Choosing between payment gateways in Kenya is one of those decisions that quietly shapes your whole online business. Pick well, and customers pay in seconds — by M-Pesa or card — and the money lands in your account. Pick badly, and you bleed fees, lose sales to failed checkouts, or turn away the international buyer who cannot pay you.
Three names come up again and again: Pesapal, Paystack and DPO Pay. They are not really fighting over the same crown, though — each is built for a different kind of business. This guide compares them honestly on the things that actually matter: fees, M-Pesa support, settlement speed, setup, and who each one genuinely suits.
First, what a payment gateway actually does
A payment gateway is the bridge between your website and the ways your customers want to pay. When someone checks out, the gateway triggers the M-Pesa STK push on their phone or captures their card securely, confirms the payment, and settles the money to your bank account. It handles the sensitive parts so you never touch raw card data yourself.
In Kenya, one rule stands above the rest: M-Pesa support is non-negotiable. The vast majority of local customers pay by mobile money, so any gateway you consider must handle M-Pesa cleanly. You can integrate M-Pesa directly through Safaricom’s Daraja API for lower fees, but that is M-Pesa only — no cards, no international buyers. A gateway trades a slightly higher fee for the convenience of every payment method, a dashboard, and plugins that drop into your site.
The quick comparison
| Pesapal | Paystack | DPO Pay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origin & reach | Kenyan (Nairobi, 2009); East Africa | Nigerian, Stripe-owned; live in 5 African markets incl. Kenya | Pan-African (DPO Group); 20+ countries |
| Payment methods | M-Pesa, Airtel Money, cards, plus POS terminals | M-Pesa, cards (Visa/Mastercard/Amex), Apple Pay | M-Pesa, Airtel, cards, multi-currency |
| Typical fees (2026)* | ~1.5–3.5%, quoted at onboarding | 1.5% M-Pesa, 2.9% local card, 3.8% international (published) | Quote-based; no setup fee |
| Settlement | T+1 for M-Pesa, T+3 for cards | ~T+1–T+2, to bank or M-Pesa wallet (KES or USD) | T+1–T+3, strong multi-currency |
| Setup | Plugins + API, roughly 2–5 days | Free, can go live within 24 hours | More involved; enterprise onboarding 2–4 weeks |
| Best for | Local SMEs, events, online + physical POS | Startups, modern online stores, developers | Travel, hospitality, cross-border sales |
*Fees and settlement times change — always confirm current rates with each provider before you commit.
Pesapal — the established local all-rounder
Pesapal is Kenya’s oldest and most widely used gateway, founded in Nairobi back in 2009. It is built specifically for East Africa — Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda — and it shows. M-Pesa and Airtel Money are treated as first-class options, not afterthoughts bolted onto a card platform.
Its real edge is that it bridges online and offline. Alongside website checkouts, Pesapal offers physical POS card terminals, so a shop with both an online store and a counter can run everything through one provider. Integration is straightforward, with a free WooCommerce plugin and support for Magento, Shopify and custom APIs, and most merchants are approved within a few days.
The trade-offs are modest. Pesapal does not publish one headline rate — expect roughly 1.5–3.5% depending on the payment method and your volume, confirmed at onboarding. Its checkout also briefly redirects customers to a hosted page, and M-Pesa money settles the next working day rather than instantly. For most local businesses, none of that is a dealbreaker.
Pesapal suits Kenyan-focused SMEs, event ticketing, hospitality and NGOs — and anyone who wants online payments and a POS machine from the same trusted local name. If you are building an online store, it is often the safest default.
Paystack — the developer’s favourite
Paystack is the modern, polished option. Born in Nigeria and acquired by Stripe in 2020, it is now live for all merchants in Kenya, with a local team in Westlands. In Kenya it accepts cards, M-Pesa and Apple Pay, and it settles to either your bank account or an M-Pesa wallet, in shillings or US dollars.
Two things make Paystack stand out. First, its pricing is refreshingly transparent: 1.5% on M-Pesa payments, 2.9% on local cards, and 3.8% on international cards, with discounts once you process serious volume. Second, the experience is excellent — a fast, high-converting popup checkout, a clean dashboard, well-documented APIs, split payments, and the ability to pay out to M-Pesa wallets. Integration is free and you can be live within a day.
The caveats are small. Paystack’s Kenya operation is newer than its Nigerian home base, so some merchants report that certain settlement types take a little longer, and it does not offer POS hardware.
Paystack is the natural pick for startups, developer-led teams, and any online store that wants the cleanest checkout and the clearest fees on the market.
DPO Pay — built for cross-border and travel
DPO Pay (part of DPO Group, now trading as DPO Pay by Network) plays a different game entirely. It is a pan-African heavyweight covering more than twenty countries, and its whole design leans toward businesses that sell across borders. It accepts M-Pesa, Airtel Money and all the major cards, and — crucially — lets shoppers pay in their own currency while you settle in KES, USD, GBP, EUR or ZAR.
This makes DPO the quiet standard in travel and hospitality. If you have ever paid for a Kenyan safari, hotel or flight online, there is a good chance a DPO checkout handled it. High-value, international transactions come with rigorous fraud controls built for exactly that world.
The trade-offs reflect its enterprise focus. DPO does not publish a standard rate — pricing is negotiated, though there is no setup fee to onboard — and it sits at the premium end. Setup is more involved than the other two, and enterprise onboarding can run two to four weeks.
DPO Pay is the right tool for hotels, safari and tour operators, airlines, and any business handling high-value payments in multiple currencies across Africa.
So which one should you choose?
There is no single winner — the best gateway is the one that matches how you actually sell.
If you run a mostly local, M-Pesa-heavy business and want something stable with Kenyan support (and perhaps a POS machine too), start with Pesapal. If you are building a modern online store or a startup and value a clean checkout, transparent fees and strong developer tools, Paystack is hard to beat. And if your customers are international, or you are in travel and hospitality juggling several currencies, DPO Pay is built for you.
Plenty of businesses even run two — a local gateway for M-Pesa and a second for international cards. And if you are high-volume and M-Pesa-only, integrating Safaricom’s Daraja API directly can save on fees, at the cost of a more technical build.
One honest reminder: rates, settlement times and features shift, and every provider is regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya under the National Payment System Act. Confirm the current numbers with Pesapal, Paystack or DPO Pay directly before you sign up, and weigh them against your real customer mix.
Getting it set up on your site
Whichever gateway you choose, it is only as good as its integration. A payment flow needs an SSL-secured site, the right plugin or API connection, and proper testing — a successful M-Pesa STK push, a cancelled one, a card payment, a declined card, and a refund should all behave correctly before a real customer ever pays. Getting the hosting and security right underneath it matters just as much as the gateway on top.
This is the part that quietly makes or breaks online sales, and it is where a good developer earns their keep.
The bottom line
Pesapal, Paystack and DPO are all solid — they simply serve different businesses. Pesapal is the dependable local all-rounder, Paystack is the modern developer’s choice, and DPO is the cross-border and travel specialist. Match the gateway to your customers, your currencies and the way you sell, and the rest is just setup.
If you would like a hand choosing and integrating the right one — or building the online store around it — that is exactly what we do at Klee. Talk to us, email hello@klee.co.ke, or WhatsApp +254 797 056039, and we will recommend the setup that fits your business.
Written by the team at Klee — we build fast, secure e-commerce websites for Kenyan businesses and integrate the payment gateway that fits. Ready to start selling online? Reach us at hello@klee.co.ke.