Through our experience managing various online businesses, we’ve discovered that credit card processing plugins are the most effective way to accept payments on your WordPress site.
These plugins offer a wide range of payment options, providing your customers with the convenience to pay in their preferred manner.
Additionally, customers can complete their payments directly on your website without being redirected to external payment platforms. This seamless experience significantly increases the likelihood of completing a purchase.
In this article, we will evaluate the top credit card processing plugins and guide you on selecting the best one for your business needs.
Overview: Top Credit Card Processing Plugins for WordPress
Short on time? Take a look at this quick comparison of the leading credit card processing plugins for WordPress.
| Plugin | Ideal For | Starting PriceCost | Free Version Available | |
| 🥇 | Easy Digital Downloads | Selling digital products online | $99.50 per year | ✅ |
| 🥈 | WP Simple Pay | Creating Stripe payment forms | $49.50 per year | ✅ |
| 🥉 | WPForms | Diverse payment form options | $49.50 per year | ✅ |
| 4 | MyPayKit | Square Payment Forms | $49.50 per year | Available |
| 5 out of 10 | MemberPress | Membership Websites | $179.50 per year | Not Available |
| 6 out of 10 | WooCommerce | eCommerce Stores | Free | Available |
| 7 out of 10 | Accept Stripe Payments | Stripe Payment Buttons | Free | Available |
| 8 out of 10 | LearnDash | Selling Online Courses | $199 per year | Not Available |
| 9 out of 10 | WP Charitable | Non-Profits and Charities | $69 per year | Available |
| 10 out of 10 | YITH WooCommerce Stripe | Online Stores | $79.99 per year | Not Available |
Why Do You Need a Credit Card Processing Plugin for Your WordPress Site?
If you intend to sell products, services, or subscriptions on your website, a credit card processing plugin is essential.
Redirecting customers to external payment gateways can be inconvenient and may result in cart abandonment. Instead of sending customers away to a payment gateway like PayPal or Square, a credit card processing plugin seamlessly integrates with WordPress.
This feature enables you to accept and verify digital payment information from your customers without leaving the page, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free payment experience.
For membership websites, credit card processing plugins typically support recurring payments, allowing customers to easily set up automatic billing for ongoing services.
Before you start, ensure that you enable HTTP/SSL on your WordPress site to securely process online payments.
If you’re not sure how to do this, check out our beginner’s guide on obtaining a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website.
How We Evaluate and Review Credit Card Processing Plugins
When selecting a WordPress plugin for credit card acceptance on your site or online store, it’s crucial to consider various factors to find the best fit for your requirements.
To assist you, we’ve conducted thorough research. Here are some key aspects we focused on during our evaluation and testing:
- Security features:Security and compliance are our top priorities. We seek payment plugins that provide PCI compliance, strong encryption, and other security measures to safeguard your customers’ payment information. We also look for features that detect and prevent fraud, such as address verification and CVV checks.
- Payment Gateway Options: We evaluate the types of credit cards and payment methods supported by the plugin, including debit cards, cryptocurrencies, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and various digital wallets, to ensure it meets the needs of a diverse customer base. For instance, Stripe dominates the U.S. e-commerce payment processing market with over 68% share, making it essential to include Stripe as a payment option.
- Support and Updates: We verify that the plugin provides regular updates and dependable customer support. This ensures that if any issues occur, the support team can assist you promptly in resuming payment processing, preventing potential loss of customers.
- Customization Options: Plugins that allow you to personalize payment forms and checkout pages can enhance conversion rates. You can tailor the payment experience to reflect your brand identity and ensure a cohesive user experience, which may include changing button colors or incorporating ‘Buy Now’ buttons.
- Transaction Fees and Pricing: We analyze the fee structure related to the payment plugin, considering transaction fees, setup costs, monthly subscriptions, and any additional charges. We also compare pricing plans to identify the most budget-friendly option for various business sizes and financial needs.
- User-Friendliness: We believe the plugin should feature an intuitive interface, making it easy for anyone to set up, even those new to WordPress. Users should have the ability to customize payment settings and manage features without any confusion.
