Insights / Payments
How much does M-Pesa integration cost in Kenya?
Devaltech · · 6 min read
Quotes for M-Pesa integration in Kenya run from about KES 15,000 for a bare STK Push to well over KES 100,000 for a full build, and the two numbers are often for different jobs. Before you compare them, know what you are actually buying, because the price of the Daraja API itself is not part of it. Safaricom does not charge for developer access. You pay for the work around it. For the background on the API itself, read what changed in Daraja 3.0.
What the money actually pays for
The STK Push prompt is the easy part. A developer can get one working in the sandbox in a day or two. The rest of the bill is everything that happens when things go wrong: the customer who ignores the prompt, the wrong PIN, the callback that never arrives, the same payment confirmed twice. A cheap quote usually covers the prompt and stops there. A fair one covers the callback, a status query as a fallback, duplicate protection, and a clear message for every failure.
Reconciliation is the second line item people forget. If your orders and your M-Pesa statement are matched by a person at the end of the month, the integration is only half built. The order should mark itself paid, with the receipt number attached, without anyone reading a text message.
A checkout that takes the payment but cannot tell your system about it has not been integrated. It has been decorated.
What a quote should say in writing
Ask which shortcode it runs on, and whose name that is registered in. Ask what happens when the callback is lost. Ask what is tested in the sandbox and who handles go-live with Safaricom. Ask what the price excludes: transaction charges on your till or paybill are set by Safaricom and are never part of a developer's fee, and any good quote says so.
Get a free 12-point audit within 48 hours.
Direct integration or a gateway
A gateway such as Pesapal or Paystack is the quicker route if you only need to take payments and want cards beside M-Pesa. You skip your own Daraja integration, and you pay the gateway a percentage on every sale. Going direct costs more to build and nothing per transaction beyond Safaricom's own tariff. It also gives you your own till or paybill, refunds and payouts you control, and no third party sitting between you and your money.
The rule of thumb: low volume and a deadline, use a gateway. Steady orders, or a business where reconciliation takes someone hours each month, build direct. Somewhere past a hundred orders a month, the gateway's percentage can start to outweigh the one-off cost of building direct. Run the numbers on your own average order.
What it costs here
M-Pesa and card payments as a standalone integration start from KES 25,000. Added to a Starter or Growth website, payment integration is KES 10,000 from. Both include the callback, the duplicate protection, the automatic paid status and 30 days of fixes after launch. Safaricom's transaction charges are not in either figure, and neither is VAT if you are registered for it.