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WordPress PayPal Integration: How to Add PayPal Payment Gateway

June 23, 2021 Web development

WordPress PayPal integration is one of the best payment gateways you can add to your website. The current number of merchant accounts on PayPal is 28 million, and this platform offers a variety of tools for easier online shopping that you and your customers will love. Here’s how you can utilize it as a payment method on your WordPress website. 

Benefits of Using PayPal for Business

Regardless of the type of products or services you offer on your website, PayPal provides you with numerous benefits. First of all, this is an internationally recognized payment system that allows you to accept international transactions and reach worldwide customers. 

It also offers 24/7 service, doesn’t charge monthly fees, and reduces chargebacks, fraud incidence, and customer complaints. PayPal is available as a mobile app and provides you with tools to help you create attractive buttons and a powerful checkout area for your website, which increases conversions. 

WordPress PayPal Integration Methods

You can use several WordPress PayPal integration options to add a PayPal payment gateway to your WordPress websites. The most common ones are buttons and WordPress plugins.

WordPress PayPal Integration via Buttons

You can use the tools from the PayPal platform and shopping buttons to integrate PayPal into your website. The integration procedure is as follows — you should log into your business account, head over to “Tools,” and then “All Tools.” There, you’ll find the “Integrate PayPal” feature. 

Clicking on the “PayPal buttons” will present you with several button options: 

  • Smart Buttons
  • Buy Now
  • Add to Cart
  • Smart Subscribe
  • Subscribe

Each of the buttons serves a different purpose. For example, Smart Buttons give customers an option of paying with PayPal or credit and debit cards using any device. On the other hand, Smart Subscribe sets up a subscription plan for your website. 

After creating your button, you’ll receive an HTML code you should paste into your web page code to finish WordPress PayPal integration. 

WordPress PayPal Integration via WP Express Checkout

PayPal shopping carts are a good choice if you’re selling a variety of products. They allow customers to place multiple items in the cart at once. In addition, with PayPal shopping carts, online payments are simple, there are no monthly fees, and payments can be sent from all devices. 

For this type of integration, you can use WP Express Checkout — a WordPress plugin that provides you with a shortcode for creating a customizable PayPal button. This button creates a popup of PayPal’s Express Checkout, so customers don’t have to leave your website while making payments. 

To install this plugin, go to the WordPress dashboard, find “Plugins,” and click on “Add New.” Then look for the plugin, install it, and click “Activate.” From there, you can proceed to the menu and select the desired currency, enter PayPal credentials and test it in Sandbox Mode. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to create a product in the Products menu and use the shortcode to embed the PayPal button. 

WordPress PayPal Integration via WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept 

This WordPress plugin is suitable for selling services or asking for donations. You can use it on any page of your website, including blog posts. The installation is quick, and you can use it to add multiple payment widgets for different services and products. 

This tool also allows you to: 

  • Accept payments in any currency supported by PayPal
  • Specify payment subject for each widget
  • Collect tax for payments
  • Accept any amount and let users specify the amount (of donation)
  • Specify the reference value for payments
  • Set the country code and use a particular language for the checkout page, etc.

The integration procedure is simple. Search and install the plugin like any other. Activate it, go to “Settings,” and set up the parameters. For information on creating and placing payment widgets, consult the usage section. 

WordPress PayPal Integration via WP Fluent Forms

WP Fluent Forms is a unique set of features that allow you to make all kinds of customizable forms. It’s great for various WordPress websites, as it can be combined with many project management and conversion tools. It supports: 

  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • ConvertKit
  • Zapier
  • About 3000 other integrations

WP Fluent Forms is also compatible with the leading WordPress website builders, like Elementor, Oxygen, Divi, and BeaverBuilder. If you need to accept payments via form, this is how to set WP Fluent Forms. 

Here’s how to activate it. First, purchase the WP Fluent Forms and install it on your website. Next, head over to “Settings” and choose “Payment Settings” from the left sidebar. After enabling the payment, proceed to PayPal settings and activate it. Enter your PayPal email in the designated box, enable PayPal IPN verification and check whether the system is operational while in Sandbox Mode. Save the settings, and you’re good to go. 

WordPress PayPal Integration via WooCommerce

Finally, you can integrate PayPal payments with the most commonly used store plugin for WordPress, WooCommerce. WooCommerce allows you to create an e-commerce website and sell anything you want. It’s highly customizable and great for mobile apps. However, there’s a learning curve involved. 

WooCommerce supports PayPal Checkout, but you’ll need an additional plugin to set it up. To do so, download WooCommerce and WooCommerce PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway. Once you’re finished setting up your store and products in WooCommerce, you should activate the PayPal WooCommerce plugin. 

Upon activation, you’ll be able to find PayPal payment options in the WooCommerce plugin. Go to “Settings,” then “Checkout,” tick “Enable PayPal Express Checkout” and “PayPal Mark,” and enter your credentials. Finally, test it out in Sandbox mode and save changes. 

Final Word

Customers love PayPal, and there are multiple benefits to adding the PayPal payment gateway to your business website. You can increase the trust with your customers, avoid monthly fees, and accept international transactions in multiple currencies. 

There are many ways to accept payments via PayPal. The most common one is using WooCommerce. It’s a powerful plugin suitable for selling products on e-commerce websites.

However, setting up PayPal with WooCommerce can be a little complicated. 

The easiest way is to use PayPal HTML buttons that you can create directly from your PayPal business account. If you’re looking for PayPal checkouts instead, you can use WP Express Checkout or WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept. You can also perform WordPress PayPal integration via WP Fluent Forms if you accept payments via forms.