Payment gateways in Sri Lanka
Editorial review: 28 August 2026 · By: Alston Antony
There is no universal "best" Sri Lankan payment gateway - the right choice depends on transaction volume, local vs foreign-card mix, recurring / subscription requirements, settlement currency, platform integration and merchant eligibility. Two established Sri Lankan online-payment platforms with publicly published pricing are PayHere and WebXPay. Bank Internet Payment Gateways (HNB, Commercial Bank, Sampath) provide direct card acquiring with quoted pricing. LANKAQR is Sri Lanka's national QR standard, obtained through participating banks and financial institutions. Wallets and payment apps (Dialog Pay, FriMi, iPay) address additional acceptance rails. Compare against your actual requirements using the decision matrix below.
Payment product taxonomy
Sri Lankan "payment gateway comparison" articles often mix a card gateway, a bank product, a national QR standard and a mobile wallet in one table and call it a comparison. It isn't - these are different products solving different problems. Before comparing fees, put every product in its real category:
| Category | Main purpose | Sri Lankan examples |
|---|---|---|
| Payment gateway / aggregator | Accept online cards / payment methods through a managed platform with dashboard, plugins and published pricing | PayHere, WebXPay |
| Bank IPG / acquiring | Bank provides merchant ecommerce card acquiring directly; features can include hosted pages, payment links, APIs, tokenization, recurring | HNB, Commercial Bank, Sampath |
| LANKAQR / QR acquiring | Account-to-account / QR payments via the national interoperable QR standard | Merchant acquiring through participating banks / financial institutions |
| Wallet / payment app | Customer pays through an app / wallet / linked account | Dialog Pay (Dialog Axiata), FriMi (Nations Trust Bank), iPay (LOLC Finance) |
| Payment link | Hosted payment URL sent by email, WhatsApp or SMS - a feature of many card gateways / banks | PayHere Payment Links, WebXPay links, various bank link products |
| Recurring / tokenized payments | Stored credentials / subscription charging | Provider-specific (see recurring section) |
Online card payment gateways
PayHere and WebXPay are two Sri Lankan online-payment platforms with publicly published pricing and documented WooCommerce / Shopify integrations. Both are the usual starting point for a self-serve Sri Lankan online card gateway.
| Provider | Plan | Local Visa / MC | Foreign card | Fixed cost | Recurring / tokenization | WooCommerce | Shopify | Checkout currencies | Settlement currencies | Per-payment limit | Monthly limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PayHere | Lite | 3.3% | Verify current fee card | LKR 0/month | No | Yes (official plugin) | Yes (official app) | LKR, USD | LKR | LKR 50,000 | LKR 200,000 |
| PayHere | Plus | 2.99% | Verify current fee card | LKR 3,990/month | Recurring supported | Yes | Yes | LKR, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD | LKR (see foreign-currency section) | LKR 250,000 | LKR 3,000,000 |
| PayHere | Premium | 2.69% | Verify current fee card | LKR 9,990/month | Recurring + Automatic Payments | Yes | Yes | LKR, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD | LKR (see foreign-currency section) | LKR 1,000,000 | Unlimited |
| WebXPay | Starter | 3.5% | 4.85% | LKR 10,000/12 months | Tokenization / recurring workflows | Yes | Yes | LKR | LKR (T+1) | Per WebXPay plan documentation | |
| WebXPay | Economy | 2.9% | 4.85% | LKR 59,880/12 months | Tokenization / recurring workflows | Yes | Yes | LKR, USD, GBP | LKR (T+1), USD/GBP (T+2) | Per WebXPay plan documentation | |
| WebXPay | Business | 2.5% | 4.85% | LKR 107,880/12 months | Tokenization / recurring workflows | Yes | Yes | LKR, USD, GBP | LKR (T+1), USD/GBP (T+2) | Per WebXPay plan documentation | |
PayHere also publishes two specialised tiers with narrow eligibility: EDU at 2.49% for accredited education-related payments (LKR 9,990/month), and GOV at 1.99% no monthly fee for government payments. If a merchant doesn't qualify for either, they aren't options.
