Fat Zebra

Fat Zebra: Payment Platform Overview

Fat Zebra is a payments platform designed to help businesses accept and manage online payments across cards and digital wallets. Through a single integration, merchants can connect to Fat Zebra’s gateway, hosted checkout, and developer tools to process transactions, reduce fraud, and access operational reporting. Fat Zebra focuses on practical integration options, PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, and support for methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Click to Pay, which makes Fat Zebra a viable option for merchants evaluating modern checkout experiences.

What Is Fat Zebra

Fat Zebra is a payment service provider offering a gateway, acquiring connections, and merchant tools to accept card-not-present payments online. The platform exposes REST APIs, JavaScript and React SDKs, and a hosted payment page known as PayNow. For merchants that need to minimize PCI scope, Fat Zebra provides tokenization and hosted flows so raw card data never touches merchant systems.

Key characteristics:

• PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider

• Card and wallet acceptance with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Click to Pay

• Hosted checkout that can run as a redirect or embedded iframe

• SDKs and APIs for custom checkout and server-side control

• Reporting covering settlements, payouts, refunds, and disputes

• Fraud and risk capabilities including 3DS2 and optional MPI

Core Payment Methods

Cards

Fat Zebra supports major debit and credit cards for ecommerce transactions. Merchants can process authorizations, captures, and refunds via the API or hosted pages. Tokenization is supported to keep card data off merchant servers and enable subsequent charges without re-entering details.

Digital Wallets

• Apple Pay: Support for Apple Pay on the web and in apps, with documented onboarding through the Fat Zebra merchant dashboard and domain registration steps.

• Google Pay: Web integration guidance includes gateway parameters for tokenization and using gatewayMerchantId.

• Click to Pay: Built-in Mastercard Click to Pay checkout, including configuration options and JavaScript SDK support to render and manage the Click to Pay flow.

These options let merchants offer one-tap or device-native payments that can accelerate checkout and improve conversion.

Integration Options

Hosted Payment Page: PayNow

Fat Zebra’s hosted payment page is designed for merchants who want to remove card data and most PCI responsibilities from their environment. It can be deployed via:

• Standard redirect to a hosted page

• Embedded iframe for on-site experiences

• Accounting platform payment pages for specific use cases

Merchants can also enable 3DS2 checks from the hosted page and customize display details, button text, and branding via documented parameters.

JavaScript and React SDKs

For teams building custom front ends, Fat Zebra provides:

• JavaScript SDK to embed PayNow components, invoke Click to Pay, and handle events

• React SDK for modern app stacks, including 3DS2 handling and card tokenization

Both SDKs are paired with server-side endpoints for creating PaymentIntents, verifying HMAC signatures, and exchanging OAuth tokens for secure session control.

Direct API

The REST API covers purchases, authorizations, captures, refunds, webhooks, disputes, payment plans, payout and settlement reporting, and wallet-based transactions. Merchants can:

• Create purchases with card or wallet payloads

• Capture or void authorizations

• Manage customers and stored credentials for merchant-initiated transactions

• Subscribe to or fetch reports programmatically

Risk Management And Compliance

PCI DSS Level 1

Fat Zebra maintains PCI DSS Level 1 certification as a service provider. Merchants can request the Attestation of Compliance and Report on Compliance and use hosted or tokenized options to reduce PCI scope.

3DS2 And MPI

Fat Zebra supports 3D Secure 2 for card authentications. Merchants can submit 3DS data with purchases or authorizations, and Fat Zebra can provide an MPI if needed. The hosted page and SDKs include flows for initiating and handling 3DS2 challenges and outcomes.

Fraud Screening

Documentation provides test scenarios and outcomes for fraud screening responses, indicating integrations for accept, challenge, or deny decisions within checkout flows.

Data Security And Contracts

The services agreement and security guidance outline merchant obligations, underwriting, reserve and settlement terms, and the availability of security controls. Fat Zebra also notes its North America presence with ISO registration details in site footers and support pages.

Reporting, Settlements, And Payouts

Operational reporting is available in the dashboard and via API:

• Transactions and settlements: Retrieve transaction-level details, settlement dates, and captured amounts.

• Payout reports: Programmatically fetch payout reports and the transactions included for a given date.

• Disputes: Endpoints are available to list, fetch, and accept disputes.

These artifacts support reconciliation workflows and finance team checks for purchases, refunds, chargebacks, and funded payouts.

Merchant Experience And Tools

Payment Links

Merchants can generate payment links from the dashboard, configure accepted card types, add references and surcharges, and send links by email. SMS delivery is available for Australian numbers when enabled. Branding with a logo URL is supported for a consistent merchant experience.

Webhooks And Events

The API provides webhook endpoints to subscribe to events and keep merchant back ends synchronized with payment state changes, dispute updates, and settlement outcomes.

Users And Permissions

The dashboard supports multi-user access with role-based permissions, MFA, and invitation workflows. This allows teams to segment access across finance, support, and engineering roles.

Who Fat Zebra Suits

Fat Zebra is suitable for:

• Merchants needing a PCI-light hosted checkout with 3DS2

• Teams that want modern wallet support without building custom tokenization from scratch

• Businesses that require developer-friendly APIs and SDKs, plus operational reporting

• Companies operating in markets where Fat Zebra’s acquiring and ISO arrangements are available

Merchants seeking public, prescriptive pricing tables may find fewer details on the website and should engage sales for rates. As with any PSP, confirm geographic availability, settlement currencies, and bank sponsorships during procurement.

Conclusion

Fat Zebra provides a pragmatic, developer-focused payments platform combining hosted checkout, SDKs, and APIs with Level 1 PCI compliance and modern wallet support. For many merchants, the ability to choose a low-scope hosted page or a customizable SDK path, coupled with reporting and dispute endpoints, will cover most ecommerce needs. Evaluate Fat Zebra by piloting your primary flows with 3DS2 enabled, enabling Apple Pay or Google Pay where relevant, and integrating payout reports into your finance system to validate end-to-end operations before scaling.