How to Add Payment Gateway to Your WordPress Website

As a service provider, you want to accept payment for your work—but how can you accomplish that if you’re running a WordPress website? Should you rely on WooCommerce, hire a developer, or is there a better way to accept credit card payments?

Accepting payments is a necessity when you’re selling services. Easier said than done, after all, dealing with customer’s payment information is a tricky business. Luckily, there are payment gateways that take care of this for you, but what is a payment gateway provider, and how can you integrate one into your WordPress site? Let’s look at a few methods that are available to you, including their advantages and disadvantages.

1) Service Provider Pro

SPP.co makes it very easy to integrate a payment gateway because we have native integrations for Stripe and PayPal. To get started, head to Integrations and activate the one you’d like to use for payment processing. If you’ve chosen Stripe, connect your Stripe account via Stripe Connect, or use the API keys; for PayPal, add your email address.

Next, go to Order forms and add a new form. At this point, it’s a good idea to change the slug of the form because we generate it randomly. You might want it to be a bit more descriptive, for instance “plans” or something similar.

Add all the fields to your form that you require for your checkout, for instance the client name, email address, services that can be purchased, address, and finally the payment field. In the payment field, choose which payment processor you want to make available in that specific form, and choose the available payment methods.

Finally, save the form and copy the form link. Head over to your WordPress installation and create a pricing page. Link a button with the form link—and can easily accept credit and debit card payments from your WordPress site.

Advantages

• no need to rely on WordPress plugins

• doesn’t require deep technical knowledge

• you can easily make changes to check out process

Disadvantages

• not all popular payment processors supported

2) WooCommerce

Those looking for a full-fledged online store often choose the WooCommerce payment gateway because it’s a flexible plugin. However, it’s mostly geared towards ecommerce companies, so it’s not the best solution for agencies.

If you’re still opting for WooCommerce, install the WordPress plugin and go through the setup wizard. At the end of it, there’ll be an option to set up the payment options, including Stripe, PayPal, direct bank transfers, and more. WooCommerce also has its own directory feature payment gateways that you can activate.

Advantages

• easily integrate payment gateways of your choice

• no technical knowledge required for setup

Disadvantages

• reliance on developer to keep plugin updated

• WooCommerce Payments not available everywhere

3) Direct integrations

If you’re not looking to rely on plugins as they could become absolute in the future, you’ll have to build a direct integration, or use what payment gateways make available.

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Let’s look at a few different options that allow you to add a payment gateway to a website in WordPress:

Stripe Checkout

This hosted payments page allows you to easily accept payments for your services, both one-time and recurring. Similar to SPP, you can create a payment link and connect it with a buy button on your pricing/sales page.

The downside is that this only works for agencies that have very simple fixed services that don’t require any customization or multiple quantities. If you do, you need to hire a developer who can build an API integration.

Advantages

• easy to generate payment links

• simple integration with buttons on website

Disadvantages

• fees for post-payment invoices

• deep integration requires a developer

PayPal Checkout

Those looking to accept online payments via PayPal can use the simple checkout option that allows you to generate buy buttons. Simply place the generated code on your WordPress website, and the processed money is sent directly to your PayPal account without requiring you to install a payment plugin.

For agencies, this is not the best solution, as this button only works well with fixed quantities and services. If you want to upsell clients or offer multiple options to choose from, you need a direct integration.

Advantages

• ability to generate buttons with basic customization options

Disadvantages

• proper integration requires coding

• simple buttons not that good for conversion

Adding payment gateway to WordPress Website FAQ

Conclusion

There are many ways to integrate payment gateways in WordPress, from using SPP’s order forms or WooCommerce to generating Stripe purchase links and developing deep integrations via an API. It’s up to you and your business to decide which option increases your conversion. Whichever solution you choose, make sure that it supports payment reminders, so you can stop chasing an invoice that hasn’t been paid.