When people choose WordPress eCommerce and payments plugins, they often do it for one big reason: privacy.
The logic seems simple:
“If it’s open source and self-hosted, everything stays on my own server. My orders, my customers, my business metrics—no one else sees them.”
That belief feels right. It feels empowering.
I’ve been there myself.
It’s my business, my data. And the appeal of open source is that you own everything.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: this expectation of privacy is rarely fulfilled.
The Hidden Reality Behind “Private” WordPress eCommerce Stores
Let’s take one of the most common setups in the WordPress ecosystem:
WordPress + WooCommerce + Stripe (or PayPal).
On paper, it’s open source, hosted on your server, and supposedly private.
In practice, not quite.
When you connect a payment gateway like Stripe, the plugin almost always uses Stripe Connect—Stripe’s official, recommended method for developers to integrate payments.
In fact, developers must use Stripe Connect if they want to become Stripe’s official partner.
To do this, the developer registers with Stripe as a platform partner.
Then, when you—an end-user—set up Stripe inside the plugin, you’re asked to “Connect your Stripe account.” You click the button, log in to Stripe, approve permissions, and that’s it.
Except it’s not.
You’re not connecting your Stripe account directly to Stripe.
You’re connecting it to the developer’s Stripe Connect platform.
That means:
- The developer acts as a mediator.
- Every payment technically passes through their Stripe Connect platform.
- The developer can see your data.
This includes your store name, transaction volumes, customer details, order amounts, refunds, disputes, timestamps, and more.
You thought everything was private and self-hosted: but the developer who owns the Stripe Connect platform account can view your orders and customer information.
It’s exactly how Stripe Connect is designed to work.
This Is Not About Stripe Alone
We’ve mentioned Stripe only as an example because it’s widely known.
But this applies equally to PayPal, Razorpay, Square, Mollie, Paystack, Klarna and nearly every modern gateway that offers OAuth-based “Connect” integrations.
If your plugin uses:
- “Connect your account” buttons
- OAuth login flows
- Partner/Marketplace Platforms
…then your data is not isolated to your server.
Let’s See Examples of Popular WordPress Payment Plugins
WooCommerce
Encourages you to “Connect with Stripe” through official OAuth flows.
Easy Digital Downloads
Completely removed direct API key support. Stripe Connect is mandatory.
Fluent Forms
Offers payment integrations via Stripe Connect.
FluentCart
You can see the notice as below when you’re integrating it with Stripe:
“FluentCart, Inc. will be able to see your account data (such as all payment and payout history). They’ll also be able to create new payments and take other actions for you.”
This is how the PayPal integration works:
GiveWP
Users connect through OAuth to Stripe and PayPal, with developers acting as the platform mediator.
You’ll find the same pattern in nearly every modern payments-enabled plugin:
WPForms, Paid Memberships Pro, WS Form, Gravity Forms, LatePoint, Formidable Forms, LearnDash, MemberPress.
And most others.
Again, it’s not just Stripe
I’ve focused a lot on Stripe because it’s the most popular and widely trusted gateway, but Stripe isn’t alone.
PayPal, Square, Razorpay, Mollie, Paystack—almost all major gateways now offer (or require) OAuth-style “Connect” systems where developers register as platforms.
What Developers Can See Through Stripe Connect
When you connect via Stripe Connect, the developer’s dashboard typically shows:
- Your store name and Stripe account ID
- Your email address
- Your total volume of transactions
- The number of successful/failed payments
- Customer details such as names, emails, and payment methods
- Refunds, disputes, chargebacks, and more
Basically, the developer knows how much you sell, to whom, and when.
Stripe has documented it here on their website:
Why Stripe (and Others) Strongly Recommend “Connect” Method?
Stripe requires developers to use Connect because of security and compliance.
Let’s say a plugin allows users to connect Stripe via API keys instead.
That means you’d copy-paste your secret and publishable keys directly into your WordPress dashboard.
While that method gives you full privacy (the developer cannot see your transactions), it comes with major risks:
- Security: Your API keys are stored on your server. If your site is hacked or a plugin is compromised, hackers can gain access to your Stripe account and steal funds or customer data.
- Compliance: PCI-DSS policies discourage storing raw API credentials on user servers.
