What selling online actually costs in South Africa.
Every SA seller pays a payment gateway to get their money. Most global ecommerce platforms then add their ownfee on top of that — a second charge on the same sale, just for using their checkout. Here's what that actually costs, worked out in Rands.
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
TYPICAL GLOBAL PLATFORM
SHOPFRONT SA
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 — commonly around $39/month. At today's exchange rate (roughly R16.20 to the dollar, as of July 2026) that's about R630/month, and it moves every billing cycle with the Rand. 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.
Put together, for a real shop
Say you're doing R30,000/month in card sales on an entry-level plan. The stacked 2% platform fee alone is roughly R600/month — about R7,200 a year — on top of whatever your subscription costs. Add the subscription gap above (≈R630 vs R99, roughly R530/month) and the difference lands around R13,500+ a year, before you've changed a single thing about how you run your shop.
Illustrative, not a quote — your real numbers depend on your actual sales volume, plan, and the exchange rate on any given day. The math is straightforward enough to redo with your own figures: (your monthly card sales × 2%) + the subscription difference.
Keep the 2%. Keep the Rand pricing.
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