In this article, we’ll look at 10 different payment gateways that are popular with WooCommerce stores. Some of these solutions might be right for you, depending on your business model or industry.
It comes down to finding the best-fit payment gateway for the area, type, and preferred currency of your buyers. Let’s get started!
What is a Payment Gateway?
The payment gateway is often integrated with an ecommerce platform like WooCommerce.
For example: when you use one of these gateways to process your credit cards through PayPal or Stripe, they will handle everything from authentication to authorizations to chargebacks—all behind the scenes for you and your customers.
Essentially you are handing over the exchange of money for your online store to another provider, so you don’t have to worry about the nitty-gritty details. Most WooCommerce payment gateways make things much easier to manage through automation.
While they charge small fees, it is usually more than worth the cost.
How to Choose a Payment Gateway
You should look for a payment gateway that suits your needs, as well as those of your customers. It would help if you also considered how easy it is to set up and use the gateway, how much transaction fees are involved, and how reputable the company behind it is.
Be sure to research payment gateway attributes like:
- Compatibility– does it offer a WooCommerce plugin or integration?
- Platform Integration – will it work with your ecommerce website system?
- Payments – what types of currencies and payments does it accept?
- Reputation – does the payment gateway have good online reviews?
- Target Market – what demographic and physical locations does the payment gateway service?
- Support – does the payment gateway provide 24/7 customer service?
- Fraud Protection – are your transactions protected against theft and chargebacks?
- Fees/Commissions – how much will the payment gateway cost you?
Once you have answers to these questions, you can move on and select the payment gateway that works bets with your WooCommerce online storefront.
Best WooCommerce Payment Gateways
You’re looking to grow your business and expand into the international market. But how do you actually make this happen?
A critical step is choosing a payment gateway that will help you accept payments from foreign customers. After all, no matter how much demand there is for your product or service in another country, it’s worthless if it can’t be paid for!
1 – Stripe
Stripe is a payment gateway allowing you to accept credit and debit cards on your WooCommerce store. It is one of the most popular and secure payment gateways out there.
Stripe makes it easy to accept payments online, enabling you to receive funds directly into your bank account in two days or less. You can set up recurring subscriptions and also create invoices with their simple interface.
Many significant name-brand companies like Shopify, Amazon, Squarespace, and Kickstarter use Stripe to accept numerous payments through customizable forms that can be directly embedded into your WooCommerce site.
Area of Service:
PCI-compliant and embeddable digital payment gateway with WooCommerce plugin support.
Location:
Available in 42 countries, primarily through Europe and North America.
Currencies:
Over 130 currencies are accepted.
2- Square
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use payment processor that’s available on a platform like WordPress, Square is a great choice.
It’s ideal for businesses that don’t need a full-service payment gateway but still want to accept credit card payments on their websites or mobile apps.
This is an excellent in-person solution for online stores that show up to local events or conferences. You often see kiosks using the Square “square,” which is a little white device used to swipe credit/debit cards and plugs into a smartphone. This works with Apple Pay and Google Pay digital wallets and provides pre-order and subscription support.
Area of Service:
Digital wallets, credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, and some gift cards.
Location:
Accepted in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the UK.
Currencies:
Locked to the country where you open your account.
3 – PayPal Pro
PayPal is a payment gateway that allows you to accept online payments through your website. PayPal is a secure, trusted, and easy-to-use payment gateway. It offers multiple payment options and an extensive feature list with minimal fees, making it ideal for large or small businesses.
Setting up your account with PayPal is quick and simple, allowing you to get started immediately without any hassle. Once you have created your account with PayPal, all payments are handled through their secure system – keeping both buyer and seller safe from fraudsters.
There are numerous WooCommerce plugins and integrations that work with PayPal Pro and automatic fraud screening, so when you need to scale your store, you have a bit of extra protection.
Area of Service:
Accepts payment via bank account, major credit card, and the PayPal cash program.
Location:
PayPal Pro is available in more than 200 regions and countries.
Currencies:
Supports over 25 currencies.
4 – AliPay
AliPay is a Chinese Cross Border Payment Gateway, so it can be an excellent solution for WooCommerce stores that target Chinese customers. It’s also great for those selling products in China—AliPay has a global reach, but most of its users are located in Asia.
AliPay doesn’t support Apple Pay or Android Pay, but it does support QR codes and mobile payments through WeChat Pay and Alipay Wallet. AliPay offers both online and offline payment methods (the latter includes branches and ATMs), as well as gift cards as an alternative to credit cards like Visa/Mastercard or American Express.
Area of Service:
Best used with direct payments in the AliPay system or through credit/debit cards.
Location:
It can be used internationally but is heavily based in China-related industries.
Currencies:
Works with AUD, CAD, EUR, HKD, GBP, SGD, and USD.
