WooCommerce Stripe Gateway vs WordPress PayPal (WP PayPal)
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | WooCommerce Stripe Gateway v11.1.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 3.1/5 Visit Details | WordPress PayPal (WP PayPal) v1.2.3.49 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.5/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 700,000+ | 4,000+ |
| Last updated | October 16, 2026 | October 13, 2026 |
| Editions | WooCommerce Stripe Gateway | WP PayPal · Payment Button for PayPal add-ons ($) |
| Pros | Cards plus many local and buy-now-pay-later methods; Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link express checkout; Subscriptions and pre-orders support | PayPal Checkout with a sandbox mode for testing; Product and checkout shortcodes for buy-now buttons; Orders kept in the dashboard with a debug page |
| Cons | Needs a Stripe account and API keys; Many payment methods to enable and check per country; Requires WooCommerce 11.0 or newer | Many features are sold as separate paid add-ons; Needs PayPal API keys and sandbox setup before going live; Fewer store features than a full e-commerce plugin |
| Mentioned in our posts | — | 2 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Unified payment element gateway, Card payments, Local and buy-now-pay-later methods, Express checkout with wallets and Link, Subscriptions support, Pre-orders support, Emails for failed refunds and authentication, Agentic commerce product feed, behind a feature flag | PayPal Checkout API payments, wp_paypal_product shortcode, wp_paypal_checkout shortcode, PayPal IPN listener, Orders stored as a custom post type, PayPal sandbox credentials, Configurable sender for order emails |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | Stripe, Affirm (via Stripe), Klarna (via Stripe) | PayPal |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Requires WordPress | 6.9 | 5.3 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | js.stripe.com, api.stripe.com, api.woocommerce.com, files.stripe.com, dashboard.stripe.com | api-m.paypal.com, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com |
| Shortcodes | — | 2 |