WPForms PayPal Standard Addon

A submitted form is not a payment yet

Someone signs up for your workshop and clicks submit. At that moment you get the email notification and the entry already shows in your dashboard, so you hold their seat. A few days later you check PayPal and that payment is not there: the person left the payment screen without finishing.

When payment happens on another website, submitting the form and getting paid are two separate events, and your work should start with the second one.

WPForms PayPal Standard connects your WPForms forms to PayPal for sales, donations and other payments. On submission, the person goes straight to the PayPal website, where they enter their payment details. It covers one-time payments only: this addon does not support recurring payments.

Fields and settings that trigger the payment

The form must include at least one of these payment fields: Single Item, Checkbox Items, Multiple Items or Dropdown Items. The Total field is optional and shows the amount that will be charged in PayPal based on the selection. What it should not include is a credit card field, because sensitive details are collected on PayPal after submission.

Each form has its own PayPal Standard section, with these settings:

• PayPal Email Address: the email of your PayPal Business account, which receives the payments.
• Mode: Production for live payments, or Test / Sandbox for testing.
• Payment Type: Products and Services or Donation, depending on the transaction.
• Cancel URL: the address people return to if they do not complete the payment.
• Shipping: lets you ask for and require an address during PayPal checkout if you ship a product.

Charging only when the answer calls for it

A form does not have to send everyone to PayPal. With WPForms conditional logic you decide when the payment is processed. For example, a checkbox asks whether the person wants to sign up for a workshop, and only those who say yes go on to PayPal.

The same logic serves three other cases:

• Choosing a payment method: the person says how they want to pay.
• Optional payment: the form is submitted either way, with or without a charge.
• Conditional notifications: each email goes out based on the answers or the payment status.

Completed, Pending and the notification that can wait

By default, WPForms sends all notification emails as soon as the form is submitted. To delay one until the payment is complete, check Enable for PayPal Standard completed payments on that notification. This is the box that fixes the opening scene: the email that sets your work in motion arrives with the money already received.

Tracking lives in WPForms » Payments, where you review transactions, sales and revenue trends. The status column shows Completed when the person finishes on PayPal and Pending if they submitted the form without completing the payment.

A Pending status can also have another cause, worth checking if you see stuck payments:

• The PayPal option that blocks non-encrypted website payments (Block non-encrypted website payment) is on. Turn it off in your account's website preferences.
• Your hosting provider blocks messages from PayPal. Ask them whether this applies to you.

Setup with your Business account

You need WPForms installed and up to date, and a PayPal Business account. The process has four steps:

1. Activate the addon from your WordPress admin area.
2. Create or edit a form with a payment field.
3. In Payments » PayPal Standard, check Enable PayPal Standard payments, fill in the settings and save.
4. Using PayPal test mode, submit an entry and follow a customer's steps before publishing.

When the form needs installments or discounts

For subscriptions, WPForms recommends its PayPal Commerce addon; its Stripe Pro and Authorize.Net addons also accept recurring payments.

If what you need is to lower the amount, WPForms Coupons adds discount codes to payment forms and lets you set which items they apply to.

PayPal Standard payments, explained

Can I charge a monthly fee?

This addon does not support recurring payments. PayPal Commerce is the one for that.

Does WPForms charge a fee for using it?

WPForms applies no fee for using PayPal Standard. PayPal may charge its own.

Does it work for donations?

Yes. In Payment Type you choose Donation instead of Products and Services.