DePay

Open-source payment widgets, honestly reviewed. No hype about Web3, just what you get when you integrate it.

TL;DR

• What it is: MIT-licensed JavaScript widget library that lets you embed crypto checkout into any website — customers pay from their wallet, funds land directly in yours [README][website].
• Who it’s for: Developers building Web3 storefronts, crypto-native merchants, and any business that wants to accept stablecoins or tokens without routing funds through an exchange first [website].
• Cost model: The widget code is free (MIT). DePay charges 0%–1.5% per transaction on the infrastructure side — no monthly subscription, no setup fees [pricing].
• Key strength: Real-time token auto-conversion means your customer can pay in whatever token they hold (ETH, MATIC, SOL) and you receive the token you want. No manual swaps, no intermediary holding funds [website][README].
• Key weakness: The widget is open source but the routing and conversion infrastructure runs on DePay’s servers. You’re not truly self-hosting the payment rails — you’re self-hosting a UI layer on top of their service. This is a meaningful distinction [README].
• Honest signal: 125 GitHub stars on the widget repo. For a tool claiming to be the crypto payment standard and listing Uniswap as a client, that’s a small footprint. Take the “their #1 choice” homepage copy with appropriate skepticism [merged profile][website].

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What is DePay

DePay is a payment widget platform for cryptocurrency transactions. The core product is an embeddable JavaScript component (@depay/widgets) that adds a wallet-to-wallet checkout flow to any web page. When a user clicks “Pay,” a modal opens, connects to their wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, and 100s of others), and initiates a payment that settles directly to the merchant’s wallet address on-chain [README][website].

The MIT-licensed widget handles the frontend: wallet connection, token selection, transaction confirmation UI. The backend — routing, token conversion, exchange rate fetching, webhook callbacks — runs on DePay’s infrastructure at app.depay.com. This is an important split to understand: the open-source part is the UI shell. The part that makes payments actually work is a hosted service [README].

The pitch on the homepage is “payments straight to your wallet — no intermediaries, no deposits, no withdrawals, no chargebacks” [website]. That’s accurate. This is a genuine structural advantage of crypto payments: settlement is final, reversals require the recipient to voluntarily return funds. For merchants burned by Stripe chargebacks or PayPal holds, that’s a real selling point.

The blockchain support list covers the main chains: Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Solana, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Gnosis, Base, and Worldchain [README]. That’s comprehensive coverage of where most token activity happens. Wallets are equally broad — the README says “most crypto wallets” and lists WalletConnect, Coinbase SDK, Solana Pay, and Solana Mobile Wallet Adapter as supported standards [website][README].

Notable integrations listed on the homepage include Uniswap (merch shop and wallet adoption), Azuki (Shopify merch with $ANIME token payments), and Tools for Humanity’s World App [website]. These are real projects with real transaction volume, which is meaningful validation for a 125-star repo.

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Why People Choose It

No independent third-party reviews of DePay the payment platform were found during research — the search surface returned unrelated content. The analysis below is based on primary sources: the GitHub README, website, and pricing page.

The chargeback problem. Stripe and PayPal disputes are a constant operational headache for e-commerce merchants. Credit card chargebacks run 0.5%–1% of transaction volume for average merchants, and the dispute process heavily favors buyers. Crypto payments are irreversible by design — there is no chargeback mechanism. For high-risk merchant categories (digital goods, downloads, certain subscription services) where fraudulent disputes are common, this is a structural cost reduction, not just a talking point [website].

The “accept any token” conversion angle. The killer feature buried in the homepage copy is auto-conversion: “customers pay seamlessly using any token in their wallet” [website]. In practice, most crypto holders have a mix of ETH, stablecoins, and various tokens sitting in their wallets. Forcing them to manually swap to a specific token before checking out creates friction and abandonment. DePay’s routing layer handles the swap on-chain at checkout time. The customer pays from whatever they hold; the merchant receives the configured token. This is genuinely better UX than manually specifying an exact token and address.

No float risk. With traditional payment processors, funds sit in your processor account for 1–7 business days before transfer. DePay payments settle to your wallet in the same transaction — block confirmation time, not business days [website]. For cash-flow-sensitive operations, this matters.

The plugin options. DePay ships native plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce, and WordPress [website]. For non-technical founders running one of these platforms, this is the low-friction path — install a plugin, configure your wallet address, go live. No code required.

