WooCommerce KNET integration: three ways to take KNET, cards and Apple Pay in Kuwait

Can WooCommerce take KNET payments?

Yes, through a plugin. WooCommerce does not ship with a KNET option, and the payment processor WooCommerce runs itself is not offered to Kuwaiti businesses: on 26 October 2026, the WooPayments list of supported countries included the United Arab Emirates and no other Gulf country. So KNET, and usually cards and Apple Pay too, come from software you add. There are three routes:

1. A gateway's plugin. You sign up with a payment company registered with the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) and install the WooCommerce plugin it publishes.
2. KNET direct from your bank. You sign a KNET payment gateway agreement with your Kuwaiti bank, and run a plugin or custom code built to the integration guide and test access your bank gives you.
3. Cards and Apple Pay through your bank's MPGS. If your bank's card gateway is Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS), open-source WooCommerce modules exist for it.

The routes can be combined. A store can run KNET direct from its bank and cards through the same bank's MPGS, or use one gateway for everything. The sections below cover what each route needs, which plugins exist today, and what running a self-hosted store adds to your list.

What WooCommerce charges, and what it does not

WooCommerce describes itself as free, open-source software for WordPress. Its pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026, lists a 0% revenue share, no monthly subscription for the core platform, and, for payments, "just your solution's processing fees". It estimates hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores and paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each.

Two things follow for a store in Kuwait:

• No platform fee on top of KNET. What you pay per KNET or card payment is your gateway's or your bank's fee, nothing more from WooCommerce.
• No platform approval for payments. Because you host the software yourself, no payments-partner programme sits between your store and your gateway. The approvals that matter are your gateway's onboarding, or your bank's KNET agreement and its go-ahead to go live.

If you are still choosing a platform, our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison for Kuwait puts the fees and payment rules side by side.

Route 1: a CBK-registered gateway's WooCommerce plugin

This route needs the least technical work on your side. The payment company holds the KNET and card connections, and you get one account, one dashboard and one plugin. Fees, settlement timing and which methods are switched on are set in your contract with the provider, so get them in writing.

The five Kuwaiti providers below publish a WooCommerce plugin. The table records what each publishes as of 26 October 2026. It is not a ranking, and we receive no referral fees from any of them.

Three details from their own docs are worth knowing before you start:

• Methods are switched on per account. MyFatoorah's listing says to contact its support team to activate more payment gateways, and Hesabe's kit says the methods you select must be activated in your Hesabe account.
• Apple Pay may need domain verification. Hesabe's WooCommerce page asks you to complete domain verification under its Direct Apple Pay guide before using the plugin.
• Test mode exists. Payzah and UPayments both describe a test mode in their plugin settings, so you can run test orders before going live.

For fees, onboarding and the full CBK register, see our guide to payment gateways in Kuwait.

Route 2: KNET direct from your bank

Here the money comes straight from KNET through your own bank, with no payment company in between, and you take on the technical work the gateway would otherwise do. Your bank gives you KNET's integration guide and test access, so build to the current version it provides. Commercial Bank of Kuwait publishes its Knet Payment Gateway Agreement (version 3.0, May 2025), which shows the kind of terms a bank sets. Other banks set their own, so ask for yours in writing.

What that agreement asks of the merchant:

• A contract with the bank, for your own website. The agreement is between the bank and the merchant, for payments on a website the merchant owns and runs. The merchant declares that it sells only its own goods or services and does not collect on behalf of others without the bank's written approval.
• Encryption and secret credentials. The merchant must use SSL encryption (at least 128-bit) to protect cardholder data. The bank verifies the merchant by the digital certificate and passwords it issues, and the merchant must keep those confidential.
• Qualified people. The merchant undertakes to provide qualified personnel to handle everything related to the service.
• A check before the order is completed. The agreement has the merchant verify the transaction data the bank sends before completing the transaction.
• Bank fees. On the bank's March 2026 service request form, its KNET Payment Gateway Service is listed at KD 200 setup, KD 30 a year, and 0.100% of the amount plus KD 0.080 per transaction.

In WooCommerce terms, that means a plugin that sends the customer to KNET's payment page, receives the result on its own endpoint, and leaves the order as pending payment until the result is verified. Exclude that endpoint from caching and from plugins that add markup or redirects. Our KNET integration guide covers the payment flow, refunds and three-decimal amounts in more detail.

