If your website takes payments in the Philippines and you don’t offer GCash, you’re leaving money on the table. That’s not an opinion — it’s what the numbers show. Digital payments hit 57% of retail payment volume in the Philippines in 2024, and GCash alone has over 94 million registered users as of 2025. A Filipino buyer looking at your checkout who doesn’t see GCash has to stop, think, grab a card or head to an online bank, and is statistically much more likely to abandon.
Maya (formerly PayMaya) is the second-largest wallet. Together, GCash and Maya cover roughly 90% of Philippine digital wallet users. Cards via Visa and Mastercard are table stakes. Bank transfers through InstaPay and PESONet are increasingly common. Over-the-counter options at 7-Eleven, Cebuana Lhuillier, and others still matter for the unbanked segment.
This article is a working guide to integrating Philippine payment methods on a website — the real options, the real fees, the real trade-offs, and what I’d actually pick for different business types. It’s focused on the two most common stacks: WordPress / WooCommerce and Shopify.
The landscape, simplified
Philippine online payments split into four functional layers:
- E-wallets: GCash, Maya. Payment-on-mobile, QR-based, massively popular.
- Cards: Visa, Mastercard, JCB, sometimes AmEx. Processed via a local or international acquirer.
- Online banking: BPI, BDO, UnionBank, Metrobank, LandBank, and others, via InstaPay or direct bank-to-bank rails.
- Over-the-counter: 7-Eleven, Cebuana, Palawan Pawnshop, etc., for the cash-preferring or unbanked.
Most Philippine e-commerce buyers will pay via GCash first, cards second, bank transfer third. OTC is a small but non-trivial slice.
You do not need to integrate each method individually with each bank and wallet. You use an aggregator — a single provider that handles all or most of the above behind one integration. The major aggregators are:
- PayMongo (most popular for Philippine startups and SMEs)
- Maya Business (owned by Maya, offers its own and other methods)
- Xendit (Southeast Asian regional aggregator, strong in PH)
- HitPay (regional, growing in PH)
- Stripe (Global leader; entered the Philippines but still limited in local method coverage compared to local aggregators as of 2026 — check current status)
- PayPal (cards and PayPal balance; limited PH wallet integration)
Fee comparison
Processor fees matter. On a ₱10M/year revenue business, the difference between 3.0% and 3.9% is ₱90,000/year.
PayMongo (as of 2025–2026):
- GCash: 2.9% per transaction
- Maya: 2.5% per transaction
- Card (domestic): 3.5% + ₱15
- Card (international): 4.5% + ₱15
- Online bank transfer: 20 PHP flat
Maya Business:
- Maya wallet: typically around 1.5–2.5%
- Card: around 3.5%
- GCash: available but usually not at best rate via Maya
- Fees can be negotiated at volume
Xendit:
- GCash: ~2.3%
- Maya: ~2.0%
- Cards: 3.5% + fixed fee
- Negotiable at volume
HitPay:
- Varies; competitive with PayMongo on most methods
- Better UX for subscription billing than most PH aggregators
Stripe in PH:
- Cards: 3.9% + ₱15 international standard
- Limited local method coverage
Note: these rates change. Always check current pricing on the aggregator’s site before committing. Some aggregators charge monthly fees in addition to per-transaction fees; most do not.
My default recommendation: PayMongo for most SMEs
For most Philippine SMEs on WordPress/WooCommerce or Shopify, PayMongo is the default choice. Reasons:
- Purpose-built for the Philippines. Every major Philippine payment method is a first-class citizen. Their team understands PH commerce — you can actually talk to a support person who knows BIR requirements.
- Solid developer experience. Clean API, well-documented, active community.
- Strong WooCommerce integration via official plugin.
- Shopify integration via PayMongo for Shopify app.
- Reasonable fees for the Philippine market.
- BIR-friendly reconciliation — their merchant dashboard makes monthly tax reconciliation straightforward.
When I’d pick something else:
- High volume (₱1M+/month): shop around. Xendit and Maya Business often negotiate better rates at scale.
- Subscription billing as primary model: HitPay has better recurring billing UX.
