How a website takes payments in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait: Jaywan, mada and KNET, licensed gateways, Stripe and Shopify Payments, fees and Apple Pay.
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Drafted with AI tools; researched, edited and approved by Althameem Ali. Our editorial policy
On this page · 9 sections
- Which payment gateways can a UAE website use?
- Which gateways work for a Saudi store, and why does mada come first?
- How does KNET work on a Kuwait website?
- Are Stripe and Shopify Payments available in the Gulf?
- What do Gulf payment gateways charge, and which publish their fees?
- How do Apple Pay and buy now, pay later fit in?
- How do you check that a gateway is licensed?
- What does connecting a gateway to your website involve?
- Want a checkout that takes local cards?
This is a comparison by country, not a ranking. We take no commission from any gateway and recommend none over another; what follows is what each provider and regulator says, with the date we read it.
Which payment gateways can a UAE website use?#
Any provider licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for retail payment services, or a bank's own gateway. A few examples of what licensed providers publish about themselves:
- Checkout.com. Its certificates page says Checkout MENA FZ-LLC is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE as a provider of Retail Payment Services and is listed on the CBUAE register (Checkout.com, licences and certificates (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026).
- Adyen. Adyen MEA FZ-LLC says it holds a Retail Payment Services Licence (Category II) and points readers to the CBUAE register of financial service providers to check its status (Adyen, EMEA licences (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026).
- Network International. Its N-Genius Online gateway offers hosted payment pages, a web SDK and a direct API, takes Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay, and supports pay-by-link (WooCommerce, N-Genius Online by Network International (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026).
- Stripe and Shopify Payments. Both serve UAE businesses; more on them below.
The newer piece is Jaywan, the UAE's own card scheme. Gulf News reported in July 2026 that residents can now get Jaywan cards from banks, licensed financial institutions and exchange houses, with cards rolling out in phases, and that Jaywan is run by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank. Network International has added Jaywan to its e-commerce gateway. Jaywan-only cards work mainly inside the UAE, while co-badged cards carry an international network as well (Gulf News, The UAE rolls out Jaywan (opens in a new tab), updated 20 Jul 2026, read 28 Oct 2026). For a UAE store, the question to ask any gateway is simple: do you accept Jaywan cards online today, and from what date?
Which gateways work for a Saudi store, and why does mada come first?#
Because it is the network Saudi bank cards run on. mada is the Saudi Payments Network, owned by SAMA, and SAMA requires all banks in Saudi Arabia to issue cards that are compatible with it; its e-commerce service started in 2018 (Wikipedia, Saudi Payments Network (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). A Saudi checkout that takes Visa and Mastercard but not mada risks turning local cards away at the last step.
The gateway must be licensed by SAMA. Examples:
Sharikat Mubasher reported in May 2026 that a new licence for e-wallet payments brought the number of licensed payment companies in Saudi Arabia to 32 (Sharikat Mubasher, SAMA licenses Lite Advanced Financial (opens in a new tab), 5 May 2026, read 28 Oct 2026). Rather than trust a count, check the name on SAMA's list of licensed payment service providers (opens in a new tab) before you sign.
The rest of a Saudi build is on our website development page for Saudi Arabia.
How does KNET work on a Kuwait website?#
KNET is Kuwait's shared card network, and it behaves differently from a normal card form. Tap Payments' developer documentation says KNET accepts Kuwaiti dinars only and that redirecting the shopper to KNET's payment page to enter card details is a must (Tap Payments developer docs, KNET (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). In practice that means:
- The checkout is a redirect. The shopper leaves your site, pays on KNET's page and comes back. Your site needs a success page, a failure page and a cancel page, and it must update the order from the gateway's notification, not only from the shopper's return.
- Payment links expire. In Tap's sample response, the transaction URL expires after 30 minutes, so a basket left open needs a fresh link.
- Totals have three decimals. The dinar is divided into 1,000 fils (Wikipedia, Kuwaiti dinar (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026), so a cart built for dirhams or dollars, with two decimals, can round prices wrongly.
The gateway must be registered with the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK). In April 2024 the CBK added KNET (The Shared Electronic Banking Services Co.) as an e-payment systems operator, and MyFatoorah, Tap Payments, Payzah and Casheer as e-payment service providers (Central Bank of Kuwait, press release (opens in a new tab), 7 Apr 2024, read 28 Oct 2026).
Kuwait's new digital commerce law makes this a condition of selling online. Kuwait Times reported that Amiri Decree-Law No. 10 of 2026 requires online sellers to use only e-payment providers licensed by the CBK, needs the CBK's prior approval before a fee is added for paying electronically, and enters into force six months after publication in the official gazette (Kuwait Times, Kuwait issues law regulating e-commerce (opens in a new tab), 23 Feb 2026, read 28 Oct 2026). This is a summary for planning a website, not legal advice; your lawyer should confirm what applies to your business.
Our Sanbouk concept build, for a fictional Kuwait car leasing firm (a concept build, not a client; its forms send nothing), has a lease calculator that gives the monthly price, the total and the deposit in dinars: the figures a checkout would then have to collect. More on Kuwait builds is on our website development page for Kuwait.
