How to Accept Recurring Payments in WordPress

June 15. 2022

Recurring payments might help you increase your sales and earn consistent revenue without having to chase down payments. You may include a payment field in any form on your website and collect money using your preferred payment method; easy – peasy. So why not accept recurring payments on your WordPress website? It’s actually quite easy to set up and for this post, we’ve selected three simple methods to share with you. Of course, you can always have professionals from the WP Full Care team take care of this for you but it’s never a bad thing to learn some WordPress tricks.

Simple ways to set up recurring payments in WordPress

Adding recurring billing to your WordPress website has a lot of advantages:

• For starters, it aids in the automation of the invoicing process, which can save you a lot of time. You can forget about wasting hours on manually sending invoices and waiting for payments from your clients!
• Automatic recurring payments can also make it easier to earn money from your WordPress website by reducing payment delays and problems.
• Automated billing does wonders for your customers’ experience. It can help you retain clients by not bothering them with payment requests.

As you can see, there really aren’t any reasons not to accept recurring payments on your WordPress website. But now it’s time to take a look at how to set it up. Further in this article, you’ll find three simple methods to set up recurring payments on your site. Of course, most of these solutions involve using a plugin. Nowadays, WordPress has a plugin to solve anything. For instance, if you want to accept PayPal payments on your WordPress website. But enough of that – let’s get to work!

#1 Accept recurring payments in WordPress using WPForms Stripe addon

Adding a form to your website is one approach to setting up recurring payments on your website. This strategy is ideal for beginners and small enterprises because it is very straightforward to start up. The best plugin to use for this is WP Forms as it enables you to construct any type of form for your website, including recurring payment forms.

Once you install and activate the WP Forms plugin, head over to “WP Forms” and click on “Addons”. There, you’ll find a list of available addons, including the Stripe. Install it and then, it’s time to connect it to your WordPress website. Go to “WPForms”, find “Settings” and then click on “Payments” to do this.

On that screen, you’ll see a “Connect with Stripe” button you should click on. Keep in mind that you’ll need a Stripe account but WP Forms will guide you through the entire process. After you’re finished, you’ll be taken to the WP Forms “Settings” page where you’ll be able to see a green tick indicating your WordPress and Stripe accounts are now connected.

Now you can proceed with adding forms to set up recurring payments. One of the best things about the WP Forms plugin is that it offers templates you can use and customize depending on your needs.

#2 Accept recurring payments in WordPress using the WP Simple Pay plugin

WP Simple Pay is another plugin you can use to take recurring payments on your WordPress site. In fact, it might be the best Stripe payment plugin for WordPress on the market. WP Simple Pay can be used to construct a simple recurring payment form without you having to use a membership or eCommerce plugin.

As this is not a free plugin, you first need to purchase it, install, and activate it. After you do this, WP Simple Pay will automatically open the setup process, you’ll just need to clock on the “Let’s Get Started” button.

To use this plugin, you’ll need a Stripe account. As we mentioned in the previous paragraph, WordPress will guide you through the steps of setting up a new account. You’ll be able to customize a pre-made template and you’ll always be working in a test mode so you can be sure no payments are processed.

#3 Accept recurring payments in WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform on the planet since it’s affordable, easy to use, and can be used to sell actual things, services, and subscriptions. Plus, this plugin is simple to install and active. You’ll need to purchase a domain name, an SSL certificate, and a WooCommerce hosting account (that is if you don’t already have one, of course). Bluehost is our top recommendation for WooCommerce hosting, however, you can use any other if more suitable for you.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to add at least one payment gateway to WooCommerce before you can set up recurring payments. There are several WooCommerce payment gateways to choose from, but Stripe is the best option. However, WooCommerce does not include Stripe as a payment option by default. But if you install the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway,  you’ll be able to do this, too. This plugin is also set to the test mode by default and you can exit it once you’re ready to start taking recurring payments from your customers.

Final thoughts

Having in mind how beneficial and how easy it is to set up, you really have no excuse not to accept recurring payments on your WordPress website. Plus, you can always reach out to WP experts to do this for you in case you get stuck during the process. Once you add recurring payments on your site, not only that your customers will be happier but they also won’t miss any payments. It’s really a win-win!