PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway for WooCommerce vs WooPayments
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| Feature | PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway for WooCommerce v1.9.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details | WooPayments v11.2.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 3.4/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 6,000+ | 800,000+ |
| Last updated | October 8, 2026 | October 8, 2026 |
| Editions | Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Free) · Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Premium) ($) | WooPayments |
| Pros | Express and Smart buttons on cart and checkout pages; Pay Later and Venmo offered where PayPal makes them available; Sandbox and live modes | Card payments managed from the WordPress dashboard; Built-in fraud screening and duplicate payment detection; Multi-currency pricing with a currency switcher block |
| Cons | Product-page buttons and mini-cart need the paid version; Refunds from the order screen need the paid version; Requires a PayPal developer account with API credentials | Needs a WooPayments account before it can take payments; Only available in the countries WooPayments supports |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Smart Payment Buttons on checkout, Express Checkout button on the cart page, Pay Later and Venmo payment methods, Sandbox and live API environments | Card payment gateway for WooCommerce, Checkout integration and payment fields, Fraud screening service, Duplicate payment detection, Multi-currency pricing, Multi-currency switcher block, WooPay express checkout scheduling and session handling |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | PayPal | Stripe |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Other | — | FedEx |
| Requires WordPress | 5.6 | 6.0 |
| Requires PHP | 7.0 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | api-m.paypal.com, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com, www.paypal.com | translate.wordpress.com, pay.woo.com, public-api.wordpress.com, jetpack.wordpress.com |
| Blocks | — | 1 |