Best eCommerce Payment Gateways for WordPress

Tuesday, December 24th, 2019

A payment gateway is an online service that authorizes and processes payments for online businesses. It acts as a “middleman” between your online store and the payment processor that receives the payment from your customer.

As more payment gateways enter the market, it becomes increasingly difficult to decipher which service would be the best fit for your business. There are also important considerations to keep in mind before you choose a payment gateway for a WordPress eCommerce site.

Here are a few of these considerations:

• What is the gateway’s discount rate? The discount rate is the percentage that the gateway takes off the top to process a transaction before the final funds are settled into your bank account. The good news is that you can negotiate.
• What are the gateway’s security and fraud policies? Investigate the type of merchants the gateways work with. How do they handle chargebacks? Are there fees and do they typically freeze your account?
• How often do they settle funds into your bank account? This determines how often you will be paid. Some gateways can take up to a week to withdraw funds.
• Does it offer a WordPress Plugin for the gateway, and if so, what is the cost? Ensure that your gateway integrates with your eCommerce solution as a WordPress plugin and that it’s not cost-prohibitive.
• Do they support the country or countries you’d like to sell to? Make sure you can withdraw funds from the bank in your country and that they accept credit cards from the countries you plan to sell to.

Now that you have armed yourself with the information necessary to choose a quality payment gateway, here are the top eCommerce payment gateways for WordPress.

1. PayPal Payments Pro – There is a $30 monthly fee to use this service along with the per-transaction fee. Don’t need a merchant account. They are PCI compliant. They take over 25 currencies.
2. Stripe – No setup or monthly fees, only per-transaction fees. Responsible for customer chargebacks. Offers developers the option to use “client-side tokenization” for PCI compliance. Accepts over 135 currencies.
3. 2CheckOut – Standard fees per transaction. Charge for international transactions and currency conversion. Can use the API to place checkout on your site. Need a merchant account. They are Level 1 PCI compliant. They have 87 currency options.
4. Authorize.net – Initial $49 setup fee, $25 monthly fee, and a per-transaction fee. Payment location can be on your site or Authorize.net’s. Need a merchant account. PCI DSS certified. Free to accept payments from around the world, but must reside in U.S., Canada, UK, Europe, or Australia.
5. Braintree –  No monthly fees, just standard per-transaction fee. Fee depends on which country you’re processing payments from. Can use Braintree’s hosted service or use their drop-UI to put on your site. Don’t need a merchant account. Advanced fraud protection included. Will process payments in over 130 currencies.
6. Square –  No monthly fee, only 2.2% per transaction. Square provides its own online store building platform, but can also use its API on your WordPress website. Need a transactional bank account in case of refunds or disputed payments. Level 1 PCI compliant. WooCommerce Square only available in U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the U.K.

In Conclusion

Choosing an eCommerce payment gateway can be daunting as there are so many options to consider. However, taking the time to educate yourself on the many choices and policies can facilitate your decision in choosing the best gateway for your business.