- Key Features to Look For: If your business offers subscription services or products, we ensure the plugin supports recurring payments. Additionally, we look for integrated reporting and analytics tools that provide insights into your sales performance. Some plugins can connect with analytics platforms like MonsterInsights, allowing you to monitor your traffic sources, sales metrics, and conversion rates. This information helps you identify where your sales originate and which products or services are the most popular.
By thoughtfully evaluating these aspects, we can assist you in selecting a WordPress payment plugin that meets your business requirements.
Why You Can Rely on CanadaCreate’s Recommendations?
For over 16 years, we have developed and managed numerous WordPress websites across various industries.
Our experience spans from small business websites and membership platforms to large eCommerce stores, providing us with valuable insights into the performance of different credit card processing plugins in real-world scenarios.
This practical experience enables us to identify which payment solutions are most effective for various types of websites.
Understanding the significance of dependable payment processing for businesses, we exclusively recommend solutions that have demonstrated consistent performance and that we would personally trust.
For insights into our testing and review methodology for plugins, please refer to our detailed editorial process.
Let’s take a closer look at the top credit card processing plugins available on the market.
1. Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a robust plugin designed for selling digital products such as software, PDFs, eBooks, audio files, documents, and other downloadable items.
With EDD, you can handle unlimited transactions and sell an infinite number of products without incurring any monthly fees.
The plugin includes several integrated payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe. In addition to these widely-used gateways, EDD provides extra payment add-ons to attract a broader customer base, including Authorize.net, Braintree, ClickBank, and more.
In addition to processing one-time payments, you can also set up recurring subscription fees for any digital products. The plugin automatically charges customers based on the frequency you choose, whether that’s daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
Additionally, the setup process is incredibly straightforward. The Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) plugin automatically generates product, cart, and checkout pages for you. You can also personalize the payment options with features like a buy button, login, cart widget, and order history, among others.
You will also have access to a Reports dashboard within WordPress that displays total earnings, refunds, and average order value. This data can be further analyzed based on the various payment gateways you utilize.
Discover more about Easy Digital Downloads by checking out our beginner’s guide on selling digital downloads with WordPress.
Pricing Details: Easy Digital Downloads offers a free version that supports PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon Pay. However, if you opt for their All Access Plan at $499.50 per year, you gain access to their complete catalog of addons, eliminating the need to install and purchase payment gateway addons separately.
2. WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is the leading Stripe payments plugin for WordPress, allowing you to effortlessly collect both one-time and recurring payments directly from your website.
If you operate a service-based business and need a straightforward solution for accepting payments, WP Simple Pay is an excellent choice. With its user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder, you can easily create various payment forms. Utilizing Stripe, a trusted payment gateway, enhances visitor confidence and boosts conversion rates.
WP Simple Pay is designed to handle multiple currencies and enables you to integrate clean, user-friendly payment forms on your website. It supports over 13 payment methods, including ACH Direct Debit, Alipay, Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, Giropay, and more.
A standout feature of WP Simple Pay is the ability to offer a free trial period to users before billing them. This strategy can significantly enhance signups for subscription services.
The plugin also provides ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ options, making it easier for customers to make impulse purchases by allowing them to pay in smaller, more manageable installments.
WP Simple Pay is renowned for its customization capabilities. It offers over 70 pre-designed payment form templates to suit various needs.
Whether you require a donation form, subscription payment form, ACH direct debit payment form, or any other type of payment solution, you are likely to find a suitable option.
For detailed instructions, check out our comprehensive guide on enabling payment method selection in WordPress forms.
Pricing Information: WP Simple Pay provides a free version that seamlessly integrates with Stripe Checkout and supports most major credit and debit cards. The premium plans offer enhanced features, including the ability to accept recurring payments, set up automatic billing, and provide ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ options, among others.
3. WPForms
WPForms is the leading form builder plugin for WordPress, allowing you to easily create a variety of forms, including booking forms, contact forms, and more. With over 6 million users, WPForms is one of the most reliable plugins available for WordPress sites.
The plugin supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net. Simply install the necessary add-ons and link them to your payment gateway account to start accepting payments.
The highlight of WPForms is that its free version allows you to process Stripe payments without any cost.
