by Cashfree Payments India Private Limited
Cashfree Payments is a full-stack payments platform built for Indian businesses, founded in 2015 by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta in Bengaluru. Backed by Y Combinator early on and later by Apis Partners and State Bank of India, it has grown into an RBI-licensed payment aggregator that processes roughly $80 billion annually for over a million businesses. Beyond a standard payment gateway for accepting online payments, Cashfree covers the parts of money movement most gateways don't: instant payouts and bulk vendor/salary transfers, recurring payments via UPI AutoPay and eNACH, international and cross-border collections, and identity/KYC verification through its SecureID product. It holds an RBI Payment Aggregator licence and a PPI licence, and settles funds on a standard T+2 cycle with an optional Instant Settlements feature that releases money in around 15 minutes. Pricing is transaction-based with no setup or integration fee: 0% on UPI and RuPay, around 1.9% on Visa/Mastercard/Maestro and net banking, and higher rates on credit-card EMI, Amex/Diners, and international cards. Developers generally rate the APIs and self-serve documentation highly, and the platform handles peak transaction volumes without lag. Cashfree is best suited to Indian startups, D2C brands, and platforms that need both collections and payouts from one provider. The main trade-offs are customer support that lags Razorpay and PayU, occasional account freezes or transaction limits, and reports of an annual maintenance charge that some merchants say wasn't clear at sign-up. For businesses that value payouts and fast settlements, it's a strong made-in-India alternative to Stripe and PayPal.
Cashfree Payments India Private Limited
3.9/5 on Google Play Store — Cashfree Payments Business App, merchant-facing (1,532 reviews) · Last verified 2026-09-06
Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd holds a live RBI Certificate of Authorisation as a Payment Aggregator, granted 19 December 2023, alongside cross-border (PA-CB) and prepaid instrument authorisations — all listed on the RBI's own published register. That covers regulatory standing, not day-to-day service quality: merchants have reported sudden account freezes and blocked payouts, so read the terms around dispute and hold triggers before routing a high-volume business through it.
Cashfree quotes per-transaction rates that vary by payment method, with UPI cheapest and credit-card EMI, Amex/Diners and international cards costing most, and it does not charge a setup or integration fee. Confirm the full schedule directly with Cashfree before onboarding rather than relying on headline rates — merchants have reported an annual maintenance charge of around Rs 4,999 plus GST that they say was not clearly disclosed against the platform's 'zero maintenance' sign-up messaging.
Both are RBI-licensed Indian payment aggregators covering the same core payment methods, so the difference is scope versus support. Cashfree is the stronger pick if you need payouts, bulk vendor or salary transfers and cross-border collections from one dashboard, and its API documentation is well regarded by developers. Razorpay is generally reported to resolve support tickets and disputes faster, which matters more if you expect hands-on help with chargebacks or account holds.
Hand-picked videos to help you get started — tutorials, demos, and reviews.
Complete Cashfree Payments Integration Tutorial | Step-by-Step Guide 2025
Payouts API Integration - A step by step tutorial | Cashfree Payments
How to Set Up Cashfree Payment Gateway: Complete Onboarding Tutorial | Quick Activation Guide
Cashfree Payments Developer Docs Walkthrough | APIs, Integrations & DevStudio
Cashfree Payments is a powerful Indian alternative to these international apps:
Yes, Cashfree Payments by Cashfree Payments India Private Limited is an Indian alternative to Stripe. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Stripe →
Yes, Cashfree Payments by Cashfree Payments India Private Limited is an Indian alternative to PayPal. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to PayPal →
Yes, Cashfree Payments by Cashfree Payments India Private Limited is an Indian alternative to Adyen. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Adyen →
Yes, Cashfree Payments by Cashfree Payments India Private Limited is an Indian alternative to Braintree. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Braintree →
Razorpay Software Limited
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Instamojo Technologies
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IppoPay Technologies Private Limited
IppoPay is a Chennai fintech built for small merchants, freelancers and Tier-2/3 shopkeepers — UPI QR, sound-box payment alerts, POS, payment links/pages and merchant lending in one app. Domestic cards, net banking and UPI cost 1.9%, international cards 3.5%, no setup or monthly fee. Its own terms admit it does not itself hold RBI Payment Aggregator authorisation — settlement runs through partnered, RBI-regulated banks. Play Store rating: 4.0 from 1,691 reviews.
One97 Communications Ltd
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PhonePe Limited
PhonePe is India's most-used UPI payments app, with 700M+ registered users and roughly 46% of UPI transaction volume (NPCI, June 2026). Use it for instant money transfers, mobile recharges, bill payments and merchant QR scans, plus mutual funds, insurance and lending. PhonePe Pulse publishes free public dashboards on India's UPI traffic. Majority-owned by Walmart; headquartered in Bengaluru.
National Payments Corporation of India
BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is India's official UPI payment app by NPCI with 100M+ downloads and 128M active users. Instant peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, merchant QR scanning, and balance checks linked directly to bank accounts. UPI Lite+ enables PIN-free payments up to Rs 1,000 per transaction. Supports 12+ Indian languages. Completely free with zero transaction fees, no ads. Government-backed PhonePe and Google Pay alternative.
