How to Sign Up for XPay: Test Mode in 5 Minutes, Live in Days

Step-by-step walkthrough of the XPay two-stage signup: instant test-mode access to evaluate, then full onboarding to go live. No credit card to start.

July 9, 202614 min read

TL;DR

XPay's signup is intentionally split into two stages so you can evaluate the product before committing to the full KYC/KYB process. Stage 1 is instant: you create an account at app.xpay.app with just a phone number and password, land in test mode immediately, and have full access to the dashboard, branding settings, product catalog, payment links, integration paths, and the Workbench developer tooling, all running against XPay's sandbox processor. No real money moves; you can build the entire customer-facing experience and validate it end to end before signing up for live payments. Stage 2 is the live onboarding: when you're ready to accept real payments, you submit a KYC/KYB application through the dashboard. Two tracks are available, Individual (for freelancers and sole proprietors) and Business (for registered companies), with different document requirements. Review typically takes a few business days; once approved, you flip the live mode toggle and start processing real transactions. The full onboarding reference is at docs.xpay.app/get-started/onboarding; this guide walks through the full journey from "I'm thinking about XPay" to "I just processed my first live payment."

Why the Signup Is Designed in Two Stages

Most payment platforms make you submit full KYC/KYB before you see anything. That makes sense from a compliance standpoint but it creates a real evaluation problem: you can't tell whether the dashboard, the checkout experience, the branding, or the API actually fits your business until after you've already invested days in document submission. World Bank research on SME financial inclusion consistently finds that onboarding friction is one of the largest barriers to small-business adoption of formal payment infrastructure, and the longer the gap between "want to evaluate" and "can actually try the product," the lower the eventual conversion rate.

XPay's approach inverts that. The instant-signup test mode lets you do almost everything, configure products, generate payment links, embed checkout, run simulated transactions, test webhooks, customize branding, explore the Workbench, without submitting any business documentation. Real money doesn't move in test mode; it runs against XPay's sandbox processor. Once you've decided XPay is the right fit, you submit the full onboarding to unlock live payments.

The practical implication: you can evaluate XPay in the time it takes to read this article. You don't need to gather documents before you start, and you don't need to commit to anything beyond a phone number and password to see what the platform actually looks like.

Stage 1: Instant Signup and Test Mode Setup

The full instant-signup flow takes about five minutes. Most of that is exploring the dashboard, not entering information.

Step 1: Create your account

Go to app.xpay.app and click Sign up. The form asks for:

  • A mobile phone number (Egyptian or international, used for verification and login)
  • A password
  • Basic contact information (name, email)

You'll receive a verification code on the phone number you entered. Enter the code to confirm the account and you're in.

That's it. No commercial registration, no tax card, no national ID, no business documents, none of the live-payment KYC/KYB happens at this stage. You're now in the dashboard, in test mode by default, with full access to almost every feature the platform offers.

Step 2: Explore the dashboard in test mode

The dashboard you see after signup is the same dashboard you'll see once you're approved for live payments, just with test data instead of real data and a "Test mode" indicator at the top. You can navigate every section, configure every setting, and run every kind of transaction flow without restriction.

A few things worth doing in the first session:

  • Confirm you're in Test mode. The toggle is in the sidebar. Test mode produces cs_test_* and pi_test_* IDs; live mode (once activated) produces cs_live_* and pi_live_*.
  • Look at the Workbench. Found under Developer → Workbench, it includes the Inspector, per-request logs, webhook replay, and health monitoring tools. This is the operational dashboard you'll spend the most time in once payment volume picks up.
  • Look at the Customers and Transactions sections. They'll be empty initially, but the layout shows you how your live data will eventually display.

Step 3: Configure your branding

Under Settings → Branding, you configure the visual elements customers see at checkout:

  • Brand logo (uploaded as PNG or SVG)
  • Primary color (used on buttons and accents)
  • Border style (rounded vs. sharp)
  • Color mode (light, dark, or auto)
  • Display name (the name customers see at checkout, usually your trade name, not your legal entity name)

Configuring branding before generating any test payment links means every test transaction reflects how the live checkout will actually look. This is the right time to align with your design system or brand guidelines.

