Best and Cheapest Payment Gateways in UAE 2026

Payment gateway pricing looks simple until the bill arrives.

One provider may advertise a lower transaction rate but charge a monthly fee. Another may have no monthly fee but cost more on international cards. So if you're looking for the cheapest payment gateway in the UAE, the headline percentage is only part of the answer.

The Central Bank of the UAE's 2025 Annual Report recorded 560.7 million point-of-sale transactions through UAESWITCH in 2025, including 522.6 million debit-card POS transactions.

If your finance team also manages company spending after the money comes in, Alaan's spend management software handles that separately. First, let's deal with customer payments.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway lets customers pay your business online. It securely passes payment information between your checkout, the processor, and the relevant banks or card networks.

For UAE businesses, the useful questions are simple: what can customers pay with, what does each transaction cost, how are international cards charged, and how quickly do funds settle?

How payment gateway pricing works in the UAE

Most providers use one of three models:

• Percentage plus a fixed fee: You pay a percentage of the transaction plus a fixed AED amount.
• Monthly fee plus transaction fees: Some providers charge a subscription alongside lower transaction charges or use fixed monthly pricing within certain volume bands.
• Custom pricing: Larger merchants may receive flat-rate or interchange++ pricing based on volume, card mix, industry, and risk.

Then there are the extras: international-card surcharges, FX, chargebacks, refunds, VAT on fees, and minimum monthly charges.

Stripe's UAE pricing, for example, charges 2.9% + AED 1 for domestic cards. International cards add 1%, and currency conversion adds another 1% when required.

What would AED 10,000 in sales actually cost?

Assume 100 domestic-card payments of AED 100 each.

Based on published standard rates, before VAT and other charges:

The point is not that Telr always wins. According to Telr's current pricing, its Entry plan costs AED 349 per month with no transaction fee for monthly volumes up to AED 20,000.

Against Stripe's domestic pricing, with an AED 100 average payment, Telr becomes cheaper at roughly 90 transactions.

Change the average order value or card mix and the answer changes too. Finance remains annoyingly dependent on arithmetic.

Payment gateway comparison in the UAE

Which payment gateways are worth comparing?

1. Telr

Founded in 2014 in the UAE, built in-house, PCI-DSS v4.0 certified, targeting startups and SMEs.

USPs: fixed monthly fee with no transaction charge at Entry level; every feature (anti-fraud, QR codes, tokenisation) in all tiers; Quicklinks and Tabby BNPL built in. Watch for: overshooting the AED 20,000 Entry cap, as fees can erode the value.

2. Tap Payments

Founded in 2014, Dubai-based, licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE across the entire GCC.

USPs: one integration spanning UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman; local wallet and payment-method support; a Mastercard Click to Pay partnership; unified dashboard. Watch for: rates rise for regional (3.50%) and global (3.75%) cards.

3. PayTabs

Founded in Saudi Arabia in 2014, with dedicated UAE and KSA offices; now a broader payment orchestration platform with invoicing, soft-POS, and AI-driven insights.

USPs: fast SMB onboarding; built-in digital invoicing, QR payments, and social-commerce links; wide MENA network. Watch for: the USD 50 monthly minimum only applies below USD 2,000 in processed sales.

4. Stripe

Global payments infrastructure, using the same pay-as-you-go model in the UAE as everywhere else. 

USPs: transparent flat-rate pricing without negotiation; no setup or monthly fee; developer-friendly API; consistent global infrastructure. Watch for: international cards add 1%, FX adds another 1%. A non-UAE-heavy customer base can cost more than the headline rate.

5. Checkout.com

London-headquartered, serving MENA since 2014 from Dubai and Riyadh; holds a UAE Central Bank acquiring license plus preliminary approval to add card issuing.

USPs: native AED settlement and modular acceptance/issuing/payouts; regional methods like Tamara and Mada; AI-driven authorization optimisation. Watch for: full AED settlement generally needs an AED-licensed entity; pricing is negotiated, not published.

6. Network International

A 30+ year regional veteran running N-Genius Online, serving 60,000+ UAE merchants, and an early mover on Jaywan, the UAE's domestic card scheme.

USPs: deep local acquiring infrastructure; Jaywan support with no added merchant fee; enterprise reliability for high-volume retail. Watch for: no published pricing. You'll need a quote to compare.

Jaywan is also expanding, with acceptance in over 180 countries via a UnionPay partnership, so support for the domestic scheme is worth a spot on any shortlist.

Looking for an alternative to a traditional gateway?

Everything above collects money from customers. If you need to pay suppliers or contractors abroad instead, that's a different problem, worth solving separately rather than forcing through a checkout gateway.

Alaan's SuperPay is built for that: invoice automation, approvals, and cross-border transfers in one workflow, covering the UK, 35 SEPA countries, Egypt, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and the US, with zero transfer fees and the FX rate shown upfront. Alaan SuperCard then lets finance teams control spend with limits by category or merchant. They do not replace your checkout gateway; they cover the other side of the finance team's work.

What if you're paying suppliers instead?

A payment gateway collects money from customers. Paying an overseas supplier is a different job.

Alaan's SuperPay supports supplier and contractor payments to more than 40 countries, with zero transfer fees and the FX rate shown before confirmation.

For company spending, Alaan SuperCard lets finance teams set card limits and restrict spending by categories or merchants.

Neither replaces your checkout gateway. They cover the other side of the finance team's work.

How to choose the cheapest payment gateway

Take one or two months of real transaction data and compare:

• Monthly payment value and transaction count.
• Average transaction size.
• UAE, regional, and international card mix.
• Currencies used.
• Monthly and minimum fees.
• FX and international-card charges.
• Refund and chargeback costs.
• Settlement times.
• Supported payment methods and integrations.

Then calculate what each provider would actually have charged.

The smallest percentage in the table is useful. The smallest bill is better.

Conclusion

There is no single cheapest payment gateway in the UAE.

Stripe suits businesses that want pay-as-you-go pricing. Telr can become attractive when its tiers match your volume. Tap and PayTabs have competitive published local rates, while Checkout.com and Network International are better compared through a quote.

Use your own payment data before choosing. That usually tells you more than another list of “top gateways.”

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest payment gateway in the UAE?

It depends on transaction count, average order value, monthly fees, and card origin.

Which payment gateway has no monthly fee in the UAE?

According to Stripe's UAE pricing page, its standard Payments pricing has no setup or monthly fee.

What fees should businesses compare?

Compare transaction charges, monthly fees, international-card surcharges, FX, refunds, chargebacks, VAT, and settlement terms.

Are international cards more expensive?

They can be. Stripe and Tap Payments both publish higher charges for international or global cards.

Is Alaan a payment gateway?

No. Alaan handles business spending and outbound payments. SuperPay covers international supplier and contractor payments, while SuperCard covers controlled company spending.

‍