WooCommerce Checkout Not Working? Here Are 8 Fixes That Actually Work

A broken WooCommerce checkout is about as bad as it gets for an online store. Every minute it’s down is a sale you’re not making. Here’s how to diagnose and fix the most common checkout problems — in order of likelihood.

Before you start: isolate the problem

First, answer these questions: Can customers add items to the cart, or does it fail before checkout? Does the issue happen on one payment method or all of them? Does it happen on all devices and browsers, or just some? When did it start — did you update a plugin or theme recently? Your answers will tell you where to look first.

Fix 1: Deactivate all plugins, then reactivate one by one

Plugin conflicts are the single most common cause of checkout problems. A recent plugin update — even one completely unrelated to payments — can silently break the checkout process.

How to do it: Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins, select all plugins, choose Deactivate from the bulk action dropdown, test your checkout. If it works, reactivate plugins one at a time, testing after each one. When checkout breaks again, you’ve found the culprit.

Fix 2: Switch to a default theme temporarily

After plugins, your theme is the next most likely cause. Switch to Storefront (WooCommerce’s own theme) or Twenty Twenty-Four, then test. If checkout works, your theme is the problem.

Fix 3: Check your SSL certificate

WooCommerce requires HTTPS to process payments. If your SSL certificate has expired or isn’t configured correctly, payment gateways will refuse to load. Check: does your checkout page URL start with https://? If there’s a problem, contact your host to renew or fix the SSL.

Fix 4: Clear all caches — everywhere

Caching is great for performance but notorious for breaking checkout. Clear all of these: your caching plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache), your CDN (Cloudflare, BunnyCDN), your hosting server cache, and your browser cache. Then test with a private/incognito browser window.

Also make sure your checkout and cart pages are excluded from caching in your caching plugin settings.

Fix 5: Check your WooCommerce pages are correctly assigned

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced and check that Cart, Checkout, My Account, and Shop pages are all assigned. If any show “No page set,” regenerate them via WooCommerce → Status → Tools → Create default WooCommerce pages.

Fix 6: Disable AJAX add-to-cart

In WooCommerce → Settings → Products, try disabling Enable AJAX add to cart buttons on archives. Also check your theme settings for any “AJAX cart” or “mini cart” options and disable them temporarily.

Fix 7: Check your payment gateway settings

If the checkout page loads but payment fails: make sure you’re in Live mode, not Test/Sandbox mode; re-enter your API keys (copy-paste errors are more common than you’d think); check your payment gateway’s status page for outages; make sure the gateway plugin is up to date. For Stripe specifically: check Stripe → Settings and run the webhook test.

Fix 8: Check PHP error logs

If nothing above fixes it, add this temporarily to wp-config.php:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Check /wp-content/debug.log for errors. The log will usually point directly at the plugin or theme causing the problem.

Still broken?

If you’ve worked through this list and checkout is still broken, it’s time to get a developer involved. At FixWP, we specialise in exactly this kind of problem. We diagnose checkout and payment issues quickly and quote a fixed price before we start. Get a free quote →