Payment gateway

NOWPayments

Non-custodial gateway supporting a very large asset list, popular with hosting providers and smaller merchants.

non-custodial API Hosted checkout Invoicing

NOWPayments is a non-custodial crypto payment gateway supporting a wide range of assets and networks, with a low headline fee and integrations across most ecommerce platforms. Its non-custodial model means payments route to the merchant's own wallet rather than being held by the provider, which appeals to merchants who want to receive stablecoins directly.

Capabilities

Custody model
non-custodial
Settlement
stablecoin, crypto
Settlement notes
Non-custodial — funds route to the merchant's own wallet. Auto-conversion between assets is offered so a merchant can accept many coins and receive one.
Fees
Publishes a low headline percentage fee, among the lowest advertised in the category. Confirm current pricing directly.
Shopify
Supported
WooCommerce
Supported
API
Available
Hosted checkout
Available
Invoicing
Available
Merchant verification
Not confirmed
Geographic availability
Broad, with fewer country restrictions than custodial gateways.
Merchant requirements
An account and a receiving wallet address. Verification requirements scale with volume.

Integrations

  • WooCommerce
  • Shopify
  • PrestaShop
  • OpenCart
  • Magento
  • WHMCS
  • Custom API
  • Payment links

Strengths

  • Non-custodial — funds do not sit with the provider
  • Very broad asset and network coverage
  • Low advertised fee and wide plugin support

Trade-offs

  • No native fiat settlement, so the merchant handles conversion themselves
  • Broad asset lists mean more support surface for edge cases
  • Merchant support experience is lighter-touch than enterprise gateways

NOWPayments is the gateway you will find behind crypto checkouts at hosting providers and mid-sized online businesses, and its defining characteristic is that it does not hold the money.

Non-custodial, and what that means for a merchant

Payments route to the merchant’s wallet. The provider orchestrates the checkout, watches the chain and confirms the payment, but never takes possession.

For a merchant that means no counterparty holding their revenue, and it means they now hold stablecoins and are responsible for whatever comes next — conversion, treasury, accounting. Some merchants want exactly that. Others discover they wanted a bank deposit.

Breadth as a strategy

The supported asset list is long, and the network list with it. That suits merchants whose customers arrive with whatever they happen to hold, which is the reality for hosting providers serving a global technical audience.

The cost of breadth is edge cases: more assets means more chances for a customer to send the wrong thing on the wrong network. Merchants using gateways like this should expect a small but steady stream of support tickets that a narrow asset list would never generate.

For payers

Wide coin choice, cheap networks available, and a checkout that generally works well. As always, match the network exactly — the breadth that makes this gateway useful also makes the network selector the most important control on the page.

NOWPayments questions

Is NOWPayments custodial?
No. Payments route to the merchant's own wallet rather than being held by the provider, which is the main structural difference from gateways like BitPay.
Can merchants receive fiat?
Not natively. Merchants receive crypto or stablecoins and handle any fiat conversion themselves, typically through an exchange.