PayTabs

PayTabs: What Merchants Need To Know Before You Integrate

If you sell online in the Middle East and North Africa, PayTabs is a regional payment service provider you will likely evaluate. This overview gives you a clear, evidence-based briefing on PayTabs products, coverage, payment methods, integration options, security, payouts, pricing signals, and implementation checkpoints.

Where PayTabs Operates

PayTabs focuses on the MENA region. According to its onboarding guidance, you can activate services in the following countries:

• United Arab Emirates

• Saudi Arabia

• Egypt

• Oman

• Jordan

• Iraq

• Kuwait

• Qatar
• Morocco

Availability and features vary by market, business model, and acquiring setup. If your operations span multiple countries, plan to validate method availability, currencies, and settlement flows for each profile before rollout.

PayTabs Products And What They Do

Payment Gateway

The core payment acceptance platform lets you accept cards and selected local payment methods online. You can integrate with:

• Hosted Payment Page – redirect or iFrame the PayTabs page to reduce PCI scope

• Managed Form – PayTabs handles sensitive fields within your page

• Own Form – full card-data capture on your domain, suitable only if you maintain PCI DSS certification

• Invoices and PayLinks – create one-time or reusable links to request payments

The gateway supports key auth flows such as sale, authorization, capture, void, and refund. You can also enable tokenization for returning customers and, where approved, recurring transactions.

SuperApp For Small Merchants

PayTabs offers a mobile-first SuperApp for micro and small businesses. It includes a simple store, payment links, QR acceptance, and in-app reporting. Pricing for the SuperApp is published per market and differs from gateway pricing. See the Pricing section below for a current example.

Payouts And Settlements

You can automate or manually trigger merchant payouts. Options include default weekly settlements and configurable daily, weekly, or monthly schedules once enabled in your dashboard. Some payout capabilities are market-specific, so check your profile country and settlement currency before promising timelines to your finance team.

Split Payouts For Marketplaces

If you operate a marketplace, PayTabs supports split payouts, allowing you to programmatically distribute a single transaction to multiple beneficiaries. This is useful for commission models and vendor settlements. Split payouts run via API and can be monitored in the dashboard.

Orchestration And SwitchOn

PayTabs also highlights a switching-orchestration layer branded as SwitchOn. It references connectivity to major international schemes, which may underpin the multi-rail acceptance the gateway exposes in supported markets. Treat this as the infrastructure behind the scenes rather than a separate integration for most merchants.

Payment Methods You Can Enable

PayTabs lists a wide catalog of methods, with availability depending on country, currency, and your acquirer configuration. In practice, you should expect:

• International cards – Visa, Mastercard, and in some markets American Express and JCB

• Local card schemes and nets – examples include mada in Saudi Arabia, KNET in Kuwait, and OmanNet in Oman

• Digital wallets – Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and regional wallets such as STC Pay where supported

• BNPL and installments – options like Tabby in UAE and KSA, subject to separate merchant approval

• Other market methods – examples include Meeza QR and UnionPay in specific contexts

Important constraints you should plan for:

• Method support depends on your country profile and currency. For example, some wallets or BNPL options only settle in local currency.

• Some local networks limit functionality. For instance, mada supports sale and refund but not recurring or auth-capture flows.

• Method presentation on checkout can be merchant-controlled through the dashboard, plugins, or API parameters.

Integration Options And Developer Tooling

You can integrate PayTabs via:

• REST APIs for HPP, Managed Form, Own Form, PayLinks, Invoices, Tokenization, and Payouts

• Backend packages in popular stacks such as Laravel and Node.js

• Mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, and cross-platform frameworks like Flutter and React Native

• Ecommerce plugins for platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, CS-Cart, Drupal, and more

That coverage means you can choose a low-code plugin route, a standard redirect page, or a custom frontend-backend flow based on your PCI posture and desired UX.

Security, PCI, And 3-D Secure

• PCI DSS – PayTabs states it is PCI DSS Level 1 service provider. Using the Hosted Payment Page keeps you out of full cardholder data scope. If you choose Own Form, you must supply your PCI documentation, typically SAQ D.

• 3-D Secure – The gateway supports 3DS where required by the issuer or scheme. Behavior depends on card enrollment and issuer availability. Expect customer redirection for enrolled cards and frictionless flows where rules permit.

• Risk Controls – Documentation references fraud monitoring and parameters that help you manage acceptance, such as limiting methods, filtering card types, and session timeouts. Treat these as configuration levers to tune conversion and risk by market.

Payouts, Settlement, And Thresholds

• Schedules – By default, weekly payouts run on a set day, with options to switch to daily or monthly after configuration.

• Thresholds – PayTabs documentation mentions minimum available-balance thresholds for settlement and manual withdrawals. Confirm your profile’s current threshold and how it applies per currency.

• Coverage – Payout features and supported bank corridors vary by country. Review the payout documentation for your market profile and settlement currency before committing to service levels.

Who PayTabs Fits Best

You will get the most value if you:

• Operate primarily in MENA and need local rails like mada, KNET, and OmanNet alongside Visa and Mastercard

• Need a mix of links, invoices, and BNPL without building everything in-house

• Want marketplace-style splits and flexible payout automation

• Prefer to start with Hosted Payment Pages and later move to embedded forms as you scale PCI capability

If you are a global-only business with no MENA footprint, consider whether the regional feature set aligns with your customer base. If you are a marketplace, validate split payouts early, including reporting and reconciliation formats.