This guide is for merchants who take crypto through CoinGate, or are about to sign up, and want a second payment option for customers CoinGate doesn't fit. You don't have to drop CoinGate: SnapEX Pay sits next to it and the customer chooses how to pay.
CoinGate is a regulated payment provider from Lithuania with a MiCA licence, and its rules follow from that. Merchants go through full verification: company documents, the director's ID and a live identity check via Onfido. Business accounts are open in the 60 countries listed on CoinGate's site — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the US are not on that list. Under the Travel Rule, shoppers enter their name, country of residence and date of birth on the payment page. And for many the key point: USDT is not among the coins you can accept — the stablecoins there are USDC and EURC.
- USDTon TRON, Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Solana, TON, Arbitrum and other networks — CoinGate has no USDT
- 0 required fieldsshoppers don't enter their name or date of birth, and there's no KYC for the merchant either
- No listof countries: SnapEX Pay doesn't restrict merchants or their customers
CoinGate vs SnapEX Pay: the path to the first payment
From sign-up to the first payment
- Business accountcountry from the supported list
- Verificationcompany documents, ID, live identity check
- Sandboxseparate account and keys on sandbox
- Plugin or APIWooCommerce, WHMCS, PrestaShop and others
- Go liveshoppers fill in Travel Rule details
- Sign upmerchant account, no documents
- Key and webhookAPI key and notification URL
- Module or API15 ready-made modules
- Test invoicesame key, confirms itself in ~10 s
- Go livereal invoices, settled in USDT
Step 1. Create a merchant account
Sign up at pay.snapex.pro. No company documents, ID or identity check: SnapEX Pay requires no KYC from merchants or their customers, and there are no country restrictions. An account on the snapex.pro exchange works too — it's the same account.
Make sure your business is not in a prohibited category: weapons, drugs, fraud, malware and hacking services, stolen data and cards, forged documents and the others listed in the service rules.
Step 2. Create an API key and set the webhook URL
- Create an API key in the merchant dashboard and set the URL for notifications.
- Every notification is signed with HMAC-SHA256 and a timestamp — verify the signature on your server before marking the order as paid.
- If your server doesn't answer, SnapEX Pay retries delivery — up to 5 attempts in total, with a delivery log in the dashboard.
Step 3. Install a module or connect the API
If you run WooCommerce or WHMCS, you already know the routine from the CoinGate plugin: install the module, paste the key, turn on test mode. SnapEX Pay has modules for these platforms, and also for hosting billing systems and VPN panels that CoinGate doesn't cover.
- Hosting billing: WHMCS, BILLmanager, Blesta, WISECP, FOSSBilling, Paymenter, RootPanel.
- Stores: WooCommerce, CS‑Cart.
- VPN panels and bots: Xboard, Marzban, 3X‑UI, Remnawave, Telegram VPN bot.
- Automation: n8n.
A custom CoinGate integration moves to the SnapEX Pay REST API with one function: a request creates an invoice and returns a link to the payment page — just like CoinGate's payment_url. See the API documentation.
Step 4. Test everything on a test invoice
CoinGate tests in a separate sandbox: its own account, its own keys, its own currency IDs and a shorter currency list. SnapEX Pay needs no extra account — create an invoice with environment=test using the same API key. Once a coin is chosen, it confirms itself in about 10 seconds. No real money moves, and you see the whole path — payment page → webhook → order paid.
Step 5. Go live and set up withdrawals
Remove the test flag and invoices become real.
- Invoice amount — from $0.50 to $100,000. Lifetime — 30 minutes by default, adjustable from 1 minute to 24 hours. CoinGate gives the shopper 20 minutes to pay after choosing a coin.
- Fee — 1%, the same as CoinGate's Standard plan: deducted from the amount or added on top for the customer.
- Underpayment — the invoice waits for the rest on the same address, otherwise it closes as partially paid and the amount received is credited.
- Withdrawals — your balance is in USDT and you withdraw to a crypto address from the dashboard right away, with no hold. No service fee on withdrawals, only the network fee; the minimum is $0.50 to $10 depending on the coin. CoinGate crypto and SEPA withdrawals are free but start at 50 EUR, and automatic settlements on the Standard plan are weekly.
What the shopper sees on the payment page
- CoinGate — email, name, country, date of birth4 fields
- SnapEX Pay — choose a coin and pay0 required
CoinGate collects shopper details under the Travel Rule and may ask for more on larger payments. On SnapEX Pay, an email for the receipt is optional.
CoinGate and SnapEX Pay at a glance
Pre-launch checklist
Before you show customers a second payment option
- Your business is not in a prohibited SnapEX Pay category.
- API key created, webhook URL set, signing secret stored on your server.
- Module installed, or invoice creation works through the API.
- Test invoice with
environment=testpassed: the order was marked paid exactly once. - Fee: decided who pays the 1% and the network fee — you or the customer.
- Invoice lifetime fits your flow (30 minutes by default).
- USDT withdrawal address ready, and you know the minimum for your coin.
What CoinGate still does better
CoinGate has real strengths, and we'll be straight about them. It's an EU-licensed service operating since 2014: if your partners and accountants care about a regulator, that counts. CoinGate pays out to a bank account in EUR, USD and GBP, handles crypto refunds to shoppers, batch payouts, Lightning and Binance Pay, and retries webhooks up to 40 times. It has plugins for Wix, PrestaShop, OpenCart and Magento 2, which we don't. If you need all that, keep CoinGate and add SnapEX Pay as a second option — for customers who pay in USDT, don't want to share personal details or live outside CoinGate's country list. Rules for accepting crypto differ by country — check with a lawyer how they apply to your business.