Easy Digital Downloads Stripe Payment Gateway

In a pre-sale, selling and charging are two different days

You announce a course, an ebook or a plugin that is not finished yet, and people want to reserve it. If you charge at that moment, you receive the money before you have anything to deliver, and any delay turns into an awkward conversation with each buyer. If you wait for launch to charge, you have to convince everyone again.

Preapproval separates the two moments. The buyer goes through a normal checkout, Stripe collects and verifies their payment details, and the charge stays pending. On launch day you approve or decline those payments from your dashboard.

Preapproval comes from the Stripe Pro Gateway add-on; the connection to Stripe already comes built into Easy Digital Downloads. This product is not a store and does not work without EDD: it extends the checkout of a store you already have.

What Stripe takes care of at your checkout

• Payment methods: credit and debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link by Stripe, Amazon Pay, Alipay, Cash App and bank transfer, among others.
• On-site payment: the customer completes the purchase without leaving for another page.
• Saved cards: with Link, customers save their methods and manage them from checkout. That data stays in Link, not on your site.
• Subscriptions: with the Recurring Payments extension, recurring charges and a free trial.
• Fraud warning: a configurable email alerts you when Stripe detects early signals, and you can review the payment and refund it before a dispute arrives.
• Refunds from WordPress: you change the payment status to refunded and EDD does the rest.

Preapproval is switched on for the whole store

It is a checkbox in the Stripe settings, and that is its main limit: when active, it affects all Stripe payments in the store, not only pre-sale products. A store that sells daily and wants to launch a future product would also have to process orders for what is already available. Most stores do not need this option.

It fits better in a store with one specific launch, or on a separate site for that pre-sale. With the option active, the order comes in with a preapproved status and the later work is yours:

1. Open the orders list, where the status column separates approved, pending and declined.
2. Click Process in that column to charge each pending payment, or decline it.
3. Tell your buyers the date so the charge does not surprise them.

What Stripe decides and your store does not

The methods each customer sees vary. They depend on several factors, and EDD does not support every Stripe method. Apple Pay and Google Pay appear on their own when the browser supports them, but Apple Pay requires registering every domain that shows the button, which EDD tries to do when connecting Stripe.

The bank statement text must be 5 to 22 characters. You can add the product name, Stripe includes an asterisk that cannot be removed, and each issuer may show it its own way.

Webhooks are in charge. They are created on their own when connecting a new store, but may not be created in test mode or on staging sites, and in a local environment they do not work.

Connecting Stripe and testing the pre-sale

You need Easy Digital Downloads and a Stripe account, or you can create one while connecting:

1. In Downloads, Settings, Payments, open the Stripe tab and click Connect with Stripe.
2. Enable Stripe as a gateway.
3. Turn on test mode in Payment Gateways, connect again and buy with test card 4242 4242 4242 4242.
4. If you are running a pre-sale, tick Preapproved Payments and test the path up to clicking Process.

Extensions and gateways depending on what you sell

Easy Digital Downloads Pro is the base of the store. To charge on a recurring basis with Stripe, Recurring Payments adds subscriptions.

If your store does not use EDD, the catalog has other Stripe integrations, such as WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway for WooCommerce and Gravity Forms Stripe for forms.

Preapproval, subscriptions and cards in EDD

Can I apply preapproval to a single product?

The option applies to all Stripe payments in the store.

Is the customer charged when ordering?

With preapproval active, no. The charge happens when you process the payment.

Do I need another extension to sell subscriptions?

Yes, Recurring Payments together with Stripe.

Are cards stored on my site?

No. Link stores them and no sensitive data is kept on your site.