Step 4: Create your first product

Products in XPay represent something you're selling, a subscription tier, a one-off service, a SKU. Under Products, click Create product and configure:

  • Product name (visible to customers at checkout)
  • Description (optional, surfaced on the hosted checkout)
  • Price and currency (typically EGP for Egyptian customers; multi-currency support is on the roadmap)
  • Whether the price is fixed or customer-entered (e.g., for a donation flow)

You can create as many products as you need. For most businesses starting out, one product per major offering is the right model.

Under Payment Links, click Create payment link, select the product you just created, and click Create. XPay generates a URL of the form https://checkout.xpay.app/p/plink_test_... that you can share via email, WhatsApp, social media, or anywhere else.

Open the link in a new browser tab to see the customer-facing checkout. This is exactly what a real customer will see in live mode (with your branding applied), except the underlying processor is the sandbox.

Step 6: Run a test payment

On the checkout page, fill in the test card details from the docs:

  • Card number: 5123 4500 0000 0008
  • Expiry: 01/39
  • CVV: 100
  • Cardholder name: anything

Click Pay and complete the 3D Secure challenge that pops up. Switch back to the dashboard, click Transactions, and you'll see the test payment at the top with status Successful. Click into it to see the full transaction timeline: the Checkout Session, the Payment Intent, the Charge, the Balance Transaction, and any webhook events that fired.

This is the moment most businesses confirm that XPay actually fits. You've now exercised the full transaction flow, checkout, 3DS, settlement, dashboard reporting, without committing to anything beyond test signup.

Step 7: Validate the rest of your integration in test mode

Before submitting for live onboarding, validate anything else your business needs:

  • Webhook handlers. Configure a test-mode webhook endpoint under Developer → Webhooks and run a few test payments through it. Confirm signature verification works in your handler. Full setup is in our webhook best practices guide.
  • Custom checkout integrations. If you're going beyond payment links, build the Hosted Checkout, Drop-in, or Elements integration in test mode first. The custom checkout SDK guide walks through each pattern.
  • Refunds. Issue a test refund against one of your test payments to validate the refund flow before any real money is involved.
  • Multiple payment methods. If you're enabling Fawry, ValU, or other local methods alongside cards, test each method individually.

None of the setup work you do in test mode is wasted once you're approved, you're validating it before it touches real money. Your branding, payment method configuration, and integration code apply across both modes. Products can be cloned into live mode with the Copy to live mode feature, and because Payment Links are mode-specific (plink_test_* vs plink_live_*), you recreate those in live mode, usually using your copied products. Webhook endpoints are also separate per mode, so you'll add a live endpoint with its own signing secret.

Stage 2: Full Onboarding for Live Payments

Once you've decided XPay fits, the next stage is the KYC/KYB onboarding that unlocks live mode. The full reference for this stage is at docs.xpay.app/get-started/onboarding; the summary below covers the strategic decisions.

When to start onboarding

There's no requirement to onboard immediately after signup, and there's no requirement to onboard before you've finished your test-mode work. The two practical patterns are:

  • Onboard early. If you know you'll be taking live payments soon, submit the onboarding application now and continue building in test mode while the review runs. Review typically takes a few business days, and the parallel work means launch isn't blocked.
  • Onboard later. If you're still evaluating XPay or your integration timeline is uncertain, stay in test mode for as long as needed. Test mode is fully functional indefinitely, there's no expiry, no friction, no "you must onboard within X days" pressure.

The recommendation is to start onboarding early enough that approval lands before your planned launch date, with a buffer. Don't submit on the day you want to go live.

Pick your track: Individual or Business

The dashboard onboarding wizard asks you to pick one of two tracks. The right choice depends on your legal setup.

Individual track is for operators acting as a person, freelancers, sole proprietors, individual consultants, independent service providers. The track is shorter because there's no separate business entity to verify. The full flow is: account type → representative details → payout details → review.

Business track is for registered companies, LLCs, joint stock companies, partnerships. The track adds a business-details section to verify the registered entity alongside the individuals representing it. The full flow is: account type → representative details → business details → payout details → review.

You can switch tracks before you submit. After submission, switching requires contacting support.

What documents you'll need

Both tracks share a core set of documents:

  • Representative contact details: the person authorized to act on the account's behalf
  • National ID of the representative, front and back, as image or PDF
  • Bank account for payouts: account holder name, IBAN or account number, bank name

The business track additionally requires:

  • Legal name of the registered company
  • Display name (what customers see at checkout, often your trade name rather than the legal name)
  • Business structure (LLC, JSC, partnership, etc.)
  • Industry classification and a short business description
  • A business website URL or, if you don't have a site yet, a social profile
  • Full business address
  • Commercial registry document (السجل التجاري)
  • Tax card and tax number (البطاقة الضريبية)

All documents are uploaded as PDF, JPG, JPEG, or PNG. Our companion guide on documents needed for payment processing in Egypt walks through the document list in depth and explains what each one verifies.

