Paymob is one of the UAE's most popular payment gateways for e-commerce merchants. With a native Shopify app, built-in Tabby and Tamara BNPL partnerships, and straightforward 2.9% + AED 1 pricing, Paymob has become the default choice for fashion, furniture, and high-ticket retailers where buy-now-pay-later drives conversion.
Mamo is newer but broader in scope. While Paymob is optimized specifically for e-commerce payment acceptance, Mamo is a complete financial platform combining payment collection, corporate cards with cashback, expense management, and global payouts. Mamo is DFSA-regulated and purpose-built for growing UAE businesses that need more than a payment processor.
These are fundamentally different products: Paymob optimizes for online retail; Mamo optimizes for financial operations. This comparison shows when each makes sense.
Paymob publishes transparent, straightforward pricing:
Paymob standard rate: 2.9% + AED 1.00 per successful UAE card transaction. No monthly platform fee. No setup costs. All fees subject to 5% UAE VAT.
Paymob Growth plan: 2.9% + AED 1.00 (same as standard)
Mamo also publishes transparent pricing:
Mamo Premium plan: 2.7% + AED 0.80 per UAE domestic card; 3.2% + AED 0.80 for international cards; AED 99/month. All fees subject to 5% UAE VAT.
Mamo Growth plan (free): 2.9% + AED 1.00 per UAE domestic card; 3.4% + AED 1.00 for international cards. No credit card required, no minimum volume.
| Transaction Type | Mamo Premium | Paymob |
|---|---|---|
| UAE domestic card | 2.7% + AED 0.80 | 2.9% + AED 1.00 |
| International card | 3.2% + AED 0.80 | - |
| Monthly platform fee | AED 99/month (Growth: free) | None |
| Setup cost | None | None |
For a business processing AED 100,000/month in UAE card transactions at average AED 500 per transaction (200 transactions):
Mamo Premium: (AED 100,000 × 2.7%) + (200 × AED 0.80) = AED 2,700 + AED 160 = AED 2,860/month
Paymob Standard: (AED 100,000 × 2.9%) + (200 × AED 1.00) = AED 2,900 + AED 200 = AED 3,100/month
Mamo saves approximately AED 240/month at this volume. For international cards processed in AED:
Mamo Premium: (AED 100,000 × 3.2%) + (200 × AED 0.80) = AED 3,200 + AED 160 = AED 3,360/month
Paymob Standard: (AED 100,000 × 2.9%) + (200 × AED 1.00) = AED 2,900 + AED 200 = AED 3,100/month
At international card volumes, Paymob is slightly cheaper. The fee difference is modest; both offer transparent pricing with no setup costs. Mamo Growth has no monthly fee; Mamo Premium is AED 99/month; Paymob has no monthly fee. For most businesses, the fee difference is secondary to feature differentiation.
| Method | Mamo | Paymob |
|---|---|---|
| Visa, Mastercard, Amex | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jaywan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tabby BNPL | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tamara BNPL | ✗ | ✓ |
| mada | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apple Pay, Google Pay | ✓ | ✓ |
| Samsung Pay | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bank transfers | ✗ | Limited |
Both support the core UAE payment stack. Paymob's advantage: Tamara BNPL partnership (in addition to Tabby), strong for high-ticket retail. Mamo's advantages: mada support (Saudi customers in UAE) and Samsung Pay, built-in Tabby (no third-party integration).
Paymob's standard settlement is weekly.
Yes. Mamo offers flexible settlement from 0 to 5 business days. Same-day settlement is available for an additional +0.5% (Premium plan) or +0.75% (Growth plan) on top of transaction fees. From your Mamo dashboard, select individual payments to settle early to your UAE bank account, and funds move the same day.
For cash-flow-sensitive businesses (retail, tourism), this is a material advantage.
Mamo settles same day for +0.5% on Premium. Paymob settles weekly as standard.
No. Paymob is a payment collection gateway optimized for e-commerce. It does not offer corporate expense cards, spend controls, or integrated expense management. Its focus is accepting payments from customers, not managing team spending.
Mamo offers unlimited free virtual and physical corporate cards for your entire team, no issuance fees, no monthly card fees.
Visa Mamo Card benefits:
Concrete cashback example: a business spending AED 50,000/month on non-AED transactions earns AED 1,000/month at the standard 2% rate, AED 12,000/year back to Mamo balance. During the 8% promotional period, that is AED 4,000/month returned.
Paymob integrates with:
Paymob's strength: Shopify integration is seamless, native, and purpose-built for e-commerce. Setup takes minutes.
Mamo integrates with:
Mamo's strength: accounting integrations (QuickBooks, Xero, Wafeq, Odoo) for subscription and SaaS businesses. These integrations auto-sync revenue and customer data.
Paymob provides merchant support through its dashboard, with email and live chat available during business hours. Support is primarily self-serve with documentation and FAQs. Dedicated account managers are available for high-volume merchants (typically AED 500k+/month).
From day one, Mamo assigns an account manager to every business. Support is available in Arabic and English. Account verification typically completes in 2-3 business days. The assigned account manager supports onboarding, integration troubleshooting, and ongoing operational questions.
For growing businesses, Mamo's dedicated support from day one is a meaningful advantage over self-serve models.
Mamo Limited is regulated by the DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority), the independent regulator of the DIFC financial free zone. Mamo is also a registered payments facilitator with Visa and Mastercard, holds PCI-DSS certification, and undergoes quarterly security audits.
Paymob holds a Retail Payment Services licence from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). It is not regulated by the DFSA.
For businesses requiring DFSA regulation for compliance or procurement, Mamo's regulatory standing is a direct differentiator.
Paymob is a strong fit if you:
Mamo is stronger if you:
Mamo Premium (2.7% + AED 0.80) is slightly cheaper than Paymob (2.9% + AED 1.00) for domestic UAE cards. For international cards processed in AED, Paymob (2.9% + AED 1.00) is marginally cheaper than Mamo (3.2% + AED 0.80). The fee difference is modest; Mamo Growth has no monthly fee, Mamo Premium is AED 99/month, and Paymob has no monthly fee.
Paymob offers basic recurring/subscription support, but it is not optimized for subscription businesses. Mamo's subscription tools include MRR tracking, churn analytics, retry logic, and dunning management, more sophisticated than Paymob's recurring option.
Yes. Some merchants run Paymob for e-commerce and Mamo for subscriptions or expense management. However, this adds operational overhead (two dashboards, reconciliation, two settlement cycles). Most merchants consolidate onto one platform after testing.
No. Paymob is a payment collection gateway and does not offer corporate expense cards or integrated expense management.
Mamo is regulated by the DFSA. Paymob holds a CBUAE Retail Payment Services licence but is not DFSA-regulated. For businesses requiring DFSA regulation for procurement or compliance, Mamo is the clearer choice.
Paymob's standard settlement is weekly. Mamo offers same-day settlement with an additional +0.5% (Premium plan) or +0.75% (Growth plan) on top of transaction fees. For cash-flow-sensitive businesses, Mamo's flexibility is a material advantage even with the surcharge.
Choose Paymob if your sales depend on Tamara as well as Tabby, or you need its POS hardware in-store.
Choose Mamo if you want a lower UAE card rate (2.7% + AED 0.80 on Premium vs 2.9% + AED 1), same-day settlement instead of weekly, and corporate cards and expense management on one DFSA-regulated account.
Mamo Premium charges 2.7% + AED 0.80 on UAE cards, against Paymob's 2.9% + AED 1.
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