PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway for WooCommerce vs WooCommerce PayPal Payments
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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 | WooCommerce PayPal Payments v4.2.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 2.9/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 6,000+ | 800,000+ |
| Last updated | October 8, 2026 | October 21, 2026 |
| Editions | Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Free) · Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Premium) ($) | WooCommerce PayPal Payments |
| Pros | Express and Smart buttons on cart and checkout pages; Pay Later and Venmo offered where PayPal makes them available; Sandbox and live modes | Official PayPal gateway with smart buttons on product and checkout pages; Pay Later, card fields and Apple Pay or Google Pay wallets; Subscriptions, saved payment methods and ShipStation order tracking |
| 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 | Available payment methods depend on PayPal account and country eligibility; Many modules are switched on in settings, so the setup has several steps |
| Mentioned in our posts | 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 | PayPal smart buttons on product, mini-cart and checkout, Pay Later messages on product, cart and checkout blocks, Apple Pay gateway, Google Pay gateway, Card fields module, Pay upon invoice alternative payment method, PayPal subscriptions and renewals, Saved payment methods, Fraud protection module, Order tracking through the ShipStation plugin |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | PayPal | PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Plugins | — | ShipStation |
| Requires WordPress | 5.6 | 6.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.0 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | api-m.paypal.com, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com, www.paypal.com | api-m.paypal.com, www.paypal.com, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com, www.sandbox.paypal.com, api.woocommerce.com, www.paypal.ai, d.joinhoney.com, www.google.com |
| Blocks | — | 6 |