WooCommerce Memberships vs WooCommerce PayPal Payments
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| Feature | WooCommerce Memberships v1.30.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Paid Visit Details | WooCommerce PayPal Payments v4.2.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 2.9/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | — | 800,000+ |
| Last updated | — | October 21, 2026 |
| Editions | WooCommerce Memberships ($) | WooCommerce PayPal Payments |
| Pros | Restrict posts, pages and products by membership plan; Immediate or delayed access per plan rule; Import and export of memberships from admin | Official PayPal gateway with smart buttons on product and checkout pages; Pay Later, card fields and Apple Pay or Google Pay wallets; Subscriptions, saved payment methods and ShipStation order tracking |
| Cons | Paid extension sold separately from WooCommerce core; Integrations such as LearnDash and Subscriptions add extra rules to manage | Available payment methods depend on PayPal account and country eligibility; Many modules are switched on in settings, so the setup has several steps |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | — |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Membership plans as a custom post type ($), Restrict posts, pages and products to members ($), Immediate or delayed access per plan rule ($), Per-customer membership records and status ($), Import and export of memberships ($), Membership profile fields in admin ($), Free trial handling for membership subscriptions ($) | 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, Apple Pay, Google Pay |
| Plugins | bbPress ($), LearnDash ($), Elementor ($), WooCommerce Subscriptions ($) | ShipStation |
| Requires WordPress | 5.6 | 6.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1.3 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | api.wordpress.org | 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 |