Which bank-direct plugins exist

As of 26 October 2026:

• Payment Gateway for KNET (wc-knet). WordPress.org says it was closed on 24 November 2023, that the closure is permanent, and that the reason was the author's request.
• Gateway for CBK Al-Tijari KNET (wc-cbk). WordPress.org says it was closed on 9 January 2025 for "Licensing/Trademark Violation".
• Meetanshi's WooCommerce KNET Payments. A paid plugin from an extension vendor, listed at USD 99 with free support and updates for one year and a lifetime licence to the source code. Its page offers the official KNET API, which redirects customers to a payment page hosted by KNET, or Commercial Bank of Kuwait's (Al Tijari) KNET API as a USD 100 option, and says the store needs an SSL certificate.
• Custom code. A developer builds a WooCommerce payment gateway class to the integration guide and test access your bank provides.

Route 3: cards and Apple Pay through your bank's MPGS

KNET covers Kuwaiti debit cards. For Visa and Mastercard credit cards from your bank, ask whether its card gateway is a separate agreement from KNET and whether it runs on MPGS. Our MPGS guide for Kuwait explains how that gateway works. Two WooCommerce modules exist:

• Fingent's Mastercard Gateway Module for WooCommerce. Published on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 licence, with version 1.5.4.1 released on 26 October 2026. Its README lists card payments, Hosted Checkout, Hosted Session, refunds and Apple Pay, noting that Apple Pay "is only available for full page redirect in Hosted Checkout". It also lists KNET on Hosted Checkout, relying on "an external partner service". It needs WooCommerce 8.7 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. The README also says that from version 1.5.0 the plugin collects analytics, including store name, store URL and country, once the test sandbox is off and live credentials are saved.
• Mastercard Merchant Cloud. Published on WordPress.org by Mastercard, version 1.0.1. Its listing offers Hosted Session fields, an embedded Hosted Checkout form and a Hosted Checkout redirect, which it describes as the option "for the lowest PCI effort", plus refunds and voids from the order screen. The listing does not mention Apple Pay or KNET.

With Fingent's module, features such as 3-D Secure, tokenisation, Google Pay and KNET must first be enabled on your merchant ID (MID), as its README notes for each one, so ask your bank before you plan around them.

The three routes side by side

Apple Pay on WooCommerce in Kuwait

The sources do not agree, so ask before you build. Amazon Payment Services' docs say that "Apple Pay through KNET is a mandate requirement for all Apple Pay transactions in Kuwait", and that KNET Apple Pay transactions do not support the Authorization command or recurring operations. Hesabe's API, on the other hand, lists separate payment types for MPGS Apple Pay, CyberSource Apple Pay, and KNET debit, credit and international Apple Pay. Fingent's MPGS module offers Apple Pay through Hosted Checkout.

The practical question for your bank or gateway: which network will my Apple Pay payments run on, and does that route support refunds, recurring payments or authorise-then-capture? Our Apple Pay integration guide covers the certificate and domain steps.

Hosting, security and upkeep

WooCommerce runs on hosting you choose, so the work a hosted platform does for you lands on your side. WooCommerce's own PCI page says "PCI DSS compliance is ultimately the responsibility of the store owner". It adds that a gateway that takes payment off-site or through hosted fields can reduce your scope significantly, but PCI DSS still applies because your site serves the checkout page.

The choice between redirect and on-page card entry matters here. A full redirect, such as KNET's hosted page or Hosted Checkout, keeps card entry off your site. Embedded fields keep the customer on your page but leave more of it in scope. Ask your bank or gateway which self-assessment applies to the option you pick.

The routine work, much of it from WooCommerce's PCI checklist:

• Keep WordPress, WooCommerce, themes and plugins up to date, and test payment plugin updates on a staging copy first.
• Back up the database. Orders and refund records live there.
• Use SSL on checkout and account pages, and never store card data on your server.
• Run vulnerability scans by an approved scanning vendor if your processor asks for them.
• For bank-direct KNET, watch the response endpoint and keep the certificate and passwords your bank issued confidential.

We handle this as part of our cloud and hosting services for stores we maintain.

No payment fees at checkout

CBK Circular No. 2/RB, RBA, RK/600/2025 (Arabic), dated 30 September 2025, requires banks and payment providers to bind their merchants not to charge customers in Kuwait any fee or extra amount for paying electronically, whatever the method. Some payment modules include fee settings: Fingent's README lists "Handling Fees" and "Surcharge" features. For customers in Kuwait, leave them off and show all-in prices.

How Rukn helps

Rukn builds and maintains WooCommerce stores in Kuwait, including KNET, card and Apple Pay setup through your bank or your gateway. We help you pick the route, set up and test the gateway's plugin, or build the bank-direct side to the integration guide your bank provides and test it with the bank's test access. We also handle three-decimal KWD amounts, pending-payment states, refunds from the admin panel, an Arabic and English checkout, and the updates and backups afterwards. Payments settle to your own bank or gateway account and never pass through us. See our website development service: websites start from KD 799, and the final quote depends on scope.

This page is a technical guide, not legal advice.