Stripe is a payment service that operates as both a Payment Gateway and Merchant Account. In practice, this means that setting up an account with Stripe is fast and easy.
This documentation area covers basic Stripe information and settings. We also have a guide on troubleshooting a few common issues with Stripe that can happen at Membership Checkout.
Payment Options
Merchants can use Stripe to accept most credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diner’s Club, EnRoute, and JCB.
Members can also make payment using their Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Microsoft Pay accounts. Read this companion guide on setting up these payment request buttons in PMPro.
If you enable the Stripe Checkout feature, your site can also give users the option to use other payment methods, such as bank debits.
Currencies Supported
Merchants can accept payments in over 135 currencies. View the full list of currencies supported by Stripe
You have the option of letting Stripe automatically handle all conversions from USD and deposit the funds in your local currency-denominated bank account. Please note that Stripe charges a conversion fee for this service.
Stripe enforces a minimum amount when creating a charge which varies by country and currency. The minimum amount you can charge depends on which bank account settlement currency the payment would be paid out to. Minimum and maximum allowed charge amounts for your country and currency can be found in the Stripe documentation.
Stripe in Your Country
While you can accept payment in over 135 currencies, Stripe is only available for businesses in the 46 countries listed on the Stripe “In Your Country” page. Visit https://stripe.com/global to view the list.
Gateway Fees
There are no fixed monthly or annual fees when using the Stripe gateway.
Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction. Recurring payments, which use the Stripe Billing API incur an additional 0.5% fee per transaction. See https://stripe.com/us/pricing for details.
Users who are connected through the Paid Memberships Pro Stripe Connect interface are charged an additional 2% per transaction. This fee goes to Stranger Studios, the developers of Paid Memberships Pro, and is used to support the Connect server, Stripe gateway development, and the Paid Memberships Pro platform in general. Members with an active paid membership for PMPro and an active License Key validated on their site will avoid that 2% fee on all new orders and subscriptions.
Benefits of Stripe Connect
Not only does Stripe Connect offer a much easier setup process, it also makes your payment gateway more secure. When you connect Stripe through Paid Memberships Pro, we’ll be able to see the status of your account. Insight into account status will help us (and Stripe) resolve support requests faster.
Stripe Connect sites do not have to manually copy and paste their API keys into any settings fields. While the API keys are stored in the WordPress database, they are not readily accessible by users with the admin role. Additionally, connected sites do not need to manually maintain the API version linked to their API keys. This means that your membership site will always be using the latest, most secure, most fraud-proof method to connect to Stripe and accept payments.
Looking to change payment gateways on your live PMPro membership site? We have a guide on switching payment gateways without affecting your existing customers.
Read Now: Switching Payment Gateways
How We Integrate With Stripe Products, Coupons, and Trials
In the Stripe dashboard, you will notice that they have a way to create “Products” and “Coupons” that can be applied to customers and customer subscriptions. You may also notice that new subscriptions show up as “Trialing” for their first payment term. Keep reading this section to understand how we integrate with these Stripe features.
About Stripe Products
- Each membership level in PMPro will have a corresponding Product in Stripe.
- Each Product will then have a list of Prices.
- Each Price represents an amount that a user on your site has paid for an initial payment or an amount that a user on your site has paid for recurring payments.
About Trialing Subscriptions in Stripe
For each subscription, you may see that customer is labeled as “trialing” until their next payment date. The “trial” status in Stripe simply means that their first subscription payment has not been billed yet.
When your Paid Memberships Pro checkout processes a payment through Stripe for a recurring membership, you will see:
- A one-time Payment, and
- A new Subscription
The subscription will be labeled “trialing” until the next (first) date the subscription process. This allows you to charge a specific amount at checkout and also create the recurring payment.
Generally, this “trial” wording is only shown in the Stripe dashboard. Your customers will not be told they are “trialing” or on a “trial”.
About Stripe Coupons
- We do not integrate with Stripe’s “Coupons”. Instead, use the Discount Codes you create in your PMPro site under Memberships > Settings area.
We do not mirror the discount codes in Stripe. Instead, when a user checks out on your site using a discount code, we adjust the pricing before sending the charge or subscription request to Stripe.