- User experience: OAuth (Connect) is much simpler for end-users, requiring just a login instead of fiddling with API key management.
From Stripe’s perspective, Connect solves all these problems. It’s safer, simpler, and standardized.
To Be Clear…
I’m not saying this is wrong or malicious.
But if your belief is:
“I’m using the “X” WordPress plugin and hosting it myself, so my payment data is 100% private.”
…then this is something you absolutely need to be aware of.
Self-hosted ≠ Fully private when payment connections rely on a developer’s platform account.
Your business data still passes through them. And they have access to your data.
The Trade-Off: Privacy vs Security
So where does that leave you, the user who wants both privacy and safety?
| Method | Privacy | Security | Who Can See Your Data |
| Stripe Connect (OAuth) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | Plugin developer (platform) |
| API Keys (Direct) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Only you (but less secure) |
If you value complete privacy, then using API keys is your best bet.
But that also means the responsibility for security shifts entirely to you.
And even then, there’s another challenge:
most developers no longer offer the API key method officially. Those who once did have slowly deprecated it to align with Stripe’s policies.
For instance, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) previously allowed merchants to connect using API keys.
But after introducing Stripe Connect, they removed that option entirely — making OAuth-based connections mandatory.
See these posts on WordPress.org:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/avoid-stripe-connect
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dont-use-if-you-use-stripe
On the other hand, if you want Stripe-approved security, you must accept that your data flows through someone else.
Your transactions are safe, yes: but they’re visible to the plugin developer acting as the intermediary platform.
How to Check If You’re Using Stripe Connect?
You can check the Authorized Applications page on Stripe to see who is connected to your Stripe account.
That will tell you exactly who has visibility into your Stripe account.
Why am I writing this?
Let me be fully transparent.
I’m not against any of the plugins mentioned above.
We’ve built multiple e-commerce products — including SureCart, a managed e-commerce platform that integrates deeply with WordPress.
Over time, I’ve seen countless debates in the WordPress community around GDPR and privacy — what it means, who actually has it, and whether using a self-hosted plugin automatically gives you full control over your data.
Some of our competitors criticize us, saying SureCart isn’t “fully self-hosted.”
And they’re right — we’re a managed eCommerce platform.
But there’s a very intentional reason behind that.
We understand how privacy actually works in e-commerce.
We know that self-hosting doesn’t automatically guarantee privacy — not when payment gateways, shipping companies, tax calculations, email providers, analytics tools, and security systems are all part of the same equation.
You can host your WordPress site on your own server, but the moment you connect to Stripe, PayPal, Google Analytics, tax calculators, shipping providers, or even email service providers — data leaves your server.
That’s the reality.
So instead of pretending that “self-hosted” equals “private,” we chose a different path.
We built SureCart as a managed e-commerce platform that prioritizes what actually matters to business owners:
- Peace of mind. You don’t have to worry about real-time order backups, uptime, fraud detection, or security breaches. Everything is handled automatically and securely in the background.
- Reliability. Your transactions are processed through enterprise-grade infrastructure with redundant systems to ensure every payment succeeds.
- Simplicity. No manual configuration. You don’t have to worry about whether your hosting plan can handle your store’s growth.
- Transparency. We’re upfront about privacy — no fine-print surprises or hidden syncs happening behind the scenes.
- Trust. We’ve served over 100,000+ customers in the past 3 years, and are fully GDPR-compliant. Our track record speaks louder than any marketing claim.
We believe in being honest about how the web actually works.
We prefer to be upfront, not to hide behind the comforting but misleading idea of “self-hosted privacy.”
The Takeaway
Open source gives you control and flexibility, not necessarily privacy.
When you connect your store to third-party payment gateways, that privacy often disappears — whether you realize it or not.
If privacy is your number-one requirement, that’s totally fair. Choose a tool that offers direct connections with payment gateways easily and can guarantee not removing it in future.
But if you value peace of mind, security, and reliability more, a managed commerce platform like SureCart might be a better fit for you.
The best part? It gives you the best of both worlds: the control and flexibility of an open-source, self-hosted setup, combined with the peace of mind that comes from a managed platform.
Privacy, as it’s often imagined in WordPress e-commerce plugins, is mostly an illusion.
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