Skip to main content
010 447 2445Contact
Arke Technologies home
Request a hardware quoteTalk to us
Arke Technologies home
Two colleagues review charts pinned to a glass wall in a meeting room.

Payment gateway integration for websites, apps and business systems

Payment gateway integration connects your website, app or business system to a gateway such as PayFast, Paystack, Peach Payments, Yoco or Stripe, so customers pay online and every payment reaches your ledger. Arke Technologies (Pty) Ltd, in Johannesburg, designs, builds, secures and supports these integrations for organisations, public bodies and schools across South Africa.

Scope an integrationSee the integration patterns

What is payment gateway integration?

In plain terms, the meaning of payment gateway integration is the work that lets a system take a payment and know reliably that it has been paid. A payment gateway accepts a card, instant EFT or wallet payment on your behalf, passes it to the banks for approval, and tells your system the result. The integration is everything on your side: checkout, payment confirmation, refunds and the entry in your books.

Online payment platforms make taking the money straightforward; the risk sits after it: a payment the website never hears about, an order marked paid twice, or a gateway report, bank statement and ledger that disagree at month-end. We handle that as part of systems integration, with the discipline we apply to API integration and SARS and CIPC integrations.

An integration lead talks a team through a process drawn on a board.

Payment gateways in South Africa: the options

We build with PayFast, Paystack, Peach Payments, Yoco and Stripe, and to the published API of any other gateway your bank, group or buyers require. The right payment gateway onboards your organisation, supports your customers' payment methods and settles on terms you can reconcile.

GatewayTypical fitIntegration routes
PayFastSouth African merchants wanting cards, instant EFT and other local methods on one accountHosted payment page with server notifications (PayFast calls them ITNs), plugins for common store platforms
PaystackOrganisations wanting developer-friendly APIs, including those trading in other African marketsAPI, hosted checkout, plugins
Peach PaymentsLarger merchants wanting a wide choice of payment methods through one APIAPI, hosted checkout, plugins
YocoMerchants who also take card payments in personOnline checkout, payment links, plugins
StripeOrganisations with an entity in a country Stripe supports, and subscription billingAPI, Stripe Checkout, official server libraries
PayPal and PayUSelling to buyers who prefer PayPal, or merchants already contracted to PayUAPI, hosted checkout, plugins
Acquirer-set gateways: CyberSource (owned by Visa), Elavon, NMI, PaySealGroup or multinational merchants whose acquiring bank or parent company chooses the gatewayAPI, as the acquirer specifies

Not every international gateway accepts an entity registered in South Africa or settles in rand to a local account, so we check this during scoping, before you sign.

A finance analyst checks a printed report against a dashboard of charts on screen.

Payment gateway integration architecture: the main patterns

How a checkout is built decides how much card data touches your systems, and so how much of PCI DSS (the card industry's data security standard) applies to you. We recommend the simplest pattern that meets the need.

PatternHow it worksCard data on your systemsSuits
Hosted payment pageThe customer pays on the gateway's page and returns; the gateway notifies your serverNone; the smallest PCI DSS scopeMost websites, school fees, municipal accounts, first integrations
Embedded fields or drop-in checkoutThe gateway's script draws the card fields inside your page and returns a tokenNone stored, but the scripts on your payment page come into scopeBranded checkouts in web applications
Direct server-to-server APIYour server receives card details and sends them onYes; the largest scope and the full set of PCI DSS requirementsRarely justified
In-app SDK and walletsThe gateway's SDK in an Android or iOS app, with Apple Pay or Google Pay where supportedTokenised by the SDKMobile apps selling goods or services
Payment links and QR codesA link sent by email, SMS or WhatsAppNoneInvoices, fees and collections
Recurring and tokenised billingThe card is stored as a token at the gateway, or collected by DebiCheck debit orderA token or mandate reference onlySubscriptions, service contracts, fees paid monthly

Larger merchants may run two gateways, routing by payment method or failing over when one is down; we design that orchestration when volumes justify it.

Requirements for payment gateway integration

A gateway vets the merchant before go-live, and approval can take longer than the build, so apply early. The requirements for payment gateway integration in South Africa:

  • A merchant account in your own name, backed by the organisation's registration documents, the identity documents the gateway asks for, and a bank account in the same name.
  • A compliant website. Section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act lists what an online seller must disclose: full prices including taxes and delivery, clear descriptions, returns and refund terms, a privacy and payment-security policy, and contact details.
  • HTTPS and a reachable endpoint. A valid TLS certificate across the checkout, and a notification endpoint the gateway can reach.
  • Card authentication. South African online card payments use 3-D Secure, so the checkout must handle the bank's challenge step.
  • Separate test and live keys, held securely, visible only to named people.
  • A reference scheme and a reconciliation owner. Every payment carries a reference, and someone in finance owns matching settlements to the bank and the ledger.

