Choosing the right WooCommerce payment gateway is an extremely important decision that will have long-term effects on the success and sustainability of your online business.
In this article, we will compare the best WooCommerce payment gateways for WordPress so that you can make the right choice for your business.
How to Choose the Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway
If you have just started your own WooCommerce store, you will face the decision of selecting and setting up a payment gateway.
Payment gateways are third-party service providers that enable you to accept online payments in your e-commerce store.
However, not all payment gateways have the same policies, processing rates, and features. Choosing an unsuitable payment gateway can increase your costs and harm your business in the long run.
Here are some important aspects to consider when choosing your WooCommerce payment gateway.
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Transaction Fees
Most WooCommerce payment gateways impose fees on every transaction made in your store. These fees can vary based on your business location, customer card type, the payment gateway you choose, and so on.
You can try to offset this by passing the burden onto your customers. However, this also means that you will have to increase product prices, and your customers may find the same products elsewhere at a lower cost.
Instead, you can compare transaction fees with other service providers and try to find the right balance between transaction fees and other features.
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Additional Fees
Apart from transaction fees, some WooCommerce payment service providers may impose additional fees on you. These can be setup fees, account maintenance fees, or fees for bank withdrawals.
These fees can be a particular annoyance for newly started businesses.
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Recurring Payments
Many companies sell subscription-based products, such as membership plans or online courses. In this case, you may also want to look for the recurring payments feature.
Some payment gateways require customers to complete each transaction manually and do not support recurring payments. Make sure to check for this option if your business requires automatic renewals.
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Availability in the Targeted Region
Next, you need to ensure that the payment service you choose is available in your country and in the countries of your customers.
For example, if most of your customers are located in Europe, you may want to look for a widely available and popular payment service in that region.
You will find this information on the website of each payment gateway under “supported countries.” If you can’t find this information, you can email them to confirm.
These are just some of the key items to research. You may also want to consider other features that your business may require. For example, easy refunds, additional security, verification, and regulatory compliance based on your region.
Having said that, let’s now take a look at some of the top WooCommerce payment gateways for WordPress and see how they stack up against these requirements.
Top WooCommerce Payment Gateways for WordPress
WooCommerce supports a large number of payment gateways through extensions. These extensions are additional WooCommerce plugins that integrate these payment services into the WooCommerce checkout process.
Here are some of the most popular WooCommerce payment gateways trusted by thousands of companies worldwide.
1. Stripe :
It is the most popular payment gateway for accepting credit card payments on your website. WooCommerce comes with built-in support for selecting Stripe as your payment gateway.
It supports all major credit and debit cards. Your customers can also pay using Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Alipay.
Stripe is available in over 40 countries and supports over 135 currencies. There are no setup fees or annual fees for Stripe, but they charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
It also provides a better payment experience. Your customers stay on your website during checkout and it works smoothly on both mobile and desktop.
Stripe supports recurring payments and can be used with any subscription.
Note: If you are only looking to create a simple payment form for donations or online orders without the hassle of managing a full e-commerce system, consider WPForms, which offers Stripe forms for WordPress.
2. PayPal Standard
PayPal is one of the most popular payment services available for e-commerce stores. WooCommerce comes with built-in support for using PayPal in your online store.
As a pioneer in the payment industry, PayPal offers a variety of services suitable for personal, business, and e-commerce use.
It is available in dozens of countries, but there are different limitations in some countries. Make sure it is supported in your country as well as your target customers.
The standard PayPal extension for WooCommerce requires a PayPal business account. It does not provide an on-site checkout experience, meaning your customers will be redirected to the PayPal website to complete the purchase.
PayPal fees depend on your account type and the number/volume of sales you make. This has a significant impact on your business and should be reviewed beforehand.
Note: If all you need is a PayPal payment form for your business, consider WPForms. It allows you to easily accept payments and donations via PayPal.
3. WooCommerce PayPal Pro
PayPal Pro for WooCommerce is a paid extension developed by the people behind WooCommerce.
It enables you to use PayPal with a better payment experience that allows customers to complete their purchase without leaving your website.
It’s available in the UK, US and Canada, but you’ll need a PayPal merchant account to use it.
If your business is based in Australia, you can use it with a PayPal Pro Payflow account.
It does not support recurring payments, which means it will not work with a membership site that sells subscription-based products.
PayPal pro requires monthly payment and transaction fees vary by country. This makes it more expensive for new work.
4. Square
Square is another excellent payment gateway for WooCommerce stores. In particular, for stores with physical locations, delivery and other selling options.
Square is available in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.
Transaction fees vary per country, but they offer a flat transaction rate.
The WooCommerce Square Extension syncs the product between your website and your Square account. You can also add products to your Square account, and they will be added to your WooCommerce store.
Additionally, it supports recurring payments when used in conjunction with the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension.
5. Authorize.Net
You can create an Authorize.Net payment form using WPForms. This is perfect for sites that don’t need a full ecommerce platform.
WooCommerce Payments is a payment solution provided by the people behind WooCommerce. It offers an enhanced payment experience and a highly integrated payment gateway for your store.
Currently, WooCommerce Payments is only available to merchants residing in the United States who sell products in US dollars.
The specified instant payment fee structure is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for cards issued in the United States, with an additional 1% fee for cards issued outside the United States. This makes it somewhat more expensive than other solutions.
This solution is essentially a white-labeled version of Stripe.
You will also need a WordPress.com account and install the JetPack plugin in your store.
What is the best WooCommerce payment gateway ?
The best WooCommerce payment gateway is the one that offers you the best transaction fees, is available in your targeted region, and provides a better user experience for your customers.
Considering these factors, we recommend using Stripe as the best payment gateway for WooCommerce. It offers a smooth checkout experience, competitive transaction rates, and is available in 40 countries.
Both PayPal Standard and Authorize.Net offer similar features. However, PayPal Standard does not provide the best payment experience.
Usually, store owners offer multiple payment options to their users.
We hope this article helps you find the best WooCommerce payment gateway for your business.