Payment gateways in Colombia: how to choose.
A payment gateway is the service that connects your business to your customers' banks and wallets in Colombia, so you can accept card, PSE, Nequi, Bre-B or another method, without building that connection yourself or integrating each bank on your own.
What a payment gateway is and what it does
A payment gateway is the technical middleman between your business and the country's payment methods: it processes the transaction, checks that the customer's bank or wallet approved it, and lets you (and your systems) know the payment landed.
Without a gateway, accepting card, PSE or a wallet on your own would mean integrating each bank or provider separately. A gateway does that work once and hands you every method behind a single connection, whether that's a button on your website, a payment link or a charge inside a conversation.
In Colombia, that variety of methods matters especially: PSE, Nequi, Daviplata and Bre-B sit alongside card, and each has its own group of customers who prefer it. A gateway that only covers card leaves out a big share of those customers, while one with wide coverage captures sales that would otherwise go unclosed.
For the business, choosing a gateway isn't just a technical decision: it changes how many customers can pay with no friction, how long it takes to confirm each sale, and how much manual work is left at month's end when it's time to square the books.
Many businesses in Colombia start with a single payment method, almost always manual transfer or cash, and add a gateway right when that manual process starts eating up more time than it saves: that's when it makes sense to automate confirmation and reconciliation.
The question that usually decides the switch isn't how much the gateway costs, but how many sales are being lost today by not offering the payment method the customer already has on their phone.
What types of gateway exist in Colombia
The difference is where the charge lives, not how good the gateway is.
Online store gateway
Plugs into your store's checkout (Shopify, WooCommerce or another) and processes the payment right there. The customer never leaves the buying flow.
Payment link
A checkout page you generate per sale and send through whatever channel you use, no online store required. Every sale gets its own link.
Conversational gateway
The charge happens inside the chat: the AI or a rep generates the link, the QR or the payment notification in the same conversation, with no channel switch.
Which payment methods a gateway offers in Colombia
Each method fits a different kind of customer, and offering only one leaves sales on the table.
| Method | How the customer pays | Where it fits best |
|---|---|---|
| PSE | A bank transfer, redirected to the bank's own page | Customers who prefer paying from their bank account |
| Card | With their credit or debit card details | Purchases of any size, with installments if the bank allows it |
| Nequi | A direct notification to their app, or a payment link with that option | One of the most used payment methods in Colombia |
| Daviplata | From their Daviplata app | Customers of that wallet |
| Bre-B | With a key (phone, email or ID) or a QR code | Instant payments between different banks and wallets |
| QR | Scanning the code with their banking app or wallet | In-person charges or charges inside a conversation |
What to check before choosing a gateway
These five points cover both the technical side and the day-to-day operations.
- 01
Which methods it covers.
That it includes the methods your customers actually use, not just card, including Nequi, Bre-B and PSE.
- 02
Where it plugs in.
Your online store, your website or, if you sell over WhatsApp, the conversation itself, with no extra development on your side.
- 03
How fast it confirms.
How long it takes to tell you a payment landed, so you don't ship early or keep the customer waiting longer than needed.
- 04
How reconciliation works.
Whether it matches the payment to the order on its own or you have to do it by hand every time, statement by statement.
- 05
What billing it hands off.
Whether it connects to your electronic invoicing or that stays separate, as one more manual step.
Common mistakes when choosing a gateway in Colombia
Most of these mistakes only show up months later, once they're already expensive to fix.
Choosing based on card alone
Leaving out PSE, Nequi or Bre-B closes the door on customers who don't use card as their main method.
Not checking where it plugs in
A gateway built only for an online store doesn't always fit a business that sells through conversation.
Ignoring reconciliation
Without automatic reconciliation, matching every payment to its order becomes manual work that grows with every sale.
Getting paid through a gateway inside WhatsApp
Available in Colombia: Elopay, Elocuenti's gateway, integrates natively with Wompi and puts the charge inside the same WhatsApp conversation where the customer is already buying, with preferential rates.
The AI agent or your rep send a payment link, a direct Nequi notification, a QR or a Bre-B key, whichever the customer prefers; the confirmation comes back to the chat in seconds and reconciles on its own.
The collections dashboard shows conversion from link to payment and by method, so you know what your customers prefer, and DIAN electronic invoicing, through Alegra or Siigo, comes out of the same WhatsApp conversation.
Bulk collection, collection campaigns and automatic reminders also run on the same gateway, so a business with recurring charges (installments, subscriptions or renewals) doesn't need a separate tool for that.
All of it also stays within the same business, instead of split across a messaging tool, a payments tool and a billing tool: fewer systems to learn and fewer places where something can slip between one step and the next.
See Elocuenti's payment gatewayFrequently asked questions about payment gateways in Colombia
What is a payment gateway?
The service that connects your business to a customer's banks and wallets to process a payment, verify it and let you know it landed, without you having to integrate each bank yourself.
What payment gateways exist in Colombia?
Several exist, each with different method coverage and integrations; what matters is that it covers the methods your customers actually use (PSE, card, Nequi, Daviplata, Bre-B or QR), not just the most common one.
How do I choose a payment gateway?
Check which methods it covers, where it plugs in (your store, your site or your WhatsApp), how fast it confirms payment and whether it reconciles against your orders on its own, with no manual work on your side.
Can you get paid on WhatsApp through a gateway?
Yes. With Elocuenti, Elopay puts the payment link, Nequi, the QR or Bre-B inside the same conversation, with no need to move the customer to another channel or app.
Do payment gateways charge a fee?
Each gateway sets its own rates; Elopay offers preferential rates through its native integration with Wompi, visible right in your collections dashboard.
A payment gateway, inside the conversation.
Book a call: we review how you get paid today, show you Elopay inside the chat and pick the right plan together.