Integrate payments into your website, store or app

  • WordPress and WooCommerce

    WooCommerce payment integration runs through gateway plugins: Stripe, PayPal, PayFast and Paystack each have one, and PayU integration in WordPress follows the same route where PayU offers a plugin for your region. We configure and test the plugin end to end, and build what it cannot do, such as a ledger feed.

  • Shopify

    Payment gateways for Shopify come from the providers Shopify lists for the store's country, added in its payment settings. Whether you can add Stripe to Shopify, or connect Stripe to Shopify at all, depends on where the business is registered; we confirm the options and Shopify's own charges first.

  • Magento, OpenCart and GoDaddy

    Magento payment gateway integration (Open Source or Adobe Commerce) and OpenCart payment gateway integration use extensions, such as a Stripe payment module, which we keep patched: outdated checkout extensions are a known route for card skimming. GoDaddy's website builder supports only the payment providers GoDaddy offers in your country, while WordPress hosted there takes plugins.

  • Custom websites and web applications

    We build payment gateway integration with a website directly in React, Next.js and Node.js, and the same gateway browser libraries serve payment gateway integration in Angular front ends. Stripe publishes an official PHP library, so a Stripe Checkout PHP flow or Stripe in Laravel (through Laravel Cashier) is well documented; PayPal, Paystack and PayFast integrate from PHP through their REST or form-post interfaces. See web application development.

  • Mobile apps

    Payment gateway integration in Android and iOS apps uses the gateway's mobile SDK or a hosted page; we build apps in Flutter, Swift and Kotlin (see mobile app development). Digital content sold inside an app generally must use Google Play's or Apple's own billing instead.

Payments into your ledger and CRM

A payment is not finished until it is in the books. We connect gateway settlements, fees and refunds to QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and ERP systems, so the gateway report, the bank statement and the ledger agree. QuickBooks' own payments service is not offered in every country; where it is not, we post local gateway payments into QuickBooks, for example from a WooCommerce store. See ERP and accounting integration.

A Salesforce payment gateway connector, or a Stripe CRM sync into Salesforce, HubSpot or Zoho, gives sales and finance one payment history. Payment links can go out with a quote through WhatsApp Business API integration. Marketplaces that hold funds until delivery need an escrow payment gateway integration: a provider built to hold and release funds, and legal advice on the flow, since holding money for others can be regulated.

Two colleagues compare figures on printed charts at a shared desk.

How we deliver a payment integration

  1. Discovery

    What you sell, to whom and how; volumes, refunds, systems, and who reconciles.

  2. Gateway selection

    A shortlist that suits your entity and customers, charges compared, and the merchant application checklist.

  3. Design

    Pattern, data flows, notification handling, reconciliation, failure handling and POPIA controls, in a written design with a project quote.

  4. Build and test

    In the gateway's sandbox we test every path: success, decline, cancellation, the 3-D Secure challenge, duplicate and late notifications, refunds and timeouts.

  5. Security review and go-live

    Keys and permissions checked, a small live transaction confirmed end to end, and penetration testing for high-value or public-facing checkouts.

  6. Support

    Monitoring, gateway API changes and plugin updates under the SLA, with a monthly service review.

Payment gateway integration best practices we build in

  • The server notification is the proof of payment, never a browser returning to a "thank you" page. An order is paid only when the gateway's notification passes its signature check and, where the gateway offers it, is confirmed with the gateway.
  • Check what was paid. Amount, currency and reference must match the order.
  • Process each payment once. A notification delivered twice marks the order paid once.
  • Let the gateway retry. The handler returns an error when a failure may heal on redelivery, and success only once the payment is recorded.
  • Verify, do not allow-list. Gateways change the IP ranges they notify from, so signatures are the gate.
  • Guard the keys. Test and live keys kept apart in a secrets vault and rotated; named dashboard users with two-factor authentication.
  • Alert a person when a payment arrives against an expired or missing order.
  • Blunt card testing with rate limits and monitoring on the checkout.

Our own Server Hub commerce platform, built in-house, handles its PayFast and Yoco payment notifications on these rules.

What payment gateway integration costs

Payment gateway integration cost has two parts: the gateway's charges, and the developer charges for building and supporting the integration.

