ShegerPay vs Chapa: Non-Custodial vs Custodial Payment Verification (2026)

Quick Answer: ShegerPay is a non-custodial payment verification API for Ethiopian businesses — funds settle directly to your bank account in real time. Chapa is the largest custodial Ethiopian payment gateway, holding funds T+1 to T+3 before payout. If you want instant settlement and no payment service license, choose ShegerPay. If you want hosted checkout pages and a known brand, Chapa works.

The core difference

Chapa operates a classical custodial model: a customer pays Chapa, Chapa holds the money, then Chapa pays you 1–3 business days later, minus fees. This requires Chapa to maintain a payment service provider license and creates settlement delay, reconciliation work, and counterparty risk.

ShegerPay operates a non-custodial verification model: customers pay you directly via CBE, Telebirr, BOA, Awash, Dashen, eBirr, CBEBirr, or M-Pesa, and ShegerPay verifies the transaction reference, amount, and sender in under two seconds via official bank APIs plus OCR fallback. Funds never touch ShegerPay. You don't need a payment license. Settlement is instant because it's rail-direct.

This is the same architectural shift Plaid made in the US versus Stripe — verification layer, not custody layer.

Feature comparison

When ShegerPay is the right choice

You're a SaaS, marketplace, or developer-led product that needs programmatic verification of inbound Ethiopian payments. You want funds in your own bank account immediately, not a third-party balance. You sell to international customers too and need PayPal or crypto (USDT) verification alongside Telebirr. You want predictable monthly pricing instead of per-transaction percentages that eat margin. You want to drop in code with sk_test_demo without a sales call.

When Chapa is the right choice

You need a hosted checkout page out of the box and don't want to build a payment UI. You sell primarily to Ethiopian consumers paying with a card or Telebirr and value Chapa's brand recognition at checkout. You're fine with custodial settlement and the per-transaction fee model.

Migrate from Chapa to ShegerPay

Migration is straightforward because ShegerPay's webhook shape is intentionally Chapa-compatible. Point your existing webhook handler at ShegerPay's HMAC-SHA256 signed events, swap the verification endpoint, and remove your payout reconciliation job — funds already arrive directly. Most teams migrate in one afternoon with zero downtime by running both in parallel for 48 hours. Use the demo key sk_test_demo to test end-to-end before flipping production traffic. Full migration guide and webhook signature verification code samples in our docs.

FAQ

Is ShegerPay cheaper than Chapa? For most merchants, yes. ShegerPay is flat $9–$29/month with no per-transaction percentage. Chapa charges 2.5–3.5% per transaction, which becomes more expensive once you exceed roughly 50,000 ETB/month in volume.

Does ShegerPay replace Chapa entirely? For verification-based flows, yes. If you specifically need Chapa's hosted checkout UI, you can run both — ShegerPay for API verification, Chapa for hosted pages.

Do I need a payment license to use ShegerPay? No. Because ShegerPay never touches funds, you don't need a payment service provider license. Customers pay your existing bank account; ShegerPay just confirms the payment landed.

Which Ethiopian banks does ShegerPay cover that Chapa doesn't? BOA, Dashen, eBirr (Kaafi and Coop), CBEBirr, and M-Pesa Ethiopia. ShegerPay supports all 10 major Ethiopian rails.

Can I verify PayPal and crypto with ShegerPay? Yes. PayPal IPN verification and USDT/BTC/ETH/SOL with 30-second auto-confirm are built in. Chapa doesn't offer either.

Is there a way to test without signing up? Yes. The key sk_test_demo works against the sandbox immediately. The MCP server also lets Claude or Cursor scaffold integration code with no account.

Try ShegerPay free with sk_test_demo · Read the docs · See pricing · [email protected] · +251 998 169 242