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November 28, 2024

What Payment Gateways Work Best for Kenyan Online Stores?

What Payment Gateways Work Best for Kenyan Online Stores?

While M-Pesa dominates Kenyan online payments, most serious stores support more than one option to cover every type of customer.

M-Pesa via Daraja

Direct integration with Safaricom's Daraja API gives customers the familiar STK Push experience — the most trusted and widely used payment method for Kenyan online shoppers.

PesaPal

PesaPal is a payment aggregator that supports M-Pesa alongside card payments and other options through a single integration, useful if you want broader payment coverage without integrating each method separately.

Card Payments (Visa/Mastercard)

Important if you have international customers or Kenyan customers who prefer paying by card. Rarely a store's primary method locally, but worth including for coverage.

Choosing Between Direct Daraja and an Aggregator

  • Direct Daraja integration — more control, potentially lower fees, but requires more setup and Safaricom paybill/till registration
  • Aggregator (like PesaPal) — faster to set up, supports multiple payment types through one integration, generally easier for smaller stores to get running quickly

What We Recommend

For most Kenyan stores, having M-Pesa as the primary, prominent checkout option with a card/PesaPal option available as a backup covers the widest range of customers without overcomplicating checkout.

Getting This Set Up

Our eCommerce hosting and online shop design service both include proper payment gateway setup as standard.