WooCommerce Payment Methods for EU Stores: iDEAL, Bancontact, Klarna and When to Use What

I’m Jasper Frumau, a WordPress and WooCommerce developer with 15+ years building EU stores. The single most common reason a Dutch or Belgian checkout converts badly is simple: the local payment method the customer expects to see isn’t there. A German shopper wants to pay later with Klarna; a Dutch shopper reaches for iDEAL; a Belgian one expects Bancontact. Show a Netherlands customer only a credit-card form and a large share of them leave — iDEAL handles roughly 70% of all online transactions in the Netherlands, so a missing iDEAL button is a missing sale.

This guide covers the two payment gateways most EU WooCommerce stores actually use — Mollie and Stripe — what each local method costs, and which methods to switch on for each country you sell into. It’s written for shop owners deciding what to enable, not developers writing integration code. Last updated: June 22, 2026.

In This Guide

• Mollie vs Stripe: Which Gateway for an EU Store?
• Transaction Fees Compared (iDEAL, Bancontact, Cards, Klarna)
• Which Payment Methods to Enable by Country
• When to Add Klarna (Buy Now, Pay Later)
• Setting Them Up in WooCommerce
• Frequently Asked Questions

Mollie vs Stripe: Which Gateway for an EU Store?

For most EU WooCommerce stores, Mollie is the better default: one plugin gives you iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA, cards, and Klarna with no monthly fee and flat per-transaction pricing. Choose Stripe instead if cards are your dominant method, you want the lowest card rate, or you already use Stripe elsewhere (subscriptions, a SaaS product, or a platform like Skool).

The two gateways solve slightly different problems. Mollie is a Dutch payment provider built around European local methods — it treats iDEAL and Bancontact as first-class citizens and bills them as flat fees rather than percentages. Stripe is a global card-first platform with the cleanest developer tooling and the best documentation, but its European local-method coverage came later and is less complete. Here’s how they compare for a typical EU store owner:

	Mollie	Stripe
Monthly fee	None — pay per transaction	None — pay per transaction
EU card rate	1.8% + €0.25	1.5% + €0.25
iDEAL	€0.29 flat	€0.29 flat
Bancontact	Yes (flat fee)	Yes
Klarna built in	Yes (2.99% + €0.35)	Yes (via Stripe)
Local EU methods	Broadest coverage	Good, card-focused
Best for	NL/BE/DE stores, local-method heavy	Card-heavy stores, existing Stripe users

Rates above are from the providers’ own pricing pages (Mollie, Stripe) and current as of June 2026 — always confirm on the live page, since fees change. A practical rule: if more than half your orders will be paid by iDEAL, Bancontact, or SEPA, Mollie’s flat fees usually beat Stripe’s percentage on those methods. If most of your revenue is credit cards, Stripe’s lower card rate adds up.

Transaction Fees Compared (iDEAL, Bancontact, Cards, Klarna)

The cheapest method per transaction is iDEAL at a flat €0.29 through Mollie — no percentage, so it costs the same on a €20 order as on a €200 one. Cards cost a percentage (1.5–1.8% + €0.25), which makes them the most expensive method on large orders. Klarna is the priciest at 2.99% + €0.35 but can lift average order value enough to justify it. Here’s the full per-method breakdown through Mollie:

Method	Fee (via Mollie)	Cost on a €100 order	Used in
iDEAL	€0.29 flat	€0.29	Netherlands
Bancontact	~€0.29 flat	~€0.29	Belgium
SEPA Direct Debit	€0.25 flat	€0.25	EU-wide
Credit/debit card	1.8% + €0.25	€2.05	EU + international
Klarna (Pay later / in 3)	2.99% + €0.35	€3.34	DE, NL, AT, Nordics

The takeaway: bank-based methods like iDEAL and Bancontact are dramatically cheaper than cards on a per-order basis, which is one more reason to make them prominent at checkout in their home markets. Klarna’s 2.99% + €0.35 looks steep next to a €0.29 iDEAL transaction, but it’s a pay-later method that competes with cards, not with iDEAL — judge it on whether it grows your basket size, not on raw fee.

Which Payment Methods to Enable by Country

Enable the dominant local method for each country you ship to, plus cards as a universal fallback. For the Netherlands that means iDEAL; for Belgium, Bancontact; for Germany, Klarna and SEPA; for everywhere else, cards and PayPal. Adding a country’s preferred method is the single highest-impact change you can make to a cross-border checkout — it directly removes the “my payment option isn’t here” exit.

