Hello Friends.
Today we would like to announce we have released two new and amazing payment gateways. Payfast and Paytabs. With these two new integration, Yclas is offering 12 different payment options that cover customers worldwide.
What are they?
- Payfast: It is the most trusted and used payment service in South Africa. They have been running their services since 2007 and more than 30k users use their payment service, Payfast is one of the best options if you are starting a marketplace in Africa, especially, in South Africa. They can process, credit and debit cards, Bitcoins, Mobicred, and instant.
- Paytabs: In this case, Paytabs is a payment processor for our friends from the Middle East. Especially those operating in KSA. Paytabs started in 2014 and since then trusted big platforms have been partnered with them, including, Shopify, Magento, and Prestashop. Now Yclas also offer Paytabs.
Payfast and PayTabs in 2026: what has changed since launch
Both gateways have changed a lot since we added them in 2022, so here is where they stand today.
Payfast is now "Payfast by Network"
Payfast is now part of Network International, a payments group based in the Middle East and Africa. The old payfast.co.za address redirects to payfast.io. On that site (checked October 2026) Payfast says it is trusted by more than 80,000 South African businesses and supports 18+ payment methods: cards, Instant EFT, QR codes, Mobicred and store cards. Bitcoin, mentioned in our original announcement, no longer appears on the list.
These are the fees Payfast publishes on its fees page (checked October 2026; all excluding VAT; check the page again before you launch, because rates change):
| Payment method | Fee per transaction (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|
| Credit/cheque cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay | 3.2% + R2.00 |
| Instant EFT, Capitec Pay | 2.0% (min. R2.00) |
| Mobicred | 3.2% |
| SnapScan, Scan to Pay | 3.5% + R2.00 |
| Payflex (buy now, pay later) | 5.45% + R5.00 |
| MoreTyme (buy now, pay later) | 5.5% + R2.00 |
| Standard payout to your bank | R8.70 per payout |
| Refund | R2.00 per refund |
On a classifieds site most payments are small (featured ads, top-ups, paid listings), so the fixed R2.00 per card payment matters. On a R50 featured-ad upgrade the card fee is R3.60 excl. VAT, about 7%, while Instant EFT costs R2.00 (the minimum). If your buyers are comfortable with EFT, offer it next to cards.
PayTabs: a regional MENA processor
According to PayTabs' website (checked October 2026), the company was founded in 2014 and now has local sites for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Türkiye. Besides Visa, Mastercard and American Express, it accepts the local methods buyers in the region expect: mada, KNET, Apple Pay, STC Pay, and buy-now-pay-later services such as Tabby, Tamara and valU. Each country has its own local version of the service, so open your account in the country where your business is registered.
How to choose
- Follow your buyers' country. Payfast fits marketplaces whose buyers and business are in South Africa. PayTabs fits marketplaces in the Gulf and the wider MENA region, where cards alone miss buyers who pay with mada, KNET or wallets. For international buyers, a global processor such as Stripe or PayPal is usually simpler.
- Compare the full cost of a typical order, not just the percentage. Fixed fees and payout charges weigh most on small payments.
- Test before you go live. Yclas' Payfast settings have a sandbox switch, so you can run a test purchase end to end before you enter your live Merchant ID and Key. For PayTabs, make one real low-value payment before you announce it.
If you want to start using those services here are the details.
How to setup 
- Open an account with Payfast
- Verify your account
- After some steps, you will get Merchant ID and Merchant Key. They are located in your Payfast dashboard ->Settings ->Merchant Identifiers
- You can enable Sandbox for testing purposes!
- Put your Merchant ID and Merchant Key in your Yclas Admin Panel!
- You are DONE
How to setup 
- Open an account with Paytabs
- They will provide you merchant email (which is your email used for signup) and a Secret Key. You can find the Secret key in your Paytabs Dashboard -> Menu ->Ecommerce Plugins and API
- Go to your Yclas admin Panel and put those details.
- You are DONE
For further information about setting up your favorite payment gateway, you can visit our documentation site.
Hope you are as excited as we are with these two new integrations. As always if you find a bug, error, or have any issue with the payment gateways you can open a support ticket here.
Have a nice week!
