Selecting your merchant processor or payment gateway is a very important decision, when planning & building a new WooCommerce store.
A payment gateway is a service that authorizes the transfer of funds, available on credit cards and debit cards, from the buyer to the seller. It processes online payments by sending secure information about the credit card or debit card between the website, the issuing bank, and the merchant’s bank account.
WooCommerce Payment Gateways
Three of the most trusted and used WooCommerce payment gateways are Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.net. All of these payment gateways have a WooCommerce plugin extension that connects your WooCommerce online store to the payment processing service.
Some security checks and verification are performed before authorizing the transfer of money from the customer’s account to your merchant account.
1. Stripe
Stripe is one of the fastest-growing payment gateways and it’s utilized by big brand websites, including Hubspot, Target, Lyft, and Facebook.
The platforms focus on simplicity has made the Stripe payment gateway and API very attractive for customers and developers.
There are no monthly fees for Stripe, whereas other payment gateways charge a monthly fee plus transaction fees. In addition, Stripe does not charge any extra fees for recurring billing, which makes it a popular choice for subscription and paid membership websites.
In order to set up Stripe on your WooCommerce store, you’ll need to install the free WooCommerce Stripe plugin.
2. PayPal
PayPal is one of the oldest payment platforms on the Internet and has become a one-stop online gateway for payments. There are several different integration options with PayPal.
A common misconception is that using PayPal as your payment gateway means that customers will need a PayPal account to check out. That’s not the case. There are certain PayPal setups where a web visitor is directed to a separate URL and c
If you select PayPal as your payment gateway, you’ll most likely want to utilize PayPal Pro and the PayPal Pro WooCommerce plugin extension, which allows your web visitors to process credit cards directly on your website.
3. Authorize.net
Authorize.net is another popular payment gateway. While it does require a monthly subscription fee in addition to transaction fees, Authorize.Net is one of the highest quality anti-fraud and secure systems.
The approval process for Authorize.Net can be challenging and take a long time for start-ups and new products. This can happen with any payment gateway at times, so it’s always best to start the payment gateway setup process early in a website project.
You’ll also need to purchase the paid WooCommerce plugin for Authorize.net in order to set up the payment gateway and keep customers on your website during the checkout process.
Selecting a Payment Processor
WooCommerce supports tons of the major payment processors, in addition to the ones mentioned above. Ultimately, the decision on which ones to use will be dependent on what works best for your business and customer base.
The best payment gateway for your WooCommerce website depends on your business, your functionality requirements for the store (one-time purchases, subscriptions, etc.) and the long-term goals for the WooCommerce website.
