HiPay Review

HiPay is a French payment service provider based in Levallois-Perret, outside Paris, that handles online, in-store and marketplace payments for mid-size and large European merchants. Its operating company, HiPay SAS, has been an authorised payment institution under France's banking supervisor, the ACPR, since August 2011, and passports that licence across the EU. The parent, HiPay Group, was spun out of the French digital media company HiMedia in June 2015 and trades on Euronext Growth Paris (ticker ALHYP). It processed €9.55 billion in 2025 for revenue of €74.8 million, and has reported a profit for three years running, though it booked a €1.4 million net loss in the first half of 2026. HiPay publishes no prices: its pricing page sends you to a sales form, and every rate, fee, payout schedule and contract term is negotiated per merchant. What it sells is a single contract covering cards, a long list of European local payment methods such as Bancontact, Bizum, MB Way, Bancomat Pay and Wero, PAX payment terminals and Tap to Pay in store, its own fraud tool (HiPay Sentinel), and a marketplace product built on escrow accounts. Retail is its core, and regulated online gambling is a fast-growing segment. Its Trustpilot score of 1.8 is dragged down by consumers disputing charges from merchants that use HiPay, not by reviews from merchants.

What HiPay is

HiPay is a French payment service provider for businesses selling online, in store and through marketplaces, mostly in Europe. It is headquartered at 94 rue de Villiers in Levallois-Perret, just outside Paris, with offices in Nantes, Italy, Belgium and Portugal, and a Madrid office opened in 2026. The company says it supports about 5,000 merchants and had more than 200 employees in 2024. Its named customers include Veepee, Fauchon, Alltricks and Jonak.

The company has several start dates. HiMedia launched the HiPay name in late 2008 or early 2009 as an e-wallet, backed by a Belgian e-money licence obtained in December 2008. The operating company, HiPay SAS, was previously Allopass SAS, part of HiMedia's payments business, and it received its payment institution authorisation from the ACPR in August 2011. HiPay says its first merchants went live on its current platform in 2013. In 2015 HiMedia separated its advertising and payments businesses: HiPay Group was incorporated in March 2015, HiMedia shareholders received one HiPay share for each HiMedia share while HiMedia kept 20%, and HiPay Group listed on Euronext Paris on 29 June 2015. It moved to Euronext Growth Paris on 27 May 2021. Because the brand, the licensed company, the current platform and the listed group each date from a different year, we do not give a single founding year.

Why we list HiPay as a payment platform

HiPay holds the merchant agreement itself, as a licensed payment institution, and runs its own processing stack: the gateway, the Sentinel fraud tool, the Console back office and settlement. In its full-service mode it collects the funds and pays the merchant after reconciliation, and it assesses each merchant individually rather than onboarding them instantly under a master account, which is how a payment facilitator works. Its documentation does refer to partner acquirers in the card flow, and for in-store payments a merchant can use HiPay purely as a gateway on top of its own bank contract. We considered listing it as a gateway, but most merchants contract with HiPay for the whole service.

What it costs

HiPay publishes no prices. Its pricing page, in English, French, German and Italian, only asks you to contact sales, and its About page says pricing is proportional to use and adapted to the size of the business. The form asks for your annual payment volume, in bands starting at €0 to €1 million. We found no published card rate, local payment method fee, monthly fee, setup fee, chargeback fee or terminal price on any HiPay-owned page, so rates are quoted per account. Its help centre says that once HiPay has configured an account, invoicing based on the agreed pricing starts as soon as the merchant activates it.

HiPay's own results give one useful point of reference. In 2025 its revenue was 0.78% of the payment volume it processed, down from 0.81% in 2024, and in the first quarter of 2026 the figure was 0.74%. That is a blended average across every merchant, channel and service, including in-store and marketplace customers, so it is not a rate you will be offered. It does suggest that HiPay mainly prices for merchants with large, negotiated volumes. When you ask for a quote, make sure it shows card fees, any interchange-plus breakdown, fees for each local payment method, refund and chargeback fees, terminal rental and any monthly minimum.

