A payment gateway, or receipt verification

Do I need a payment gateway or a payment verification service?

They are not alternatives. A gateway takes the payment: the customer pays through your checkout, and the gateway tells you it succeeded because it was the one that collected it. Verification is for money that moved outside your system, which in Ethiopia is most of it, because customers transfer directly from their bank app or wallet and then show you proof. If your customers are paying you by direct transfer and sending a screenshot, a gateway does not help, because the payment never went through it. If you are selling online and can route customers through a checkout, a gateway is the better answer and you will not need verification for those orders.

The case for a payment gateway

  • A gateway is authoritative. It collected the money, so its confirmation is not an inference about someone else’s record.
  • It handles refunds, settlement and reconciliation as one flow, which verification does not touch.
  • For an online checkout it is a better customer experience than asking someone to transfer and then send proof.

Side by side

 a payment gatewaylinks.et
What it doesCollects the payment and confirms what it collected.Reads the receipt for a payment that already happened somewhere else.
Direct bank transfersOut of scope. The money never passes through it.This is the whole job.
Payments in personNeeds the customer routed through a checkout, which is awkward at a counter.Customer pays however they like, you check the reference.
SettlementHolds and settles your funds to you, on its own schedule.Never touches money. The payment is already in your account.
Cut of the paymentA percentage of every transaction.A flat plan, unrelated to what the payments were worth.

When not to use links.et

If you are building an online checkout and can have customers pay through it, use a gateway for those orders. Verification is for the payments that arrive outside your flow, and if none of yours do, you do not need it.

Try it before you decide

Paste a real receipt link or reference and see what comes back. No account needed.

Verify a paymentSee pricing

Other comparisons

Checking payments by hand, or with an APIOpening every receipt link yourself is free and works. Where it stops working, and what the alternative actually costs.Building receipt verification yourselfFetching and parsing one bank’s receipts is an afternoon. Here is what the other sixteen cost, and when building it anyway is still right.