WooCommerce comes with three payment methods out of the box: direct bank transfer, cash on delivery and check payments, plus WooPayments offered during setup. Everything else, from Stripe and PayPal to local gateways, comes from plugins. You enable each method in WooCommerce > Settings > Payments, and you can decide which ones appear at checkout depending on the shipping method or the order value. This guide covers the built-in options, what WooPayments adds on top, and how to print the chosen payment method on a PDF invoice.
A good product is part of success. Customers are also guided by payment methods while shopping. They will choose their favorites or the ones they are used to, and a missing option at checkout is one of the cheapest abandoned carts you will ever cause.
Table of contents
- What payment methods does WooCommerce offer by default?
- What does WooPayments add?
- How to control which payment methods appear at checkout
- Conditional WooCommerce payments
- How to add a payment method description on a WooCommerce invoice?
- Frequently asked questions
What payment methods does WooCommerce offer by default?
Three methods are built into WooCommerce itself, and a fourth is offered during the setup wizard:
- Direct bank transfer
- Cash on delivery
- Check payments
- WooPayments, formerly called WooCommerce Payments
The three built-in methods have one thing in common: none of them takes the money online. They record the customer’s declaration and leave the collection to you. That makes them free and instant to set up, and it makes order status something you have to update by hand.
| Method | Best for | What you fill in | Money arrives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct bank transfer | B2B, high-value orders, markets where transfers are normal | Bank account number and description | Manually, after you see it on the account |
| Cash on delivery | Physical products, markets with low card trust | Description only | On delivery, via the courier |
| Check payments | Niche, mostly the US | Shop name and postal address | When the check clears |
| WooPayments | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay in one place | WordPress.com account and business details | Automatically, on payout schedule |
How to enable a payment method in WooCommerce
Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments, switch the method on and open its configuration.
For Direct bank transfer, setup comes down to enabling the method and editing the description. Add the bank account number your customers will transfer funds to.
Cash on delivery is even simpler. Enable it and correct the default description.
Check payments requires similar steps, but the description should include the shop name and address, so customers know where to send the check.
That is the view from the admin side. The customer sees every enabled method on the checkout page, fills in their details and picks one before hitting Place order.
Both checkouts in current use handle this the same way from the customer’s side. WP Desk telemetry from 19,803 WooCommerce stores, collected in August 2026, shows 87% of stores still on the classic checkout and 13.8% using the Cart and Checkout Blocks. If you plan to switch, confirm that every gateway you rely on supports the block checkout before you redesign, because gateway plugins are the usual thing that breaks.
Which payment method should you choose?
Start with one online method that takes cards, and add the local favourite for your market. Cash on delivery makes no sense for digital products, and bank transfer is only worth the manual work for high-value or B2B orders. Beyond that, each additional method is another one to reconcile, so more is not automatically better.
WP Desk telemetry from the same 19,803 stores shows 32.3% offering four or more payment methods, while 5.1% have none configured at all. The second group is the one losing every order, and it is more common than most store owners would guess.
You can find free plugins for additional payment gateways for WooCommerce in the WordPress repository.
What does WooPayments add?
WooPayments, the service formerly branded WooCommerce Payments, is different from the three built-in methods. It is a payment service that accepts cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other options in one integration, and it needs a WordPress.com account to set up. Availability depends on where your business is registered, so check the supported country list before planning around it.
Once the basic configuration is done, you get a full payments panel in the shop, with these tabs:
- Overview
- Deposits
- Transactions
- Disputes
- Documents
- Settings
The Overview tab tracks your balance and account details, the enabled methods, currency and refund policy.
Deposits shows your payout history by Date, Type, Status, Amount and Bank Account, with filters for searching it.
Transactions covers the payments already in the shop: Date/Time, Type, Channel, Amount, Fees, Net, Order, Source, Customer and Deposit Date.
Disputes is the tab you hope stays empty. It tracks Amounts, Status, Reason, Source, Order, Customer, Disputed on and Respond by. The last column is the one that matters, because a missed response deadline is an automatic loss.
The Documents tab holds documents issued in connection with payments, sortable by Date, Type and Description.
How to control which payment methods appear at checkout
Every method you enable shows up for every customer by default. That is rarely what you want. Cash on delivery should not appear for a digital download, and you probably do not want it on a 5,000 order either.
WooCommerce lets you make availability conditional on the shipping method the customer picked, or on the order total. Instead of showing all four options to everyone, you show the ones that make sense for that specific cart.
Conditional WooCommerce payments
One warning worth knowing before you build rules: if the conditions overlap in a way that leaves a cart with nothing, the customer gets the “no available payment methods” message and cannot order at all. Always leave one method with no conditions attached, as a fallback.
How to add a payment method description on a WooCommerce invoice?
The payment method printed on the invoice comes from the Title field in that method’s settings. Whatever you type there is what appears on the PDF, so it is worth setting deliberately rather than leaving the defaults. You can show WooCommerce payment methods on PDF invoices with the Flexible PDF Invoices for WooCommerce plugin.
This helps with accounting, and it also tells you which method your customers actually pick. Go to the settings of the method you use, for example WooCommerce > Settings > Payments > Cash on delivery, and set the title.
To see the same information in the order list, go to WooCommerce > Orders, open screen options and enable the Billing checkbox.
The value on the invoice is exactly the one from the Title field, which is also why renaming a method later changes new invoices but not the ones already issued.
With Flexible PDF Invoices there is nothing further to configure. Enable the plugin, issue an invoice, and the payment method appears as entered in the settings.
Frequently asked questions
What payment methods does WooCommerce support out of the box?
Three: direct bank transfer, cash on delivery and check payments. WooPayments is offered during setup but is a separate service with its own onboarding. Cards, PayPal and local gateways all come from plugins.
Is WooPayments the same as WooCommerce Payments?
Yes. It is the same service under a newer name. Older guides, screenshots and settings pages may still say WooCommerce Payments.
How many payment methods should a store offer?
Two or three covers most stores: one card option and the local favourite, plus cash on delivery if you ship physical goods. Each extra method adds reconciliation work, so add one only when customers ask for it.
Can I show different payment methods to different customers?
Yes. Availability can depend on the shipping method chosen or the order total, so a cart over a certain value can hide cash on delivery, and a digital order can hide it entirely.
Why does the checkout say there are no available payment methods?
Because no enabled method matches that cart. It usually means conditional rules exclude each other, or that no method is enabled at all. Leave one unconditional method as a fallback.
Does the payment method appear on the WooCommerce invoice?
With a PDF invoicing plugin, yes. The text printed is the one from the Title field in the payment method settings, not the internal method name.
WooCommerce Payments and customizing payment methods: summary
WooCommerce gives you three built-in payment methods and an easy path to card payments through WooPayments, and the choice of which to show can depend on the cart rather than being the same for everyone. Set the Title field on each method deliberately, because that is what customers read at checkout and what lands on the invoice.
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