businesses, JazzCash works best as one payment method inside a wider checkout strategy rather than being the only payment option offered to customers.

Best for: businesses whose audience frequently prefers JazzCash and companies looking to increase prepaid-payment options for Pakistani buyers.

10. Easypaisa Online Payment Gateway

Easypaisa also provides a dedicated Online Payment Gateway. Its current merchant FAQ lists the Easypaisa Mobile Account and OTC token payment methods and provides a merchant portal for gateway customers. As with JazzCash, its biggest attraction is customer familiarity with the underlying wallet ecosystem.

Best for: mass-market Pakistani businesses with a customer base that regularly uses Easypaisa.

PayFast vs Safepay vs PayPro: which should you choose?

This is the comparison most Pakistani online businesses should probably start with.

If you want a broad general-purpose ecommerce solution, investigate PayFast first. If you run Shopify, care heavily about checkout experience, need recurring payments or want a modern API-oriented platform, put Safepay near the top of the shortlist. If invoices, B2B collections, banking channels and OTC payments are central to your operation, PayPro may make more sense.

For a large established company, also request proposals directly from HBL, UBL, Bank Alfalah and Meezan instead of assuming a fintech gateway will automatically provide the best commercial terms.

What about JazzCash and Easypaisa?

A common mistake is treating this as an either/or decision. Your primary gateway and your customers' preferred payment methods do not always have to be the same thing.

A business may use a broader gateway while still making JazzCash or Easypaisa available to customers. The correct checkout architecture should be based on actual customer payment preferences, transaction success, settlement requirements, merchant costs and integration complexity.

How On Cloud API adds WhatsApp automation to your payment gateway

A payment gateway solves payment processing. On Cloud API solves a different part of the customer journey: WhatsApp communication and automation around the payment.

On Cloud API is built on the official WhatsApp Cloud API and provides features such as a shared team inbox, no-code flows, AI agents, API/webhooks and ecommerce integrations. Its ecommerce solution already supports workflows around orders, COD confirmation and transactional updates. That means the two systems can complement each other.

Transfer to Pay: a live example of a WhatsApp payment integration

Most of the gateways compared above are integration candidates — technically connectable, depending on the APIs and webhooks a merchant's setup exposes. Transfer to Pay is different: it is already integrated with On Cloud API today, specifically for businesses that collect payment by bank transfer rather than a card or wallet checkout.

Transfer to Pay creates a payment request and its link, then matches the compatible transaction SMS received on an authorized Android phone to the correct order or invoice — without asking the customer for a screenshot or the business to manually check its bank statement. On Cloud API delivers that payment link on WhatsApp and can trigger a follow-up message once Transfer to Pay confirms the match.

In practice this looks like: a customer agrees to buy in a WhatsApp chat, gets sent a Transfer to Pay link, transfers the amount to your bank account, Transfer to Pay matches the bank's transaction SMS to that invoice, and On Cloud API sends a WhatsApp confirmation — with partial payments, reminders and unpaid-invoice follow-ups handled the same way. Banking OTPs and login-security codes are excluded from that matching flow; customers authenticate with their bank as normal and never need to share an OTP in the WhatsApp chat.

Where PayFast, Safepay, PayPro and the bank gateways above are card/wallet-first and connect to On Cloud API only where their APIs or webhooks allow it, Transfer to Pay is the one bank-transfer-first integration in this list that is already live end to end.

Example: ecommerce payment automation

Imagine a customer places a PKR 12,000 order on your Shopify or WooCommerce store. Instead of waiting for the customer to return to your website or notice an email, your workflow can send a WhatsApp message:

"Your order #4821 is ready. Amount due: PKR 12,000. Tap below to complete your payment."

The button can direct the customer to the payment link or checkout flow generated by the payment system being used. If the customer does not pay, an automated workflow can trigger a reminder according to your business rules.

When your ecommerce system, backend or supported payment integration records the successful payment, another WhatsApp message can be triggered:

"Payment received for order #4821. Your order is now being prepared."

Then the same WhatsApp conversation can continue with shipping updates, order-status notifications or support.