How it works

• Online: hosted payment page, iframe or Hosted Fields, plus plugins for Magento, PrestaShop, Shopify, Shopware, Salesforce Commerce, WooCommerce and Wizishop.
• Payment methods: cards and, according to HiPay, methods covering more than 85 countries and over 150 currencies. Its developer portal lists Apple Pay, PayPal, Bancontact, iDEAL, Przelewy24, TWINT, MyBank, Bancomat Pay, Bizum, MB Way, Multibanco, Wero, SEPA Direct Debit and SEPA transfers, Chèque-Vacances, and buy now, pay later through Alma and Oney.
• In store: PAX terminals and Tap to Pay, linked to the online account for cross-channel refunds, click-and-collect and ship-from-store. HiPay can act only as the gateway, with the merchant's own bank handling the money, or provide the full service and collect the funds itself.
• Marketplaces: escrow account, seller KYC checks and split payouts, with the operator registered as an agent of HiPay's payment institution, and connectors for Mirakl and Izberg.
• Fraud: HiPay Sentinel, with more than 80 configurable rules and PSD2 strong-authentication exemptions through transaction risk analysis, set up with HiPay's risk team.

Contracts, onboarding and payouts

There is no self-serve sign-up. HiPay asks for a company registration certificate less than three months old, ID for directors, the contract signatory and any beneficial owner holding more than 25%, and a signed group structure chart where a company is among the shareholders. It also checks that your website shows terms of sale, a legal notice, a privacy policy, a refund policy, the EU 14-day withdrawal right and contact details. HiPay's teams then configure the account and you activate it in HiPay Console.

HiPay publishes no contract length, termination terms, early-termination fee, payout schedule, rolling reserve or holding period. These are set in each merchant's contract, so read it closely before signing, particularly any clause allowing HiPay to hold or delay funds. In full-service mode HiPay collects the funds and pays out after reconciliation, and settlement reports can be delivered by email, API, server notification or SFTP. HiPay's legal notice says there is no alternative dispute-settlement body for merchants.

Financial position and ownership

HiPay Group is a small listed company, and it publishes its numbers. In 2025 it processed €9.55 billion, 4.4% more than in 2024, from 145 million transactions, for revenue of €74.8 million (up 0.7%), EBITDA of €8.2 million and net income of €5.9 million. That was its third profitable year in a row. The first half of 2026 was weaker. Volume rose 6.0% to €4.89 billion, but revenue fell 2.1% to €36.6 million and the group made a €1.4 million net loss. HiPay put this down to a less favourable business mix in its Digital segment, and in September it confirmed 2026 targets of 5% to 8% revenue growth and an EBITDA margin of 10% to 11%. Net financial debt was €21.6 million at 30 June 2026. HiPay also reported a temporary suspension of some business flows in Portugal in 2025, which it says have since been restored.

No shareholder has a majority. Following a capital increase completed on 31 January 2025, BJ Invest SAS held 32.25% of the shares and Eximium SAS 31.53%, and the share count was unchanged at 30 September 2026. HiPay names Benjamin Jayet as its President; he chaired the board meeting that approved the first-half 2026 accounts. Pierre Gironce is chief executive.

Reputation and complaints

As of 24 October 2026, HiPay scores 1.8 out of 5 from 929 reviews on Trustpilot. The breakdown points the other way: 57% of the reviews are five-star and 30% one-star. Trustpilot weights recent reviews more heavily, and only 21 were posted in the past year. Nearly all of those are one-star complaints from consumers in the UK and Europe who say they do not recognise a charge, often £39.50, £39.90 or €39, taken by a merchant using HiPay. HiPay has claimed the profile and replies to 93% of negative reviews, explaining that it processes payments for merchants and directing people to a form that identifies the seller. These reviews say more about some of the merchants on HiPay's platform than about the service merchants receive, but if you sell subscriptions, expect your customers to see the HiPay name on their statements.

We found few public reviews from merchants. HiPay's Shopify app had no reviews as of October 2026. Our searches found no lawsuit, sanction or regulatory enforcement action naming HiPay, including no decision of the ACPR's sanctions committee.

Who should use HiPay

HiPay suits a European retailer, franchise network or marketplace that sells both online and in store, processes enough volume to negotiate, and wants local payment methods such as Bancontact, Bizum, MB Way or Bancomat Pay, terminals and fraud screening under one licensed provider. It is a particularly natural fit for merchants based in France, Italy, Portugal or Spain. A small business that wants to see a price and start today, or a merchant selling mainly outside Europe, will find it a poor match. Anyone considering it should get the full pricing, payout schedule, reserve terms and termination clauses in writing before signing, because none of them is public.