APIs
Paystack vs Pesapal
A verified, side-by-side comparison. Both records are status-checked by Wycord, so you are comparing what each actually offers today, not a stale listing.
Category
APIs
APIs
Type
Payments
Payments
Country
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🌍 Pan-African
Docs status
Docs live
Docs live
Licensing
Approval required
Pricing
~1.5% domestic / transaction
Not listed
Verified
Verified
Verified
Last verified
24 Jun 2026
10 Oct 2026
Tags
payments, cards, cbn-licensed
payments, east-africa, mobile-money, card-payments, gateway
Summary
CBN-licensed payment gateway and the market leader, with the best docs and widest adoption. Owned by Stripe. SDKs in Python, JS, PHP and .NET, plus an OpenAPI spec and official Postman collection.
East African payment gateway (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and beyond) offering API 3.0, a REST/JSON API for online payments, with sample code repositories, plugins and a developer forum; the older XML-based API 2.0 is deprecated. PCI/DSS compliant with sandbox test credentials.
Paystack vs Pesapal at a glance
Paystack and Pesapal are both listed under Payments in Wycord's APIs index.
Paystack is based in Nigeria and Pesapal in Pan-African.
Both currently show the status "Docs live".
On access, Paystack is marked "No approval needed" and Pesapal "Approval required".
Uptime and latency come from Wycord's own probes of each resource's website, documentation and repository, run every six hours.
How they differ
- Access: Paystack, No approval needed; Pesapal, Approval required.
- Pricing: Paystack, ~1.5% domestic / transaction; Pesapal, Not listed.
- Country: Paystack, Nigeria; Pesapal, Pan-African.
Topics
Both are tagged: payments.
Only Paystack: cards, cbn-licensed.
Only Pesapal: east-africa, mobile-money, card-payments, gateway.
Common questions
- Which has better uptime, Paystack or Pesapal?
- Wycord does not yet have enough probe results for both to compare uptime.
- Do Paystack or Pesapal need approval before use?
- Paystack is marked "No approval needed" and Pesapal "Approval required".
- Is the documentation for Paystack and Pesapal working?
- Both show "Docs live" at the last check.
- Where are Paystack and Pesapal based?
- Paystack is based in Nigeria; Pesapal is based in Pan-African.