HyperSwitch

HyperSwitch is a composable, open‑source payments platform written primarily in Rust that empowers developers to assemble or extend a payment stack tailored to their business needs. At its core, it exposes a suite of micro‑services—payment routing, vaulting, cost observability, revenue recovery, and reconciliation—each independently deployable via Docker or Kubernetes. The platform’s API surface is RESTful with JSON payloads, and it also offers a GraphQL gateway for advanced querying. By decoupling these services, developers can selectively run only the modules that add value, avoiding unnecessary complexity and vendor lock‑in.

Architecture

HyperSwitch follows a service‑oriented architecture built on top of the Actix‑Web framework. The core components are:

• Gateway Service – Entry point for all payment flows, handling authentication (JWT/OAuth), rate limiting, and request routing to downstream services.
• Routing Engine – Implements rule‑based, volume‑based, and ML‑driven decision trees to select acquirers or alternative payment methods.
• Vault Service – PCI‑DSS compliant storage for card, token, and wallet data, leveraging encrypted Postgres or DynamoDB.
• Cost Observability – Aggregates transaction metadata, fees, and settlement data into a ClickHouse analytics layer.
• Revenue Recovery – Scheduler‑driven retry engine that exposes webhook callbacks for status updates.

All services communicate over gRPC or HTTP/2, with optional Kafka streams for event sourcing. The data layer is PostgreSQL (relational) for transactional consistency and ClickHouse for high‑volume analytics. The platform ships with Helm charts, making it straightforward to deploy on any Kubernetes cluster or on‑premise environment.

Core Capabilities

• Composable APIs – REST/GraphQL endpoints for creating payment intents, managing tokens, and querying analytics.
• Webhook & Event Hooks – Real‑time callbacks for payment status changes, allowing integration with external systems.
• Plugin System – Developers can plug in custom routing rules or ML models by implementing a simple trait interface exposed via dynamic libraries.
• SDKs – Official Rust and TypeScript SDKs simplify interaction with the gateway; community SDKs exist for Python, Go, and Java.
• Observability – Built‑in dashboards (Grafana) expose latency, error rates, and cost metrics; the Cost Observability module also offers an API for external BI tools.

Deployment & Infrastructure

HyperSwitch is designed for self‑hosting on any Kubernetes cluster or bare‑metal server. The Helm charts support multi‑tenant deployments, autoscaling via Horizontal Pod Autoscaler, and can be coupled with external secrets managers (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager). For developers preferring a managed experience, Juspay offers a fully hosted version with SLAs and compliance guarantees. The platform scales horizontally; benchmark reports show 20,000 TPS on a modest cluster, with 99.999% uptime in production environments.

Integration & Extensibility

The platform’s modularity is its biggest strength. Developers can:

• Extend routing logic by adding new connectors to PSPs or acquirers through the connector registry.
• Integrate alternative payment methods (UPI, wallets) by implementing a small adapter that plugs into the routing engine.
• Consume analytics via the Cost Observability API or by pulling raw metrics from ClickHouse for custom dashboards.
• Hook into revenue recovery workflows using webhooks to trigger external CRM or marketing automation systems.

All extensions are versioned, and the community maintains a marketplace of connectors that can be pulled into the deployment via Helm.

Developer Experience

HyperSwitch boasts comprehensive documentation: an introductory guide, API reference, and best‑practice tutorials. The open‑source repository is actively maintained with a rapid release cycle (semantic versioning). Community support comes from an active Slack channel, GitHub discussions, and a dedicated Discord server. Configuration is driven by environment variables and Helm values files, keeping the deployment process declarative and reproducible. The Rust codebase follows idiomatic patterns, making it approachable for developers familiar with async programming.

Use Cases

• FinTech Startups needing a lightweight, fully controllable payment stack without vendor lock‑in.
• Enterprise E‑commerce Platforms that require fine‑grained routing, cost monitoring, and compliance features.
• Marketplace Operators looking to integrate multiple payment methods and auto‑retry strategies for high‑volume merchants.
• Regulated Industries (e.g., banking, insurance) that demand PCI‑DSS vaulting and audit trails.

Advantages

• Performance & Reliability – Rust’s zero‑cost abstractions and Actix’s high concurrency yield low latency and high throughput.
• Flexibility – Modular design lets teams pick only the services they need, reducing operational overhead.
• Open Source & Composable – No vendor lock‑in; the plugin system enables custom logic without modifying core code.
• Compliance & Security – PCI‑DSS vault, encrypted storage, and audit logs are baked into the core.
• Community & Commercial Support – Robust open‑source community plus an optional managed offering from Juspay for enterprises.

HyperSwitch offers developers a powerful, production‑ready foundation to build or extend payment workflows while retaining full control over the stack and data.