Accepting money from your online customers should not be rocket science.
If the check-out process is cumbersome, there are good chances you will end up losing revenue.
Thankfully, there are numerous plugins out there that can make life easier for us WP users.
In this article, we have listed the very best plugins to help you accept online payments within minutes and start making money using a website.
But before going any further, we need to ask ourselves, what should you look for in a WordPress payment plugin?
How to Pick the Best WordPress Payment Form Plugin
A standard eCommerce transaction consists of a series of steps that lead to a completed checkout.
Your customers can drop off at any stage for several reasons.
You must create the smoothest and most consistent experience possible in order to encourage the customers to complete the transaction.
With that said, all of your efforts will not be worthless if there are any problems with your check-out form.
Moreover, if your payment procedure is too difficult or tedious, the customer may still abandon their cart anytime.
Naturally, your payment form should make things simpler and easier for the end-user.
But that is not all! Let us not forget that besides selling products, online payments typically also include donations and subscriptions.
As such, your website should also be able to handle multiple types of transactions.
In addition to that, there are several other aspects that you need to look for when selecting a payment plugin to accept money transfers online:
- Customer Support: Since you will be handling money and loads of personal data, it is very important that your issues or concerns can be addressed in a swift manner.
- Speed: If your plugin takes ages to load on the front end, you will lose vital sales.
- Compatibility: If your plugin cannot add responsive payment forms (read: mobile-friendly), ditch it. Furthermore, your plugin of choice should play well with other active WP plugins and themes.
- Cost: Certain plugins tend to make even the most basic of features as paid upgrades, such as the ability to add multiple forms. You need to pay good attention to the cost factor before selecting or shortlisting a plugin.
How Exactly do Online Payments Work?
Several parties are involved when processing online transactions through a payments plugin.
You would need to deal with the merchant, the customer, and the technology.
- The merchant (you) accepts different forms of payments, such as credit cards, Paypal, and so on.
- A customer that initiates transactions online normally opts to settle their accounts using credit or debit cards or a wallet of their choosing.
- The technology is what combines the payment processor and the payment gateway. This is what gets the money from point A to point B, or from the customer to the merchant.
Which are the Best WP Plugins to handle Payments?
While preparing this list of plugins, we scrutinized several options and picked a handful of them.
The following factors went into play when deciding whether or not to include a particular plugin:
- Cost and Service Ratio
- Number of Active Users (wp.org)
- Feature Set
- User Interface and Customization Options
- Code Quality and Security
As such, we did not just create a random list of plugins. We made sure to hand-pick some of the top options for each use case.
List of Payment Form Plugins
With that said, let us dive in and take a closer look at some of the best plugins you can use to start accepting payments on your WP website today.
GetPaid
The first entry on our list, GetPaid, is our plugin that can be used to handle online payments and invoicing.
Major Features
- Create items with a one-time fee or recurring payments (subscriptions).
- Add a free trial and/or allow buyers to name their price.
- Add items to your website via Buy Now Buttons. Customers will be able to buy on your website via several payment gateways.
- Create conversion-optimized checkout forms to sell your items through your landing pages.
- Create invoices that you can send to your customers, and they can pay online.
- Create quotes and estimates to send to your clients.
- Quotes can be turned into invoices, and clients can pay online.
- Create and send invoices directly to receive single or recurring payments.
- Accept payments via Stripe (our free Stripe Payments plugin will be needed), Paypal Standard, Authorize.net, WorldPay, and Pre Bank Transfer
- Export payments and any other data through the reporting system.
- Manage taxes.
- VAT MOSS complaint (European Union VAT management system).
- Easily accept payments and create invoices programmatically through other plugins.
All this is available in the free version of the GetPaid plugin.
Usability and Customization
GetPaid features a drag-and-drop interface for creating checkout forms. There is no limit on the number of forms that you can create.
Once you have created the necessary forms, you can add them to your site using shortcodes, widgets, or blocks.
Furthermore, GetPaid is one of the few plugins that can support multiple payment gateways, even in the free version.
The free version of GetPaid offers more than any other payment form plugin on the market.
If that’s not enough, several premium add-ons will extend it to a full-fledged eCommerce system.
Examples are Digital downloads, item quantity discounts, paid trials, inventory management, and more.
There is also the option to add several premium payment gateways.
