Lewis SelbyCo-Founder, Maxme9 min read
For most Ghana online stores, Paystack is the simplest choice: 1.95% on MoMo and cards, payouts the next working day to your bank or MoMo wallet, and ready apps for Shopify and WooCommerce. Hubtel suits businesses that want money in their account within the hour, including weekends, plus shop and staff controls. expressPay suits developer-built sites and quotes its fees on request.
Is Paystack supported in Ghana, and are Hubtel and expressPay local?
Yes. Paystack, now a Stripe company, holds a Payment Service Provider (Enhanced) licence from the Bank of Ghana, granted in March 2022, and has an office in Cantonments, Accra. Ghanaian customers can pay with MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash and AirtelTigo Money, plus Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and bank transfer. Payouts are in cedis.
Hubtel is Ghanaian. It has operated since 2005, holds the same Enhanced PSP licence from the Bank of Ghana and is PCI DSS certified. It collects MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, AT Money (the new name for AirtelTigo Money), cards, bank payments and GHQR. It positions itself as a system for running the whole business, not only a gateway.
expressPay, founded in Ghana in 2012, is both a bill-payment marketplace and a payment gateway. It is a Visa Payment Technology Provider, is PCI DSS certified, and takes cards and mobile money on all three networks. Merchants can use its hosted payment page, its API, QR codes, USSD and, according to its website, Android POS devices.
How much does each one charge per transaction in Ghana?
At the time of writing (September 2026), Paystack charges a flat 1.95% on local transactions in Ghana, whether the customer pays by MoMo, card or bank transfer. International cards also cost 1.95% and are settled in cedis by default. There is no setup or monthly fee, and Paystack says high-volume merchants can get a discount.
Hubtel publishes two price lists. If your business absorbs the fee, you pay 1.95% on MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash and online Visa or Mastercard payments, and 2.5% on AT Money. If you pass the fee to the customer, they pay 1% on most amounts, a small flat fee under GHS 50, and a flat fee on large payments.
expressPay does not publish its merchant fees. Its merchant team (merchant@expresspaygh.com, 030 700 0503) quotes you directly. Get the MoMo rate, card rate, payout schedule and any withdrawal fee in writing before you build, so you can compare it fairly with the published prices here.
A worked example for a GHS 500 order: Paystack keeps GHS 9.75. Hubtel keeps GHS 9.75 if the customer pays with MTN MoMo or Telecel Cash and you absorb the fee, or GHS 12.50 on AT Money. On Hubtel's customer-pays option, the MTN MoMo prompt asks the customer for GHS 505 instead.
| Paystack | Hubtel | expressPay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoMo fee (you pay) | 1.95% | 1.95% MTN and Telecel, 2.5% AT Money | Quoted on request |
| Local card fee | 1.95% | 1.95% online Visa and Mastercard | Quoted on request |
| Customer can pay the fee | Not on the price list | Yes, mostly 1% | Ask |
| When money reaches you | Next working day (T+1) | Hubtel balance within the hour, every day | Not published |
| Where it lands | Your bank or MoMo wallet | Hubtel account, then your bank or MoMo | Not published |
| Minimum payout | GHS 50 to bank, none to MoMo | GHS 500 to bank, none to MoMo | Not published |
| Sending money out | GHS 1 to MoMo, GHS 8 to bank | Tiered, e.g. 1% on GHS 50.01 to 500 | Ask |
| Start without registering | Yes, Starter (GHS 30,000 cap) | Verified business, national ID | Through merchant team |
| Shopify | Official app | No app listed | No app listed |
| WooCommerce | Official plugin | Community plugins or custom build | Plugin on GitHub |
| Payment links | Payment Pages | Invoice links | Invoice API |
| In person | Virtual Terminal QR, no hardware | MoMo, card, QR and USSD | QR codes, POS devices |
How fast do you get your money, and where does it go?
Paystack pays out automatically on the next working day (T+1), to your bank account or MoMo wallet. Monday's sales arrive on Tuesday, but Friday's and Saturday's sales wait until Monday, because payouts skip weekends and public holidays. Bank payouts need at least GHS 50 waiting; MoMo payouts have no minimum.
Hubtel credits your Hubtel account balance every hour, including weekends and public holidays. From there you move money to your own bank account (GHS 500 minimum) or MoMo wallet (any amount) whenever you like, or on a schedule. You can also pay suppliers straight from the balance; Hubtel lists those send-money fees on its fee page.
expressPay does not publish a settlement schedule, so ask for it alongside your fee quote. One cost has gone for everyone: the 1% e-levy on electronic transfers was abolished from 2 April 2025 by the Electronic Transfer Levy (Repeal) Act, 2025 (Act 1128), so it no longer eats into MoMo transfers.
