I need the technical differences between getting Maya as a Payment Gateway vs getting a different Payment Gateway and utilizing P3 if the merchant was a payment facilitator. Thank you!
There are two distinct technical models:
-
Maya as Payment Gateway:
- You integrate with Maya’s hosted payment solutions (e.g., Maya Checkout, Payment Links, Pay with Maya).
- Customers are redirected to Maya’s secure pages to enter payment details.
- Maya handles all PCI compliance, authentication, and card data security.
- You do not store, process, or transmit cardholder data.
- Integration is done via REST APIs, SDKs, or plugins — no PayFac metadata is required.
- Documentation: Maya Checkout, Payment Links, Pay with Maya guides (Documents 1, 6, 7, 11).
-
Maya Payments Processing Platform (P3) as a Payment Facilitator:
- You act as a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) and use Maya’s P3 APIs to process payments on behalf of sub-merchants.
- You must include PayFac metadata in every transaction request (e.g.,
pf.smi,pf.smn,pf.mcc,pf.addressLine1). - You are responsible for onboarding and managing sub-merchants, and may handle card data depending on your integration (e.g., self-hosted forms).
- PCI compliance obligations increase (e.g., SAQ D or SAQ A-EP may apply).
- You use direct P3 API endpoints like
/p3/pay,/p3/authorize, and/p3/capture. - Documentation: Payment Facilitator Guide (Document 14) and Payments Processing Platform overview (Document 8).
Key Technical Difference:
- In the Payment Gateway model, Maya is the front-end and back-end processor — you are a merchant.
- In the PayFac/P3 model, Maya is only the back-end processor — you are the front-end and merchant-of-record for sub-merchants, requiring structured metadata in every API call.
You cannot use a third-party payment gateway alongside P3 as a PayFac; P3 is Maya’s own processing engine. The choice is between using Maya’s hosted gateway solutions or using Maya’s P3 APIs in a PayFac role.
For Sandbox concerns and other technical implementation inquiries, please get in touch with us via:
- Sandbox Health Page: Check real-time service status updates.
- Maya Developer Hub Service Desk: File
a ticket in Sandbox.
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Hello @teppydemayo,
There appears to be some confusion in the AI-generated response, so I’d like to clarify a few points.
Maya as a Payment Gateway
When using Maya as a Payment Gateway, Maya provides both the front-end payment (such as the Maya-hosted checkout page) and the back-end payment processing services. In this setup, the merchant integrates directly with Maya’s payment gateway to accept and process transactions.
High level flow: Customer ↔ Merchant ↔ Maya ↔ Card Networks/Wallet/Issuer
Third-party Payment Gateway + Maya’s P3
On the other hand, when using a third-party payment gateway together with Maya’s P3, the third-party gateway serves as the front-end processor. This gateway is responsible for handling the payment interface and must comply with applicable security and PCI standards. In this setup, the merchant integrates with the gateway, the gateway then integrates to Maya’s P3 to process the payment on the back end. For reference: Payments Processing Platform
High level flow: Customer ↔ Merchant ↔ Third-part Payment Gateway ↔ Maya (P3) ↔ Card Networks/Wallet/Issuer
Payment Facilitator (PayFac) Note
It is also worth noting that both integration models can support a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) setup, but would require different parameters or fields depending on the solution.
- For Maya Checkout, Pay with Maya, and Maya Vault (for single payment only), refer to Payment Facilitator Guide
- For P3, you may refer to the API specifications, where you can find the
merchant.paymentFacilitatorobject: Pay or the Authorize
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Great! Thank you @genson.cerezo , you answered my inquiry perfectly! 
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