For example, Square, PayPal Pro & Webflow, PayFast, Mollie, iDEAL, GoCardless, 2CO, SAGE, eWay, PayU, Braintree, FirstData, and WebPay.
Code Quality and Security
We take great pride in the quality of our products.
To prove this, we hired a 3rd party security expert to assess our product.
The expert was unable to find any security issues in our plugin and was impressed by the quality.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
The core plugin is free to use; supported by premium add-ons.
Verdict
GetPaid should be your de facto choice when managing payment forms, invoices, and quotes on a WordPress website.
Many of the features that are normally paid for other plugins are free when using GetPaid.
But don’t just take our word for it. Give it a spin and see it for yourself!
WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept
The second plugin on our list, WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept, is a relatively simple and straightforward plugin that lets you accept PayPal transactions on your website.
This particular plugin does not have a wide array of features to talk about.
It does one job only. It lets you add PayPal buy now buttons to your site via shortcodes or widgets.
Basic Features
- Customizable Pay Now buttons
- Multiple shortcodes embed
- Multiple payment widgets for different services or products.
- Configure different currencies for use with payment forms.
- Supports variable payment amounts, so your users can enter the amount they wish to pay for a product.
- Ability to specify a reference value for the payment.
- Ability to specify a payment subject for the payment widget.
- Ability to set the country code to use a particular language for the PayPal checkout page.
- Can specify a cancel URL for the payment widget.
- You can also collect taxes for the payment (if you need to).
Usability and Customization
WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept adds a shortcode of its own upon activation.
Once you add the above shortcode to a page, block, or widget, it will display the PayPal Buy Now Button.
The plugin allows you to tweak header text and other values, so if you are a nonprofit, you can add “Donate Now” instead of “Checkout” and so on.
You need a PayPal account to use the plugin.
WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept supports all the currencies that PayPal currently supports.
Code Quality and Security
Code quality is low-quality, and the plugin is untranslatable.
Looking at the code, I thought I would find many more security issues however I think the simplicity of the plugin has been its saving grace as the code base is small.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
The plugin is free to use. There does not seem to be a paid version.
Verdict
If all you need to do is add a PayPal payment button to your website, WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept is a worthy choice.
It works without any glitch, is easy to tweak, and does not add any bloat to your site.
WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is a plugin for WordPress that supports only Stripe.com
For many sellers, Stripe is the de facto choice when processing credit and debit cards online.
WP Simple Pay provides a neat way to integrate Stripe with your WP website.
Major Features
- Provides seamless integration with Stripe Checkout
- Ability to tweak and customize Stripe Checkout pages
- Can collect customer billing and shipping addresses
- Can also verify ZIP and postal codes for addresses submitted by users
- As of now, it supports 27 languages, 39 countries, and 135+ currencies (depending on Stripe availability in specific countries)
- It also handles Apple Pay and Google Pay with Stripe Checkout (Paid Version only)
- PCI DSS compliant and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) support for improved security
- Translation ready
- Offers AffiliateWP integration
- Custom payment success and failure pages
- reCAPTCHA v3 invisible verification support
Usability and Customization
Upon activation, WP Simple Pay adds a WP admin menu.
You can create new payment forms that can then be added to the website using shortcodes.
The process of creating a new payment form is fairly easy.
You can specify things such as redirection, payment amount, Stripe custom fields, etc.
In terms of customization, WP Simple Pay allows you to specify your text headers and logo images and tweak the payment confirmation text and emails.
Code Quality and Security
The code quality of this product is good.
Most code is commented, and with our quick test, we could not find any obvious security issues, but some things could have been better escaped.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
WP Simple Pay with limited features is free to use; paid plans start at $99 per year per site.
Verdict
WP Simple Pay is an easy-to-use plugin.
With nearly 10,000+ downloads, it has created a substantial community of users.
WP Simple Pay is a good choice if you only need a payment plugin to accept Stripe transactions on your website.
That said, there is quite a big difference between the free and paid versions.
The plugin’s WP.org page mentions support for Google Pay, Apple Pay, and reCaptcha in the free version; however, this is not the case as such features, along with Stripe Subscriptions, are only available in the paid plans.
Lastly, if you plan to use WP Simple Pay on multiple sites, you might be better off with the one-time payment plan.
The unlimited sites plan is priced at $499 as a one-time fee.