5 – Windcave for WooCommerce
Windcave payment gateway is a privately built WooCommerce plugin by our professional team at OPMC. It directly connects your WooCommerce website with the DPS Payment Express Gateway.
The best part of Windcave is that it passes on the security risk of transactions to an expert system. So, instead of worrying about SSL certificates, credit card security, and more, everything is handled by the Windcave payment gateway.
Area of Service:
Accepts major credit and debit cards as well as local options through other gateways like Stripe and PayPal. This is an all-inclusive system to accept cross-border payments without needing a complex account.
Location:
Based on the integrations you utilize, opening up your store to a wide range of accepted geographic locations.
Currencies:
Again, based on the integrations.
6 – Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay is a payment gateway that allows you to accept payments from customers who shop on Amazon.
Amazon Pay is a great way to increase your sales volume, and sales conversion rate as customers will already be familiar with the process of buying through Amazon, so they won’t have to go through any extra steps other than entering their card information and making sure it is correct before submitting the order.
Additionally, because Amazon has been around since 1994 and has built up trust among consumers over the years (they are currently ranked number 1 in customer satisfaction), this means that people are more likely to trust that their payment information will be secure when using Amazon Pay for ecommerce transactions.
Area of Service:
Accepts various payment methods and allows you to defer, split, or set up recurring payments.
Locations:
This payment gateway is available in more than 170 countries.
Currencies:
Currently works with AUD, GBP, DKK, EUR, HKD, JPY, NZD, NOK, ZAR, SEK, CHF, and USD.
7 – Authorize.Net
Authorize.Net is a payment gateway that allows you to accept credit cards and other forms of payment. It is owned and operated by Visa, allowing you to work with competing cards and systems that may not be available on other platforms.
This is a robust WooCommerce payment option because it offers total support for the web platform at a scalable rate – making this the choice to work with if you have a medium to large size online business.
Area of Service:
Accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB, PayPal, Visa SRC, Apple Pay, Chase Pay, and E-check.
Location:
Only available in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and Canada.
Currencies:
AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, JPY, NOK, NZD, SEK, USD, and ZAR.
8 – Apple Pay
Apple Pay is a mobile payment system developed by Apple Inc. It allows users to make payments at contactless payment terminals with their iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.
To use Apple Pay, you’ll need an iPhone 6 or later model, which includes the Touch ID fingerprint recognition system on the Home button. The device also needs to support NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. Most newer models do this natively and don’t require any additional hardware.
Once your device is set up with Apple Pay (a quick process), all you have to do is hold it near a contactless terminal for it to read your credit card information and complete your purchase automatically.
There is some online support, but the WooCommerce store needs to integrate with the system first before accepting the payment.
Area of Service:
Works with major credit/debit cards and in-person cash via Apple Cash.
Location:
Available in over 40 countries (Apple Cash only in the USA).
Currencies:
There are simply too many to list. This is one of the most diverse payment systems for different currencies.
9 – WooCommerce Payments
WooCommerce Payments is a solution for accepting payments on your WooCommerce store. Accepting payments via WooCommerce Payments allows you to take advantage of a collaborative payment gateway through partnerships with Stripe and others.
Unfortunately, this is only available in a small listing of countries, but it is important to consider because the payment gateway is native to the WooCommerce platform. This is also a “white label” payment gateway where you can change the branding to match your business model.
Area of Service:
Most major credit cards, but there are higher fees for cards from out of the US.
Location:
Only available in 18 countries.
Currencies:
More than 100 different currencies, but Discover, Diners Club, JCB, and UnionPay cards can only be based in the USA.
10 – Braintree
Braintree is a payment gateway that processes payments for businesses across the world. This is one of the more advanced fraud protection payment gateway options offering a more practical solution for your online store.
You can work with regular payments, strong reporting, and split payment options for any products or services needing a more flexible payment option.
Area of Service:
Most major credit cards.
Location:
Currently works in over 45 countries.
Currencies:
Compatible with more than 135 international currencies.
Choose Your Best Payment Gateway
If your ecommerce store is selling mostly small items or digital goods, then Stripe’s solution will be a good choice for you. It’s easy to set up and has low transaction fees.
If what you sell requires multiple payment options (such as subscriptions), then PayPal’s gateway could be the best fit because it lets customers pay with any credit card or bank account, they have linked to their PayPal account.
If you’re selling products that are more expensive than $50-$100 and require additional information such as shipping address during checkout – then Authorize.net will help ease the process for your customers by giving them the option to check out using their saved credit card information rather than entering their billing details every time they place an order.
Wrapping it Up
We hope this article has helped you make an informed decision about which payment gateway is right for you, and be sure to look into Windcave as your preferred choice for greater WooCommerce integration and payment flexibility.