PayHere - low-fixed-cost entry option with published pricing
PayHere publishes plan-based pricing with no application fee and no initial setup fee. Onboarding requirements depend on the business type: business registration is required for private limited companies, sole proprietorships and partnerships, while alternative proof of business is accepted for certain home-based businesses, freelancers, clubs / associations and government organisations. The receiving account may be current or savings depending on the case; freelancers and home-based businesses may use personal accounts. PayHere currently documents a typical business review time of 1 to 3 days for complete applications.
Certain business categories are excluded (PayHere's application documentation lists dropshipping, print-on-demand and multi-vendor platforms among unsupported models, for example). Verify eligibility for your category before applying.
WebXPay - subscription-first with tier-based processing rates
WebXPay's structure differs from PayHere's: each XGateway plan carries a subscription and a plan-specific processing rate, and the rate decreases as the plan tier increases (3.5% Starter, 2.9% Economy, 2.5% Business on local Visa / Mastercard). Foreign-card processing carries a separate published 4.85% rate. Settlement schedule as currently published: T+1 for LKR, T+2 for USD / GBP. USD / GBP activation carries a LKR 5,000 fee where applicable. WooCommerce and Shopify integrations are documented.
PayHere plan break-even math
Choosing between PayHere plans is a straightforward calculation from the published fees. Break-even is where the higher plan's lower processing rate offsets its extra monthly fee. Values computed live from the fact-store constants:
| Upgrade | Extra monthly fee | Rate saving (percentage points) | Processing break-even monthly volume | Also affected by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite → Plus | LKR 3,990 | 0.31 pp | ~LKR 1,287,097/month | Lite's hard monthly limit is LKR 200,000 - the upgrade to Plus is usually forced by that limit, not by processing-fee break-even |
| Plus → Premium | LKR 6,000 | 0.30 pp | ~LKR 2,000,000/month | Plus's monthly limit is LKR 3,000,000; Premium's is unlimited, so above the Plus cap Premium is required regardless of break-even |
Bank Internet Payment Gateways (IPGs)
Sri Lankan banks provide their own card-acquiring products for ecommerce merchants. Feature sets vary by bank and can include full API / IPG integrations, hosted payment pages, payment links, tokenization and recurring / subscription payment support. Fees are quoted per merchant.
| Bank | Product | Documented capabilities | Fee model |
|---|---|---|---|
| HNB | HNB IPG | Website / mobile integration, payment links, recurring card payments, tokenization, ecommerce plugins, APIs | Merchant pricing on inquiry |
| Commercial Bank | Commercial Bank IPG (Simple Pay, MPGS, Visa CyberSource) | Hosted payment pages, MPGS and CyberSource acquiring, recurring / subscription payment options, tokenization | Merchant pricing on inquiry |
| Sampath Bank | Sampath IPG | Bank IPG for ecommerce merchants | Merchant pricing on inquiry |
Request a written bank-IPG quote when your merchant profile, existing banking relationship or transaction volume makes direct acquiring worth evaluating. Compare the quoted MDR and fixed fees against gateway subscription / processing costs and implementation effort - there is no universal volume threshold at which bank IPGs are "cheaper".
LANKAQR - the national QR standard
LANKAQR is Sri Lanka's national interoperable QR payment standard, issued under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka framework. It is a specification, not a merchant product. Merchants obtain LANKAQR acceptance through participating banks or financial institutions acting as merchant acquirers - not by signing directly with LankaPay.
LANKAQR's checkout / user experience and pricing structure differ from card-gateway processing. It can be attractive for account-to-account and QR-based payment acceptance because merchant pricing under the LANKAQR framework is structured differently from card MDR. Ask your bank or FI merchant-services team about current LANKAQR merchant pricing and terms, and whether QR-based checkout fits your buyer flow.