Accept Stripe Payments
Accept Stripe Payments, as the name suggests, is another Payment plugin that can be used to connect Stripe.com with your WP site.
This particular plugin works similarly to the rest, it generates shortcodes for each payment form you create, which can then be added to pages and posts.
Major Features
- Ability to add multiple “Buy Now” buttons to a post/page.
- Allow users to automatically download digital files after the purchase is complete.
- View purchase orders from your WP admin dashboard.
- Create a stripe payment button widget and add it to your sidebar.
- Ability to collect billing and shipping addresses of the customer.
- Specify a logo or thumbnail image for the item shown in the Stripe payment window.
- Customize the Stripe buy now button text and appearance from the shortcode via CSS.
- Ability to specify a custom description for the item/product.
- You can also configure a notification email to the buyer and seller after the purchase.
- Supports custom pricing for products.
- It supports taxes and shipping charges.
- Option to save the card data to Stripe account.
- Custom Thank You page on a per-product basis.
- You can also use a link URL to create a custom payment button for your products.
- Stock control options. You can limit the quantity available for a product (inventory).
- Option to enable AliPay payments.
- Supports settings for Terms and Conditions that your customers have to accept before making a purchase.
- Ability to configure variable products. You can charge different amounts for different options of the product.
- Create “Authorize Only” products. You can hold funds on a card and then capture them later.
- 3D Secure payments are compatible.
- Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) Compliant.
Usability and Customization
Accept Stripe Payments is a feature-rich payment plugin.
It supports variable pricing, variable products, and several other options that might give even the best of plugins a run for their money.
Regarding the user interface, the plugin has a steeper learning curve.
It takes a while to get used to this plugin’s interface, primarily because several options are scattered throughout the WP admin panel.
Upon activation, it adds a Stripe Orders panel in the WP admin area, where you can find all the orders that customers place on your website.
Further tweaks and customization settings can be found in the Settings section.
Accept Stripe Payments comes loaded with numerous features that one might need when selling products online.
However, it does not seem to integrate well with other eCommerce plugins.
You might need to bear that in mind before you get started with Accept Stripe Payments.
Code Quality and Security
Most code lacks code comments, making it difficult for a developer to work with.
In general, the code quality and security are good but could be improved in several ways. In our quick test, we found an Author level stored XSS vulnerability.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
The plugin is free to use.
To extend it with extra features such as subscriptions, Email Marketing tools integrations, additional payment methods (Apple Pay and Pay with Google), and much more, there are several premium add-ons available.
Verdict
Despite the slightly confusing interface, Accept Stripe Payments is a worthy pick for users looking for Stripe integration on their site.
It comes with all the bells and whistles that one might expect.
The only noteworthy downside is the poorly laid-out settings area, which requires a lot of time to get used to.
Beyond that, the plugin has no noticeable caveats and is well-trusted by over 40,000 active users.
WPPayForm
WPPayForm is yet another Stripe payment plugin for WP users.
It comes with a neat drag and drops form builder that offers an intuitive form-building experience.
Major Features
- Create unlimited forms with or without Stripe integration; can also be used as a contact form plugin.
- Ability to offer multiple products and plans in a single form
- Optionally collect customer billing, shipping addresses, and other information in the checkout process.
- Supports 14 languages, 30+ countries, and 135+ currencies (the same as Stripe)
- PCI DSS and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) support for improved security
- Accept donations with pay-what-you-want forms
- Detailed reports of your payments by status
- Data export for submitted form entries
Usability and Customization
WPPayForm offers a drag & drop form builder that lets you easily add form fields.
The plugin supports numerous data fields for forms, and each of these fields can be reused as often as needed.
You can customize email notifications and other settings for each form individually, right when creating or editing a given form.
However, email customization is available only for Pro users.
In fact, while the plugin does offer a wide range of features, such as data export to CSV or Excel formats, a good number of them are only usable in the pro version.
Code Quality and Security
This was a strange one. The sophistication of the codebase was perfect. However, there was almost no code commenting, and translations were lacking in some places.
Security again looked reasonable but had some big mistakes in places.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
The core plugin is free with limited features; paid plans start at $41 per year per site.
Verdict
WPPayForm is a feature-rich and highly cost-effective plugin.
The free version might suffice for basic users. If you attempt to use this plugin on a production site for online commerce, you should strongly consider upgrading to the paid plans.
