WooCommerce Payment Gateways for UK Stores

A WooCommerce payment gateway is the plugin and provider that takes the customer's payment at checkout and pays it into your bank account. For most UK stores the practical shortlist is Stripe, WooPayments and PayPal, sometimes with a pay-later or Direct Debit option on top. They differ in fees, in what the checkout looks like, in how quickly you are paid, and in how well they work with WooCommerce's current block-based checkout.

This article compares those options. It sits under the WooCommerce store development guide, which covers where payments fit in the wider build.

What a WooCommerce payment gateway actually does

Three separate jobs are often bundled together:

1. The checkout interface. The card fields, wallet buttons or redirect the customer sees.
2. Processing. Authorising the card, running 3D Secure checks where the bank requires them, and capturing the money.
3. Settlement. Paying the money into your bank account, minus fees, on a schedule.

Stripe and WooPayments do all three inside your checkout using fields hosted by the provider. PayPal's standard checkout opens PayPal's own window. Some providers redirect the customer away entirely, which is simpler to set up and usually converts worse.

UK fees at a glance

At the time of writing (October 2026), from each provider's official pricing page:

Rates change, and every provider has exceptions, so treat this as a starting point and check the linked pages before deciding. Premium cards (corporate and some reward cards) are the detail people miss: if your customers are mainly businesses, your effective rate will be above the headline figure.

What the difference is worth

Hypothetical numbers to show the method. Say a store processes 300 orders a month at an average of £45, all on standard UK cards:

The fixed fee matters most on small orders. On a £5 order, a 20p or 25p fixed fee is several percentage points on its own. If your average order is low, compare the fixed fees first.

PayPal looks expensive in this table, but most stores offer it as a second option rather than the main one, so only the share of customers who choose it pay that rate. Some customers will only buy with PayPal, which is the argument for including it.

Stripe

The official WooCommerce Stripe plugin takes cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and a range of other methods inside your checkout. You manage disputes, refunds and payouts in Stripe's dashboard, which is one of the better pieces of software in the industry. Stripe is a sensible default for most stores, and it is also what many other tools integrate with, which helps if you later automate invoicing or subscriptions.

WooPayments

WooPayments is WooCommerce's own payments product. Its main advantage is that everything, including payouts, disputes and deposits, is managed inside the WooCommerce admin rather than in a separate dashboard. For a store owner who wants one place to look, that is a real benefit. The trade-off at the time of writing was a slightly higher fixed fee than Stripe and VAT on the fees.

PayPal

The official PayPal Payments plugin adds PayPal buttons and, depending on your account, pay-later messaging and card processing through PayPal. Its strength is recognition: some customers trust PayPal more than an unfamiliar shop. Its weakness, as the table shows, is cost on standard checkout. A common pattern is Stripe or WooPayments for cards and wallets, with PayPal as an alternative.

Pay later, Direct Debit and other methods

• Buy now, pay later (such as Klarna and Clearpay) can lift order values on higher-priced items. The merchant pays a higher fee than for cards, and these products carry consumer credit implications you should read up on. Several are available through Stripe as well as their own plugins.
• Direct Debit through a provider such as GoCardless suits recurring payments and high-value B2B orders better than one-off retail.
• Bank transfer and cheque are built into WooCommerce, with no fees, and suit trade customers who pay on invoice. Keep them off consumer checkouts unless you want to chase payments.

How to choose

1. Start with your typical order value and customer. Low order values favour lower fixed fees. Business customers raise your premium card share.
2. Pick one main card and wallet provider. Stripe or WooPayments for most stores.
3. Add PayPal if your customers expect it. Check your analytics or ask existing customers.
4. Check block checkout support. WooCommerce's block-based checkout is now standard. Use the provider's official plugin and confirm it supports the checkout you are using.
5. Check payout timing. How many days between a sale and the money reaching your account affects cash flow more than a 0.1% fee difference.
6. Do not offer everything. Six payment logos make a checkout look cluttered and add six plugins to maintain.

Security and compliance

Use hosted card fields, which Stripe and WooPayments provide by default, so card numbers never touch your server. Strong Customer Authentication rules mean some UK card payments trigger a 3D Secure challenge from the customer's bank; your gateway handles this, but you should test it before launch. Keep the gateway plugin updated, because it is the most sensitive code on the site. Secure plugin development practices explains why custom payment code needs particular care.

Refunds, disputes and reconciliation

The gateway choice also affects the back-office work that follows every sale.

Refunds. All three providers support refunds from inside WooCommerce, so you do not need to log into a separate dashboard to issue one. Check whether the provider returns its fees on a refund; policies differ and change, so read the provider's current terms rather than assuming.

Disputes and chargebacks. When a customer disputes a payment with their bank, the provider charges a dispute fee and asks you for evidence. Clear product descriptions, delivery tracking and a visible returns policy are what win disputes. Stripe and WooPayments show disputes alongside the order; PayPal handles them through its Resolution Centre.

Reconciliation. Payouts arrive as one lump sum covering many orders, minus fees and refunds. Your bookkeeping has to match that lump to individual orders. Accounting tools such as Xero and QuickBooks connect directly to Stripe and PayPal, which makes this much easier than reconciling by hand. If you want the whole chain from order to invoice to ledger to run without manual entry, automating invoicing and bookkeeping covers how that is set up.

Two providers mean two payout streams to reconcile, which is another reason not to add payment methods your customers do not use.

Testing before launch

Every gateway has a test mode. Use it for development, then run at least one real transaction per payment method with live keys before launch, and refund it. Check that the order status, stock level, customer email and payout all behave as expected, and that a declined card produces a clear error rather than a blank page.

Next step

If you are setting up a new store or replacing a gateway that is causing failed payments, I configure and test payments as part of the WordPress development service. For unusual payment logic, such as deposits, split payments or custom invoicing, plugin development covers custom integrations. The WordPress website development guide gives the wider context.