Paystack review

Paystack was founded in Lagos in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, became the first Nigerian company through Y Combinator, and was acquired by Stripe in October 2020 for a reported 200 million dollars, the largest startup acquisition out of Nigeria at the time. Today it serves more than 200,000 businesses with merchant onboarding live in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire, with Egypt and Rwanda in early access. Its strength is routing each market's real payment mix: cards, bank transfer, USSD, Visa QR and virtual accounts in Nigeria, M-PESA in Kenya, MTN and Orange mobile money in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Capitec Pay and EFT in South Africa, plus Apple Pay.

Pricing and how it works

Pricing is pure pay-per-transaction with zero integration and zero maintenance fees. Nigerian local transactions cost 1.5% + NGN 100, with the NGN 100 waived under NGN 2,500 and total fees hard-capped at NGN 2,000, so a 10 million naira payment still costs at most NGN 2,000. International cards in Nigeria cost 3.9% + NGN 100. Ghana charges a flat 1.95%, Kenya 1.5% on M-PESA and 2.9% on local cards, and South Africa 2.9% + 1 rand plus VAT. Settlement is automatic and free: next working day in Nigeria and Ghana, two working days in Kenya and South Africa. Paystack charges no penalty for accepting a chargeback, though escalating a dispute to card-network arbitration carries the networks' own fees. Terminals, virtual accounts and identity verification APIs round out the Nigerian offering.

Who it is for

Paystack is the default choice for businesses in its five live markets that want reliable local acceptance with developer-grade APIs and 60+ platform integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and BigCommerce. It cannot onboard merchants outside Africa, features vary noticeably between markets, and payout-delay complaints during compliance reviews are the main recurring criticism.