You don't need a gateway at all: wallet and InstaPay work without linking anything (Getting paid by wallet). A gateway helps if you want students to pay by card and have the course open by itself, with nothing for you to check.
Before you start, three things:
- Linking is 4 copy-and-paste steps, and needs no experience. We'll show you exactly where to tap, with pictures.
- These keys are like the password to your money: don't send them to anyone, not even us. Our team will never ask you for them.
- Want someone with you? At the start of linking there's a button that opens our support WhatsApp to book a call. We walk you through it step by step on the phone, and you paste the keys yourself.
What you need first
A Paymob merchant account. A "merchant account" is an account with a payment company like Paymob that lets you accept Visa and Meeza, with the money landing in your own account. If you don't have one, open it on Paymob's own website and come back once it's active.
Other gateways: Kashier is coming soon, and Geidea, OPay and Fawry are coming later. Until then, students pay you by wallet and InstaPay.
1. Start from "Ways to pay"
From your academy dashboard → Settings → Ways to pay → + Add a payment gateway → Paymob. (Or from "Link a payment gateway" in "Your next steps".)
Then tap Open the Paymob dashboard: it opens in another page. Sign in there and keep our page open; we'll wait for you. These steps are easiest on a computer, but a phone works too.
Each step is a screen of its own: a picture of the Paymob dashboard with a circle on the spot, the path under it with the button names exactly as they're written there, and one box with a big Paste button. If your browser won't paste from the button, press and hold inside the box and choose "Paste".
2. The four steps
Step 1 of 4: the "Secret Key"
Settings → Developers → API Keys → tap View next to Secret Key and copy all of it.
Step 2 of 4: the "Public Key"
On the same page, right next to it: copy the Public Key.
Step 3 of 4: the "HMAC" key
Settings → Account Info → HMAC. On some accounts the section is called Profile.
Step 4 of 4: the "card payment number" (Integration ID)
Settings → Payment Integrations → the number next to the card payment method. If you have wallet payment turned on in Paymob, there's an optional box for its number too.
3. We check as you paste
As soon as you paste, without tapping anything:
- Extra spaces and line breaks are removed by themselves.
- If you pasted the public key in place of the secret one: "That looks like the "Public Key". We need the one labelled "Secret Key". Both are on the same page."
- If the key is shorter than it should be: "This key looks cut off from copying. Tap "View" again and copy all of it."
- If you paste a line with words and numbers into the payment number box, we keep only the digits.
And you don't need to paste any link into Paymob: we send the payment-notice link with every order ourselves.
4. The mode is read from the keys
We won't ask "practice or real". We can tell from the keys:
| What you'll see | It means |
|---|---|
| "You're in real mode: students will pay real money that reaches you." | All good: this is what you'll get paid with. |
| "These are practice keys: no real money moves…" | You're in practice mode. Your students won't see card payment until you link the real-mode keys. |
| "One key is practice and the other is real…" | In the Paymob dashboard, switch Test / Live to Live and copy both again. |
Want to try without real money first? At the start of linking there's a Try it first without real money link: set the switch to Test and copy the keys that show. Once you're happy, do the same steps with the Live keys.
5. "Check the link" runs by itself
After the last step we make a small request with no money moving. If all is well: The link works ✓. If not, the message tells you the fix and takes you back to the exact step:
| The message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Paymob refused the secret key. It was probably copied short." | Tap Back to step 1 and copy all of it again. |
| "Payment number … isn't in your account, or it's from the other mode." | Tap Back to step 4 and look at the picture. You probably took a Test number with Live keys, or the other way round. |
| "Paymob isn't answering right now; it's not you." | Try again in a few minutes. Everything you pasted is saved. |
6. "Try a payment yourself" (optional)
- In practice mode: we show Paymob's published practice card, ready to copy. Pay the practice order, and when the payment notice reaches us you'll see "Great! Payments and notices are working 🎉".
- In real mode: no need to try. A student's first payment shows everything works.
7. Save, and you're done
Tap Save. The keys are stored protected and never shown again to anyone, not even us: you only see "Saved (ends in a9F2)". And: "Great! Your students can pay by Visa and Meeza from now on 🎉".
From the same page, any time:
- Stop card payment: students pay by wallet and InstaPay until you turn it back on, and your keys stay saved. Stopped it by mistake? There's Undo.
- Change the keys or Remove the link (removing means doing the four steps again if you want it back).
If something stops later
- "The Paymob link stopped: the gateway refused the keys." This happens if you changed the keys in the Paymob dashboard, for example. Card payment hides from your students by itself, and wallet and InstaPay work as usual. Tap Fix it now and paste the new keys.
- "We got a payment notice on your Paymob link and couldn't confirm it came from them." We didn't open any course with it, so nobody can open a course with a fake notice. If your students paid and the course didn't open, check the "HMAC" key in step 3. This message reaches you at most once a day.
Refunds
Hessety doesn't refund money, because it never receives it. If you refund a student from the Paymob dashboard, we record the refund by ourselves, and if it's a full refund we close the course for the student. If you refunded another way, tap Record a refund on the payment itself.