This is primarily because certain key features, such as data export and email updates, are premium-only offerings with WPPayForm.
The plugin fits everyone’s budget, with a 20-site license priced at $69 per annum.
Overall, for Stripe payments, WPPayForm is a decent option.
The biggest downside, to an extent, is the lack of popularity as the plugin currently has only around 2000 active users.
Forminator
Forminator is not a payment-only form plugin.
It is a full-fledged forms megalith that offers contact forms, order forms, payment forms, quizzes, polls, and much more!
Forminator packs a wide plethora of features. It is hard to believe this particular plugin is entirely free to use.
That said, in this article, we will only be focusing on the payment form aspect.
Major Features
- Forms – You can add a wide range of forms to your site
- Polls – Forminator supports interactive polls to collect user opinions, with several dynamic options and settings.
- Quizzes – Forminator also allows you to create custom quizzes for your site.
- Calculations – The plugin can collect information, generate leads, take orders, and engage visitors.
- Payments – Most notably, Forminator lets you take payments, donations, deposits, sell merch, etc., with the included Stripe and PayPal integrations.
Usability and Customization
Forminator seems to have a solution for everything.
Upon activation, Forminator adds its menu in the WP admin panel.
You can create any form with its drag-and-drop form builder.
As far as payment forms are concerned, Forminator supports Stripe as well as PayPal.
While you might be hard-pressed for an additional payment gateway or two, it is noteworthy that Forminator offers virtually everything for free, customizable forms, data export, email alerts, and so on.
The interface is highly innovative and beginner-friendly.
Forminator aims to target beginner and advanced users alike.
A Pro version offers just one extra feature, support for electronic signatures.
Code Quality and Security
The code quality of the plugin is excellent and fully translatable. Security, for the most part, is good however, there are areas where it is lacking.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
The core plugin is free to use; the Pro version is available as part of WPMU DEV membership, starting at $5 per month.
Verdict
If you are looking for a simple plugin, Forminator might be overkill for you.
However, if you need a contact form and receive payments, Forminator can perform both jobs.
The plugin currently has 100,000+ active users and is one of the most well-known contact form plugins.
WPForms
If you are judging plugins by the sheer number of active users, WPFormscurrently has a staggering five million+ active installs.
With that said, WPForms feels like a mixed bag of emotions in the world of payment plugins.
To be clear, this contact form plugin has evolved over time into a multipurpose forms plugin, including payment forms.
However, with prolonged use, you’d find that WPForms is a good solution for what it does, but not the world’s greatest in its league.
Major Features
- Create a wide variety of forms, such as contact forms, feedback forms, payment forms, etc.
- Seamless integration with innumerable services and third-party solutions, including MailChimp and Aweber.
- An extremely easy-to-use drag-and-drop form builder.
- Support for PayPal and Stripe.
- Multiple spam protection solutions.
- Custom form templates.
- Support for conditional logic in forms.
Usability and Customization
WPForms surely should win some awards for ease of use and clutter-free interface.
Once you activate the plugin, it adds a menu entry in the WP admin panel and provides you with a drag-and-drop form builder with custom fields.
This explains why WPForms is so popular and has millions of active users, it is super easy to use, and even the most newbie users can master it in no time.
With that out of the way, once you use the plugin for a while, you’d find yourself choked due to a lack of choices.
It is hard to compile a decent feature list for the free version of the plugin; almost everything is paid only, including form fields, additional integrations, and so on.
As a result, while several users can use WPForms, it is impossible to do so unless you upgrade to the paid version.
There are three major payment gateway integrations, PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net and all of these are available as paid add-ons.
Code Quality and Security
The code quality here is good, but the overall package is big and complex.
Security knowledge is good, but there is still room for improvement.
Code Quality
Translatable
Security Knowledge
Pricing
Code plugin is free to use; paid plans begin from $79 per year per site.
Verdict
If you are looking for a *free* payment forms plugin, WPForms is not your option.
All the plugins mentioned in this article have a free version that can be used to create payment forms, excluding WPForms.
The contact forms part is free, but payment addons are all paid when it comes to WPForms.
If ease of use and a beginner-friendly interface is the deal-breaker for you, WPForms is worth considering.
Otherwise, you might be better off skipping this particular plugin.
That brings us to the end of this roundup of some of the top WordPress payment form plugins. If you have a favorite, share your thoughts in the comments below!