A gateway plugin processes the payment and leaves you everything else
Installing the Stripe gateway on WooCommerce solves one problem well: cards get charged. It does not change who the seller is. Your store stays the merchant, which means the VAT registrations, the sales-tax nexus, the disputes and the plugin stack are all still yours. Whether that is the right trade depends on what you sell.
Two ways to take money on WooCommerce
- Gateway plugin: you are the merchant
- Stripe, PayPal or another provider authorises and settles. The sale is made by your business, so the tax on it is your obligation to calculate, remit and file.
- Gateway plugin: full control of the flow
- The cart, the checkout page and the order lifecycle stay inside WooCommerce, themed and extended however you like. Nothing about the buying experience is handed over.
- Gateway plugin: the stack is yours to run
- WordPress, WooCommerce, the gateway plugin, a tax extension and a subscriptions extension, each with its own release cycle and its own way of breaking.
- Fungies plugin: checkout handed over
- Our WooCommerce plugin syncs your products, sends buyers to Fungies checkout, and syncs the resulting orders back into WooCommerce.
- Fungies plugin: we become the seller
- As Merchant of Record we are the legal seller on those transactions, so VAT, GST and US sales tax are calculated, remitted and filed under our registrations.
- Fungies plugin: one fee, no extensions
- 5% + 50¢ per transaction covers processing, tax, fraud screening, refunds and chargebacks. There is no separate tax extension or subscriptions licence to buy. Negotiable once you are selling at volume.
Deciding which one your store needs
- 01
Look at what is in the catalogue
Physical goods ship from somewhere and are taxed on that basis. Digital goods are taxed where the buyer is, from the first sale, in every country you sell into.
- 02
Look at where your buyers are
A domestic store with domestic customers has a manageable tax position. A digital product on the open internet has customers in thirty countries by the end of the first month.
- 03
Decide who you want holding the liability
Keeping the gateway means keeping the registrations, the returns, the audits and the disputes. Handing checkout to a Merchant of Record moves all four, at the cost of us appearing as the seller on the paperwork.
- 04
Split the catalogue if that is the honest answer
Many stores are mixed. Keep the gateway for the physical side, and put the downloads, licences or subscriptions through a route where the tax is somebody else's problem.
When each answer is the right one
Keep the gateway plugin for physical goods
If you ship things, a conventional gateway is the correct tool and a Merchant of Record is not. We sell digital products only — no shipping, no inventory, no fulfilment. Nothing on this page suggests replacing a working physical-goods setup.
Keep the gateway if you want to own compliance
Some businesses have an accountant, existing registrations and a deliberate reason to remain the seller of record. That is a legitimate position, and a gateway plus a tax extension serves it better than we would.
Hand over checkout when the catalogue is digital
Software, licences, courses, memberships and downloads generate obligations that scale with reach rather than revenue. Handing checkout to the seller of record is the point at which international sales stop adding to your compliance work.
Consider leaving WooCommerce for the digital part
If the WordPress stack exists only to sell downloads, a hosted store on your own domain removes the plugins, the updates and the hosting bill along with the tax. The store builder runs before you sign up, so it is a short thing to evaluate.
What sellers say once they have switched
★★★★★ 4.8/5 from 10 reviews on G2 →
Vadim Finayev “We work with quite a few merchants of record, but none comes close to the support and speed of implementation of Fungies. If you want a payment partner that actually gives you the feeling they want to work with you — rather than leaving you on read for three days or randomly restricting your account — you are in the right place.”
David Elliott “I researched the options and Fungies was the best fit for functionality and customisation within a store builder you can connect to your own domain. Taking a small percentage of sales, instead of charging a subscription for every environment and plugin, is refreshing.”
Elnura Abdimanap Kyzy “The platform is user-friendly, integrates easily with APIs and webhooks, and simplifies managing digital products and subscriptions. We were up and running quickly and support has been responsive throughout. Fungies is clearly tailored to the needs of SaaS businesses.”
Francisco Magnone Rienzi “Fungies has been a great partner — fast setup, competitive pricing, and real humans providing quick answers. They are constantly rolling out new features, and I am excited to see what is next.”
WooCommerce and gateway questions
The three ways to put a payment surface in front of a buyer.
Work out which half of your catalogue this applies to
Install the plugin to keep WooCommerce and move the tax, or open the store builder and see what the digital side looks like without WordPress underneath it.