- Heavy international buyers: Stripe remains the cleanest for cross-border.
- Bank-rail-heavy business (B2B, invoicing): PayMongo plus Wise is a common combo.
Integration on WordPress / WooCommerce
The simplest path: PayMongo for WooCommerce
- Install the PayMongo for WooCommerce plugin (free, from the WordPress plugin directory).
- Register a PayMongo business account at paymongo.com and complete KYC (usually 2–5 business days).
- Generate API keys in the PayMongo dashboard.
- Paste API keys into the plugin settings.
- Enable GCash, Maya, Card, and Bank Transfer as checkout options.
- Test with sandbox credentials. Place a test order.
- Go live.
Time from install to live: typically 1–2 hours once your PayMongo account is approved.
Common gotchas:
- KYC can take longer than expected. Submit at the start of the project. For businesses without DTI and BIR registration complete, KYC will reject — make sure your registrations are in order first.
- Sandbox testing is essential. Don’t go live without placing at least one sandbox order for each method.
- Currency: peso only for local methods. If you plan to sell in USD or accept international cards, set up currency conversion carefully.
- Plugin conflicts. If you use a custom checkout plugin or a heavy page builder, test for conflicts. Some checkout customizations break the PayMongo redirect flow.
- Checkout URL must be HTTPS. Some hosts have mixed-content issues. Fix before integration.
If you prefer another aggregator:
- Xendit: plugin available, similar setup, often preferred by subscription businesses.
- HitPay: plugin available, clean UX.
- Maya Business: Maya’s direct integration is more fiddly; most WooCommerce stores go through PayMongo or Xendit to get Maya alongside other methods.
Integration on Shopify
Shopify’s Philippine support has improved significantly in 2024–2026 but still has constraints to understand.
Supported native payment methods in Philippine Shopify:
- PayPal (cards and PayPal balance)
- Stripe (if eligible)
- Shopify Payments is not available in the Philippines as of 2026 — you cannot use Shopify’s in-house processor here. Check current availability before assuming.
For Philippine-specific methods, use an aggregator via Shopify’s payment gateway app:
- PayMongo for Shopify: official app, adds GCash, Maya, Card, Bank Transfer as checkout options.
- Xendit for Shopify: similar coverage.
- HitPay for Shopify: available.
Setup process:
- In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Payments.
- Add a third-party provider (PayMongo, Xendit, or HitPay).
- Install the corresponding app from the Shopify App Store.
- Complete aggregator KYC if you haven’t.
- Connect API keys.
- Configure which methods appear at checkout.
- Test checkout with each method.
Shopify-specific considerations:
- Shopify charges a transaction fee on top of the aggregator fee when you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments. This fee is typically 0.5% to 2% of each transaction, depending on your Shopify plan. Since Shopify Payments isn’t available in PH anyway, this fee is unavoidable — factor it into your pricing.
- Consider the Advanced Shopify plan (or Shopify Plus at scale) if transaction fees get significant. The higher plan tier cuts transaction fees.
What about accepting cards only?
Some businesses think “I’ll just accept cards, keep it simple.” For Philippine e-commerce, this loses you a meaningful slice of customers. GCash users are often GCash-first — they think of it before cards. Skipping GCash in the Philippines is like a US site skipping Apple Pay or PayPal: technically you can, but the cart abandonment will tell you a story.
My rule: if your primary buyers are Philippine consumers (B2C), offer GCash + Card + Maya as minimum. If B2B, offer Card + Bank Transfer as minimum, with GCash/Maya optional.
Bank transfers: InstaPay, PESONet, and why they matter
For larger transactions — over ₱10,000, especially B2B — many Filipino buyers prefer bank transfer over wallet or card. Wallet limits (GCash caps, Maya caps) and card transaction fees make bank rail the default for big tickets.
Two rails:
- InstaPay: real-time, up to ₱50,000 per transaction for most banks.
- PESONet: batched, next-business-day, no upper limit.
Most aggregators support one or both via their online banking options. If your average order value is over ₱20,000 and you serve B2B customers, ensure bank transfer is prominently available at checkout.
