What selling online actually costs in South Africa.

The fee stack most platforms don't lead with

South Africa isn't a market most global platforms process payments in directly — so their own built-in payment processor generally isn't available here. Sellers connect a local gateway instead, most commonly PayFast, which charges a standard rate of roughly 3.5% + R2 per transaction on card payments. That part is unavoidable no matter which storefront you build on — someone has to move the money.

What's avoidable is the secondfee: many global platforms charge their own additional percentage — commonly around 2% on an entry-level plan — specifically for processing a sale through anything other than their own payment system. Since their own payment system typically isn't available to South African sellers, that second fee isn't optional for most SA shops on those platforms. It's stacked on top of the gateway fee, on every single sale.

A real R1,000 sale, worked out

Illustrative example based on PayFast's standard published rate and a commonly quoted entry-plan third-party transaction fee as of mid-2026. Your own gateway fee may differ slightly by plan or negotiated rate — confirm the exact figure with PayFast directly. The R20 difference is the platform fee alone, before any subscription cost.

The subscription is priced in a currency that isn't yours

A typical global platform's entry-level plan is billed in US dollars, so what it costs you in Rands moves every billing cycle with the exchange rate. Check the platform's current pricing page for today's dollar price. A weaker Rand doesn't just cost the country more — it costs your shop more, on a bill that has nothing to do with how your business is actually doing.

ShopFront's Starter tier is R99/month, fixed. It costs the same in December as it did in January, regardless of what the Rand did in between.