Cashfree Payment Gateway

What is Cashfree Payments

Cashfree Payments is a complete payment and banking platform designed for businesses in India. Its main purpose is to help companies collect payments from customers, send money (payouts) to vendors and employees, and manage international transactions. The platform provides a wide range of financial tools, including a payment gateway, bulk disbursal solutions, and identity verification services. Founded by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, Cashfree Payments is backed by major investors like SBI, Y Combinator, and Apis Partners, and it was incubated by PayPal. It serves over 800,000 businesses, processing a large volume of transactions annually and positioning itself as a key player in India's digital finance ecosystem.

Cashfree Payments Features

Cashfree Payments offers a suite of features to manage business finances effectively.

• Payment Gateway: Accept payments through more than 180 methods, including credit/debit cards, Net Banking, UPI, wallets like Paytm, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options. This ensures customers can pay with their preferred method.
• Payouts: Send money instantly, 24x7, to any bank account, UPI ID, card, or digital wallet. This is useful for vendor payments, salary disbursals, customer refunds, and cashbacks.
• International Payments: Collect payments from customers around the world in over 140 currencies. The platform helps businesses expand their reach globally.
• Payment Links & Forms: Create and share payment links via SMS, email, or WhatsApp to collect payments without needing a website. Payment Forms can be embedded on a site to gather customer details and payments together.
• Identity Verification: A set of APIs to verify customer identity using bank accounts, UPI IDs, PAN cards, and Aadhaar. This helps prevent fraud and ensures compliance with regulations.
• Custom Checkout Experience: Build a checkout page tailored to your brand. Features include saved addresses, discount options, and intelligent routing across multiple payment gateways to improve success rates.
• Abandoned Order Recovery: Automatically send reminders to customers who left items in their cart. These messages can be sent via WhatsApp or SMS with special offers to encourage them to complete the purchase.
• RTO Reduction: For e-commerce businesses, this feature helps reduce losses from 'Return to Origin' on cash-on-delivery (COD) orders by identifying high-risk customers and encouraging prepaid payments.

Cashfree Payments Pricing Plans

Cashfree Payments offers a flexible pricing structure that adapts to the size and needs of a business. Instead of rigid tiers, the pricing is primarily transaction-based.

• Standard Plan: This plan is suitable for startups and small to medium-sized businesses. It comes with standard transaction fees for different payment modes like credit cards, UPI, and net banking. There are no setup fees or monthly charges.
• Enterprise Plan: For large businesses with high transaction volumes, Cashfree Payments provides custom pricing. This plan includes tailored rates, a dedicated account manager, and access to premium support and features. Businesses need to contact the sales team to get a custom quote based on their specific requirements.

Cashfree Payments Free Plan

Cashfree Payments does not have a 'free plan' in the sense of processing transactions for free. However, there are no setup fees, annual maintenance charges, or monthly costs to create and maintain an account. Businesses only pay a fee for each successful transaction. They also offer a Test Environment (or sandbox mode) which is completely free to use. This allows developers and businesses to integrate and test the payment gateway and other products with their systems using test credentials and simulated transactions before going live.

How to use Cashfree Payments

Getting started with Cashfree Payments is a straightforward, digital process.

1. Sign Up: First, create an account on the Cashfree Payments website by providing basic details.
2. Complete Your Profile: Fill in your business profile information and upload the required business documents, such as your PAN card and business registration certificate. The process is entirely paperless.
3. Select Products: Choose the services you need, such as the Payment Gateway for collecting payments or Payouts for sending money.
4. Integrate and Test: Use the free Test Environment to integrate the platform with your website or app. The developer documentation and SDKs help with this process. You can use test API keys to simulate transactions.
5. Account Verification: The Cashfree Payments team will review your documents and application. This usually takes about 24 working hours.
6. Go Live: Once your account is activated, you will receive a confirmation email. You can then switch to the Production Environment using your live API keys and start accepting real payments from customers.

Pros and Cons of Cashfree Payments

Pros:

• Wide Range of Payment Modes: Supports over 180 payment options, giving customers great flexibility.
• Instant Refunds: Offers faster refunds compared to the industry standard, which improves customer satisfaction.
• 24x7 Payouts: Businesses can send money at any time, including on weekends and bank holidays.
• Developer-Friendly: Provides robust APIs, detailed documentation, and SDKs for easy integration.
• Fast Onboarding: The account activation process is quick and completely digital.
• High Success Rates: Uses smart routing technology to ensure a higher percentage of successful transactions.

Cons:

• India-Focused: The platform is primarily designed for businesses operating in the Indian market.
• Complex Pricing for Beginners: While flexible, the custom pricing model can be confusing for new businesses who prefer fixed rates.
• Requires Technical Integration: To use the full potential of its features, some technical knowledge is needed for API integration.

Cashfree Payments integrations

Cashfree Payments integrates with a wide variety of platforms and services to make payment processing seamless for businesses.

• Shopify: A dedicated plugin allows Shopify store owners to easily integrate Cashfree Payments and accept payments directly on their site.
• WooCommerce: Offers a plugin for WordPress websites using WooCommerce, enabling quick setup for e-commerce stores.
• Magento: Provides an extension for Magento-based stores for a smooth checkout experience.
• OpenCart: Supports integration with OpenCart platforms through a simple extension.
• PrestaShop: A module is available for PrestaShop users to add Cashfree Payments to their online store.
• Major Wallets and Services: It is also integrated with major payment services like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Ola Money.

Cashfree Payments Alternatives

• Razorpay: A direct competitor in India offering a very similar product suite, including a payment gateway, payouts, and business banking services. Razorpay is known for its user-friendly dashboard and strong startup focus.
• Paytm Payment Gateway: A popular choice in India due to the strong brand recognition of Paytm. It offers a vast range of payment options and is widely used by both small and large businesses.
• Stripe: A global leader in online payments with a strong presence in India. Stripe is highly regarded for its excellent developer tools, clean APIs, and simple, transparent pricing.
• PayU: Another major payment gateway in India with a large merchant base. PayU provides reliable payment solutions and has a strong focus on serving enterprise clients.

Cashfree Payments API

Yes, Cashfree Payments provides a comprehensive set of APIs for developers. The platform is built with an API-first approach, allowing businesses to integrate payment and banking functionalities directly into their products and workflows.

Developers can access the API documentation on the Cashfree Payments website. To get API keys, you need to sign up for an account. Once your account is created, you can access both Test and Production API keys from your merchant dashboard. The Test keys are available immediately for integration and testing in the sandbox environment.

Here is a sample cURL code example to create a payment link using the Payouts API:

curl -X POST https://payout-api.cashfree.com/payout/v1/authorize \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-Client-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" \
-H "X-Client-Secret: YOUR_SECRET_KEY" 

Cashfree Payments Affiliate program

Cashfree Payments offers a partnership program for businesses and individuals who want to collaborate. While a traditional affiliate program with public commission rates is not explicitly detailed, they have several partnership models:

• Referral Partners: Refer new businesses to Cashfree Payments and earn a commission on the transactions they process.
• Integration Partners: Developers and agencies can partner to build integrations or help merchants integrate Cashfree Payments into their systems.
• Resellers: Businesses can resell Cashfree Payments' solutions as part of their own service offerings.

To join, you should visit the 'Partner with us' section on their website and fill out the contact form. A member of their partnerships team will then get in touch to discuss the program details, commission structure, and how to get started.