Stripe Checkout

Stripe Checkout is a prebuilt payment page hosted by Stripe that simplifies the process of collecting payments from users.

In addition to accepting credit card payments, Stripe Checkout also gives users the option to use other payment methods, such as bank debits, as well as Stripe Link.

Stripe Checkout integrates with Stripe Tax to calculate sales tax, VAT, and GST during the payment step. For business owners, this service simplifies the process of filing and remitting taxes.

Video: How to Configure Stripe Checkout in Paid Memberships Pro

About the Checkout Flow

When users visit the Membership Checkout page on a site that is using Stripe Checkout, they will not see any credit card fields. Instead, users will see a button prompting them to complete check out at Stripe.

When this button is clicked,

1. PMPro will validate that all required checkout fields are complete and valid.
2. If all of those checks pass, a new user account is created on the website, if the current user is not already logged in.
3. In order to keep track of checkout data while the user is sent to Stripe Checkout, a new Order will also be created by PMPro in token status. The order will include any relevant checkout information stored in order meta.
4. Finally, the user will be redirected to Stripe Checkout to complete their payment.

While this seems like many steps, it actually happens almost instantaneously.

Once the user arrives at Stripe Checkout, they will be given the option to pay using any of the valid payment methods enabled in your Stripe account. If needed, users are also prompted to enter their billing address and are shown applicable tax on this Stripe-hosted checkout page.

After the Stripe Checkout process is completed, users are redirected back to the Membership Confirmation page to await the completion of their purchase.

Processing a Stripe Checkout is instantaneous in most cases. Stripe does warn business that it can take up to several days for certain payment methods, such as bank debits. For these delayed confirmation payment methods, the member will see a warning if they attempt to checkout for another membership level to help avoid situations where users unintentionally make multiple purchases.

In cases where payments are not processed instantaneously, users will not be given a membership level until their payment is confirmed as successful. Users with a pending order status will not be able to access members-only content.

Settings

• Payment Flow: Select “On-Site” to show credit card fields on the Membership Checkout page, or “Stripe Checkout” to have users pay at Stripe.
• Update Billing Flow: Select “On-Site” to have users update their payment information on the default Membership Billing page, or “Stripe Customer Portal” to redirect users to update their billing info directly in Stripe. The Stripe Customer Portal is a page hosted by Stripe that allows users to see active subscriptions, update billing and tax ID information, and view or download previous invoices (does not include one-time payments). In order to use this feature, you must first enable it in Stripe.
• Collect Billing Address in Stripe Checkout: Select “Only when necessary” to only collect billing address when required by Stripe, or “Always” to have the user always enter their billing address.
• Stripe Tax: Select “Do not calculate tax” to disable Stripe Tax. To use Stripe Tax, select “Membership price includes tax” to record tax-inclusive to the membership price or “Calculate tax on top of membership price” to have Stripe calculate tax exclusive of the membership price.
• Collect Tax ID Numbers: Select “Yes” to allow users to enter a VAT number or other relevant tax ID when using Stripe Tax or “No” to not collect this information.

Processing Stripe Checkout Webhooks—Developers Guide

Stripe Checkout uses webhooks in order to notify websites about completed checkout sessions, successful payments, and failed payments. As a result, the event that triggers PMPro to finalize a checkout is not the user returning from Stripe, but rather receiving the checkout.session.completed webhook.

When this webhook is received, three things can happen:

1. If the payment is successful, PMPro will run the steps necessary to complete the checkout on the website including changing the user’s membership level, changing the order status to success, and running the pmpro_after_checkout hook so that any other custom checkout functionality can run.
2. If the payment fails, the order status will be changed to error.
3. If the payment has not yet been processed, as is the case for delayed confirmation payment methods such as bank debits, the order status will be changed to “pending” and PMPro will wait for either a checkout.session.async_payment_succeeded or checkout.session.async_payment_failed webhook to be received.

Setting Up Stripe Checkout In Your Stripe Account

• Webhooks: In order to switch to using Stripe Checkout, the following webhook endpoints must be enabled:
  • charge.failed
  • charge.refunded
  • checkout.session.async_payment_failed
  • checkout.session.async_payment_succeeded
  • checkout.session.completed
  • customer.subscription.deleted
  • invoice.payment_action_required
  • invoice.payment_succeeded
• Branding: Customize the branding shown in Stripe Checkout, the Stripe Customer Portal, and on Stripe invoices.
• Payment Methods: Enable payment methods for use in Stripe Checkout. Provides information on the currencies supported by each payment method and the time needed for a payment to be confirmed.
• Stripe Checkout: Enable settings such as auto-completing addresses at checkout using Google Maps.
• Stripe Tax: Set the business information necessary to calculate tax, monitor tax thresholds, and tax registrations for regions where you would like to collect tax.
• Customer Portal: Define the actions that the user is able to take while in the Customer Portal. The “Pause subscriptions” and “Update subscriptions” options should be disabled to prevent users from manipulating their membership price.

Notes About Testing on a Local Setup

As the Stripe Checkout integration for PMPro relies on webhooks to trigger the completion of checkout, it is necessary to forward webhooks to any local machines being used to test this functionality. In order to do this, you will first need to install the Stripe CLI. From there, you can either forward events to your local machine using the command

stripe listen --forward-to [your webhook handler URL]

or by using the Stripe Extension for Visual Studio Code.

Stripe Link: Autofill Payment Details

Stripe Link is a reusable payment method that auto-fills a customer’s payment and shipping details at checkout. If you have Link enabled in your Stripe account, customers are shown a checkbox to save their payment details linked to their phone number.

To verify that Link is enabled for your Stripe account navigate to Settings > Checkout and Payment Links in your Stripe Account Dashboard. Enable or disable your Link preference under the “Faster checkout” setting field.

On future checkouts, your customers can complete payment with their saved information by authenticating with an SMS code. Payment and shipping information stored in Link is linked to their email address and phone number. Users can leverage their stored information on any site that accepts Link.

At this time, Link is only available to Stripe accounts in the United States that accept the local US dollar currency settlement.

Accept 48 Unique Payment Methods in Stripe Checkout

Stripe Checkout isn’t just for credit cards and wallets. Using this gateway opens up 48 additional international and custom payment methods, including bank debits, ACH, buy now pay later, credit cards, and more.

Our early users saw up to a 46% increase in sales after enabling local payment methods.

—via Stripe Checkout