Wallets and payment apps
Wallet and payment-app products address specific rails - LANKAQR acquiring, telco billing, linked-bank payments, wallet balances - and each has its own operator and merchant network. Provider positioning:
| Provider | Operator | What it does | Payer method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dialog Pay | Dialog Axiata (via Dialog Finance) | Wallet + LANKAQR + linked-bank + eZ Cash. Launched July 2026 as a rebrand of the Genie app. | Dialog Pay App or MyDialog App; eZ Cash or linked bank |
| FriMi | Nations Trust Bank | Payment / wallet ecosystem with merchant capabilities including API-based ecommerce payment integration | FriMi app |
| iPay | LOLC Finance PLC | Wallet + LANKAQR acceptance | iPay app; LANKAQR at merchant |
Dialog's own product materials reference 100,000+ merchant outlets for Dialog Pay at launch - treat that as a Dialog-published figure. Independent merchant-coverage data across wallets is not published as a normalised dataset.
Recurring and subscription payments
Recurring / tokenized payment support is provider-specific. Current documented capabilities:
- PayHere Lite. One-time payments only; no recurring.
- PayHere Plus. Recurring supported (customer authorises the recurring charge at first payment).
- PayHere Premium. Recurring plus Automatic Payments (merchant-initiated charges after cardholder authorisation).
- WebXPay. Tokenized / card-on-file capabilities documented; can support recurring workflows. Confirm current commercial eligibility, fees and setup with WebXPay.
- HNB IPG. Recurring card payments and tokenization documented.
- Commercial Bank IPG. Recurring / subscription payment options and tokenization documented.
- Sampath IPG. Confirm current recurring capability with Sampath merchant services.
- Wallets and QR. Recurring is generally not the wallet use case in Sri Lanka.
For a SaaS product, subscription box or membership site, PayHere Plus / Premium provide clearly documented recurring / automatic-payment options and are often straightforward candidates. WebXPay and some bank IPGs also support tokenized / recurring workflows - compare integration effort, settlement, currencies and commercial terms.
Foreign cards and settlement currencies
Two distinct questions matter for cross-border sales - which currencies your customers can pay in and which currency you can actually receive settlement in:
| Provider / plan | Customer can pay in | Merchant settlement / payout |
|---|---|---|
| PayHere Lite | LKR, USD | LKR (Sri Lankan bank) |
| PayHere Plus / Premium | LKR, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD | LKR by default; direct USD settlement has additional requirements (PayHere documents that direct USD payout on Plus / Premium requires a registered Sri Lankan business and a USD / BFC account at Seylan Bank) |
| WebXPay Starter | LKR | LKR (T+1) |
| WebXPay Economy / Business | LKR, USD, GBP | LKR (T+1), USD / GBP (T+2); USD / GBP activation LKR 5,000 where applicable |
| Bank IPGs (HNB / Commercial / Sampath) | Provider-specific; verify with the bank | Provider-specific; some bank products support international ecommerce with currency-conversion capabilities. Confirm with the bank. |
Foreign-card processing carries a separate rate from local-card processing on most providers - WebXPay currently publishes 4.85% for foreign cards on XGateway across tiers, for example. PayHere's exact foreign-card pricing should be verified on its current fee card before onboarding.
Stripe is not currently available to Sri Lanka-registered businesses. Some merchants access Stripe through an eligible foreign entity, but that changes corporate structure, banking, tax reporting and payment-provider eligibility - decisions about business structuring should be made independently of the wish to access a specific gateway, not because of it.
Shopify Payments is not available in Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan Shopify merchant that wants integrated online card payments through Shopify needs a supported third-party payment provider (PayHere publishes a first-party Shopify workflow). Shopify then charges its plan-specific third-party transaction fee on eligible orders in addition to the gateway's own processing fee. Manual payment methods (COD, bank transfer, cheques) are excluded from Shopify's third-party fee. See Shopify in Sri Lanka for the full detail.
Which option fits your requirements?