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Features

Based on the README and website documentation:

Payment widget:

• Wallet connection modal supporting 100s of wallets via WalletConnect and native SDKs [README]
• Multi-blockchain support: Ethereum, BNB, Polygon, Solana, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Gnosis, Base, Worldchain [README]
• Token auto-conversion (customer pays any token, merchant receives configured token) [website]
• Supports both specific amounts and open-amount donations [README]
• Configurable via Managed Integration (config stored in app.depay.com) or Unmanaged (hardcoded in your JS) [README]

Integration modes:

• Managed: single integration ID, config managed in dashboard, full callback support for server-side actions [README]
• Unmanaged: hardcoded accept array in your JS, no dashboard needed, no server callbacks. Limited to initiating and executing payments only [README]
• Dynamic payload support for backend-driven pricing (e.g., cart totals calculated server-side) [README]

Platform-specific packages:

• @depay/widgets — full package with EVM + SVM [README]
• @depay/widgets-evm — Ethereum Virtual Machine only [README]
• @depay/widgets-svm — Solana Virtual Machine only [README]
• CDN script tag option for non-npm environments [README]

CMS and e-commerce plugins:

• Shopify plugin [website]
• WooCommerce plugin [website]
• WordPress plugin [website]

Configuration UI:

• Visual configurator at app.depay.com/integrations/new [README]
• Technical demo at depayfi.github.io/widgets/demo.bundle.html [README]

What’s notably absent from the public documentation: details on webhooks, server-side verification flow, dashboard reporting, refund handling, and compliance (KYB/KYC). For a merchant running serious transaction volume, those details matter, and they weren’t surfaced in the available sources.

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Pricing: What the Transaction Fee Model Actually Costs

DePay uses transaction-based pricing rather than subscriptions: 0% to 1.5% per transaction, no setup fees, no monthly fee [pricing].

The pricing page headline says the fee scales by business size — “for businesses of any size” — but the full tier breakdown wasn’t available in the scraped data. The 0% entry point suggests there’s either a free tier for low-volume or promotional pricing. The 1.5% ceiling is the key number to compare against alternatives.

Stripe for comparison: Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for standard card payments in the US. For a $50 order, that’s roughly $1.75. At DePay’s 1.5%, the same $50 order costs $0.75 — before accounting for on-chain gas fees, which vary by blockchain and congestion.

The gas fee variable. On-chain transactions have network fees paid by the sender (or embedded in the routing). Gas on Ethereum mainnet can run $2–15+ during congestion, which makes it cost-prohibitive for small transactions. On Polygon, Arbitrum, or Optimism, gas is a fraction of a cent. For a merchant doing $10 digital goods sales, Ethereum mainnet is the wrong chain; Polygon or Base is the right one [README]. This is a user-responsibility detail that DePay’s marketing doesn’t dwell on.

Concrete scenario:

• 100 orders per month, $30 average order value = $3,000 monthly volume
• Stripe: ~$117 (2.9% + $0.30/tx)
• DePay at 1.5%: ~$45
• DePay at 0%: $0 + gas fees (cents per tx on L2s)
• Annual difference (Stripe vs DePay 1.5%): ~$864 saved

That math works if your customers hold crypto. If they don’t, none of this applies — DePay has no fiat payment fallback [website].

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Deployment Reality Check

For developers, the integration path is genuinely fast. Install the npm package, add three lines of JavaScript with your integration ID, and you have a working payment modal [README]. The configurator UI at app.depay.com lets you set accepted tokens, receiver addresses, and callback URLs without writing config code. Realistic time-to-first-payment for a developer: under an hour.

For non-technical founders, the Shopify and WooCommerce plugins lower the bar considerably. If you’re on one of those platforms, it’s plugin-install territory [website].

What you need:

• A crypto wallet address for receiving funds (MetaMask, Phantom, hardware wallet)
• An app.depay.com account to create an integration and get your integration ID
• For Shopify/WooCommerce: the plugin installed and configured
• For custom integration: a JavaScript-capable website or React/Next.js app

SSR caveat. The README explicitly warns that DePay Widgets must be loaded client-side only. In Next.js, this means dynamic imports with ssr: false. This is a real gotcha for developers who don’t read the README carefully [README].

The infrastructure dependency. Since the routing layer is DePay’s service, your payment flow depends on app.depay.com being available. If DePay has downtime, your checkout breaks. This is a standard SaaS dependency risk — not unique to DePay, but worth flagging given the “self-hosted” framing this site uses for most tools. DePay is not self-hostable in the same way Home Assistant or Nextcloud is. The widget is open-source; the service is not [README][website].

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• MIT widget library. The frontend code is genuinely open source — fork it, customize it, embed it in your product without licensing conversations [README].
• Auto-conversion. Customers pay from whatever token they hold; you receive what you want. This removes a major UX friction point in crypto checkout [website].
• No chargebacks. Crypto payment finality eliminates the chargeback risk that makes fraud-prone merchant categories expensive or uninsurable on traditional processors [website].
• Instant settlement. Funds in your wallet at block confirmation, not in a processor float [website].
• 10-chain support. Coverage of all major EVM chains plus Solana means you’re not forcing customers onto a specific network [README].
• Shopify/WooCommerce plugins reduce the integration burden for non-technical merchants to plugin-level effort [website].
• Real enterprise clients. Uniswap and Azuki are genuine validation, not manufactured social proof [website].
• Transaction fee model. 0–1.5% per transaction is cheaper than Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 for merchants with meaningful volume [pricing].