WPForms is ideal for subscription services or small businesses that do not require a product or checkout page.
For instance, if you offer a monthly beauty box subscription, you can create a form that allows customers to select their preferred beauty box and provide their shipping details.
For additional information, refer to our comprehensive guide on creating a WordPress form with integrated payment options.
Pricing Information: WPForms is available for free, allowing you to accept Stripe payments with the Lite version. To access additional payment gateway add-ons, you will need the Pro version, which starts at just $49.50 per year, making it more cost-effective than many other form builder plugins.
4. MyPayKit
MyPayKit provides a straightforward solution for accepting Square payments directly through your WordPress website.
Setting it up is incredibly easy. Simply download the MyPayKit plugin, link your Square account, and you can start processing payments in less than two minutes.
MyPayKit supports various payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Additionally, there is a free plan available, allowing you to begin accepting Square payments immediately, even on a tight budget.
With its intuitive form builder, you can effortlessly create a Square payment form tailored to your business requirements, complete with customization options to ensure it aligns with your website’s design.
You can set up express checkout to streamline the payment process and boost conversion rates.
Additionally, MyPayKit allows you to accept subscription payments, donations, and tips.
Pricing:MyPayKit provides a free plan with unlimited forms and transactions, though a 3% application fee applies. To eliminate the application fee and unlock advanced features, you can upgrade to a paid plan starting at $49.50 per year.
5. MemberPress
MemberPress is a widely-used membership plugin that includes advanced features for managing your membership site.
This plugin enables you to accept credit card payments, create restricted content, set up membership levels, establish members-only forums, and control access based on various membership tiers.
It is undoubtedly the best plugin for course creators aiming to sell online courses, premium content behind a paywall, or group membership plans.
MemberPress supports major payment solutions like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net.
With MemberPress, you have all the tools necessary to create a membership site from scratch, including pricing pages, signup forms, exclusive content, customizable membership email templates, and group forums.
If you’re considering using MemberPress, be sure to read our comprehensive guide on building a membership site with WordPress.
Pricing Details: MemberPress is a premium plugin starting at $179.50 per year for a single site.
6. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the leading e-commerce plugin for WordPress, widely recognized and trusted.
It enables you to accept payments from all major credit card providers, including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and more.
Initially, your store will only accept direct bank transfers, checks, and cash on delivery.
To access popular payment gateways such as WooPayments, Stripe, PayPal, Square, Klarna, and Amazon Pay, you’ll need to install them as add-ons from the extensions store, many of which are available for free.
WooCommerce is ideal for selling physical products, allowing you to easily set up your online store, create product pages, customize the checkout process, manage inventory, and handle payments all in one platform.
WooCommerce offers a wide range of apps in its marketplace to enhance the checkout experience. For instance, adding related products or a countdown timer in the shopping cart can significantly increase your sales.
For a step-by-step guide on setting up your WooCommerce store, check out our detailed tutorial on making WooCommerce easy to use.
Pricing Information:Getting started with WooCommerce is free, and all payment gateways available in the WooCommerce marketplace are also free. However, many users choose to invest in additional apps or themes to enhance their online store experience.
7. Accept Stripe Payments
The Accept Stripe Payments plugin is a free WordPress tool that enables users to process payments through Stripe.
This plugin utilizes a straightforward shortcode, allowing you to place the Stripe ‘Buy Now’ button anywhere on your website for any product or service. You can also receive donations through Stripe.
When customers click the buy button, a Stripe pop-up will prompt them to enter their credit card details to finalize the purchase.
After entering their credit card information, customers will be redirected to the Checkout Result page.
This page will show the transaction details along with the item they just purchased.
In your WordPress dashboard, you can view all transactions captured in the plugin’s orders menu, making it easy to track all received orders.
The plugin provides basic features for creating and customizing product pages. Being a free option, it lacks the extensive capabilities found in other e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, or Shopify.
For detailed instructions on integrating Stripe as a payment method, refer to our guide on accepting payments with Stripe in WordPress.
Pricing Information:The Accepts Stripe Payments plugin is available for free. However, you can purchase additional features individually or as a bundle. Options include add-ons for Subscription payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, and more. Each add-on is priced at $39.95, or you can access all premium add-ons for $79 per year.
