With 75 million users worldwide, WordPress is by far the biggest platform that hosts websites. Despite the arrival of e-commerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, WordPress still reigns supreme because it is a multi-functional platform.
With WordPress, you can install several plug-ins that will serve different purposes, including e-commerce payment gateways. It is only a matter of choosing which one is the best for you.
We will be taking a look at the five best e-commerce payment gateways for WordPress, and help you decide which one can benefit your business the most.
How to choose a payment gateway
All payment gateways do one thing: charge your customer’s credit cards, process the payment, and then send that payment to you. Now, even if they can all do this, there are other important features you need to look into to be able to choose the best one.
Security
Security is of the utmost importance when processing a payment online. Hackers are lurking, trying to see weaknesses that they can take advantage of. Below are some tips to help you choose a secure payment gateway.
- SSL Certificate – SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It is a technology that uses encryption methods where the information that the customer supplied will be encoded, and only the payment gateway provider can decode it. With SSL Certificates, you can rest assured that all your transactions are safe online.
- Encryption – today, the highest level of encryption is 128-bit. This number, 128 bit, simply means there is a total of 128 strings of numbers and characters that serve as a key to lock and unlock information. With this number of combination, it will take thousands of years for a hacker to figure out what that key is.
All banks and reliable financial institutions use both SSL and 128-bit encryption. If these two are not offered by a payment processor, you have to leave it behind and find another one.
Customer Experience
Some payment gateways would take your customer away from your WordPress website as they make a payment. If this happens, your customer will begin to wonder what is happening, and he can feel pretty much scared about his personal and financial security.
Choose a payment gateway where the customer who is trying to checkout does not have to leave your website. Also, choose one that is easy to use. Do not install a payment gateway that requires customers to sign up for an account or verify their identities.
Serviced Countries
What countries are served by the payment gateway? Nothing is more frustrating than an excited customer who later realizes that his country is not supported.
Choose a payment gateway that:
- Accepts payments from hundreds of countries
- Automatically converts money to the customer’s currency
As always, what you want is to make customer experience easy as far as billing is concerned.
Withdrawal Methods
This one is for you. How will you withdraw your money? Some payment gateways will only allow you to withdraw via a card that you will request from them. This is a hassle, to say the least.
Choose payment gateways that:
- Allow you to withdraw directly to your bank
- Allow you to withdraw anytime with no specific target amount
- Allow you to withdraw as soon as you want to
As a business person, you need the customer’s payment as soon as possible so you can pay your bills. If a payment gateway will only send you the money every two weeks, it will put you in a situation where you have to pay your business bills out of your own pocket.
What are the five best payment gateways for WordPress?
There are hundreds of e-commerce plug-ins for WordPress. It could be a little tiring to read the details and policies for each of them, so we will take away that effort and show you only yhe five best plug-ins to choose from.
PayPal Pro via WooCommerce
PayPal is one of the oldest and most trusted payment processors in the world. Founded in 1998, it started out as a company that merely allowed users to send and receive money. Now, it has become a giant as a financial institution, and has acquired other payment systems like Braintree and Venmo.
To use PayPal Pro, you must first install the WooCommerce plug-in, and then install the PayPal Pro extension plug-in.
With this payment gateway, you can charge your customers money from their credit cards, even if they are not a PayPal user.
Customers and business people will also enjoy the following benefits:
- Customers do not have to leave the site
- Customers can use any credit card
Before you can use PayPal Pro, you must be a PayPal user yourself. You need the PayPal API code as you install the plug-in, and all payments made to your WordPress e-commerce business will be sent over to your PayPal account.
From there, you can transfer the money to your bank account. For a single site, you will be paying a fixed fee of $79 per month.
Stripe
Stripe is a payment gateway that PayPal acquired in 2013. Like PayPal Pro, you should first install WooCommerce on your WordPress site to be able to use it.
WooCommerce is free to use, so you will not be paying double fees if you install another plug-in to charge customers of their purchases. Stripe has more than 10,000 active installations on WordPress, and it consistently upgrades its software to keep up with the demands of the internet.
Here are the benefits of using Stripe on your WordPress e-commerce website.
- Accept credit cards without your customers leaving the site
- Can be used on desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile devices
- No membership required
- Supports 14 languages
- Can accept up to 135 currencies from 135 countries
- Has a translation service
- Collection of billing information and street address is optional
Stripe does not charge monthly fees. Instead, you will be paying 2.9% + 30 cents on every transaction cost. There are also no set-up fees that you have to pay, and you will enjoy the benefits of its system upgrade every year, with no additional charges.
The payout will go to your bank account, but there is a 2-day rolling period the thing with Stripe is that you have to be careful about disputes. A single chargeback can cost you at least $15 in fees.
Braintree
Braintree is also owned by PayPal, and it is one of the best e-commerce plug-ins for WordPress because it works with other payment systems, which means that your customer does not have to sign up for a Braintree account to be able to use it.
If a customer is using Google Pay or Apple Pay, he can use the same account to pay your for your merchandise through the Braintree payment gateway.
Here are the benefits of Braintree:
- Customers can check out even if they are using Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, PayPal Credit, Venmo, credit cards, and so much more
- Integrates with WooCommerce
- Highly secure platform
- You can charge subscriptions
- You can issue refunds and you can create your own customer check out form
Braintree is available in several regions, and it takes only between two and three banking days to get the money transferred to your bank account.
Also, should you decide to leave the system and move to another payment service provider, you can download data from Braintree and still retain your customer information.
Square
Square is not just a payment processing system, but also a point-of-sale system. It accepts major credit cards, and you can even accept payments offline.
Here are the benefits of Square:
- Accept major credit cards online and offline
- Available in major regions in the world
- No hidden fees, no set-up fees, and no monthly fees
- Fast transfer to your bank account
- Highly secure with PCI-DSS compliant systems
It takes only between two and three business days for the payment to reflect in your bank account. With Square, the transaction fees vary from one country to another. On average, you will be paying about 2.75% of the transaction cost.
Square is also more than just a payment system, you can charge subscriptions or use it to ask for donations. For every successful payment or donation, you will also receive an email notification.
If you are a programmer, you are free to make changes on the system, and the Square management will also give you a sandbox account where you can test the changes you made before you launch it live on your WordPress website.
2Checkout
This is one of the largest payment networks in the world. Like the others, you need a WooCommerce plug-in to make it work.
One thing that sets 2Checkout apart is that it allows you to charge customers for digital goods, such as songs or videos or art work. You can also sell books. However, they also have strict policies against prohibited and unlawful items.
Here are the benefits of using the 2Checkout system in your WordPress website:
- Accept major credit cards
- Customers do not have to sign up for a 2Checkout account
- You can use PayPal Direct checkout through its system
- Supports currency conversion with real-time market rates
- Supports 87 currencies and 15 languages
- Can integrate with over 100 shopping carts
There are three types of services you can get from 2Checkout. These are 2Sell, 2Subscribe, and 2Monetize. Each service is meant for a different type of use, and each has its own transaction rate. While 2Checkout does not have set-up fees or monthly fees, you will be paying, on average, 3.5% + 0.30 EUR per transaction,
For 2Subscribe and 2Monetize services, the cost vary between 4% and 6% per transaction. As the name of the service imply, 2Sell is for selling products, 2Subscribe is for charging your customers for subscriptions, and 2Monetize is used for selling digital items.
What is the best payment gateway?
So, what is the best payment gateway to use? Well, the answer is really up to you. As we have described earlier, a great payment system must meet several requirements. One important aspect is to make sure that your customers find it easy to use, the second one is that it is secure, and the last one is that you can get your funds as soon as possible.