How to Add Online Payments to Your Website in 2026 (Real Options and Costs)

If you want to add online payments to your website, you have more options than you think, and the right one depends entirely on what you're selling, how often, and how much control you want.

I've set up payment systems for over 150 businesses. Some needed a simple PayPal button and were done in an afternoon. Others needed a full custom checkout with subscriptions, invoicing, and tax handling. The mistake most people make is either overbuilding (paying for complexity they don't need) or underbuilding (using a PayPal button when they've outgrown it). This guide helps you figure out which situation you're in.

Your Options for Taking Payments

There are five main ways to accept payments on a website. Here's an honest look at each.

Option 1: PayPal Buttons

PayPal buttons are the fastest way to start taking payments with no developer needed. You log into PayPal, create a button, copy a small piece of code, and paste it into your website. Done.

This works well if you're selling a handful of products, running a one-time service, or just want to test whether people will actually pay before investing more. The setup takes about 30 minutes and costs nothing upfront.

The catch is the fees. In 2026, PayPal charges UK sellers 2.9% + £0.30 per domestic transaction. For international buyers from outside the EEA, there's an additional 1.99% surcharge, which means you could be losing nearly 5% of each sale on some orders. For low-ticket items, that adds up fast.

The other limitation is trust. PayPal buttons redirect your customer away from your site to complete the payment, which some people find jarring. Conversion rates (the percentage of people who actually finish buying) tend to be lower than with a built-in checkout.

Best for: Solo service providers, small shops just starting out, anyone who needs to take payments this week without spending money first.

Option 2: Stripe Checkout (Hosted Page)

Stripe is the payment processor most professional websites use today, and their hosted checkout page is the sweet spot between easy and professional.

Here's how it works: a developer (or you, with some technical reading) adds a "Buy Now" button to your site. When a customer clicks it, they're taken to a Stripe-hosted payment page, they enter their card details, and come back to your site with a confirmation. The page has your logo and branding, so it doesn't feel like they've left.

Stripe's UK fees are 1.5% + 20p per transaction for standard UK cards, and up to 3.25% + 20p for international cards. In the US, it's 2.9% + $0.30. Stripe also charges £20 (or $15 in the US) for each chargeback, though chargebacks are rare if you're running a legitimate business.

Setting this up yourself is doable if you're comfortable copying code and reading documentation. It takes most non-developers about half a day to get it working correctly. If you hire a developer, expect to pay £200 to £500 for a clean implementation with proper confirmation emails, order tracking, and error handling.

Best for: Service businesses, course sellers, anyone with a clear set of products and a WordPress, Webflow, or custom site.

Option 3: Stripe Embedded Checkout

This is the same as Stripe Checkout but the payment form lives directly on your website instead of redirecting to a separate page. The customer never leaves your site.

This tends to convert better because the experience feels seamless. You keep full control over the design. The tradeoff is that it requires more developer work to build correctly, and you take on more responsibility for security compliance.

A clean embedded checkout with proper error handling, card validation, and confirmation flow typically costs £500 to £1,500 to build, depending on complexity. For most small businesses, the improvement in conversion rate over hosted checkout eventually pays for the extra cost, but it's not worth it if you're doing fewer than 50 transactions a month.

Best for: Businesses with an established customer flow who want the cleanest possible checkout experience.

Option 4: WooCommerce or Similar Plugin (WordPress Only)

If your website runs on WordPress, WooCommerce is the most common way to add a full shop. It's a free plugin that turns your WordPress site into a proper e-commerce store, with product pages, a shopping cart, checkout, and order management built in.

WooCommerce connects to Stripe, PayPal, or dozens of other payment providers through additional plugins. The base WooCommerce plugin is free, but the payment gateway plugins often cost £50 to £150 per year, and you'll still pay the standard Stripe or PayPal transaction fees on top.

Setting up WooCommerce yourself is manageable if your products are straightforward, but it can get complicated quickly if you have variable products, shipping zones, tax rules for different countries, or any kind of subscription. A developer will typically charge £800 to £2,000 to set up a WooCommerce store properly, including payment integration, product import, and basic configuration.

The limitation of WooCommerce is that WordPress sites can slow down significantly as plugins pile up, and keeping everything updated and secure becomes an ongoing maintenance job. If you're already on WordPress and happy with it, WooCommerce is a reasonable choice. If you're starting fresh, there's often a better way.

Best for: WordPress site owners who want a full product catalogue and shopping cart experience.

Option 5: Custom Payment Integration

A fully custom payment integration means a developer builds the checkout exactly the way you need it, connected directly to Stripe (or another processor), with your own database tracking orders, your own email system sending receipts, and your own logic handling whatever edge cases your business has.

This is where most businesses end up when they've tried a plugin or a hosted page and found it limiting. Common reasons: they sell subscriptions, they need to split payments between multiple parties, they want to offer instalments, they need specific VAT handling, or they need the checkout to connect to their inventory system or CRM.

Custom integration costs range from £1,500 for a basic single-product checkout up to £5,000 or more for subscription management, multiple currencies, and complex logic. The upside is that you own everything, it's built to your spec, and you're not fighting platform limitations.

Best for: Businesses with specific requirements that off-the-shelf tools can't handle cleanly.

What Each Option Actually Costs

Here's a quick reference for both setup costs and ongoing fees:

Note: transaction fees are set by the payment processor (Stripe, PayPal), not the developer. No developer can change them.

When Does It Make Sense to Hire Someone?

Here's the honest answer: if you can set it up yourself and it handles your volume, do it yourself. The goal isn't to spend money on a developer, it's to take payments reliably.

You should hire a developer when:

The DIY approach isn't working. If you've been trying to get PayPal or Stripe set up for more than a couple of days, the time you're losing is worth more than the developer cost.

Your checkout needs to do more than one thing. If a customer should receive an email confirmation, get added to your mailing list, trigger a booking, and update your inventory all at once, that's not a PayPal button job.

You're losing sales at checkout. If people are adding to cart and not finishing, the checkout experience is likely the problem. A proper developer can look at the data and fix it.

You're processing more than a few thousand pounds a month. At scale, the difference in transaction fees between PayPal and Stripe starts to compound into real money, and a proper setup makes financial sense.

Your business is regulated or handles sensitive goods. Some industries have compliance requirements that a generic plugin won't satisfy. A developer who understands payment compliance will save you from problems later.

What to Watch Out For

Developers who build from scratch when a plugin would do. If you need a basic WooCommerce setup, you don't need a custom-coded checkout. Be suspicious of any quote over £2,000 for a straightforward shop.

Plugins that charge per transaction on top of Stripe's fee. Some WordPress plugins add their own 2% fee on top of Stripe's rate. Read the pricing page before installing anything.

Cheap setups with no error handling. A checkout that fails silently when a card is declined, or doesn't send a confirmation email, costs you customers. Ask specifically how card failures are handled.

Anyone who can't explain what they're building in plain English. If a developer can't tell you clearly how your checkout will work without using jargon, they probably don't understand it themselves.

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If you're not sure which option fits your situation, or you've tried to set something up and it's not working, I'm happy to take a look. I've built payment integrations for businesses ranging from one-product service providers to multi-currency subscription platforms.

Get a free quote at mohsindev369.dev/contacts. Describe what you're selling and what you need, and I'll tell you which approach makes sense and what it'll cost.