If your business requires a solution to accept payments online and in-person, you might be interested in comparing WooCommerce Payments vs. Stripe. Choosing the right payment gateway for your online store can seem daunting when there are so many different options.
If you have a WooCommerce store, WooCommerce Payments and Stripe are two of the most popular payment gateway options. You might think the WooCommerce payment gateway is the best choice for WooCommerce stores, but this isn’t always true.
This post will compare WooCommerce Payments vs. Stripe so your business can understand how these payment processing options compare and contrast.
WooCommerce Payments and Stripe: A Brief Overview
Stripe and WooCommerce Payments have a lot of similarities and some important differences. It is important to know that WooCommerce Payments uses Stripe as its payment processor.
WooCommerce and Stripe have a partnership in which Stripe provides the technical infrastructure for processing payments, and WooCommerce blends its branding and technology solutions to create a unique payment solution.
You might be wondering why comparing Stripe and WooCommerce Payments is beneficial if Stripe is the payment processor that powers WooCommerce Payments. However, even though WooCommerce Payments uses Stripe to process payments, there are key differences that your business needs to know about.
Comparing WooCommerce Payments and Stripe
Both WooCommerce Payments and Stripe use the same underlying technology to process online payments. However, while there are significant similarities between these payment processors, there are also critical differences that are beneficial for your business to review and understand.
Let’s take a closer look at how these two payment options differ. The critical factors of comparison include:
- Charges
- Functionality
- Integrations
- Deposit speed
- Availability and supported currencies
Charges
When comparing WooCommerce Payments and Stripe, one of the most important factors for many businesses will be cost. Regarding total cost, there is no major difference between WooCommerce Payments and Stripe.
WooCommerce Payments and Stripe both charge standard transaction fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents for sales based in the United States. For in-person sales, there are slight cost differences from each option.
WooCommerce Payments charges 2.6% plus 10 cents for in-person payments, and Stripe charges 2.7% plus five cents. Stripe charges additional fees of .5% if the customer’s credit and debit cards are entered manually.
WooCommerce Payments charges a 1.5% fee for international payments, while Stripe only charges a 1% fee for international transactions. Both options charge $15 for charge disputes for businesses based in the United States.
Neither of these payment methods charges businesses extra for accepting payments through popular digital wallets like Google Pay or Apple Pay.
As you can see, there is not much to separate these two options when it comes to costs and additional fees. The majority of WooCommerce payment gateways charge similar rates to accept payments. While there are some slight differences between WooCommerce Payments and Stripe, they are negligible.
Functionality
While WooCommerce Payments uses Stripe to process card payments, there is a significant functional difference between WooCommerce Payments and Stripe. WooCommerce Payments is a payment gateway, and Stripe is a payment processor.
What does this mean when it comes to the functionality of a payment option? As a payment processor, Stripe cannot be used to accept payments from other popular payment processors like PayPal.
WooCommerce Payments is a payment gateway that can support additional payment options such as PayPal. WooCommerce Payments is not the only payment gateway your business has to settle for. You can add other supported payment gateways to broaden the payments your business can accept.
The WooCommerce eCommerce platform also provides far more in-depth payment management services for businesses. While it uses Stripe to process payments, businesses that have a WooCommerce Payments account will never have to sign into Stripe to manage payments or payouts.
Integrations
Stripe and WooCommerce Payments also differ quite a bit in terms of integrability. Since WooCommerce Payments is WooCommerce’s payment gateway, it fully integrates with your WordPress dashboard.
As a result, you will be able to access and manage all of your payment and order information directly from your WordPress dashboard in one integrated experience with WooCommerce Payments.
On the other hand, with Stripe as your primary payment processor, your business will have to log into its Stripe account in a separate browser window for specific payment details and management options.
WooCommerce Payments certainly makes payment management easier for businesses that utilize the WooCommerce plugin to manage their eCommerce business.
Deposit Speed
Getting funds into your business bank account in a timely manner is very important. WooCommerce Payments and Stripe both have a transaction pending period before funds arrive in your business account.
While these pending periods are pretty similar and follow an industry standard, the real difference between WooCommerce Payments and Stripe comes in the form of instant deposit speeds.
For accounts that meet the appropriate criteria, WooCommerce Payments instant deposits truly are instant. Businesses can receive their funds in a matter of minutes, 24/7/365, even on bank holidays. WooCommerce Payments instant deposit is only available to US-based businesses.
Stripe instant deposit services also function 24/7/365, including bank holidays. However, Stripe’s instant deposit takes longer to process. Businesses can expect to get their funds in about 30 minutes. However, Stripe supports instant deposit for more than US-based businesses.
Canada, UK, and Singapore-based businesses can also enjoy instant deposit services with Stripe.
Availability and Supported Currencies
Stripe supports more countries and currencies than WooCommerce payments. For a full list of supported countries, you will have to visit Stripe’s website to learn more, but Stripe’s list of supported countries is far longer than WooCommerce’s.
In addition, while WooCommerce Payments supports an impressive 100 different currencies, Stripe supports over 135 different currencies. If your business is based outside of the United States, Stripe has more payment support.
Final Thoughts
Both Stripe and WooCommerce Payments have their place in the digital payments landscape. If your business is based in the United States and uses WooCommerce for its online store, WooCommerce Payments is probably the best payment gateway option.
However, if you’re internationally based, Stripe might be the better choice for your business, depending on the support and availability of WooCommerce Payments in your country. If you want to learn more about the comparison between WooCommerce Payments and Stripe, contact an experienced Stripe development partner like Koombea.
