Best payment gateway in Qatar: 11 providers compared

The short answer

There is no single best payment gateway in Qatar, because the right one depends on how you sell. Use this shortlist as a starting point, then check each candidate against the criteria further down.

Payment gateways and providers in Qatar

Listed by Qatar Central Bank licence date, oldest first, then platforms and banks. A licence matters: QCB’s Payment Services Regulation, in force since September 2021, requires anyone providing payment services in or from Qatar to be licensed, and QCB approves merchant onboarding.

1. 1

   Sadad Payment Solutions

   QCB-licensed October 2022

   Qatari payment provider offering online payments, payment links, QR and point of sale. In April 2025 it became the first fintech with direct integration to the national NAPS network and QCB’s QPAY e-commerce gateway, and it is among the first providers given direct access to Qatar’s real-time gross settlement system.

   Best for: Merchants who want a locally connected provider with both online and in-person acceptance.

2. 2

   SkipCash

   QCB-licensed November 2022

   Qatari fintech built around QR-code payments, positioned as an alternative to cash and card terminals for in-person and app-based payment.

   Best for: Cafes, retail and service businesses where a customer scans to pay.

3. 3

   Noqoody Payment Services

   QCB-licensed January 2023

   Qatari online payment gateway and payment-links provider, positioned as an electronic alternative to cheques and money orders.

   Best for: Businesses moving off manual collection methods.

4. 4

   MyFatoorah

   QCB-licensed April 2023

   Regional payment gateway and invoicing platform operating across the GCC, licensed by Qatar Central Bank in 2023. Note it is a different company from Fatora despite the similar name.

   Best for: Merchants who also sell in other GCC markets.

5. 5

   Dibsy (Paywise LLC)

   QCB-licensed June 2023

   Qatari online payments platform. In July 2025 it was admitted to Qatar Central Bank’s Express Regulatory Sandbox to test open-banking payment initiation, and it is among the first providers with direct real-time gross settlement access.

   Best for: Merchants who want a Qatar-focused product and early open-banking features.

6. 6

   Tap Payments

   QCB-licensed May 2024

   Payment provider headquartered in Kuwait, operating across the GCC, which received its Qatar payment service provider licence in 2024.

   Best for: Regional businesses that already use Tap elsewhere in the Gulf.

7. 7

   Tess Payments

   QCB-licensed, merchant acquiring

   One of the merchant-acquiring fintechs named in Qatar Central Bank’s 2025 annual report. It also provides gateway services that other Qatari platforms build on.

   Best for: Platforms and merchants needing an underlying licensed acquirer.

8. 8

   Pay2M

   QCB-licensed, merchant acquiring

   A merchant-acquiring fintech named in Qatar Central Bank’s 2025 annual report.

   Best for: Worth a quote if you are comparing licensed local acquirers.

9. 9

   7sab

   QCB-licensed, merchant acquiring

   A merchant-acquiring fintech named in Qatar Central Bank’s 2025 annual report.

   Best for: Worth a quote if you are comparing licensed local acquirers.

10. 10

    Fatora

    Platform, not a QCB payment licensee

    Qatar-based invoicing, payment-links and point-of-sale platform, registered with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It does not appear in QCB’s list of licensed payment service providers and processes through a licensed gateway partner.

    Best for: Merchants who want its invoicing product, knowing whose licence the money moves under.

11. 11

    Bank acquiring: QNB, Commercial Bank and others

    Banks, licensed by QCB as banks

    Qatari banks acquire card payments directly. QNB is described as the largest acquirer in Qatar and enabled unified digital-wallet acceptance on Mastercard Gateway hosted checkout in 2025; Commercial Bank is a Visa acquirer and says it was the first acquirer globally to enable Visa Installments for e-commerce.

    Best for: Larger merchants, and anyone who also needs POS terminals from their existing bank.

12. 12

    Rapid Gateway

    Serving merchants in Qatar

    A payment platform processing payments for merchants in Pakistan and now serving Qatar through a QCB-licensed partner. Unlike a gateway alone it bundles online invoicing and payment links, WhatsApp commerce on your own WhatsApp Business number, a CRM built automatically from completed payments, lead generation and a merchant portal for refunds, settlements and analytics.

    Best for: Businesses that would otherwise buy a gateway plus three or four separate tools.

Qatar Central Bank also licenses three e-money issuers (Ooredoo Money, iPay and CWallet) and two buy-now-pay-later providers. Those are wallet and instalment products rather than merchant gateways.

How to compare them: six things that matter

Once you have a shortlist, these are the questions that change the answer.

1. Settlement currency, speed and reporting

Ask where the money lands, in which currency and how often. A provider that settles in Qatari Riyal to a local business account avoids conversion spreads and international transfer delays. Then ask for a sample settlement report: a payout that arrives as one lump sum with no per-transaction breakdown turns month-end into manual work.

2. Payment methods in the checkout

Visa and Mastercard are the baseline, and Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet come with card acquiring that supports network tokens, so they are not separate integrations. Beyond that, ask specifically about Himyan, Qatar’s domestic debit card launched by QCB in March 2024 and routed over the national NAPS network, and about a bank-transfer or Fawran path for larger invoices.

3. Licensing: whose licence is your money moving under

Ask directly whether the provider holds a Qatar Central Bank payment services licence or processes through a licensed acquirer or bank. Both models exist and both can be legitimate, but you should know the answer, because the licensed entity is the one QCB supervises and the one holding your funds before settlement.

4. Integration and developer experience

Match the integration to your store. A maintained Shopify app or WooCommerce plugin means going live in a day; a custom site needs a documented REST API, hosted or embedded checkout, webhooks with a retry policy and a sandbox. If you sell on WhatsApp or Instagram, payment links and invoicing matter far more than any plugin.

5. Security and compliance

Look for PCI DSS compliant infrastructure, 3-D Secure on card payments and fraud controls. A hosted or embedded checkout keeps card data off your servers, which keeps your own compliance scope small. QCB also issued an Information and Cyber Security Regulation for payment service providers in 2022, so ask how the provider meets it.

6. Fees and contract terms

Compare the per-transaction percentage, any fixed fee per transaction, setup and monthly fees, refund and chargeback charges, and whether rates differ by payment method. Domestic Himyan transactions route over NAPS, which QCB positions as lower cost than the international schemes, so ask whether that saving is passed on. Published pricing is a good sign; long lock-in is not.

What Qatari customers actually use

Qatar Central Bank publishes monthly payment statistics, and they are a better planning input than any market-size estimate. In December 2025 QCB reported point-of-sale transactions of QAR 9.9 billion and e-commerce of QAR 4.7 billion across 11.8 million online transactions, a combined QAR 14.7 billion, up 7.4% year on year.

By share of payment value that month: point of sale 49%, Fawran instant transfers 25%, e-commerce 24% and mobile wallets 2%. In other words, cards and instant bank transfers carry almost everything, and wallets are a useful complement rather than the foundation of a Qatari checkout.

Getting started

• Shortlist two or three providers from the list above and ask each for settlement terms, supported methods, licence status and a sample report
• Prepare your commercial registration, corporate bank account details and published refund, delivery and privacy policies
• Test in the sandbox: a successful payment, a decline, a refund and a webhook
• Go live, place one real low-value order and refund it before you advertise

Frequently asked questions