# How to Choose a Payment Gateway for Your Moroccan Business: The Criteria That Matter > https://aslan.ma/blog/choisir-passerelle-paiement-maroc A practical guide to comparing payment gateways in Morocco: payment methods, true total cost, settlement times, integration options, regulatory standing, and the questions to ask before signing. **Published:** 2026-04-28 | **Category:** guides | **Reading time:** 9 min **Tags:** passerelle paiement, paiement en ligne, PME Maroc, comparatif, e-commerce, guide --- ## There Is No Single "Best" Payment Gateway Choosing a **payment gateway in Morocco** is a structural decision: it shapes your conversion rate, your cash flow, and your technical workload for years. Yet most comparisons stop at the advertised commission rate — which is rarely the deciding factor. The truth is more nuanced: the best gateway for a starting WooCommerce shop is not the best for a marketplace managing hundreds of sellers, nor for a restaurant that collects mostly in-store. This guide gives you an honest evaluation grid, criterion by criterion, so you can make a choice that fits *your* situation — including when that means ruling out an otherwise popular solution. ## Criterion 1: Supported Payment Methods Start with the simplest question: does the gateway accept the payment methods **your customers** actually use? - **Moroccan bank cards**: the foundation. Confirm that local debit cards are accepted, not only international cards. - **International cards**: essential if you sell to tourists, Moroccans abroad, or export markets. Some gateways accept them with restrictions or higher commissions — ask for the exact terms. - **Mobile wallets**: growing fast, especially among young urban customers. If that is your audience, a gateway without wallets will cost you conversions. - **Payment links**: essential if you sell through WhatsApp or Instagram without a website. A payment method that is missing at signing can stay "coming soon" for years. Evaluate what exists today, not the roadmap. ## Criterion 2: Pricing Structure — Calculate Total Cost, Not the Commission A gateway's pricing usually combines four components: **setup fees**, a **fixed monthly subscription**, a **percentage commission**, and sometimes **fixed per-transaction fees**. Comparing only the percentage is the classic trap. Run the numbers on **your** real volume. Example: a shop processing 200 transactions per month at an average basket of MAD 400, i.e. MAD 80,000 in volume: - **Offer A**: MAD 0 setup, no subscription, 2.8% commission → MAD 2,240/month - **Offer B**: MAD 3,000 setup, MAD 300/month subscription, 2.2% commission → MAD 2,060/month, plus MAD 250/month of setup amortized over one year → MAD 2,310/month in year one The offer with the "cheaper percentage" is the more expensive one in year one. Conversely, if your volume triples, Offer B becomes clearly better. Redo this calculation at your current volume *and* at your projected volume in 18 months. Then add the fees people forget: refund fees, dispute (chargeback) fees, settlement transfer fees, and monthly billing minimums. ## Criterion 3: Settlement Times Between a customer's payment and the funds landing in your account, expect **T+2 to T+7 business days** depending on the provider. For an e-merchant who pays suppliers at order time, that gap is a cash-flow survival issue, not a contractual footnote. Check three things: the real standard timeline (not the "starting from" figure), whether a **rolling reserve** holds back a percentage of your takings, and the conditions under which funds can be frozen during unusual activity spikes. ## Criterion 4: Integration — Be Honest About Your Technical Capacity - **Hosted payment page**: the gateway hosts the form, you redirect the customer. No advanced technical skills required, simplified PCI DSS compliance (SAQ A). The right choice for the vast majority of SMEs. - **CMS plugins** (WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify): a few clicks to install, if the plugin exists and is maintained. Check the plugin's last update date — an abandoned plugin is a risk. - **Direct API**: total control over the payment experience, but it assumes a developer is available at integration time *and over the long run* to handle webhooks, reconciliation, and API changes. If you have no in-house developer, an API-first gateway with no hosted page or plugins will cost you dearly in contractors. For a deeper look at each integration method, see our guide on [integrating online payments for Moroccan e-commerce](/blog/e-commerce-maroc-paiement). ## Criterion 5: Your Collection Channels, Today and Tomorrow Many Moroccan businesses are hybrid: a physical shop, a website, sales on Instagram. If that is you, favor a provider that covers **online payments, point of sale, and payment links** with unified settlement and reporting. Juggling a separate [POS terminal](/blog/terminal-paiement-pos-maroc) provider and an online gateway means two contracts, two accounting reconciliations, and two support lines to call when something breaks. If you sell exclusively online, this criterion matters less — do not pay for multi-channel capability you do not need. ## Criterion 6: Regulatory Standing — Verify It Every Time In Morocco, payment activity is regulated by **Bank Al-Maghrib**. A serious provider operates either as a **licensed payment institution** or as an **agent of a licensed institution**. In both cases, you must be able to clearly identify the regulated entity that carries your funds. Before signing, request in writing: the name of the licensed institution, the provider's exact status (institution or agent), and where in-transit funds are safeguarded. The list of licensed payment institutions is public with Bank Al-Maghrib — cross-check it against the answer. A provider that stays vague on this point is a red flag, however good its product. ## Criterion 7: Local Support and Documentation Quality The day a payment gets stuck, support quality becomes your number one criterion. Test it *before* signing: send a precise technical question and measure response time and relevance. Also verify the support language and its actual operating hours. Technical documentation is judged by reading it. Good documentation is public (no NDA, no account required), covers error cases and webhooks, and offers a test environment. As an example of what to look for, browse a public documentation site such as [doc.aslan.ma](https://doc.aslan.ma) and ask yourself: could your developer integrate without ever calling support? ### Where Does Aslan Sit in This Grid? In full transparency — Aslan operates a payment gateway. Against the criteria above: hosted page and REST API, coverage of online + point of sale + payment links, and the status of **Principal Agent of a payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib**, which you can verify exactly as described above. If your primary need is a very broad plugin ecosystem or complex multi-currency collection, compare precisely on those points: this guide's grid applies to Aslan just as it applies to everyone else. ## Criterion 8: Scalability - **Recurring payments**: essential if you are considering a subscription model - **Split payments**: automatically dividing a collected amount between several beneficiaries — the lifeblood of marketplaces - **Seller / marketplace accounts**: KYC onboarding of third-party sellers, payouts, per-seller reporting Migrating gateways in the middle of growth costs weeks of development and lost conversions. Anticipate. ## Checklist: The Questions to Ask Before Signing - Which payment methods are available **today** (local cards, international cards, wallets)? - What is the total monthly cost on **my** volume: setup + subscription + commission + per-transaction fees? - Are there refund, dispute, transfer fees, or a billing minimum? - What is the real settlement timeline, and is there a rolling reserve? - Which integration methods are offered, and is my CMS plugin maintained? - Can I collect online, in-store, and by link under one contract? - Which Bank Al-Maghrib-licensed institution stands behind the service, and what is the provider's exact status? - Is the documentation public, with a test environment? - What is the contractual commitment, and what does termination cost? - Are recurring payments and split payments available if my model evolves? ## The Bottom Line Choosing a payment gateway means weighing true total cost, technical capacity, collection channels, and regulatory solidity — with a weighting specific to your business. Take the time to run the cost calculation on your own numbers, demand written answers on regulatory status, and test support before signing. One hour of analysis today saves you a painful migration in eighteen months.