BTCPay Server is free, open-source software that lets a business take bitcoin without a payment processor. It’s MIT-licensed, community-run and charges no fees. You run it on a server, connect your own wallet, and customers pay you directly: no percentage, no account that can be closed, and nobody holding your coins in between. The catch is the running of it: a server, a bitcoin node and the upkeep.
Below: what it does, how a payment works, what it takes to run, three ways to have one, and whether it’s safe. The facts come from BTCPay’s own documentation, checked on 30 September 2026.
What BTCPay Server does
- Invoices and checkout. Every order gets an invoice with its own address and, by default, 15 minutes to pay.
- Built-in apps. A Point of Sale for a counter, Crowdfund, a Pay Button, and Payment Requests, which are invoices that stay open.
- Shop plugins. WooCommerce, Shopify and others, plus an API for your own code.
- Lightning. Optional, and off by default. BTCPay works with several Lightning implementations, including LND and Core Lightning.
- Other coins. Maintained by their own communities as plugins, such as Monero and USDt on Tron. Bitcoin is the core.
How a payment works
- You connect a wallet by its public key. The private keys, the ones that can spend, stay with you.
- A customer checks out, and BTCPay makes an invoice with a fresh address and a locked exchange rate.
- The customer scans the QR code with their wallet and pays. The coins go straight to your address.
- BTCPay watches the blockchain through its own node, marks the invoice paid and tells your shop.
What it takes to run
| What | What BTCPay’s docs say |
|---|---|
| Installing | The official Docker deployment is the recommended way. It runs BTCPay with PostgreSQL, Bitcoin Core, NBXplorer, Nginx with HTTPS, and Tor. |
| A server, pruned node | The default. 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM and at least 50 GB of SSD; a VPS of around $20 a month or less usually does. |
| A full node | Far more disk. BTCPay’s Raspberry Pi guide uses a 1 TB SSD to keep the whole blockchain. |
| The first sync | A day or two on an affordable server. FastSync can cut it to hours, from a snapshot you have to trust. |
| Upkeep | Updates (August 2026 brought an urgent security release), backups, and watching the disk and the sync. |
Three ways to have one
| Route | What it costs | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Run it yourself | The software is free. A server runs about $16–20 a month for a pruned node (LunaNode’s one-click setup: $15.80) | Install, update, back up and fix it |
| A store on someone else’s server | Free test stores, or a paid host such as elest.io, from $16 a month | Connect your wallet. The host runs the rest, can see your store’s data, and keeps Lightning off by default |
| Run for you by Myntli | $29 a month on our full node, or $449 once on your own server | Nothing: we set up the store, wire in your shop and make a real test payment |
Is BTCPay Server safe?
The design is. BTCPay doesn’t hold funds as a middleman, and set up from a watch-only wallet, the server has no key that can spend. What you have to get right is everything around it:
- Never type your seed into the server. A hot wallet on the server is only as safe as the server.
- Choose a host with care. On a shared server the host can see your store’s details, and BTCPay’s docs warn that a dishonest one could swap your public key for their own. A host that asks for your private key is running a scam.
- Keep it updated. In August 2026, BTCPay 2.4.2 fixed a flaw that leaked Lightning (LND) credentials, and funds were stolen from affected servers. On-chain wallets weren’t affected. The current release is 2.4.4.
- Test the first payment. Send a small real payment and watch it arrive in your own wallet.
How to pay with BTCPay, if you’re the customer
The checkout shows a QR code and an amount. Scan it with your bitcoin wallet, or copy the address and the amount, and pay before the timer runs out: 15 minutes by default. Lightning payments settle at once. Pay too little and the invoice shows as partly paid, and the shop decides what happens next.
The easy way: have it run for you
Myntli runs BTCPay Server for you. Your store sits on our full bitcoin node, set up from your wallet’s public key, wired into your shop and tested with a real payment before you take a single order. $29 a month, or $449 once to install it on your own server. No percentage, ever, and we never hold a key that can spend.
Questions people ask about BTCPay Server
What is BTCPay Server?
Free, open-source software for taking bitcoin payments without a processor. You run it on a server, and customers pay your own wallet directly, with no fee per sale.
Is BTCPay Server free?
The software is free, under the MIT licence, and takes no cut. Running it costs money: a server of about $16–20 a month for a pruned node, or a host that runs it for you.
Is BTCPay safe?
Its design is: it doesn’t hold funds, and a watch-only wallet never puts a spending key on the server. The risks are around it: seeds typed into servers, dishonest hosts, and servers left without updates.
How do I pay with BTCPay?
Scan the QR code on the checkout with your bitcoin wallet, or copy the address and the amount, and pay before the timer runs out. It’s 15 minutes by default.
What does a BTCPay server need?
For the default pruned node, 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM and at least 50 GB of SSD, and a day or two for the first sync. A full node needs far more disk.
From docs.btcpayserver.org, btcpayserver.org and BTCPay’s security advisory, checked on 30 September 2026. See also: BTCPay for WooCommerce, BTCPay on Shopify and how to accept bitcoin payments.