Updated February 23, 2026
A WooCommerce high risk payment gateway is a payment processing tool for e-commerce merchants in the high risk space. If you sell items such as CBD, adult products, or firearms, the custom WooCommerce gateway allows them to accept credit card transactions online.
The high risk gateway installs on the backend of your site as a seamless integration. The difficulty is finding one that works within your unique vertical. Many types of websites are deemed high risk because they offer adult products or other mature items like firearms or smoking accessories.
What is a High-Risk Payment Gateway?
A high-risk payment gateway is exactly what it sounds like: a payment gateway for high-risk businesses. Typically, high-risk payment gateways are set up and serviced by a payment processing company that specializes in working with high-risk merchants.
This begs the question, what is a payment gateway? A payment gateway is essentially the middleman between the payment processor and the payment acquirer or financial institution in one platform. The payment processor services the gateway, which is also essential to protecting the merchant and the customer against fraud. A payment gateway is involved at both the beginning and end of the transaction.
