If you run any kind of online business in Malaysia, you’ll need a payment gateway. A payment gateway can provide your customers with a secure way to make payments on your store.
Needless to say, picking a secure and reliable payment gateway can be vital to the success of your online business.
So, if you are running an e-commerce website (e.g. Shopify, EasyStore), gaming app, or any kind of online business, and want to start receiving payments from customers in Malaysia, or all over the world, here are the payment gateways you can consider using:
Table of Contents 1Choosing a payment gateway – things to look out for2iPay883RazerPay (formerly MOLPay)4Stripe5PayPal6eGHL7SenangPay8Billplz9toyyibPay10Curlec11PayHalal12Conclusion
Choosing a payment gateway – things to look out for
Fees – Cost is inevitably one of the biggest factors when considering a payment gateway. The last thing you want is to see your profits sliced smaller because of fat fees.
Security – It goes without saying that security is the key feature of any payment gateway. Your payment gateway partner should have all security protocols in place, and are compliant with local regulations.
Reliability – Reliable payment gateway helps keep your customer experience great. Too many failed payments can give your customers a poor experience, and make them turn them to your competitors instead.
Supported currencies – When the payment gateway supports the currency you’re selling in, your customers will be able to make payments in their currency. Other than that, you’ll save on conversion fees on settlement.
Fraud prevention – The best payment gateways not only keeps your customer payments secure, but also protects merchants from fraudulent transactions.
Developer friendly – Developer-friendly payment gateways make it easy and affordable for you to customise the payment gateway to the needs of your online business.
Payment options – The payment gateway should have options that support your business model. For e.g. if you want to accept recurring payments, or payment by instalments, you’ll find it convenient to partner with a gateway which supports these.
Platform integration – If you are integrating the payment gateway with an e-commerce platform, make sure to find out if there is a native integration available. Native integrations help reduce payment errors on your customer’s end.
iPay88
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fees from 2.0% – 2.8% (FPX, credit cards and debit cards)
- Accept payments via FPX, credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets and direct debit (e-Mandate)
- Supports:
- Virtual terminal
- Tokenisation
- Recurring payments
- mPOS (accept VISA or MasterCard on your phone)
- Easy Payment Plan (instalments)
- Multi-currencies
- E-commerce integrations: Shopify, EasyStore, WooCommerce
iPay88 is one of the pioneer payment gateways in Malaysia. As such, it’s one of the most fully developed payment gateway you can find around.
With iPay88, you can accept payments via FPX, credit cards and even popular e-wallets. Depending on the package you go for, you can accept single payments, recurring payments as well as payments by instalment plans.
If you run an e-commerce store on platforms like Shopify, EasyStore or WooCommerce, you’ll be happy to find that iPay88 natively integrates with them too.
iPay88’s full suite of features make it suitable for startups all the way to large enterprises. With its range of features, iPay88 can support e-commerce businesses, marketplaces, apps and more.
iPay88’s transaction fees are also pretty reasonable. Though, there’s also an annual fee you need to pay for.
Razer Merchant Services (formerly MOLPay)
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fees from 2.4% for FPX, credit cards and debit cards and 1.2% – 1.4% for e-wallets
- Accept payments via FPX, credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, cash and direct debit (e-Mandate)
- Supports
- Mobile XDK
- Virtual Terminal
- Secure 1-Click
- Seamless Integration
- Mass Payout
- Marketplace Payment
- Recurring Payment
- Easy Payment Scheme (Instalments)
- Gateway Solutions
- Online-to-Offline payments (Razer Cash)
- Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)
- E-commerce integrations: Shopify, EasyStore, WooCommerce
Even though the RMS is relatively new in the payment gateway space, the infrastructure and tech behind it is not. RMS’s payment foundation is that of MOLPay’s.
While RMS’s payment features are competitive with iPay88’s, it does boast some additional features. These include mobile SDK support for in-app payment processing, as well as offline cash payments via 7-Eleven.
RMS provides a complete suite of payment methods from credit/debit card, online banking, e-wallets. On top of that, Razer Cash (online-to-offline) payment has a proven track record of being the largest and only payment processor in Malaysia with substantial volume capacities
Its fees are also pretty reasonable. Though, you also need to pay for annual fees for RMS too.
Stripe
Key features
- Non-local payment gateway
- Flat transaction fee of 3.00% + RM1 per transaction
- Accept payments via FPX, credit cards, and debit cards
- Recurring payments supported
- E-commerce integrations: Shopify, EasyStore, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and more
- Developer-friendly
Stripe is one of the fastest growing payment solutions in the world. Thanks to it being developer-friendly, you’ll find Stripe integrated with a large number of popular sites and apps online.
In Malaysia, you can accept payments not only through credit and debit card, but also via FPX from your customers.
Recurring payments are also pretty simple to set up in Stripe. Although, in Malaysia, instalment plans using Stripe is not yet available.
E-wallet payments are also not available yet. If you need them, you’ll need to use another payment gateway or to integrate with the e-wallets directly.
While Stripe’s transaction fee is on the high side compared to most local payment gateways, you don’t need to pay an annual fee.
Stripe’s features make it a good fit for Malaysians who sell online locally and/or internationally.
Best of all, you can sign up for Stripe yourself and get started accepting payments online without going through a sales rep.
