Windcave in Canada: what you have, and what to check before you change it.

Windcave was founded in Auckland, New Zealand in 1999, and Canadian merchants contract with Windcave Canada Limited, a British Columbia company. Some plugin listings still carry its older name, Payment Express. Windcave is the gateway. It carries a card sale from your website or software to the company that processes your card payments. We check that whole setup with you first. See all the gateways we cover.

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The short answer

  • Windcave has sold in Canada since 2021. Its About page lists Canadian merchant services from 2021. Its Canadian contact is a Vancouver mailing address. It lists no Toronto office.
  • Its Canadian terms are in CAD; other currencies depend on the account. The Canada terms, last updated 8 April 2025, state amounts in CAD. Multi-currency works on Visa and Mastercard only, and only with some acquirers.
  • Interac is a "check your agreement" item. Windcave's listings name Interac, but its Canada gateway terms exclude debit and Interac transactions.
  • The gateway and the processor are separate jobs. Most of what you pay comes from the processing behind the gateway.
  • Nothing changes until it is checked. Whether you can change processor, keep saved cards or keep recurring billing depends on your account, and we confirm it in writing first.

Your gateway and your processor do different jobs

A payment gateway passes the card details from your checkout to a processor and brings the answer back. The payment processor approves the sale and settles the money into your merchant account, which pays out to your bank.

  1. Your website, store or billing software
  2. Windcave, the gateway
  3. The company that processes your card payments
  4. Your merchant account
  5. Your Canadian bank account

Windcave's Canada gateway terms run month to month and cover the gateway, with devices rented or bought separately. Its About page also lists Canadian merchant services, so processing can be bundled with the gateway. Your agreement and statements show which you have.

Where to start

Your situationWhat we check first
Your software asks for WindcaveWhich Windcave product it connects to (REST, hosted page or a legacy PxPay connection), and what account it needs
You use Windcave and want to see what it costsWho processes your payments, and which lines are gateway, processing, device and software
You want to take USDWhether your account and acquirer support a second currency, and what your software sends
You take recurring paymentsWhere the cards are stored, and which system runs the schedule
You are moving website platformWhether the new platform has a Windcave connection, and which features it keeps
You still run PxPay 2.0, PxPost or PxFusionWho built the connection. Windcave files these under Legacy with no sunset date; ask your developer or plugin vendor

Software that connects to Windcave

WooCommerce

Windcave builds its own WooCommerce extension, downloaded from windcave.com, not wordpress.org. Per Windcave's guide, it lists Canada and CAD, saves and rebills cards, supports WooCommerce Subscriptions, and runs 3-D Secure where the acquirer supports it. For what a connector page covers, see our Authorize.Net and WooCommerce page.

Shopify and Adobe Commerce

The Shopify app "Windcave Payments" sends shoppers to Windcave's hosted page, per its listing, which names no countries. The Adobe Commerce extension lists Canada, saves cards for rebilling and offers 3-D Secure, per its listing, which calls it the replacement for the older Payment Express extension.

NetSuite and custom builds

Oracle lists a Windcave integration for NetSuite with Canada among its regions, with 3-D Secure 2 handled outside NetSuite. Read our NetSuite payments page first. For a site your own developer runs, our development team can scope a custom build on Windcave's REST API.

What to check on a Windcave account

FeatureWhat the vendor documents
Saved cardsLocal and network tokens, shared between in-store and online. Payline holds them in a Billing Vault.
Recurring billingStored-credential flags in the REST API, Subscription objects, and schedules set in Payline.
3-D Secure3-D Secure 2 in the REST API, on by default on the hosted page. See 3-D Secure.
Apple Pay and Google PayGoogle Pay hosted or merchant-hosted; Apple Pay in third-party browsers since July 2025.
Hosted page or fieldsHosted Payment Page, iframe, Hosted Fields, Drop-In, Form Post and AJAX Post.
Virtual terminalPayline's PayMoto screen for phone and mail orders, with refunds. See our virtual terminal page.
Pay by linkPaylink by email or SMS. See pay by link.
Not documentedCanadian pre-authorized debit (its June 2026 bank-debit launch is US ACH only), Level 2 and 3 data, partial approval, and Canadian certification for its unattended terminals.

3-D Secure 2 on Windcave

Windcave's REST API runs 3-D Secure 2 with challenge and liability indicators and frictionless, decoupled and out-of-band flows, and it is on by default on the hosted payment page. The Adobe Commerce extension lists 3DSecure as optional, Oracle's NetSuite table lists Windcave's 3DS2 as handled outside NetSuite, and the WooCommerce extension runs it where the acquirer supports it. We check which of your checkouts send the authentication and whether your Canadian acquirer supports it. Why it matters: card-testing bots run stolen card numbers through online checkouts by the thousand, and Visa's guidance says every attempt, approved or declined, can carry authorization and gateway fees, with disputes on the ones that go through. Visa's merchant guide lists 3-D Secure authentication among the controls, next to CAPTCHA, velocity limits and device checks. Turn it on before the first attack; we check that it is live and that your checkout sends it. See 3-D Secure in Canada, or the sixty-second version.

Stopping card testing on Windcave

Windcave's fraud prevention page lists risk scoring, custom risk rules set in Payline, AVS modes, per-card and per-IP blocking, 3DS authentication and a risk override privilege for staff who need to push a flagged sale through. The rules live in Payline, so a WooCommerce or Adobe Commerce store gets them without plugin changes. We check which rules are set, whether your Canadian acquirer returns AVS results, and who on your team holds the override. Visa's merchant guide lists these controls together with 3-D Secure, and none of them is on by default on a new account. We go through the list with you and turn on what your checkout can use.

CAD, USD and Interac

Windcave's Canada terms state amounts in Canadian dollars, and its WooCommerce guide lists CAD. Which account types settle in CAD, and whether a Canadian account can settle USD, is not published. Windcave says multi-currency works on Visa and Mastercard only, and only with some acquirers. Funds generally settle the following business day.

On Interac, the public record points two ways. Windcave's online payments page lists Interac Online, its plugin listings name Interac, and Interac Corp lists Windcave Canada Limited among acquirers offering Interac Debit at the point of sale. Its Canada gateway terms say debit card and Interac transactions are not supported under that agreement. Check your agreement. We confirm CAD, USD and Interac in writing before any change.

Fees and statements

Windcave publishes no price list. Its fee names are the Merchant Service Fee, Interchange Fee, Scheme Fee, Acquirer Fee and International Fee. Canada gets two billing models, Blended and Interchange+. Fees are invoiced monthly in arrears, and every transaction, approved or declined, is charged. The FAQ names cancellation fees and a 36-month term for merchant services. The Canada terms name device rental, shipping and restocking fees.

A full quote should show gateway, processing, device and software costs on separate lines. For how card fees are built, read our card processing fees guide and interchange rates guide.

Where CleverPays fits

Windcave owns and runs the Windcave gateway and Payline. The company that processes your card payments approves and settles them. Your software company maintains its own connector. Visa, Mastercard, Interac and the other card networks set their own rules. CleverPays does not make Windcave or your software.

We check your setup with you: which gateway account, which processor, which software, CAD or USD, saved cards and recurring billing. Then we tell you what can change. Where we can set up the account, we will say so in writing. Where we cannot, we will tell you. We can review your statement, connect and test what we set up, and stay your contact in English and French.

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Sources

Product and company names on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. CleverPays is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

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Common questions

Yes, every card sale needs both a gateway and a merchant account behind it. They can come from one provider or from two, and your agreement shows which you have.

Already on Windcave?

Tell us what you run today. We check the setup with you and tell you plainly what can change.

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