WooCommerce Gateways by Location 1.3.1

In 2026, managing WooCommerce payment gateways by location is a critical strategy for reducing transaction fees, preventing fraud, and tailoring the user experience to local markets. While WooCommerce has "General" settings for your base location, it does not natively restrict specific gateways by the customer's location.

To achieve this, most store owners use a specialized "Conditional Payments" or "Gateways by Location" plugin.

Leading Plugin Options (2026 Edition)

Plugin Name

Best For

Key Location Features

Payment Gateways by Customer Location (WPFactory)

Precision Targeting

Detects by IP, Billing, or Shipping. Supports Country, State, City, and Postcode.

Conditional Payments for WooCommerce (Dotstore)

Complex Rules

Combines location with order total, user roles, and shipping methods.

WooCommerce Conditional Payments (StoreApps)

Ease of Use

Simple interface to show/hide gateways based on billing/shipping address.

Booster for WooCommerce

All-in-One Users

A massive "Swiss Army Knife" plugin that includes a module for location-based gateways.

How Geolocation Detection Works

Most high-end plugins use a tiered approach to identify where your customer is before they even type their address:

IP Geolocation: Using databases like MaxMind, the plugin detects the user's country as soon as they land on the site.

Billing Address: The most accurate method; once the user enters their billing details at checkout, the gateways refresh dynamically.

Shipping Address: Ideal for stores that offer "Cash on Delivery" (COD) only for specific local zip codes.

Strategic Use Cases

Restricting High-Risk Regions: Disable credit card gateways (like Stripe or Authorize.net) in countries with high fraud rates, forcing users to use a more secure redirect method like PayPal.

Localizing Payment Methods: Show Alipay only to customers in China, iDEAL to those in the Netherlands, or M-Pesa to customers in East Africa.

COD Radius: Enable "Cash on Delivery" only for customers within specific local postcodes where your own delivery team operates.

Fee Optimization: Hide gateways with high international transaction fees for domestic customers, encouraging them to use lower-cost local bank transfers.

Pro-Tip for 2026: HPOS Compatibility

When choosing a plugin this year, ensure it is HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) compatible. WooCommerce has moved to this new database structure for speed, and older location plugins that aren't updated will cause your checkout to lag or crash.

Would you like me to find a specific configuration guide for one of these plugins, or would you like to know how to add custom code to your functions.php to hide gateways by country without a plugin?