In this Stripe Tutorial; I'll be showing you different ways how to set up Stripe Recurring payments. If you don't have a verified Stripe account yet, then read my previous article here: Open A Stripe Business Account | Fast and Easy Stripe Verified Account.
There are so many stripe payment methods that you can take advantage of and recurring payment is one of them.
I'll show you three (3) methods in this article;
- Method 1: Recurring payments with products;
- Method 2: Recurring Payments with Subscriptions;
- Method 3: Recurring payments with website plugins (WordPress & WooCommerce).
What is a Recurring Payment?
A recurring payment is a payment that is made on a regular schedule and is often paid automatically. Some companies offer a recurring payment option and stripe is one of the best payment gateways that can help you do just that on your website.
A recurring payment is a more convenient way for customers to purchase a product or service. They never have to remember to make a payment when it's time; everything will be processed automatically.
This type of payment option also saves time by reducing the manual activity of creating invoices over and over again.
READ ALSO: How To Setup Rapyd Payment Gateway on Your Website
How To Set Up Recurring Payments in Stripe
Method 1. Recurring Payment with Products
This method involves you creating a product or service on your stripe dashboard, adding price to it, and setting it to recurring payment.
Step 1. Create a Product
- Click onย โProducts'ย on your Stripe dashboard.
- Stripe subscriptionsย are created within a product. To add a new product, hitย โAdd product'.
- Enter theย nameย of your recurring product or subscription plan. For this Stripe tutorial for beginners, we'll use the nameย โYearly Platinum Consulting/$399 p/m'ย (refer to the screengrab).
- Upload aย product/service image.
- Add aย product descriptionย if needed.
- Underย โPricing model',ย keepย โStandard pricing'ย selected for this Stripe recurring tutorial. However, feel free to check out other pricing models likeย volume pricing, graduated pricing, and package pricing.
- Underย โPrice',ย keepย โRecurring'ย selected.
- Enter aย priceย in the field given and choose yourย currency.
- Select aย billing period: weekly, monthly, every 6 months, yearly, custom billing cycle, etc. In this Stripe tutorial for beginners, we'll opt for aย monthlyย billing period.
- Keep theย โusage is metered'ย box unchecked to charge a flat monthly fee.
- Enter aย price descriptionย for internal reference if necessary.
- To add more pricing plans for this product, click onย โAdd another price'ย (refer to the screengrab). We'll skip it for now.
Click on theย โSave product'ย button (top-right corner).
Step 2: Create Stripe Payment Link
- Selectย โCreate payment link'ย (Bottom right corner).
This is where you can create a payment link for each of your products.
Send the payment page link to your customers so that they can directly sign up and make the purchase.
You also have the option toย add more productsย to this link.
On the payment page, you can:
- Tap on โConfirmation page' > select โReplace default with custom message'ย and replace the message. You can also check theย previewย on your right.
- Chooseย notย to show theย confirmation pageย at all, and insteadย redirectย people to your website.
Hitย โCreate link'ย andย copy the linkย on the Stripe dashboard.
Step 3: Add Stripe Subscription Plan.
- Navigate over toย โCustomers'.
- Select theย customerย you wish toย offer a subscription.
- Locateย โSubscriptions'ย and hitย โCreate'.
- Underย โProduct',ย choose yourย subscription planย from theย dropdown.
- Underย โSubscription schedule',ย choose theย start and end dateย of the billing cycle.
- You can also click onย โForever'ย and chooseย '12 cycles'ย since this is a yearly subscription plan.
- You needย notย choose theย end dateย for your plan, and it will continue forever until you or your customer decide to end the subscription.
- Scroll down toย โPayment method'.
- Chooseย โEmail invoice to the customer to pay manually'ย if the customer's payment method is not on file.
- Select theย โInvoice payment page'ย checkbox.
- You can manage payment methods,ย add a memo, andย set up advance optionsย like adding anย invoice footer. The footer can include the terms & conditions of your service.
- Hitย โStart subscription'ย (top-right corner).
Congratulations, you have successfully created a recurring payment with stripe using the product method.
READ ALSO: How to redirect HTTP to HTTPS | Force HTTPS Using htaccess
Method 2. Recurring Payment with Subscriptions
- Keep theย Payments tabย selected.
- Tap onย โSubscriptions'ย on the left.
- Click onย โCreate subscription'.
- Add theย customer.
- Choose yourย subscription plan.
- Set up yourย subscription schedule.
- Select theย email invoice option.
- Add memoย and check outย additional optionsย like adding a footer as explained earlier.