What happens after you submit

After you submit, the application moves into review. The dashboard shows your status at all times:

  • Under review: your application is with the review team. Continue using test mode normally while you wait. Reviews typically complete within a few business days.
  • Changes requested: the team needs a few fields fixed or a document refreshed. The dashboard shows you exactly what needs updating. Make the changes and resubmit.
  • Activated: you're approved for live payments. The live mode toggle unlocks in the dashboard.
  • Suspended: rare. The account is temporarily disabled and you should contact support for context.

Most onboarding submissions land in Under review → Activated within a few business days. The most common reason for Changes requested is something the Documents Needed for Payment Processing in Egypt guide covers in detail, inconsistent names across documents, expired commercial registrations, or unclear document scans.

Going live

Once your account is Activated, none of your test-mode work is lost, your test products, branding, webhook endpoints, and integration code stay exactly as configured in test mode. To go live, you flip the live mode toggle in the dashboard and swap your API keys: sk_test_* becomes sk_live_* on the server, pk_test_* becomes pk_live_* on the frontend. The API URL doesn't change. Clone your products into live mode with Copy to live mode, and recreate your Payment Links in live mode, since links are tied to the mode they were created in (plink_test_* vs plink_live_*).

You'll also need to set up a separate live-mode webhook endpoint, since test and live endpoints are isolated and each has its own whsec_* signing secret.

Run a small live transaction yourself before launching publicly. The first live payment confirms the gateway is connected, the webhook is firing, settlement is configured, and the customer-facing experience matches what you tested in sandbox. PCI Security Standards Council guidance treats this kind of end-to-end live validation as a best practice before launching customer traffic; XPay's PCI DSS Level 1 infrastructure handles the certification burden, but the operational validation step is still on the merchant.

You can take a first test payment in five minutes at app.xpay.app, no code required.

Common Edge Cases

A few situations that come up often enough to be worth flagging upfront.

You signed up but haven't configured anything yet. That's fine. Test-mode accounts persist indefinitely. Come back when you're ready.

You're on the Business track but you're not yet registered. You need a commercial registry document and tax card to complete the Business track. If your business is in the process of being registered, sign up immediately (Stage 1 doesn't require any of this), build everything in test mode, and submit the onboarding once your registration documents are ready.

You're switching from another payment gateway. Your existing customer relationships and integration code carry across cleanly, and your product catalog clones into live mode with Copy to live mode (Payment Links are mode-specific, so you recreate those in live mode). The cleanest migration pattern is to build everything in XPay's test mode in parallel with your existing gateway, validate end-to-end, then submit onboarding and switch over in a single planned cutover rather than running both gateways simultaneously.

Your business activity is in a regulated industry. Healthcare, financial services, regulated retail, and a few other categories may require additional industry-specific documentation beyond standard KYC/KYB. The Central Bank of Egypt's AML/CFT framework governs the regulatory floor, and gateways may layer additional requirements on top depending on the merchant category. Plan for slightly longer onboarding timelines.

You don't have an Egyptian bank account yet. You'll need one to receive payouts. The payout step in the onboarding form requires a valid Egyptian bank account (or in some cases, a mobile wallet) in the name of the entity that's signing up.

For anything outside these patterns, the dashboard's support contact gets you to the team that handles edge-case onboarding.

Final Thoughts

XPay's two-stage signup is designed around a simple principle reflected in McKinsey's research on payment platform adoption: you should be able to evaluate the product before committing to the KYC/KYB process. The instant-signup test mode means you can have a fully working sandbox running against your real branding and configuration within minutes, validate the entire customer-facing experience and developer integration, and submit the full onboarding only after you've confirmed XPay fits. The full onboarding is then a structured process that typically takes a few business days, with the Documents Needed for Payment Processing in Egypt guide covering exactly what to prepare.

For most businesses, the right path is to sign up today, spend 30 minutes validating in test mode, and submit the live onboarding once the document list is in hand. The cumulative time from "thinking about XPay" to "accepting real payments" is typically a week or less.

You can take a first test payment in five minutes at app.xpay.app, no code required.

Sources

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