Z Zirzir

Now supporting M-Pesa & Telebirr

The African
Payment
Infrastructure.

Zirzir is the payment stack African startups keep rebuilding: one SDK for Telebirr, Chapa, M-Pesa, and more, plus a server with webhooks, retries, and a real-time dashboard so you can ship payments across African gateways in days, not months.

We got tired of re-writing the same Telebirr RSA encryption and webhook code for every new project. So we open-sourced the whole stack under MIT.

Install the SDK View on GitHub
8+ providers
3 SDKs
MIT
Open source on GitHub
charge.ts 
import { Zirzir } from '@zirzir/sdk'

const z = new Zirzir({
  provider: 'telebirr',
  credentials: {
    appId: process.env.TELEBIRR_APP_ID,
    appKey: process.env.TELEBIRR_APP_KEY,
    publicKey: process.env.TELEBIRR_PUB,
  }
})

// USSD push to customer's phone. That's it.
const tx = await z.charge({
  amount: 150,
  currency: 'ETB',
  phone: '0911234567',
  reference: 'ride-7842',
})

// handles RSA encryption, phone normalization, & USSD retries

Payments in Africa are
fragmented.

The Problem

  • ×

    Read 4 different PDFs to understand RSA encryption for Telebirr, Chapa, and M-Pesa.

  • ×

    Implement custom polling and webhook handlers for every single gateway.

  • ×

    Build your own dashboard, ledger, and retry engine from scratch.

The Zirzir Way

We abstracted all of that into a single SDK and server. One API call. One ledger. One open-source project.

Fast Integration

Go live with 8+ providers in minutes, not weeks.

Secure by Design

Enterprise-grade encryption and signature verification.

Reliable Webhooks

Automatic retries with exponential backoff built-in.

Self-Hostable

Your data, your server. Completely open source.

Eight gateways. One function call.

Every provider has its own auth scheme, payload shape, and callback format. Zirzir normalizes them into a single charge() call.

Telebirr Chapa CBEBirr M-Pesa Airtel Money Santim + more zirzir // unified response Transaction id , status , amount

What you get

The SDK

TypeScript, Python, Go. One charge() call for Telebirr USSD, Chapa cards, and M-Pesa STK push. Handles RSA encryption, phone normalization, and provider quirks so your application code doesn't have to.

The Server

Single Go binary. Transaction ledger, webhook engine with exponential backoff, real-time dashboard, multi-project isolation, RBAC. The operational layer that turns an SDK into production infrastructure.

The Dashboard

See every transaction, drill into webhook delivery logs, replay failed deliveries, switch between test and live environments. The thing your ops team would otherwise ask engineering to build.

The Cloud

Same server, hosted by us. Point your SDK at api.zirzir.dev, get an API key, and skip the Docker setup. This is how we fund the open source.

Operations, simplified

A real-time dashboard to monitor transactions, manage webhooks, and toggle between environments. The control center for your payment infrastructure.

dashboard.zirzir.dev
Z
Zirzir

Developer

zz_live_48f...92a

Default Project
Live
Test

Total Volume

14,284.50 ETB

Success Rate

99.2%

Pending

12

Recent Transactions

Export CSV
TB

ride-order-7842

Telebirr • 091****4567

+150.00 ETB

Success

MP

premium-sub-901

M-Pesa • 072****1122

+840.00 KES

Success

CH

invoice-3321

Chapa • VISA **** 4492

+4,200.00 ETB

Pending

Same API, different mode

Standalone calls gateways directly. Server mode routes through your Zirzir server for webhooks, retries, and a transaction ledger.

The switch is a config change, not a rewrite.

standalone.ts
import { Zirzir } from '@zirzir/sdk'

// Talk directly to the payment gateway
const zirzir = new Zirzir({
  provider: 'chapa',
  credentials: { secretKey: process.env.CHAPA_KEY! }
})

const tx = await zirzir.charge({
  amount: 500,
  currency: 'ETB',
  txRef: 'order_123',
  email: 'customer@example.com'
})

Providers

Every provider produces the same Transaction object. A Chapa card payment and a Telebirr USSD push are identical to your code.

See all providers →
ET

Telebirr

USSD push

ET

Chapa

Cards + Mobile

ET

CBEBirr

Mobile Money

ET

Santim Pay

Aggregator

ET

Awash Bank

Bank Transfer

ET

EthSwitch

Interbank

KE

M-Pesa

STK Push

KE

Airtel Money

Mobile Money

Next: Paystack / Flutterwave / MTN MoMo / Orange Money / Wave / Chipper Cash

Three layers, use what you need

Start with the SDK for direct gateway access. Add the server when you need webhooks and a dashboard. Or let us host it.

Open Source, MIT License

One unified interface for every African payment gateway. TypeScript, Python, and Go. Use standalone or connect to a Zirzir server.

  • Single charge/verify/refund API
  • TypeScript, Python, Go SDKs
  • Standalone or Server mode
  • Built-in provider adapters
  • Webhook signature verification
  • Full type safety
app.ts
import { Zirzir } from '@zirzir/sdk'

const zirzir = new Zirzir({
  provider: 'chapa',
  credentials: { secretKey: '...' }
})

const tx = await zirzir.charge({
  amount: 500,
  currency: 'ETB',
  txRef: 'order_123',
})

Open core, not open bait

The SDK and server are MIT-licensed. You can fork it, self-host it, sell products built on it. No "community edition" crippled to push you into enterprise.

Zirzir Cloud is how we fund development. Same open-source codebase, hosted by us. If a feature is in the open source today, it stays there. We compete on ops convenience, not feature gatekeeping.

Zirzir
Proprietary
Source code
MIT
Closed
Self-host
Yes
No
Pricing
Free / Cloud
% per txn
USSD flows
First-class
Afterthought
Lock-in
None
High
Browse the source →

Try it

Sandbox works out of the box. No approvals, no sales calls.

Read the docs Sign in to Zirzir Cloud
$ npm install @zirzir/sdk