Best Payment Gateways for WooCommerce
How WooCommerce Payment Gateways Work
WooCommerce gateways are WordPress plugins that connect your store's checkout page to a payment processor. When a customer enters their card information and clicks "Place Order," the gateway plugin sends the payment data to the processor, receives an approval or decline, and records the result in your WooCommerce order management system. Each gateway plugin handles the integration between WooCommerce and a specific processor.
Unlike Shopify, WooCommerce does not charge surcharges for using any particular gateway. You pay only the processor's fees, with no additional platform charge. This gives WooCommerce merchants complete freedom to choose the cheapest or most feature-rich gateway for their needs without penalty.
Most gateways use tokenized payment forms (iframes or JavaScript-based elements) that prevent card data from touching your server. This keeps your PCI compliance scope minimal (SAQ A or SAQ A-EP) and is the standard approach for all major WooCommerce payment plugins.
1. WooCommerce Payments: Best Overall
Fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per US card, 3.9% + $0.30 for international cards, 1% for currency conversion. No monthly fees.
WooCommerce Payments is developed by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com and WooCommerce) and powered by Stripe. It brings payment management directly into your WordPress dashboard. You view transactions, manage disputes, track deposits, and issue refunds without leaving the WooCommerce admin. This dashboard integration is the primary advantage over using the standalone Stripe plugin.
Features include support for credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay express checkout buttons, multi-currency pricing and display, built-in fraud protection (Stripe Radar), and instant deposits for 1.5% of the deposit amount. WooCommerce Payments also supports in-person payments through a card reader in the US and Canada.
The tradeoff is that WooCommerce Payments sometimes lags behind Stripe in feature updates. New Stripe products and capabilities appear in the standalone Stripe plugin before they reach WooCommerce Payments. If you need the latest Stripe features as soon as they launch, the standalone Stripe plugin is a better choice. For most merchants, the dashboard integration of WooCommerce Payments outweighs the slight feature delay.
2. Stripe for WooCommerce: Best for Stripe Power Users
Fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per US card, 3.9% + $0.30 for international cards. No monthly fees.
The official Stripe plugin for WooCommerce (formerly WooCommerce Stripe Gateway) connects your store directly to your Stripe account. The fees are identical to WooCommerce Payments because both use Stripe's processing infrastructure. The difference is that the standalone plugin connects to your Stripe account directly, giving you access to the full Stripe dashboard and all Stripe products.
Use the standalone Stripe plugin if you manage multiple websites or platforms through a single Stripe account, need access to Stripe's advanced products (Stripe Billing, Stripe Connect, Stripe Sigma), want the full Stripe dashboard for reporting and analytics rather than the WooCommerce Payments dashboard, or need new Stripe features as soon as they are released.
The plugin supports Stripe Payment Element (the latest Stripe checkout component), which dynamically shows relevant payment methods based on the customer's location. A German customer sees Giropay and Klarna alongside credit card options. A Dutch customer sees iDEAL. This automatic localization of payment methods can significantly improve conversion for stores with international traffic.
3. PayPal for WooCommerce: Best Secondary Gateway
Fees: 3.49% + $0.49 for PayPal Checkout, 2.99% + $0.49 for Advanced card processing. No monthly fees.
PayPal's official WooCommerce plugin adds PayPal Checkout buttons to your cart and checkout pages. Customers can pay using their PayPal account, Venmo (in the US), Pay Later installments, or by entering a credit card directly through PayPal's Advanced Credit and Debit Card processing (powered by Braintree).
PayPal's value on WooCommerce is as a secondary payment option alongside Stripe or WooCommerce Payments, not as the primary gateway. The fees are higher, but the conversion boost from offering PayPal (particularly for new stores without strong brand recognition) typically more than offsets the cost difference. Many WooCommerce merchants run both WooCommerce Payments (or Stripe) and PayPal simultaneously, giving customers the choice at checkout.
The PayPal plugin also enables Venmo as a checkout option for US customers. Venmo has over 90 million users, particularly among younger demographics, and adding it as a payment option costs nothing beyond PayPal's standard processing fees.
4. Square for WooCommerce: Best for Omnichannel
Fees: 2.9% + $0.30 online, 2.6% + $0.10 in person. No monthly fees.
