Linking to PayFast Questions

Check here for help on how to integrate PayFast with your website.

• How do I integrate PayFast with WHMCS?

  In order to use PayFast with WHMCS, you will need to install the PayFast payment module for WHMCS which is provided by PayFast. Installation requirements A working WHMCS installation Installation and ...

• Why is the redirect to PayFast not working from my mobile application?

  Your mobile application must be able to perform a browser redirect, since PayFast works via browser redirects only. Please ensure that your application is able to do this....

• Am I able to use HTML buttons in my mobile application?

  It is possible to do as long as the app allows for browser redirect. Keep in mind that the Pay Now buttons do not send an ITN after the successful payment so in order to keep track of payments, you wo...

• Why am I getting “Merchant_key invalid”?

  Ensure that live credentials are used for live transactions and test credentials are used for testing in the sandbox. Double check that the one set on your PayFast account matches the one set on your ...

• What causes the error "The supplied variables are not according to specification"?

  This error is thrown if any of the POSTed values are incorrect, for instance, if the merchant_id or merchant_key is incorrect (possibly due to using a sandbox credentials on the live site), the follow...

• What causes an invalid URL error?

  The PayFast system will pick up on ‘local’ or ‘localhost’ in the return, cancel and notify URLs and throw the invalid URL error. This is because it is not possible to test the ITN locally due to no se...

• What causes the ITN security check errors?

  Invalid signature This would be caused by the incorrect use of the passphrase, or the incorrect order of variables in the string that is MD5 hashed to generate the signature. Although this signature i...

• Why is PayFast just changing the currency symbol but not converting the currency amount?

  When the amount is sent to PayFast, we will assume this is a ZAR amount because PayFast only transacts in ZAR, even if your shop is using a foreign currency....

• Why is the currency not being converted?

  PayFast only works with ZAR and does not provide a currency conversion service. This would need to be handled before the amount is sent to PayFast....

• When using a button, how do I get my custom field included in the payment confirmation email from PayFast? ‘custom_str1’ is not working?

  You will need to add it on to the item name, or the item description, in order to get the information in the confirmation email. Please note the character limit for each of these as per our documentat...