PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway for WooCommerce vs WooCommerce
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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 v11.2.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.5/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 6,000+ | 7M+ |
| Last updated | October 8, 2026 | October 9, 2026 |
| Editions | Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Free) · Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce (Premium) ($) | WooCommerce |
| Pros | Express and Smart buttons on cart and checkout pages; Pay Later and Venmo offered where PayPal makes them available; Sandbox and live modes | Simple and variable products, cart, checkout and coupons; Built-in payment, shipping zone, tax and email tools; REST API and WP-CLI commands for store management |
| 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 | Payments, shipping and tax all need setup before selling; Many advanced features come from paid marketplace add-ons; Contacts Woo and WordPress services for some optional features |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 2 |
| 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 | Simple and variable products, Cart and checkout, Built-in offline payment methods and gateway API, Shipping zones and methods, Tax rates and calculation, Coupons, Order query API, REST API for products and orders, WP-CLI commands, Analytics reports |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | PayPal | PayPal |
| Analytics | — | WooCommerce usage tracking service |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Plugins | — | WooCommerce.com |
| Requires WordPress | 5.6 | 7.0 |
| 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 | public-api.wordpress.com, woocommerce.com, api.webflow.com, tracking.woocommerce.com, www.paypal.com, www.sandbox.paypal.com, api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com, api-3t.paypal.com, dzv365zjfbd8v.cloudfront.net, api.wordpress.org, plugins.svn.wordpress.org, translate.wordpress.com, api64.ipify.org, ipecho.net, ident.me, tnedi.me, ipinfo.io, api.country.is |
| Blocks | — | 60 |
| Shortcodes | — | 7 |
| Custom tables | — | 31 |