Can you use Paystack without a registered business in Ghana?
Yes, as a Paystack Starter business. You need a government ID (Ghana Card, passport, driver's licence or voter's card), a Tax Identification Number, and a personal bank account or personal MoMo number for payouts. The catch: payments pause once total collections reach GHS 30,000, and Starter accounts cannot send Transfers or use Paystack Terminals.
A Registered business removes that limit and opens every feature. You upload your registration documents and TIN: a sole proprietorship needs its certificate of registration, and a limited company needs its certificate of incorporation and Form 3. Start the upgrade well before you reach GHS 30,000, so your checkout never stops mid-campaign.
Hubtel's KYC policy asks for a valid national ID, a legitimate product, and that you sell directly rather than as an agent. Its own homepage says it is not built for you if you "just need to collect mobile money" or want "the cheapest fee". expressPay onboards merchants through its merchant team and does not publish a document list.
Which payment gateway is best for Shopify or WooCommerce in Ghana?
For Shopify, Paystack. Shopify Payments is not offered in Ghana, so every Ghanaian Shopify store needs a third-party provider. Paystack is in Shopify's provider list, and its free Shopify app names Ghana as a supported country. At the time of writing, the Shopify App Store lists no Hubtel or expressPay payment app. Budget for Shopify's own third-party transaction fee too: it applies to every external gateway, and the rate depends on your plan.
WooCommerce gives you more choice. Paystack's official plugin (30,000+ active installs) supports cedis and MoMo. expressPay keeps a WooCommerce plugin on GitHub, last updated in October 2025, plus PrestaShop and Magento plugins. Hubtel's WooCommerce plugins on WordPress.org are community-built: one says it is not affiliated with Hubtel, another closed in 2023. Hubtel stores usually need a developer.
No website yet? Paystack Payment Pages give you a link to share on WhatsApp or Instagram for one-off payments, subscriptions or a short product list. Hubtel BackOffice invoices carry a payment link and send reminders for you. For a shop counter or delivery riders, Paystack's Virtual Terminal gives each staff member a QR code at the same 1.95%.
What does paying with MoMo feel like on a customer's phone?
On Paystack, the customer taps Mobile Money, enters their number, picks the network, then approves a prompt on their phone with an OTP and their MoMo PIN. It is familiar, but it pulls them away from your page for a minute. If your store only records the sale when they come back to the thank-you page, some paid orders go missing from your reports.
Hubtel sends the payment request straight to the customer's phone. On the customer-pays option, Hubtel adds its fee before pushing the request, so a GHS 100 item shows as GHS 101 on the prompt. Say so on the product or checkout page; an unexplained extra cedi at the PIN screen feels like a trick and costs you sales.
expressPay's standard checkout sends the customer to its own payment page. Its documentation warns that MoMo payments can complete anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes after they start. Your site has to wait for expressPay's confirmation before it marks the order paid, or you will ship unpaid orders and cancel paid ones.
Which one should your business choose?
On r/TechGhana, threads such as "Which online payment system/platform to use?" keep circling the same questions: what it costs, whether you must register first, how fast the money arrives, and whether it plugs into your site. The published prices above answer the first three. The fourth depends on the platform your store runs on.
Two more things decide it. If you restock daily and cash flow is tight, Hubtel's hourly, seven-day settlement can matter more than a fraction of a percent in fees. If you plan to scale ads, pick the gateway your platform supports cleanly, because a patched-together checkout is where tracking breaks. Matched to how you sell:
- Selling on Instagram or WhatsApp with no website: a Paystack Payment Page on a Starter account, then register before you near GHS 30,000.
- A Shopify store: Paystack, the only one of the three with a Shopify app.
- A WooCommerce store: Paystack's plugin for the least setup, or Hubtel or expressPay if a developer is building it and their terms suit you.
- A shop, riders and online orders under one roof: Hubtel, for hourly settlement, money on weekends and one dashboard for staff and branches.
- A custom site or app with a developer: any of the three, after comparing expressPay's quote with the published rates above.
What matters more than which gateway you pick?
The fee gap between these three is small next to a broken checkout. When we audit Ghanaian stores, the expensive problems are MoMo sitting below card options, a gateway setting that quietly fails, and a Meta Pixel that never sees the MoMo sale. In one Ghana fashion store, fixing exactly those took checkout conversion from 5.88% to 20.35%.
Before you spend a cedi on ads, place a real test order with each network your buyers use, MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash and AT Money, on a phone using mobile data. Check that the order shows as paid in your store, the money shows in your gateway, and your ads platform records the purchase. If you want a second pair of eyes on your checkout, Maxme's free Ads & Store Audit sends you a short video review on WhatsApp with the three fixes that matter most.
