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It’s no secret that Stripe is one of my favorite payment methods for online payments. The first website I created that took payments I used PayPal but later I started using Stripe for everything. So when it comes to creating an option to sell recurring payments, I think Stripe is a great way to go. They are well-known, they offer low fees and no monthly payment, and when you get paid through Stripe, it comes quickly (at least faster than PayPal has been my experience – and with PayPal, you have to manually move your money over).
So how do you use Stripe for WordPress sites? Here are 7 great ways:
1) WP Simple Pay – Starts at $99/year
WP Simple Pay is a plugin that I have used for years. One of the things I love about WP Simple Pay is, like the name suggests, it is fairly simple to setup and use. To get the recurring payment feature, you’ll have to buy at least a Business Subscription for $99/year, and that will get you the ability to charge recurring fees with Stripe along with set up fees, free trial periods, installment plans, coupon codes, custom fields, custom amounts (which lets customers choose the amount they pay which is good if you’re collecting donations), and more. Another thing I like about WP Simple Pay is that as this a payment specific plugin you won’t have to pay for anything you don’t need (which is different from a few later on in the list).
2) WP Forms – Starts at $199.50/year
WP Forms is a WordPress Form Builder plugin, but starting with its Pro Plan, you are able to charge for subscriptions with Stripe. And if you are charging someone, there’s a good chance you’ll need a form, too. WP Forms gets you unlimited forms, unlimited entries, advanced fields, form templates, multi-page forms, integration with popular Email marketing services (like Constant Contact and AWeber), surveys, polls, user registration, offline forms, the ability to track Form Abandonment, Zapier Integration, Form Locker (which can restrict forms to members only), Conversational Forms (which gives you Interactive Form Layout to Boost Form Completion), Post Submissions (which allows you to accept guest posts), File Uploads, etc. So while it is more expensive that WP Simple Pay, you do get a lot of great stuff and stuff you probably will want to use if you are charging customers for products.
3) SUMO Subscriptions: Starts at $39 as a one time payment
SUMO Subscriptions is a great, very affordable option when you want to charge customer recurring payments through Stripe. Not only can you charge customers recurring payments but you can also offer free (and paid) trials, coupon codes, charge customers proration, renewal synchronization feature (meaning that you could charge customers on the same day if you wanted to ship out products all on the same day) and charge customers a sign-up fee. This plugin also allows customer to switch between automatic and manual subscription renewals. And for those customers who chose manual subscription, this plugin allows you to send multiple payment reminder emails. It also is updated regularly (at the time of this post in April 2019 it had been updated in April 2019).
4) WP Full Stripe: Starts at $39 as a one time payment
WP Full Stripe is a really great option if all you want to do is charge customers for recurring payments and do it through Stripe, because (as the name implies) that is what it does. You can also charge customers one time fees and securely save customers’ credit card information. It is regularly updated (as of this blog post writing in April 2019, it had last been updated in February of 2019). You can customize the fields and you can also style the forms but you would need custom CSS to do this.
5) Restrict Content Pro – Starts at $99/year
I have been a customer of Restrict Content Pro for years. This is a great option if you want to offer parts of your website to members only or certain people (which was the reason I initially bought this plugin). But it does more than what the name might imply, because you can charge customers recurring charges in addition to other great features like the ability for customers to upgrade or downgrade their subscription, the ability to limit how many people can buy a subscription, a lot of discount code options, free trial options, etc.
The one drawback is that there is a bit of a learning curve the first time you use it, so if you don’t have any desire for the restriction aspect of this plugin, then I think you would be better off buying WP Simple Pay.
6) WooCommerce Subscriptions – Starts at $199/year
WooCommerce Subscriptions offers a lot of the same things the others offer (such as recurring payments, free trials, sign up fees, etc.) but at a higher cost. Some unique things that WooCommerce Subscriptions offers is automatic rebilling on failed subscription payments, the ability for customers to buy multiple subscriptions in the same transaction, and the ability to charge shipping only on the initial order if you wanted to give that discount to customers who buy a lot. For me, though, I don’t think WooCommerce Subscription offers enough extra features to justify the higher cost.
7) Easy Digital Downloads – Starts at $199/year
I put Easy Digital Downloads last, in part because this is really only a good option if you are selling digital downloads, which you may or may not be. It costs $199 for the Extended Pass, which gets you Easy Digital Downloads, file store for Dropbox if you had something you wanted to deliver from Dropbox, product reviews, automatic discounts at checkout, content restriction, custom prices (meaning that customers can pick the amount they pay, which is great for donations), Zapier integration, and the ability to charge recurring subscriptions. Oddly enough, the price for just being able to charge recurring subscriptions is also $199, so you are much better off getting the Extended Pass.
Please note that if you are using Stripe on your website (whether it’s for recurring or one time payments), you will need an SSL certificate on your site. This is required for security reasons. (You can tell if a site has an SSL certificate by using “https://” at the beginning of the URL instead of “http://”.) You can get an SSL for free from a number of great web hosts, such as Kinsta (a premium web host) and Bluehost (great if you’re starting out). If your web hosting company doesn’t include an SSL, you can also purchase an SSL from 1&1 IONOS.
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