8. LearnDash
LearnDash is the leading WordPress learning management system (LMS) plugin, designed to help you create a paid community around digital courses.
As a user, you have full control over course access and duration for your students.
You can offer exclusive benefits and curate courses to create membership plans and bundled offers.
Once a user registers, they will immediately gain access to all the content included in their membership plan.
If you’re planning to sell memberships, LearnDash integrates seamlessly with MemberPress.
When it’s time to receive payments, LearnDash supports various payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, and 2Checkout.
Pricing Information: LearnDash pricing starts at $199 per year for a single site, which includes updates and customer support.
9. WP Charitable
WP Charitable is a highly-rated WordPress plugin for donations and fundraising, utilized by over 10,000 non-profit organizations and website owners to increase their online fundraising efforts.
One of the key advantages of this plugin is that it does not impose processing fees, allowing more funds to go directly to your cause.
It offers essential features such as the ability to accept one-time and recurring donations, customizable donation forms, GDPR compliance, and more.
Additionally, Charitable includes built-in payment integrations for PayPal, Stripe, Paystack, GoCardless, Braintree, Mollie, Windcave, and others.
If you are a non-profit organization looking to raise funds, be sure to check out our guide on how to add a PayPal Donate button in WordPress.
Pricing Details: Charitable is a free plugin that offers integrations with PayPal and Stripe, allowing you to create unlimited fundraising campaigns. Upgrading to a paid plan unlocks premium payment gateways, recurring donations, crowdfunding options, and more.
10. YITH WooCommerce Stripe
YITH WooCommerce Stripe is an add-on plugin that enables credit card payments via Stripe on your WooCommerce store.
YITH is a reputable plugin developer known for creating top-quality applications for WooCommerce stores, including the following:
- YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments
- YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews
- YITH Point of Sale for WooCommerce
This plugin automates payment processing, helping to decrease cart abandonment rates and enhance the overall shopping experience.
It includes additional features such as:
- Displaying the customer’s saved credit card options during checkout for a smoother purchasing process.
- Creating a blacklist to prevent payments from potentially fraudulent users.
- Processing refunds with just one click.
- Managing recurring payments for subscription-based products with YITH Subscription.
- Request additional information such as billing address and zip code to confirm the identity of the credit card holder and reduce the risk of chargebacks.
Pricing Information:The YITH WooCommerce Stripe plugin is priced at $79.99 per year, which includes one year of updates and support, along with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Additional Option: GiveWP
GiveWP is a versatile WordPress plugin that enables you to collect both one-time and recurring donations using Stripe and PayPal payment gateways. It supports a variety of payment options for credit card transactions, including PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, Square, Paymill, AmeriCloud, PayFast, Paytm, Mollie, 2Checkout, and more.
Although its interface may not be as intuitive as WPForms or Charitable, GiveWP allows you to create a custom donation form directly within WordPress.
Additionally, you can track analytics and manage donor information through the built-in database. This feature helps you identify your most valuable donors and keep track of your revenue. In addition to payment history tools and a donor management system, GiveWP provides customizable templates and integrates with email marketing services like Constant Contact.
Pricing Information:Free to start, with the basic plan available for $149 per year.
Which Credit Card Processing Plugin is the Best for WordPress? (Expert Recommendation)
For businesses just beginning to accept payments, we recommend WP Simple Pay Lite or WPForms Lite. These plugins allow you to start accepting Stripe payments right away, with the option to upgrade to a paid plan later to eliminate transaction fees and unlock advanced features.
If you are selling digital products such as ebooks, software, or downloadable content, Easy Digital Downloads is the ideal choice. This plugin is specifically tailored for digital goods, ensuring a smooth process from payment to delivery.
For online retailers selling physical products, WooCommerce along with its payment add-ons offers the most comprehensive solution. Additionally, if you operate a membership site, MemberPress provides an excellent blend of payment processing and member management capabilities.
We hope this article has assisted you in selecting the best credit card processing plugin for your website. You may also want to explore our article on the top WooCommerce plugins for your store or the best WordPress coupon code plugins for your online shop.
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