BIR compliance at checkout
A topic most integration guides skip. Under Philippine tax law, every sale needs a BIR-registered invoice. Since June 2024 (under the EOPT Act / RR 7-2024), the invoice is the primary document of sale, not the official receipt.
For e-commerce, two common approaches:
- Generate BIR-compliant invoices programmatically. Plugins like WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips can be configured to match BIR invoice requirements (TIN, business name, BIR permit number, sequential numbering). Requires careful setup.
- Generate invoices post-purchase via accounting software. Shopify and WooCommerce orders flow into QuickBooks, Xero, or Taxumo, which generate BIR-compliant invoices for you.
Either works. Many Philippine e-commerce stores run into issues during a BIR audit because they treated order confirmations as invoices — they’re not. The order confirmation is a commercial document; the BIR-compliant invoice must meet specific format requirements.
If you’re setting up e-commerce and you’re not confident about this, talk to a Philippine tax accountant before launch. ₱3,000 spent on clarity now saves potentially much more later.
Subscription billing
If you sell recurring services, the PH aggregator landscape is less mature than international providers.
- HitPay has the best out-of-the-box recurring billing for the PH market.
- Xendit supports recurring billing with more setup.
- PayMongo added recurring payments in 2024; usable but less mature UX.
- Stripe is cleanest for global subscriptions but misses native PH wallet support.
For a Philippines-only subscription business, HitPay is my first pick in 2026. For a subscription business with meaningful international customers, Stripe plus PayMongo as a secondary gateway is a common setup.
Mobile wallet checkout UX
One under-discussed detail: GCash and Maya checkout flows redirect the buyer to the wallet’s app via a deep link. On mobile, this works cleanly. On desktop, the buyer sees a QR code and scans with their phone.
Two things to test:
- On mobile: make sure the return URL after payment brings the buyer back to a clear confirmation page, not a generic Shopify or WooCommerce landing.
- On desktop: the QR code experience should include clear instructions (“Open your GCash app, tap Pay QR, scan this code”). Most default aggregator pages assume buyer fluency that not every Filipino buyer has.
Small copy changes at the checkout step reduce abandonment measurably.
My default integration stack in 2026
For a typical Philippine SME launching e-commerce on WordPress:
- WooCommerce as the store platform
- PayMongo as the payment aggregator, with GCash, Maya, Card, and Bank Transfer enabled
- Managed hosting on Cloudways, SiteGround, or Kinsta (performance matters for conversion)
- Taxumo or QuickBooks for BIR-compliant invoicing downstream
For a Shopify store:
- Shopify (Basic or Advanced plan, depending on transaction volume)
- PayMongo for Shopify as the primary payment app
- Optionally Xendit as a secondary gateway for specific methods
- Taxumo downstream for invoicing
This stack covers 95% of Philippine SME e-commerce use cases cleanly.
Closing: integration is the easy part
Integrating Philippine payment methods on a modern e-commerce site takes hours, not weeks, when the site is built correctly. What takes time is the thinking — which methods to offer, what order to show them, how to handle BIR invoicing, which aggregator fits your volume and billing model. That’s where consulting with someone who has done this before pays for itself.
If you’re launching an e-commerce store in the Philippines and want to get the payment setup right the first time, book a free 30-minute strategy call. We’ll look at your specific mix of products, buyers, and budget, and map the cleanest path.
Sources and notes:
- Digital-payments share of retail transactions (BSP data, 2024). Updated figures in subsequent years may vary; BSP publishes annual payment-system reports at bsp.gov.ph.
- GCash registered-user figure (≈94M) per GCash and public press statements from GCash/Globe Fintech Innovations, 2025.
- Aggregator fees shown are typical published rates as of 2025–2026. Always verify current rates on each provider’s site before committing. Fees change; we’ve flagged the ones that move most often.
- Plugin and app recommendations reflect the author’s working experience; no affiliate commissions are received for any named tool.
- Nothing here is tax or legal advice. For BIR compliance specifics, consult a Philippine-licensed accountant.
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