SSLCommerz vs AamarPay vs direct bKash: choosing a payment gateway in Bangladesh

When a Bangladeshi online store decides to take payments beyond cash on delivery, the question quickly becomes "which gateway?" — and the answer people give usually reflects whichever one they happen to use. This post lays out the real choice: an aggregator gateway (SSLCommerz, AamarPay and others like them) versus integrating bKash directly, and what each means for your fees, your settlement, your checkout and your workload.

We do not quote fees. Every gateway publishes a rate schedule, negotiates with larger merchants, and changes rates over time; a percentage in a blog post is the least reliable place to read it. Where a cost matters we say exactly what to look up.

Aggregator versus direct — the core difference

A direct integration connects your store to one payment provider — most often bKash, because it is the method Bangladeshi customers reach for first. Your store talks to bKash's own gateway using your own bKash merchant credentials. Money settles into your bKash merchant account. You have one contract, one set of fees, one method at checkout.

An aggregator sits between your store and many providers. You sign one contract with the aggregator, integrate once, and your checkout offers bKash, Nagad, Rocket, Upay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, internet banking and more. Payments settle from the aggregator to your bank account on the aggregator's schedule. You have one contract and one integration — but a middleman on every transaction.

Everything else follows from that distinction.

SSLCommerz

SSLCommerz is the longest-established aggregator in Bangladesh and the one most platforms and developers have integrated with. It offers a hosted checkout page — the customer is sent to SSLCommerz to pay and returned to your store — plus APIs for more custom flows. It covers cards, mobile financial services and bank options in one account, and provides a merchant panel for transactions, refunds and settlement reports.

What to look up. The current fee schedule by method (cards and mobile wallets are typically priced differently), the settlement cycle to your bank, the onboarding documents (a trade licence is normally required), and whether the pricing tier changes with volume.

Where it fits. Stores that want cards and several mobile wallets from day one under one agreement, and stores on a platform that already supports SSLCommerz.

AamarPay

AamarPay is another Bangladeshi aggregator with a similar shape: one merchant account, a hosted checkout, cards and mobile wallets in one place, and a merchant dashboard. Developers often describe its integration as straightforward, and it competes with SSLCommerz on onboarding speed and pricing for small merchants.

What to look up. Exactly the same list — fee schedule by method, settlement cycle, onboarding documents, volume tiers — and which platforms and plugins support it, because that decides whether you can use it without a developer.

Where it fits. Similar stores to SSLCommerz; the choice between the two usually comes down to the quoted rates, the settlement terms you are offered, and what your store software supports.

Direct bKash

Integrating bKash directly means a bKash merchant account with payment gateway (Checkout) access — we explain how to get one in how to open a bKash merchant account — and a store that talks to bKash's gateway with your credentials.

What to look up. bKash's merchant fee for your account type and the settlement terms from your merchant wallet to your bank.

Where it fits. Stores where bKash and cash on delivery cover nearly all orders — which, in practice, is most Bangladeshi stores selling to consumers — and stores that want the money to land in their own bKash merchant account immediately rather than via an intermediary.

Side by side

	SSLCommerz / AamarPay (aggregator)	Direct bKash
Methods at checkout	bKash, Nagad, Rocket, cards, banking and more	bKash only
Contracts	One, with the aggregator	One, with bKash
Fees	Aggregator's schedule (check per method)	bKash's merchant fee (check)
Money lands in	Your bank, on the aggregator's cycle	Your bKash merchant account
Developer needed	Depends on your platform	Depends on your platform
Onboarding	Trade licence and business documents	Trade licence and business documents
Best for	Stores needing cards and several wallets	Stores where bKash + COD is enough

The two columns are not rivals so much as answers to different questions. The right question is: what do my customers actually pay with?

What a Bangladeshi store actually needs at checkout

Look at your own orders before choosing. For most stores selling to consumers in Bangladesh, the payment mix is dominated by cash on delivery, followed by bKash, with everything else a small minority. If that describes your store:

• COD plus direct bKash covers almost every order and keeps your costs and complexity lowest. Adding an aggregator to serve a small percentage of card-paying customers is a cost worth measuring, not assuming.
• Add an aggregator when the data says so — when customers ask for cards or Nagad often enough to show up in your support messages, when you sell higher-priced items where card instalments matter, or when you sell to businesses that pay by bank.
• Never make COD harder to push people online. In Bangladesh, a checkout that hides COD loses orders; the better tactic is an advance payment or a small discount for paying online, which we cover in cutting fake orders and COD returns.

There is one thing an aggregator does not fix: fraud on COD. That is solved by confirmation, advance payment and courier delivery-history checks, not by adding payment methods.

How this works on Eazifiy

On Eazifiy, the two approaches are both built in and you can run either or both:

• bKash direct is part of the platform. Paste your bKash gateway credentials under Settings → Payment Methods and bKash appears at checkout, paying straight into your merchant account. It also enables advance payment on COD, a bKash-only extra discount and delivery-fee-in-advance — details on the bKash payment page.
• SSLCommerz can be connected in the same place. Once your SSLCommerz account is linked, card, Nagad and Rocket become available as checkout options, taken through SSLCommerz's hosted checkout and settled by SSLCommerz to your bank. Until it is linked, those methods stay hidden from customers so a half-configured store never shows a payment option that cannot work.
• Cash on delivery is always available and can be combined with either.

AamarPay is not currently a built-in option on Eazifiy; stores that want cards or Nagad use the SSLCommerz connection. Eazifiy does not add a fee of its own to any payment — the gateway's charges are between you and the gateway, and Eazifiy never holds your money.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, an aggregator or direct bKash? Compare the current published schedules for the methods you will actually take. The honest general answer is that a direct integration has one fee and an aggregator has one per method plus, sometimes, a setup or annual charge — but the specific numbers change and depend on your volume.

Can I use an aggregator and direct bKash at the same time? Yes. Many stores take bKash directly (so bKash money lands in their merchant wallet instantly) and route cards and other wallets through an aggregator. On Eazifiy that is the default arrangement when both are connected.

Do I need a trade licence for any of these? Yes, in practice. Aggregators and bKash all ask for business identity documents, with a trade licence at the top of the list. See trade licence and registration for an online business.

How long does settlement take? Each provider publishes its own cycle and it can differ by payment method. Ask specifically about the method you expect most.

What about Nagad and Rocket directly, without an aggregator? Both have merchant programmes, but direct website integration for them is less commonly supported by store platforms than bKash. We cover the options in adding Nagad, Rocket and card payments.

Ready to set up payments? Every Eazifiy plan includes bKash and cash-on-delivery checkout with SSLCommerz available for cards, Nagad and Rocket, and the first 2 months are ৳200 a month on any plan — see pricing or the full feature list.