The important technical distinction is that On Cloud API does not need to replace PayFast, Safepay, PayPro, HBL or another gateway. The gateway handles the financial transaction. On Cloud API handles the WhatsApp customer journey around it.

Native compatibility will depend on the particular gateway and integration. Where a gateway or ecommerce platform exposes payment links, APIs, callbacks or webhooks, developers can connect the payment status to a WhatsApp workflow. Do not assume every gateway in this comparison has a pre-built native On Cloud API connector.

A better payment journey for Pakistani ecommerce

A useful automation architecture can look like this:

Customer → Store/CRM → Payment Gateway → Payment Status → On Cloud API → WhatsApp Customer

From there, a business can automate:

1. Payment request
2. Payment-link delivery
3. Unpaid-order reminder
4. Successful-payment confirmation
5. Failed-payment follow-up
6. Alternative payment instructions
7. Invoice or order-reference notification
8. COD confirmation
9. Shipping and delivery updates
10. Human-agent handoff when the customer replies

On Cloud API also provides a shared inbox, which means a customer who replies to an automated payment notification can continue the conversation with the sales or support team instead of being pushed into an unrelated support channel.

Shopify payment gateway + WhatsApp automation

For a Shopify business in Pakistan, the gateway decision and messaging decision should be treated separately. Safepay, PayFast and bank/payment-provider integrations can handle checkout depending on merchant eligibility and configuration.

On Cloud API can then connect the communication layer around the store, including WhatsApp order messaging and other ecommerce workflows. Its ecommerce page specifically documents Shopify and WooCommerce connectivity. This gives the merchant a more complete funnel:

Ad or website visit → order → payment request → payment → confirmation → delivery update → repeat sale

rather than ending the customer journey at the checkout page.

WooCommerce payment gateway + WhatsApp Business API

WooCommerce merchants have similar flexibility. Safepay publicly offers a WooCommerce plugin, while PayPro and several bank gateways provide their own ecommerce integration methods.

A WooCommerce order event can then feed into a WhatsApp workflow so customers receive relevant updates without staff manually copying order information into WhatsApp. For stores processing dozens or hundreds of orders each day, removing those manual messages can become just as important as selecting the gateway itself.

Payment gateway vs WhatsApp payment automation

They solve different problems.

This distinction is important because businesses should not give their messaging provider responsibility for card authorization or give their payment gateway responsibility for their entire customer communication strategy. Use each platform for what it is designed to do.

Which payment gateway is best for a small business in Pakistan?

Start by asking what customers actually need to use. For a conventional ecommerce store, PayFast and Safepay deserve early evaluation. For invoice-driven businesses, compare PayPro and UBL's invoicing capabilities. If customers strongly prefer mobile wallets, make sure JazzCash and Easypaisa are available somewhere in the payment mix. For larger organizations, request commercial proposals from bank gateways as well.

Do not choose only on the lowest advertised transaction rate. A cheaper gateway that creates checkout friction, does not support the methods your customers use or requires significant manual reconciliation can become more expensive operationally.

Which payment gateway is best for Shopify in Pakistan?

Safepay is one of the strongest candidates because its official platform currently offers both Shopify hosted and embedded payment options in addition to broader API and checkout tooling. PayFast and bank-based alternatives should still be compared based on your merchant account, desired payment methods and commercial offer.

Which payment gateway is best for international payments from Pakistan?

International card acceptance is not the same as overseas merchant settlement. For example, Safepay describes international-card and multi-currency capabilities, while HBLPay and Bank Alfalah publish multi-currency features of their own. UBL also accepts international credit and debit cards but says merchant settlement is in PKR.

Always ask the provider four separate questions:

• Can a foreign-issued card pay?
• Which currencies can the customer see?
• Which currency is the transaction processed in?
• Which currency reaches the merchant's bank account?

Those answers are not necessarily the same.

What should you compare before selecting a payment gateway?

Do not make the decision from a logo comparison. Check supported payment methods, domestic and international cards, MDR, fixed transaction charges, setup fees, annual fees, settlement schedule, rolling reserves, refunds, chargebacks, payment links, Raast, recurring billing, tokenization, Shopify support, WooCommerce support, API quality, webhooks, merchant reporting, fraud controls, onboarding requirements and customer support.

