UAE Payment Gateway + Subscription Issue

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

A UAE-based merchant is struggling to implement subscription payments on their Shopify store launching soon. The core issue: Shopify’s subscription feature requires one of three payment gateways (Shopify Payments, Authorize.net, or PayPal Express), but none work for UAE businesses.

Key constraints:

  • Shopify Payments and Authorize.net are unavailable in the UAE
  • PayPal Express doesn’t support AED (UAE dirham), the store’s only currency
  • Store only ships to UAE addresses, making AED support essential

Current status:

  • Multiple Shopify support agents confirmed the three-gateway limitation per official documentation
  • A feature request has been submitted to Shopify’s development team
  • At least one other merchant reported the identical problem

Potential workaround:

  • One user suggested Easy Pie Checkout, a third-party Stripe-powered solution that may support subscriptions with broader payment method compatibility
  • Another user confirmed this alternative “works better”

The discussion remains open as merchants await either Shopify’s official solution or validation of third-party alternatives.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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With Easy Pie Checkout for Shopify, a 3rd party Stripe powered checkout solution, you can accept payments and subscriptions with many payment methods supported by your Stripe account.

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