Payments Suite
Hyperswitch is built for teams that want engineering-grade control over payments.
To simplify architectural decisions, the ecosystem can be viewed as four independent building blocks.\ By defining ownership of each block โ Hyperswitch-managed, self-hosted, or third-party โ you can design an architecture aligned with your compliance posture, performance requirements, and internal engineering capabilities.
The Four Core Components
The SDK (Frontend) :
The entry point for your payment flow. It resides in your frontend and is responsible for securely capturing sensitive payment information.
Intelligent Routing & Orchestration (Backend) :
The core of the operation. It manages the payment lifecycle, executes routing logic, and handles post-payment operations like refunds.
Acquirer & Processor Connectivity (Connectors) :
The actual pipelines that translates the transaction (e.g., Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay).
Vault (Card Data Storage) :
The secure locker for sensitive card data to enable "One-Click" recurring payments without the user re-entering details.
Each Component can be handled by Hyperswitch, managed or self-deployed by your own team, or even sourced from a third-party provider e.g. Vault (reference)
Integration Architecture
With the components defined, the next step is to select your integration architecture. This choice hinges on a single question: Who controls the payment execution ?
Choose the integration method that best aligns with your payment flow requirements:
Integration Model 1: Client-Side SDK Payments
(Tokenize Post-Payment | SDK-Initiated Execution)
When to Choose This Model
- You want dynamic, frontend-driven payment experiences
- You prefer minimal backend orchestration logic
- You want SDK-triggered payment confirmation
- You are optimizing for rapid checkout implementation
High-level Flow
- Merchant will call the /payments API and load the Payment SDK.
- SDK securely collects payment details.
- SDK triggers payment confirmation.
- SDK communicates with Hyperswitch backend.
- Hyperswitch:
- Applies routing logic
- Sends request to configured PSP
- Manages authorization/capture
- Returns final payment status
Integration Model 2: Server-to-Server (S2S) Payments
(Tokenize Pre-Payment | Backend-Controlled Execution)
When to Choose This Model
- You want granular control over transaction timing
- You require backend-driven orchestration logic
- You want to tokenize credentials before execution
- You prefer decoupling vaulting from transaction processing
High-level Flow
Tokenisze Card :
- Tokenize payment credentials using - Vault SDK or backend call to /payment-methods
- Hyperswitch securely stores the credential and returns a reusable identifier -
payment_method_id.
Trigger Payment Execution :
Option A: Process via Hyperswitch Orchestration by calling /payments API.
Use this option if you want Hyperswitch to:
- Apply routing logic
- Select the optimal connector
- Manage retries and failover
- Handle authorization and capture lifecycle
This is the recommended model for merchants adopting Hyperswitch orchestration.
Option B: Process via Proxy API by calling /proxy API.
Use this option if:
- You do not want to change your existing PSP integration immediately
- You want Hyperswitch to act as a passthrough layer
- You are incrementally migrating to full orchestration
In this mode:
- Your existing integration contract remains unchanged
- Hyperswitch forwards requests to the configured processor
- You can progressively enable routing and orchestration features