- Click onย โStart subscription'ย (top-right corner).
READ ALSO: How To Set up Payment Gateways on Your Website
Method 3: Stripe Recurring Payments on WordPress/WooCommerce
If you own a WordPress or WooCommerce website, then this option is best for you. Just follow me step by step to set up stripe recurring payments on your website.
Note: In order to accept Stripe payments on your site, Stripe requires your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption.ย Don't worry if you don't have an SSL certificate yet! All that you need to do is to follow this step-by-step guide onย how to add SSL in WordPress.
There are so many plugins that can help you set up stripe recurring payments on your website, especially if you are using WooCommerce. I'll write a separate article on how to set up recurring payments on WooCommerce in my next article.
For now, I'll show you the general method of doing it on WordPress.
Step 1. Install and Activate the โWP Simple Payโ plugin.
After purchasing the WP Simple Pay plugin, download it from your purchase email receipt or from your WP Simple Pay account.
Alternative Stripe Recurring Payments Plugins Include:
To install the plugin, go to your WordPress backend, navigate toย Add Newย under Plugins, and thenย Upload Plugin. Clickย Choose Fileย and find the WP Simple Pay .zip file on your computer. Clickย Install Now.
When the upload is complete, press theย Activate Pluginย button.
Once you activated the plugin, you'll be directed to the setup wizard. The setup wizard makes it easy to set up a Stripe account and connect it to your site. In the setup wizard, clickย Let's Get Started.
If you didn't see the setup wizard, simply head over toย WP Simple Pay ยป Settingsย and then click on theย Stripeย tab where you can find theย Connect with Stripeย button. Just click on it to connect your Stripe account to your site.
Step 2: Connect WordPress to Stripe
In this step, you'll be asked to create a new Stripe account or connect an existing account. Clickย Connect with Stripe.
Click on the โConnect with Stripeโ button to connect your stripe account. You will be taken to the stripe login page where you will have to login to your stripe account and accept the connection to your website.
Once this is done, you will be redirected back to your website.
If you do not have a stripe account, then read this article: Open A Stripe Business Account | Fast and Easy Stripe Verified Account.
Upon completing this process, you'll be shown a success page that says Setup Complete. The next thing you'll need to do is to start creating a subscription payment form.
Click on the buttonย Create a Payment Form.
Step 3: Create a Recurring Payment Form
Now that you've connected your site to Stripe, let's start creating a payment form.
There are several different templates that let you accept payments, so you don't always have to start a payment form from scratch. If you're not on this page yet, you can navigate toย WP Simple Pay ยป Add Newย to create a payment form.
Since there are too many templates, let's filter out all templates except for subscriptions by clicking onย Subscriptionsย filter on the left-hand side.
While you can choose any of those templates, for the sake of this article, let's chooseย Donation Form with Recurring Option.
Step 4: Configure the Form to Accept Recurring Payments
After selecting your preferred Subscription template, you'll be directed to the configuration page, where you can choose different configuration settings.
In theย Generalย tab, you can change the title, description, and form type based on your needs.
To customize the payment success page, choose eitherย Specific Pageย by which you can redirect users to one of your existing pages on your site after completing the payment. Or choose Redirect URL, if you want to redirect users to a third-party URL.
Next, click on theย Paymentย option from the left, and you'll be able to customize the currency, and amount, and even choose between one-time and subscription payments.
When you click one of the amounts, you can see that the checkboxย Allow price to optionally be purchased as a subscriptionย is selected. With this option selected, your customers can make payments either in one-time or as a subscription.
Alternatively, if you only want to accept recurring payments and disallow one-time payments, you can toggle on the buttonย Subscription, instead of One time.
Feel free to change the billing period as you wish.
You can even customize how the subscription is managed by navigating toย WP Simple Pay ยป Settingsย and then clicking on theย Subscription Managementย tab in your WordPress dashboard.
Don't forget to publish your form when you're done.
Step 5: Add the Recurring Form to a Page
Once you're ready, your final step is to put it on a page.
Navigate to an existing WordPress page/post or create a new one. Then click on the + icon to add the WP Simple Pay block. Then choose a form you just created. And then, clickย Publishย orย Update.
And that's it. I believe this guide helped you learn how to accept stripe recurring payments in WordPress. Over to you now, apply what you've learned in this article and grow your business. Start accepting recurring payments.
READ ALSO: Best Way To Pay International Employees
Bright Arebamen says
Wow
Wonderfil and edifying
Kal says
Thanks for the explanation.
RonaldDrato says
Very detailed article.
Thank you so much, it was veryhelpful