Are Stripe and Shopify Payments available in the Gulf?#
In the UAE, yes. In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, no.
Sources: Stripe, global availability (opens in a new tab) and Shopify Help Center, Shopify Payments supported countries (opens in a new tab), both read 28 Oct 2026. Shopify's page says that if your country is not listed, you need to use a third-party payment provider. So a Shopify store run by a Saudi or Kuwaiti business can still be built on Shopify; it connects a local gateway instead of Shopify Payments. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison sets out how the two platforms differ.
For Qatar and Bahrain, our Qatar and Bahrain pages cover the local payment detail, and the Dubai page covers the UAE.
What do Gulf payment gateways charge, and which publish their fees?#
Few publish them. Here is what we found on providers' own pages:
When a rate is quoted rather than published, ask for it in writing with four things in it: the rate for local cards (Jaywan, mada or KNET) and for international cards, any monthly or set-up fee, how often you are paid out, and what a refund or a chargeback costs. Compare those lines, not the headline percentage. And if you plan to pass the fee on to shoppers in Kuwait, remember that the new law needs the CBK's approval before a store adds a charge for paying electronically.
How do Apple Pay and buy now, pay later fit in?#
Apple lists the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman as Apple Pay countries (Apple, Apple Pay countries and regions (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). For Saudi Arabia, Apple's list of participating providers includes the major banks, stc pay, Hyper Pay, Tabby and Tamara (Apple, Apple Pay participating banks (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026).
Two technical points decide whether it works:
- Domain verification. MyFatoorah's documentation says you must verify your domain to enable Apple Pay (MyFatoorah docs, Apple Pay (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). A staging address and a live address each need it.
- Kuwait routes Apple Pay through KNET. Checkout.com's documentation says Apple Pay payments in Kuwait must use the KNET network, with a payment processing certificate set up in the KNET portal and three KNET credentials (a Transportal ID, a Transportal password and an encryption key) requested from your acquirer (Checkout.com docs, Apple Pay via KNET (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026).
Buy now, pay later sits beside the gateway as its own contract. Tabby says UAE shoppers can split a purchase into four interest-free payments, or longer plans of up to 12, while the merchant receives the full amount in days (Tabby for business (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). Tamara received a restricted finance licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in October 2025 (Tamara, CBUAE approval (opens in a new tab), 20 Oct 2025, read 28 Oct 2026), and its UAE site says it is available in stores across Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Tamara, UAE (opens in a new tab), read 28 Oct 2026). On a monthly product, such as the leasing calculator in our Rawahil concept build for a fictional Riyadh car rental firm (a concept build, not a client; its forms send nothing), the business decides whether the deposit, the first month or the whole term goes through the checkout.
How do you check that a gateway is licensed?#
Look the provider's legal name up on the regulator's own register, not on the provider's website alone:
Two cautions: the brand and the licensed company often have different names, so search the legal name; and a licence in one country does not cover another.
What does connecting a gateway to your website involve?#
This is the part we do. The steps, in the order we run them:
- Your business signs with the gateway in its own name, with its own trade licence or commercial registration and bank account. We never hold client money, and the merchant account, the dashboard and the payouts are yours.
- We connect the gateway's hosted page or SDK, so card details are typed into the gateway's page or its secure fields and never pass through your website's server.
- We build the return paths: success, failure and cancel pages, plus the server-side notification that marks an order paid even if the shopper closes the browser.
- We test in sandbox mode with the gateway's test cards, including a local card (Jaywan, mada or KNET where the gateway supports it) and a declined payment.
- We test Apple Pay on a real iPhone on the live domain before launch, then run one small live payment and refund it.
Every Gulf quote of ours lists the payment gateways the project needs. Our Gulf prices are fixed figures, the same number in dirhams, Qatari riyals and Saudi riyals, never a live conversion of the rupee price. A Shopify store, with up to 50 products set up, starts from AED 12,000 (₹1.2 lakh in India); a custom online store on WooCommerce or a headless build starts from AED 15,000 (₹1.5 lakh); and a custom business website of up to 8 pages starts from AED 8,000, or from KWD 650 in Kuwait. The website care plan starts from AED 500 a month, billed yearly. These are starting prices before GST (18%) in India and before VAT where it applies in the Gulf. Gateway fees are not part of them: you pay those to the gateway directly, and store and app fees are billed at cost, in your name. The full list is on our pricing page.
We are a web team in Calicut, Kerala, and we build for Gulf businesses remotely, over WhatsApp and video calls in your working hours. We have no office, licence or staff in the Gulf.
Want a checkout that takes local cards?#
Tell us the country, the platform you sell on and the gateway you have, or are talking to, and we will tell you what connecting it involves and what we would test before launch. Start with our e-commerce development page, or send us the details.
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Written by
Co-founder, Marketlube
Althameem Ali researched, edited and approved this post. Marketlube is a growth partner in Calicut building brands, websites, CRMs and campaigns for businesses across Kerala, India and the Gulf.
