Payments & Compliance.
Evidence-backed comparisons and operating guides for subscription gateways, tokens, SCA, webhooks, tax, Merchant-of-Record choices, and payment compliance.
- Choose the renewal and Merchant-of-Record architecture first
- Test tokens, authentication, webhooks, refunds, and recovery
- Assign operational, tax, and compliance ownership explicitly
About this topic
A subscription payment system is more than a checkout form. It decides who initiates each renewal, where the reusable payment authority lives, how an off-session charge is authenticated, which events update WooCommerce, how customers replace a failed method, and who owns tax, refunds, disputes, and compliance. These guides make those responsibilities explicit before a merchant commits to a gateway or migration.
Start with the gateway comparison, then use the focused Stripe, PayPal, Paddle, manual-billing, SCA, token, webhook, and tax guides to test the exact architecture. Product behavior is verified against current ArraySubs releases and provider documentation, operational limitations are visible, and legal or tax questions are clearly separated from software behavior so engineering, finance, support, and leadership can make one defensible decision together.
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Payments & Compliance guides
Showing 1–6 of 8 articles
Best Payment Gateways for WooCommerce Subscriptions in 2026
Choose the renewal architecture first, then compare Stripe, PayPal, Paddle, and manual billing by cart fit, recovery, operations, and responsibility.
Stripe vs PayPal vs Paddle for WooCommerce Recurring Billing
Compare three billing control planes: WooCommerce-led Stripe, buyer-approved PayPal agreements, and Paddle's Merchant-of-Record commerce stack.
Stripe Recurring Payments for WooCommerce: How They Work and What to Test
Trace a Stripe renewal from reusable payment authority through local scheduling, off-session PaymentIntent states, webhooks, recovery, and reconciliation.
PayPal Recurring Payments for WooCommerce: Agreements, Renewals, and Limits
Trace PayPal Product, Plan, Subscription, approval, sale, and webhook objects—and understand the current cart and lifecycle boundaries.
Paddle Merchant of Record for WooCommerce Subscriptions
Understand Paddle’s buyer-facing MoR responsibility, remote billing architecture, product synchronization, tax documents, lifecycle, and reconciliation limits.
Automatic vs Manual Gateway Support for Subscriptions
Separate checkout acceptance from true automatic-renewal readiness with a capability ladder, lifecycle tests, fallback safeguards, and gateway-specific schedule ownership.