Cons

• Not truly self-hosted. The routing and conversion infrastructure runs on DePay’s servers. The widget is an open-source client for a hosted service [README].
• Crypto-only. No fiat fallback. If your customer doesn’t have crypto, they can’t pay. Depending on your audience, this is either fine or fatal [website].
• 125 GitHub stars. For a tool listing Uniswap as a client and calling itself the “#1 choice for crypto payments,” the community footprint is small. Limited public discussion, few independent code audits visible [merged profile].
• No independent reviews found. Absence of coverage from developer blogs, product review sites, or community forums is a yellow flag for a two-year-old payment tool. Either adoption is narrow or the SEO/community presence is weak.
• Gas fee complexity. On-chain transaction costs are unpredictable and chain-dependent. The marketing doesn’t surface this clearly, which means non-technical users will hit it as a surprise [README].
• Managed integration dependency. Full callback support requires the managed integration path, which means app.depay.com being up and your integration config being accessible [README].
• Compliance gaps unknown. KYB, KYC, AML requirements for crypto payment processors vary by jurisdiction. The available documentation doesn’t address this, which is a significant gap for any merchant operating in regulated markets.

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Who Should Use This / Who Shouldn’t

Use DePay if:

• You’re building a Web3-native product, merch store, or DeFi service and your users are expected to hold crypto wallets.
• You’re a developer integrating payments into a React/Next.js app and want a fast, MIT-licensed widget without building your own.
• You’re on Shopify or WooCommerce and want to accept stablecoins or tokens with minimal configuration.
• Chargebacks are a specific pain point in your current payment stack.
• You’re comfortable with the dependency on DePay’s infrastructure and the associated availability risk.

Skip it if:

• Your customers are non-crypto users. If they pay with Visa and don’t own ETH, DePay is irrelevant.
• You need fiat on/off ramps, invoicing, recurring billing, or tax reporting — none of these are in the product scope.
• You’re in a regulated industry (financial services, healthcare) where the compliance posture of your payment provider needs to be documented and auditable.
• You want truly self-hostable infrastructure where you control the full stack.
• You’re price-sensitive to transaction fees at high volume — the 1.5% ceiling is better than Stripe but not free.

Proceed carefully if:

• You’re building in a jurisdiction with cryptocurrency payment regulations — verify DePay’s compliance posture before going live.
• Your transaction sizes are small ($5–15) on Ethereum mainnet — gas fees will cannibalize your margins. Use an L2.

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Alternatives Worth Considering

• Coinbase Commerce — Similar wallet-to-wallet crypto payments, backed by Coinbase with more brand recognition. Hosted service, not open source. No subscription fee, charges network fees only. Better for merchants who want enterprise support.
• NOWPayments — Crypto payment processor with fiat conversion options, more backend features, and broader reporting. Subscription-based pricing. Less developer-friendly integration.
• BTCPay Server — The closest thing to a truly self-hosted crypto payment processor. Genuinely open source, genuinely self-hostable, runs on your own server. Primarily Bitcoin-focused but with Lightning Network support. Setup is significantly more involved but you own the full stack.
• Stripe + crypto plugin — For merchants who want to keep fiat as primary and add crypto as a secondary option, Stripe’s ecosystem has crypto add-ons that don’t require replacing your existing checkout.
• Solana Pay — If you’re Solana-native and want open-source payment primitives, Solana Pay is a lower-level protocol that DePay actually wraps for SVM support. Going direct to Solana Pay gives you more control.

For a non-technical founder who primarily serves fiat customers and is considering adding crypto as an option, BTCPay Server is the honest self-hosted comparison. It’s harder to set up but you actually own the infrastructure. DePay is the right choice if your users are already wallet-native and you want a fast integration with auto-conversion.

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Bottom line

DePay solves a real problem — accepting crypto payments without forcing customers to hold a specific token or navigate manual swaps — and it does it with a clean, MIT-licensed widget and decent chain coverage. The auto-conversion UX and no-chargeback finality are genuine advantages over traditional processors for the right use case. The transaction fee model (0–1.5%) beats Stripe math at meaningful volume.

The honest qualification: this is a tool for crypto-native merchants serving crypto-native customers. It won’t convert your Visa-paying audience to Web3 checkout. The “self-hosted” framing in its category is partial — the widget is MIT, the infrastructure is a hosted service. And 125 GitHub stars is a small community footprint for a payment tool you’re trusting with your revenue. If your audience already lives in wallets and you need fast integration, DePay is a reasonable choice. If you’re a non-technical founder building a mainstream e-commerce store looking to cut SaaS costs, this solves a different problem than the one you have.

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Sources

The third-party articles provided for this review were not about DePay the payment platform and could not be cited. Sources below are primary.

1. DePay Homepage — https://depay.com
2. DePay Pricing Page — “Simple Pricing for Every Business – Start Free – 0% to 1.5% per Transaction” — https://depay.com/pricing
3. DePay Widgets GitHub README — @depay/widgets — MIT License — https://github.com/depayfi/widgets
4. DePay Integration Configurator — https://app.depay.com/integrations/new
5. DePay Technical Demo — https://depayfi.github.io/widgets/demo.bundle.html