No single Sri Lankan gateway is universally "best". Start with the requirement that's hardest to satisfy, then narrow.
| If you need | Start investigating |
|---|---|
| No monthly gateway fee | PayHere Lite (subject to per-payment and monthly limits) |
| Monthly volume above LKR 200,000 | PayHere Plus, WebXPay Economy / Business, or a bank quote |
| Monthly volume above LKR 3,000,000 | PayHere Premium (unlimited monthly) or a bank IPG quote |
| Recurring subscriptions | PayHere Plus / Premium, WebXPay tokenized workflow, or a recurring-capable bank IPG |
| Shopify online cards | PayHere (first-party Shopify workflow) or WebXPay (documented Shopify integration) |
| WooCommerce | PayHere, WebXPay, or bank plugins where available |
| QR acceptance | LANKAQR through a participating bank or FI |
| Foreign-card-heavy sales | Compare providers' explicit foreign-card rates and settlement currencies before choosing |
| Enterprise / direct acquiring | Bank IPG quote (HNB, Commercial Bank, Sampath) |
| Payment links (no full store) | PayHere Links, WebXPay links, or a bank link product |
| Direct USD payout | PayHere Plus / Premium with a USD / BFC account at Seylan Bank (per PayHere's documentation), or WebXPay Economy / Business with USD activation |
Merchant onboarding checklist
Before applying, confirm these against your intended provider:
- Business type accepted (private limited, sole proprietorship, partnership, home-based, freelancer, club / association, government)
- Proof of business required (business registration certificate, NIC / passport, or alternative proof where accepted)
- Bank-account requirements (current, savings or personal - varies by provider and business type)
- Product category accepted (some categories are restricted - PayHere excludes dropshipping, print-on-demand and multi-vendor platforms, for example)
- Per-payment and monthly limits (may drive plan choice more than processing-rate math does)
- Recurring / subscription capability if needed
- Checkout and settlement currencies (see the foreign-card section above)
- Website / app readiness - PayHere and similar providers review the live site during merchant approval; ensure Terms, Return / Refund policy, Privacy policy, contact information and real products are published before submitting
- Settlement schedule (T+1 / T+2 varies by provider and currency)
- Application review time (PayHere currently documents 1-3 days for complete applications; other providers publish their own timelines)
Methodology
All pricing figures on this page are read directly from each provider's own public pricing / documentation pages on the date shown. Where a provider does not publicly publish specific pricing (bank IPGs, some wallet products), the page says "quoted on inquiry" rather than fabricating a figure. Where a fact-store field was uncertain (for example an older "PayHere foreign-card +1%" heuristic that could not be confirmed from PayHere's current public documentation), it has been marked unverified and removed from downstream prose - verify the current foreign-card rate on the provider's fee card at the time of onboarding.
Prices, limits, settlement schedules and platform integrations change - re-verify before committing to a merchant contract.
Frequently asked questions
Which Sri Lankan payment gateway has the lowest fixed entry cost?
Among the card-gateway plans compared here with publicly available standard pricing, PayHere Lite has the lowest fixed entry cost because it currently has no monthly fee (3.3% per local card, limits LKR 50,000/payment and LKR 200,000/month). "Cheapest overall" depends on your transaction volume, mix of local vs foreign cards, and whether you need recurring, tokenization, or a specific settlement currency - compare against the break-even math and the decision matrix below.
Can Stripe be used from a Sri Lankan business?
Not directly. Sri Lanka is not currently on Stripe's supported Payments countries list. Some merchants access Stripe through an eligible foreign entity, but that changes corporate structure, banking, tax reporting and payment-provider eligibility - decisions about business structuring should be made independently of the wish to access a specific gateway, not because of it.
Do foreign-card payments cost more than local-card payments?
Often yes - because the issuing bank on the other side typically charges the acquirer more on cross-border interchange. Each provider prices this differently. WebXPay currently publishes a specific 4.85% foreign-card rate on XGateway across tiers, for example. PayHere's exact foreign-card pricing should be verified on its current fee card at the time you onboard.
