Monero, self-hosted
You run the node and the coins land in your own wallet, with no one in between. Full self-custody survives the move on this path.
Pact · VI
Coming from BTCPay Server?
BTCPay is free software you host yourself, and it takes no cut of anything. It also takes a card from nobody. We are the hosted option that puts cards and pay by mail beside crypto, and this page will not pretend those are the same trade.
The sovereign setup
BTCPay is self-hosted and non-custodial. Coins move to wallets you control with no company anywhere in the path, including ours, and the toolbox runs deep with node policy, Lightning, and invoicing. If you can run servers and you only ever want crypto, that setup gives you something we cannot.
The price of sovereignty
The server is also yours at 2 a.m. Hosting, upgrades, monitoring, and recovery are your job, and the bill for your own time never arrives anywhere you can see it. The server speaks only crypto too, so every buyer holding a card needs a second checkout standing beside the first. Two checkouts is not a setup. It is a workaround you maintain forever.
What stays the same
You keep crypto, and you keep custody away from us. NOWPayments forwards coins to the wallet you choose, and the self-hosted Monero option keeps a no-middleman path behind the same buy button. We hold funds in neither case.
The custody ledger
Here is where the keys actually sit after the move, option by option.
Other coins, via NOWPayments
A service sits in the path and forwards coins to your wallet. They hold the coins briefly in transit, and then the coins are yours at rest. We name that trade plainly because it is real.
Cards, via your processor
Card money was always held by a processor. It lives in your own Stripe or Square account, the same as everyone else's. The new part is that cards now share a buy button with your coins.
Weigh it honestly
What you gain
- No server to run, patch, monitor, or revive.
- Cards, crypto, and pay-by-mail behind one buy button.
- One sales log across all of it.
- A free plan to test the whole setup before anything moves.
What you give up
- Full self-custody on every coin. Only the Monero option keeps it.
- The deep bitcoin toolbox: node policy, Lightning, coin control.
- The no-third-party guarantee. We are a third party, and the open SDK is what balances that.
How to make the move
- Create a project, then connect NOWPayments for coins and a card processor, since cards are probably half the reason you are here.
- For Monero, set up the self-hosted option so you keep the no-middleman path where it matters.
- Add products and paste the button where the BTCPay checkout stood.
- Run test transactions, then real ones, with the old server still standing.
- Shut the old server down only when you trust the new flow. It is your server, and nothing is rushing you.
This trade is about principles before it is about tech. If the custody picture still feels wrong after a week, the old setup is yours to go back to.
When staying makes sense
If self-custody is the whole point rather than a preference, keep BTCPay, and compare it against our open SDK self-hosted with your own webhook rather than against this service. Cards are the reason people come here, and no amount of principle makes a card pay a bitcoin invoice.
Try it before you decide
The free plan is a full sandbox. You get every feature and 50 transactions a month, and we never ask for a card.