Cost elementWhat it coversWhat drives it
Gateway chargesThe gateway's published fees: usually a percentage of each transaction, sometimes plus a fixed amount, with payout, refund or chargeback fees on somePayment methods, volumes and any negotiated rate
Developer chargesDesigning, building, testing and documenting the integrationA plugin on an existing store is the smallest job; custom checkouts, recurring billing, extra gateways, ledger or CRM links and public-sector receipting each add time
Ongoing supportMonitoring, gateway API changes, plugin updates and service reviewsCovered in a managed contract or as agreed in the SLA

Published hourly rates for IT project work in South Africa run from about R550 to R750 ex VAT (matnet.co.za, September 2026). We price each project with a written quote after scoping.

Last reviewed: September 2026.

Governance, compliance, procurement and continuity

  • Governance and reporting. A named service lead, an escalation path, change control over gateway settings, keys and plugins, and a monthly service review of failed payments, notification errors and reconciliation exceptions.
  • POPIA. Customers' payment records are personal information the gateway processes on your behalf, so check that its merchant agreement meets POPIA's written-contract requirement for operators. We store tokens, not card numbers, encrypt data in transit and at rest, and log access; see POPIA compliance.
  • PCI DSS. We keep card data off your systems wherever possible, and document the integration for the self-assessment your gateway or acquiring bank requires.
  • King IV, PFMA and MFMA. King IV Principle 12 asks boards to govern technology and information, payment systems included. Bodies under the PFMA and MFMA must account for the revenue they collect, so every online payment needs a receipt, a reconciliation and an audit trail, and a municipality posts it to the consumer account in its financial system; see municipal revenue enhancement. Schools need each fee payment matched to the right learner account.
  • Procurement. Arke Technologies is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (135% procurement recognition; sworn affidavit available on request). Company documents, our CSD supplier number and SARS tax compliance status are available on request; buy by proposal and SLA, purchase order or tender response. See procuring from Arke.
  • Continuity. One contract and one accountable team cover design, build and support. The merchant account is in your name, the keys sit in your vault, and your data, credentials, documentation and runbooks stay yours if you move the integration. Moving stored card tokens between gateways needs both gateways' co-operation, so we plan a gateway change like a data migration.

Frequently asked questions

What is payment gateway integration? Show answer

Payment gateway integration connects a website, app or business system to a payment gateway so it can take a payment and reliably record the result: the checkout, the server notification confirming payment, the order or invoice it settles, refunds and the ledger entry. The gateway moves the money; the integration makes sure your systems know.

What are the requirements for payment gateway integration in South Africa? Show answer

You need a merchant account in the organisation's own name, with a matching bank account, and a website carrying the disclosures the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act requires: full prices, delivery and refund terms, a privacy policy and contact details. Technically, you need HTTPS, a notification endpoint the gateway can reach, separate test and live keys, 3-D Secure support, and a finance owner for reconciliation.

How much does payment gateway integration cost? Show answer

Payment gateway integration cost combines the gateway's transaction charges, usually a percentage per transaction, with the developer charges for building it. Development ranges from configuring a plugin to a custom checkout with ledger integration; published South African rates for IT project work run from about R550 to R750 an hour ex VAT (matnet.co.za, September 2026). We quote per project after scoping.

Which payment gateways can we use with Shopify in South Africa? Show answer

You can use the third-party payment providers Shopify lists for stores registered in South Africa, activated in the store's payment settings. The list changes, so we confirm it for your store before you apply to a gateway, and check Shopify's own charges on third-party gateways and how each payment will reach your accounting system.

Can you integrate PayFast with WordPress and WooCommerce? Show answer

Yes. PayFast integration with WordPress normally uses the PayFast plugin for WooCommerce, which we configure and test against your order statuses, refunds and server notifications. Where the plugin stops short, such as a feed into QuickBooks, Xero or Sage or a custom approval step, we build the missing piece and support it under an SLA.

Do we need to be PCI DSS compliant to take card payments? Show answer

Yes, every merchant that accepts cards falls under PCI DSS, but the integration pattern decides how much of it applies. A hosted payment page keeps card data off your systems and carries the smallest scope, usually a short self-assessment. Handling card details on your own servers brings the full set of PCI DSS requirements, so we choose that route only when there is no alternative.

How long does payment gateway integration take? Show answer

Configuring a gateway plugin on an existing store can take days. A custom checkout with notifications, refunds and reconciliation into your ledger usually takes weeks, and more for several gateways or public-sector receipting. Gateway approval runs in parallel and depends on the gateway, so submit the merchant application while the integration is being designed.

Take payments you can trust, and reconcile

Tell us what you sell, how customers pay and which systems must know. We will recommend the gateway and pattern, and quote in writing before you commit.

Scope an integration