Find out more about Stripe (official website)
PayPal
Key features
- Non-local payment gateway
- Self sign up
- Transaction fee starting from 3.90% + RM2 per transaction (domestic)
- Accept payments via PayPal, credit cards, and debit cards
- Recurring payments supported
- E-commerce integrations: Shopify, EasyStore, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and more
When PayPal launched in the 90s, it was one of the first payment solutions of its kind. PayPal helped push the first wave of payment democratisation worldwide.
Today, PayPal is still a widely use payment solution. In Malaysia though, PayPal is not widely used because of its high transaction fees, and few locally preferred payment options. You can only accept payments via PayPal, credit cards and debit cards.
For Malaysians who sell internationally – especially in the US and UK – however, PayPal’s brand name can lend credibility to your store and help with conversion rates.
Like Stripe, you also don’t have to pay yearly fees. You only have to pay for what you use.
PayPal is also a self-service platform – you can sign up yourself and get started accepting payments without going through a sales rep.
Find out more about PayPal (official website)
eGHL
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fee from 2.8%
- Accept payments via credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, cash and direct debit (e-Mandate)
- Supports:
- Recurring payments
- Tokenisation
- Instalment plans
- Recurring payments
- Offline to online payments
- Payment links
- E-commerce integrations: EasyStore, SiteGiant, WooCommerce
eGHL is one of the more established payment gateways in Malaysia. Quite well established. You get most of the features of iPay88 and RazerPay with eGHL, but at a relatively more affordable setup and yearly fee.
It integrates with popular e-commerce platforms in Malaysia like EasyStore and SiteGiant. You can also integrate eGHL with Shopify, but the connection won’t be natively supported.
Find out more about eGHL (official website)
SenangPay
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fee of 1.8% – 2.5% for credit cards and 1.5% for FPX
- Accept payments via FPX, credit cards, and debit cards
- Supports:
- Recurring payments
- Tokenisation
- Payment button
- Payment forms
- Mail Order / Telephone Order (MOTO)
- E-commerce integrations: EasyStore, SiteGiant, WooCommerce
SenangPay is one of the fastest growing payment gateways in Malaysia. This is all thanks to its affordable yearly fees, low transaction fees and its ever growing set of payment features.
One of SenangPay’s most interesting features are its payment links. You can generate payment links for any product and send it to your customer via WhatsApp, WeChat, or e-mail.
It integrates with popular e-commerce platforms in Malaysia like EasyStore and SiteGiant. It doesn’t integrate with Shopify, however.
While you need to pay yearly fees, these are relatively affordable. Signing up online is also pretty easy.
Find out about SenangPay (official site)
Billplz
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fee from RM0.70 for FPX, 1.5% for credit cards and 3.2% for PayPal
- Accept payments via FPX, credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets and PayPal
- Recurring payments supported
- E-commerce integrations: EasyStore, WooCommerce
Billplz is another fast growing payment gateway in Malaysia that has exploded in popularity thanks to its cheap transaction fees and a diverse collection of payment methods has fuelled its growth.
One unique Billplz payment feature is its integration with PayPal. When you collect payments through Billplz’s PayPal, you get their special transaction fee of 3.2% instead of PayPal’s sticker rate of 3.9% + RM2. This applies for both local and international payments.
Billplz also integrates with popular local e-commerce platform, EasyStore.
Find out more about Billplz (official site)
toyyibPay
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fee of RM1 for bank transfers and 2.0% for credit cards
- Accept payments via bank transfers, credit cards, and debit cards
- E-commerce integrations: WooCommerce
toyyibPay is one of the newest entrants into the payment gateway space. At the moment, toyyibPay’s payment features are pretty limited – you can only accept FPX and credit card payments online.
While you can generate invoices, and payment links using toyyibPay, its most popular use case is as a payment gateway for WooCommerce stores.
If you sell on WooCommerce, you probably won’t get fees lower than what you’ll find on toyyibPay. Low fees plus zero annual fees make toyyibPay a no brainer payment gateway for e-commerce merchants selling on WooCommerce.
Find out about toyyibPay (official site)
Curlec
Key features
- Local payment gateway
- Transaction fee from 1%
- Accept recurring payments via direct debit
- Custom payment gateway integration
Curlec is a payment gateway specialised in collecting recurring payments via direct debit. While other payment gateways also offer direct debit, Curlec is designed to help make the process easier for SMEs.
If you run a business where you need to collect monthly payments (e.g. gyms, tuition centres), Curlec can help you to automate the process.
Curlec’s usage for e-commerce websites, however, might be limited to those which can benefit from collecting recurring payments via direct debit (e.g. online tuition classes).
Find out more about Curlec (official site)
Conclusion
Having the right payment gateway partner is like having the right cashier at a shop. They make sure customer are happy and all your money is collected and stored securely.
Not all payment gateways are the same, however. Pick the one which best fits your business model, and which features are what you’d like to add to your customer’s buying experience.
While you’d want to choose a payment gateway with low fees, balance that with other features that might make better sense for your business.
4 Responses
Great job, thks for sharing this important information.
Thanks Chong!
You missed one important point – ability to collect offline payments (eg. via credit card terminals). Its going to be more important going forward. So that all the information centralised under 1 account.
I recommend that you review Revenue Monster. Seems like they are the only ones who have this. If you can find others please review 🙂
Thanks for your recommendations – I’ll take a look at them and include them in the next review 🙂