Country	Must enable	Also consider
Netherlands	iDEAL	Cards, PayPal, Riverty (pay later)
Belgium	Bancontact	Cards, iDEAL, KBC/Belfius
Germany	Klarna, SEPA	Cards, PayPal, Giropay
Austria	Klarna, EPS	Cards, SEPA
France	Cards	PayPal, SEPA
Rest of EU	Cards	PayPal, SEPA, Klarna

Don’t overload the checkout, though. Showing eight payment options to a Dutch shopper who only wants iDEAL adds friction and decision fatigue. The cleanest setup uses WooCommerce or your gateway’s rules to surface the right methods by the customer’s country, keeping cards as the always-visible fallback. This pairs directly with the broader checkout work in our WooCommerce conversion optimization guide for EU stores.

When to Add Klarna (Buy Now, Pay Later)

Add Klarna if you sell to Germany, Austria, or the Nordics, or if your average order value is high enough that “pay later” or “pay in 3” removes a real purchase barrier — fashion, furniture, electronics, and higher-ticket goods benefit most. For a low-margin store selling €15 items, Klarna’s 2.99% + €0.35 fee rarely pays for itself. For a €150 average order, the conversion lift usually does.

Klarna is close to a default expectation in the German-speaking market — many shoppers there pay by invoice after delivery rather than upfront, and a store without that option feels untrustworthy to them. Through Mollie you can switch Klarna on without a separate Klarna contract and pay only for successful transactions, which makes it low-risk to test. Watch your average order value and conversion rate for 4–6 weeks after enabling it; if neither moves, the fee isn’t earning its place.

Setting Them Up in WooCommerce

Setting up Mollie or Stripe in WooCommerce takes about 15 minutes: install the official plugin, connect your account with an API key, and toggle on the methods you want. Both gateways have free, officially maintained WooCommerce plugins, so you don’t need a developer for a standard setup — you need one when you want custom checkout logic, per-country method rules, or subscriptions.

• Create your gateway account — sign up with Mollie or Stripe and complete the business verification (KYC). This can take a day or two, so start early.
• Install the official plugin — “Mollie Payments for WooCommerce” or “Stripe for WooCommerce” from the WordPress plugin directory. Avoid third-party clones.
• Connect via API key — paste your live and test API keys into the plugin settings. Test in test mode first.
• Enable methods per country — switch on iDEAL, Bancontact, Klarna, cards, and SEPA as needed. Order them so the dominant local method shows first.
• Place a real test order — run one live transaction end to end and confirm the order status updates and the confirmation email sends.

One reliability detail people miss: payment status updates depend on webhooks reaching your site. On cheap shared hosting, aggressive caching or firewalls sometimes block these callbacks, leaving orders stuck on “pending payment” even though the customer paid. Proper hosting configuration prevents this — it’s one of the things bundled into our managed WordPress hosting. If you’re moving from another platform, our Shopify to WooCommerce migration guide for the Netherlands (plus the Germany and Belgium versions) covers payment setup as part of the move.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Mollie or Stripe cheaper for a WooCommerce store? It depends on your payment mix. Mollie is cheaper for stores where most orders are paid by iDEAL, Bancontact, or SEPA, because those are flat fees (iDEAL is €0.29). Stripe is cheaper for card-heavy stores, with a 1.5% + €0.25 EU card rate versus Mollie’s 1.8% + €0.25.
• Do I need iDEAL for a Dutch WooCommerce store? Yes. iDEAL accounts for roughly 70% of online transactions in the Netherlands, so a Dutch store without iDEAL loses a large share of would-be customers at checkout. It’s the single most important method to enable for the Dutch market.
• What does Klarna cost on WooCommerce? Through Mollie, Klarna costs 2.99% + €0.35 per transaction with no separate Klarna contract and no monthly fee — you pay only for successful orders. A direct Klarna contract negotiates individual rates but usually involves a longer commitment.
• Can I use both Mollie and Stripe at the same time? Yes, WooCommerce supports multiple active gateways, but most stores don’t need both. Running two adds reconciliation overhead. Pick one as your primary; add a second only for a specific method the first doesn’t offer well.
• Do these gateways handle VAT and currency? They process the payment in the currency you charge; they don’t calculate VAT. VAT rates and OSS rules are configured separately in WooCommerce tax settings — a topic we cover in a dedicated EU VAT guide.