Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce has been helping store owners create payment methods that fit their business workflows instead of being limited to traditional online payment gateways.
Over time, the Pro version has grown to support much more than simply adding a custom payment option. It includes flexible gateway configuration, gateway-specific checkout fields, fees, instructions, order behavior, shipping-related restrictions and other settings designed for custom payment workflows.
At the same time, we recognize that updates to the Pro version have not been as regular as they should have been recently, and our support response times have also fallen short in some cases.
We are addressing both.
Starting with our August 2026 release, Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce Pro is returning to active and regular development, with a stronger focus on compatibility, maintenance, support and meaningful product improvements.
This page will serve as our public development update and will be revised regularly as new improvements are released.
Ongoing WooCommerce Compatibility
Since the initial release of Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce, we have continued maintaining the plugin to keep it compatible with changes introduced across WordPress and WooCommerce.
WooCommerce has evolved significantly over the years, particularly around checkout, order storage and payment processing. We have continued adapting the plugin as these changes have been introduced.
This includes support and compatibility work around areas such as:
- High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS)
- WooCommerce Cart & Checkout Blocks
- Classic WooCommerce Checkout
- Changes to WooCommerce payment gateway APIs
- Current WordPress releases
- Current PHP versions
Our goal is to ensure that merchants can continue using their custom payment gateways as WooCommerce evolves.
Compatibility work is not something we consider complete after a single release. It is an ongoing part of maintaining a payment-related WooCommerce extension, and this will remain one of our core priorities going forward.
August 2026 — Maintenance, Security & Compatibility
Status: Released
Our immediate priority has been strengthening the foundation of the plugin and bringing the Pro version back into a more regular maintenance cycle.
The latest release focuses on:
- Compatibility with current WooCommerce releases
- WooCommerce 11.x testing
- High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS)
- Cart & Checkout Blocks
- Classic WooCommerce Checkout
- Current WordPress compatibility
- PHP 8.x compatibility
- Security hardening
- Code maintenance and cleanup
- Review of gateway settings and submitted payment fields
- Improved validation and sanitization
- Compatibility-related fixes where required
Security and compatibility will continue to be treated as ongoing responsibilities rather than one-time improvements.
What We’re Working on Next
Rather than publishing every implementation detail or committing to an overly rigid feature schedule, we want to share the broader areas where development is heading.
Our priorities are focused on making the plugin:
- Easier to manage
- More flexible
- More scalable for stores with multiple gateways
- Better suited to complex manual and alternative payment workflows
- Address any immediate security concerns that come up
Q4 2026 — More Powerful Gateway Configuration
One of our major areas of development is improving the way gateway availability and configuration rules work.
We plan to build on the existing order amount, shipping and availability controls with more flexible conditions and combinations.
The goal is to make it easier to decide exactly when a payment gateway should or should not appear without requiring custom code.
We are also working on improvements to the existing custom field and fee systems, particularly around more advanced configuration, validation and flexibility.
Q4 2026 — Easier Management of Multiple Gateways
As stores add more custom payment methods, managing each gateway individually can become time-consuming.
We are therefore working toward a more streamlined administration experience for stores using multiple gateways.
Areas under development include:
- Better gateway overview and management
- Bulk configuration tools
- Easier duplication of existing gateways
- Faster ways to reuse common settings
- Improved organization of gateway settings
- Easier management of fields and fees across multiple gateways
This area is especially important for agencies, developers and larger WooCommerce stores.
2027 — Better Payment Workflows
We also plan to continue expanding the plugin beyond basic gateway creation.
Future development will focus on making Custom Payment Gateways Pro more useful for businesses where payment happens partially or completely outside WooCommerce.
This includes areas such as:
- Improved payment instructions
- More flexible order workflows
- Better handling of manual payment confirmation
- Improved communication with customers after checkout
- More flexible use of order and customer information
- Better administration of custom payment processes
2027 — Reusable & Portable Configuration
Another area we are exploring is making gateway configurations easier to reuse.
This includes improvements around:
- Copying settings between gateways
- Reusing common configurations
- Importing gateway settings
- Exporting gateway settings
- Moving configurations between development, staging and production websites
- Reusing configurations across multiple stores
These tools should be particularly useful for agencies and Unlimited Sites customers.
Improving the Administration Experience
Custom Payment Gateways Pro already contains a large number of configuration options.
As the plugin continues to grow, simply adding more settings is not enough.
We want to make the existing functionality easier to understand and manage.
Future interface improvements will focus on clearer organization around areas such as:
- General gateway settings
- Availability
- Instructions
- Checkout fields
- Fees
- Order handling
Our goal is to make complex gateway setups easier to configure without reducing the flexibility already available in the plugin.
Our Compatibility Commitment
WooCommerce continues to evolve, and ongoing compatibility is an important part of maintaining any payment-related extension.
Going forward, we intend to perform regular compatibility reviews against current WooCommerce and WordPress releases.
Our testing process will increasingly cover areas such as:
- Current WooCommerce releases
- Current WordPress releases
- Classic Checkout
- Cart & Checkout Blocks
- HPOS
- Guest checkout
- Logged-in checkout
- Physical products
- Virtual products
- Custom gateway fields
- Gateway fees
- Order emails
- Thank You pages
- My Account
- Supported PHP versions
When changes in WooCommerce require updates to Custom Payment Gateways, compatibility and stability work will take priority over planned feature development.
A More Regular Release Cycle
One of the most important improvements we are making is not a specific feature.
It is how the plugin is maintained.
Going forward, our goal is to perform regular compatibility and maintenance reviews, rather than allowing long periods between Pro updates.
Our current approach is:
Compatibility and maintenance reviews: Ongoing
Feature releases: Released regularly when meaningful improvements are ready
Security fixes and critical compatibility issues will be prioritized whenever necessary.
This page will also be updated as development progresses so customers have a clear indication that the plugin continues to be actively maintained.
Improving Pro Support
We are also reviewing our Pro support process.
There have been instances where customers did not receive the response they should have received, and this is something we are actively correcting.
Our goal is to provide more consistent and timely responses, particularly for issues involving:
- Checkout failures
- Payment gateway availability
- WooCommerce compatibility
- Plugin updates
- Security concerns
Support is an important part of the Pro product, and improving support consistency is part of this renewed development effort.
Where We’re Taking Custom Payment Gateways
Our long-term goal is not simply to provide another way to add a payment option to WooCommerce.
We want Custom Payment Gateways Pro to become a flexible toolkit for building and managing custom manual and alternative payment workflows without writing code.
The direction can be summarized in five areas:
Create
Build custom payment methods that match the way your business accepts payments.
Control
Decide when each payment method should be available.
Collect
Collect different information for different payment gateways.
Configure
Control fees, instructions, emails and order behavior.
Manage
Make it easier to manage, reuse and maintain multiple gateway configurations.
We will continue updating this page as improvements are released.
Thank you to everyone who uses Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce, reports issues and shares feedback with us.
Your feedback will continue to play an important role in where we take the plugin next.
