In this guide
The payment gateway is one of the most important connections on your online store. It needs to offer payment methods your customers can use, return trustworthy payment information to the website and give your business a practical way to handle refunds or payment queries.
Providers and methods change, so choose based on current written terms and tested integration rather than an old list of 'best' gateways.
What should you compare?
Supported payment methods
Check which cards, bank-payment options and other methods the provider currently supports for your business category. Availability may vary by merchant account, ecommerce platform or customer location.
Transaction and settlement costs
Look beyond a percentage fee. Ask about fixed per-transaction charges, minimum fees, refunds, chargebacks, monthly subscriptions, payout timing and any additional fees for currency conversion or particular methods.
Platform integration
Does the provider offer a maintained WooCommerce extension or supported API? When was it last updated, and is it compatible with the versions you use? A convenient plugin is not useful if it breaks checkout during an update.
Refunds and reconciliation
Can staff find the transaction reference, confirm whether payment was received and match it to the correct order? Are partial refunds supported where your business needs them?
Business and security requirements
Check the provider's merchant onboarding, supported products, risk controls and security documentation. Avoid handling sensitive card details directly unless your technical and compliance arrangements explicitly support that responsibility.
Why a thank-you page doesn't prove payment
A customer can return to a website even when a payment failed, was cancelled or has not yet been confirmed. The order should be marked paid only after reliable verification through the provider's supported notification or verification method.
Notifications can arrive late or more than once. The integration should recognise repeat events without creating duplicate fulfilment or processing an order twice.
Payment gateway test checklist
- A genuine successful test transaction results in the correct order status.
- A failed or cancelled payment does not release goods as paid.
- A delayed payment confirmation is handled without losing the order.
- Repeated notifications do not create duplicate actions.
- Staff can match the payment reference to the order.
- Customer emails reflect the actual payment state.
- Refund handling follows the provider's supported process.
- Checkout is tested on mobile and relevant browsers.
Which gateway is best?
That depends on your product type, expected transaction values, customer preferences, integrations and the providers that will approve the business. Request current quotations and test the exact checkout flow before deciding.
For the rest of the store journey, see ecommerce website development and starting an ecommerce business in South Africa.