Square's WooCommerce plugin syncs your WooCommerce product catalog, inventory, and orders with your Square POS system. This means products you add in WooCommerce appear in Square POS, and sales made in-person through Square update your WooCommerce inventory in real time. For businesses that sell both online through WooCommerce and in person through Square POS, this integration eliminates the manual inventory reconciliation that drives most omnichannel merchants crazy.
The plugin supports credit and debit card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Cash App Pay. The online rate of 2.9% + $0.30 matches Stripe and WooCommerce Payments. The integration quality has improved significantly in recent years, though it still requires careful configuration for stores with complex product variants or large catalogs.
Choose Square for WooCommerce if you already use Square POS for in-person sales and want synchronized inventory and reporting. If you sell online only, Stripe or WooCommerce Payments is a better choice because of deeper WooCommerce integration and a broader feature set.
5. Authorize.net for WooCommerce: Best for Merchant Accounts
Fees: 2.9% + $0.30 all-in-one, or $0.10/transaction + $25/month gateway-only. $25 monthly fee on both plans.
The Authorize.net WooCommerce plugin connects your store to your Authorize.net gateway account. It supports credit cards, eChecks (ACH), and saved payment methods through Authorize.net's Customer Information Manager (CIM). The plugin is well-maintained and has been available for years.
Authorize.net on WooCommerce makes sense when you have an existing merchant account with interchange-plus pricing and use Authorize.net as the gateway. The gateway-only plan ($0.10/transaction + $25/month) combined with competitive interchange-plus rates from your merchant account can result in total processing costs well below 2.9% for stores processing over $20,000 per month.
For new WooCommerce stores, Authorize.net's $25 monthly fee and more complex setup make it a poor starting choice. Start with WooCommerce Payments or Stripe, and consider Authorize.net with a merchant account only when your volume justifies the lower per-transaction rates of interchange-plus pricing.
6. Helcim for WooCommerce: Best for Volume Savings
Fees: Interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 (decreasing with volume). No monthly fees.
Helcim's WooCommerce plugin brings interchange-plus pricing to WooCommerce without the complexity of a separate merchant account and gateway. The effective rate for most stores is 2.3% to 2.6%, depending on the card mix, which is consistently cheaper than the flat 2.9% + $0.30 from WooCommerce Payments or Stripe.
At $15,000 per month in processing, Helcim saves approximately $50 to $100 per month compared to flat-rate processors. At $30,000 per month, the savings reach $150 to $250. The automatic volume discounts mean your rates decrease as your business grows without any negotiation needed.
The tradeoff is ecosystem size. Helcim integrates with WooCommerce and has an API, but the plugin ecosystem, community support, and third-party tools around Helcim are much smaller than Stripe's. For straightforward card processing, Helcim's WooCommerce plugin works well. For complex payment scenarios (subscriptions, marketplaces, advanced fraud rules), Stripe's broader ecosystem is more capable.
Setting Up Multiple Gateways
WooCommerce supports multiple active payment gateways simultaneously. The most common and recommended configuration is WooCommerce Payments (or Stripe) as your primary gateway, handling credit and debit card payments, plus PayPal as a secondary gateway, offering PayPal and Venmo as alternative checkout options.
To set this up, install and configure both plugins through WooCommerce, then Settings, then Payments. Drag gateways to reorder them on the checkout page (your primary gateway should appear first). Each gateway appears as a separate option at checkout, and the customer chooses which to use.
Some merchants add a third option like ACH (through WooCommerce Payments or a dedicated ACH plugin) for customers who want lower-fee bank transfer payments. B2B stores often add purchase order or invoice payment options through plugins like WooCommerce PDF Invoices or B2B-focused payment plugins.
Which Gateway to Choose
New WooCommerce store, selling online only: WooCommerce Payments. Tightest integration, managed within WordPress, and all essential features included.
WooCommerce store needing Stripe's advanced features: Standalone Stripe plugin. Full access to Stripe's product suite and dashboard.
WooCommerce store with in-person sales through Square: Square for WooCommerce plus WooCommerce Payments for a backup online gateway.
WooCommerce store processing $20,000+/month: Evaluate Helcim for interchange-plus savings. The fee reduction pays for itself immediately at this volume.
Any WooCommerce store: Add PayPal as a secondary gateway. The additional conversion from PayPal-preferring customers costs nothing to set up and consistently generates incremental sales.