What is the difference between a payment gateway and a bank IPG?
A payment gateway / aggregator such as PayHere or WebXPay is a third-party managed platform with a self-serve dashboard, published pricing and plug-and-play WooCommerce / Shopify integrations. A bank Internet Payment Gateway (HNB, Commercial Bank, Sampath) is a card-acquiring product provided directly by a Sri Lankan bank; product features can include full API integrations, hosted pages, payment links, tokenization and recurring / subscription capabilities. Fees are quoted per merchant.
What is LANKAQR and how do merchants use it?
LANKAQR is Sri Lanka's national interoperable QR payment standard issued under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka framework. Merchants obtain LANKAQR acceptance through participating banks or financial institutions acting as merchant acquirers - not by signing directly with LankaPay. LANKAQR has a different fee structure from card gateway processing.
Sources
- PayHere - Payment Limits and Fees (current tariff) — Lite 3.3% no monthly fee (limits LKR 50,000/payment, LKR 200,000/month); Plus 2.99% + LKR 3,990/mo (limits LKR 250,000/payment, LKR 3,000,000/month); Premium 2.69% + LKR 9,990/mo (LKR 1,000,000/payment, unlimited monthly). Specialised EDU (2.49%) and GOV (1.99%) tiers exist with narrow eligibility. (checked 26 Aug 2026)
- PayHere - Application process — Business review typically 1-3 days for complete applications. Business registration required for private limited / sole proprietorship / partnership; alternative proof accepted for home-based businesses, freelancers, clubs / associations, government organisations. Receiving account may be current or savings depending on case; freelancers / home businesses may use personal accounts. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- PayHere - General questions — No application fee, no initial setup fee (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- WebXPay - XGateway pricing — Local Visa/Mastercard: Starter 3.5% (subscription LKR 10,000/12 months), Economy 2.9% (LKR 59,880/12 months), Business 2.5% (LKR 107,880/12 months). Foreign-card rate 4.85%. Settlement T+1 for LKR, T+2 for USD/GBP. USD/GBP activation LKR 5,000 where applicable. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- iPay - operator and merchant application — iPay is operated by LOLC Finance PLC (not Dialog). Merchants apply using NIC or Business Registration Certificate; a LOLC Finance account is not required - any Sri Lankan bank account can be used. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Dialog Pay - Dialog Axiata launch (July 2026) — Rebrand of the Genie app; consolidates eZ Cash, LankaQR and bank-linked account payments in the Dialog Axiata ecosystem (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- FriMi - Nations Trust Bank — Payment / wallet ecosystem with merchant capabilities including API-based ecommerce payment integration (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Central Bank of Sri Lanka + LankaPay - LANKAQR — LANKAQR is Sri Lanka's national interoperable QR payment standard issued under the Central Bank framework; merchants obtain LANKAQR through participating banks and financial institutions acting as merchant acquirers (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- HNB - Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) — Documented features include website / mobile integration, payment links, recurring card payments, tokenization, ecommerce plugins and APIs. Merchant pricing quoted on inquiry. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Commercial Bank - IPG (Simple Pay / MPGS / Visa CyberSource) — Documented features include hosted payment pages, MPGS and CyberSource acquiring, recurring / subscription payment options and tokenization. Merchant pricing available on inquiry. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Sampath IPG - Sampath Bank — Sampath Bank Internet Payment Gateway (distinct from Sampath Vishwa, which is retail internet-banking). Merchant pricing quoted on inquiry. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Shopify - Shopify Payments supported countries — Sri Lanka is not currently listed. Sri Lankan Shopify merchants that want integrated online card payments use a third-party provider; Shopify then charges its plan-specific third-party transaction fee on eligible orders. (checked 28 Aug 2026)
- Stripe - supported countries — Sri Lanka is not currently on Stripe's supported Payments countries list (checked 28 Aug 2026)