For regulated payment infrastructure, also verify the relevant provider or financial institution through official sources such as the State Bank of Pakistan rather than relying only on an advertisement. SBP describes PSOs and PSPs as authorized parties involved in services such as electronic and ecommerce payment gateways.

Final verdict: the best payment gateway in Pakistan in 2026

There is no single payment gateway that wins every category.

For a typical Pakistani ecommerce business, PayFast is the strongest general-purpose gateway to investigate first because of its broad payment positioning and established regulated gateway infrastructure.

Safepay may be the better choice for Shopify, subscription and developer-heavy businesses. PayPro is particularly relevant for invoicing and multi-channel collections. HBLPay, UBL, Bank Alfalah and Meezan should not be ignored by established merchants that want direct bank acquiring. JazzCash and Easypaisa remain important when mobile-wallet adoption among your customers matters.

And once the payment gateway has been selected, the next question is how you turn payment events into a customer experience. That is where On Cloud API can sit on top of your ecommerce, CRM or backend workflow: sending payment requests over WhatsApp, triggering reminders, confirming payments, continuing with order updates and giving customers access to a real support team from the same conversation.

A gateway helps you collect the money. On Cloud API helps you automate the conversation around the money.

For businesses already using Shopify or WooCommerce, see On Cloud API's WhatsApp ecommerce solution and the WhatsApp Business API in Pakistan guide to connect payments, orders, customer messaging and support into a broader automation workflow.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best payment gateway in Pakistan?

For broad ecommerce use, PayFast is a strong overall starting point. Safepay is especially competitive for Shopify, developers and recurring payments, while PayPro is worth evaluating for invoicing and collection-heavy businesses.

Is PayFast regulated in Pakistan?

Avanza Premier Payment Services, the operator associated with PayFast, is listed by the State Bank of Pakistan with live e-commerce payment-gateway status.

Is Safepay regulated by the State Bank of Pakistan?

Yes. Safepay is listed by SBP with live e-commerce payment-gateway status, and Safepay also identifies itself as a regulated PSO/PSP.

Can I use JazzCash and Easypaisa as payment gateways?

Both provide merchant payment products. JazzCash's merchant onboarding includes an Online Payment Gateway, while Easypaisa provides its own Online Payment Gateway with Easypaisa Mobile Account and OTC payment modes.

Which payment gateway works with Shopify in Pakistan?

Several providers offer Shopify-related integration options. Safepay publicly documents hosted and embedded Shopify checkout, while HBL and UBL also document Shopify integration or plugins.

Can a payment gateway send WhatsApp payment reminders automatically?

The gateway itself may expose payment status, APIs, callbacks or webhooks. A WhatsApp Business API platform such as On Cloud API can use your store/backend workflow to send payment requests, reminders and confirmation messages when the relevant payment data is available.

Is On Cloud API a payment gateway?

No. On Cloud API should be positioned as the WhatsApp Business API and automation layer, not as a replacement for regulated payment processing. Your selected payment gateway handles the financial transaction; On Cloud API can automate the WhatsApp communication surrounding that payment.

Can On Cloud API work with PayFast, Safepay, JazzCash or Easypaisa?

Integration is technically possible where the merchant's gateway, ecommerce system or backend provides the required payment link, API, callback or webhook. The exact implementation depends on the gateway and should not be described as a native integration unless that connector has actually been implemented.

What is the best payment gateway for WooCommerce in Pakistan?

Safepay publicly provides a WooCommerce plugin, PayPro offers ecommerce integration options, and several Pakistani bank gateways provide plugins or APIs. The best choice depends on desired payment methods, pricing, settlement and the merchant's banking setup.

What is Transfer to Pay and how is it different from these gateways?

Transfer to Pay is not a card or wallet gateway — it is a bank-transfer verification tool that matches a customer's transaction SMS to a payment request, and it is already integrated with On Cloud API for sending the payment link and confirmation on WhatsApp. It suits businesses that collect payment mainly through direct bank transfer rather than the card/wallet checkout flows PayFast, Safepay, PayPro and the bank gateways focus on.