InstaPayments vs Paycycle

InstaPayments has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Paycycle connects payment workflows around Xero for South African businesses and accounting practices. It brings approved supplier bills from Xero into payment runs and reconciles completed payments back to Xero. For payroll, it imports approved employee pay runs from SimplePay for review, authorisation and payment. Its collections tools handle electronic mandates, recurring collections, failed-payment follow-up and reconciliation. Pay Now can be added to Xero invoices so customers can pay without logging in or setting up a new beneficiary.

Supplier and employee bank accounts are checked through AVS before payment. Payments use a direct route where supported, or a funded pass-through settlement route where required. Listed supplier-payment rails include PayShap, Investec Open Banking, Paycycle Payments and Netcash Payments. Paycycle describes an AI reconciliation engine that reviews bank feeds, resolves exceptions and closes month-end reconciliation in under a minute. Listed controls include encrypted and masked bank details, controlled approvals, tamper-evident records and an audit trail. The web service offers free modules and paid plans; prices range from free to 1,450 ZAR a month.