Until now, Formidable has only been able to accept Paypal payments via the Paypal add-on. Happily, Formidable users now have another option with the new Stripe add-on payment form for WordPress.
The best part? Any Formidable forms on your site can accept payments directly without users ever leaving your site.
Stripe has earned its stripes as one of the easiest and hassle-free ways to accept payments on your mobile apps and website. Stripe is a featherlight API that replaces the hassle of old school requirements like setting up merchant accounts, making your website PCI compliant, utilizing payment gateways, and securely storing credit card information. Stripe is integrated with every major web programming language. A free Stripe.com account also comes with a sleek user interface and attractive graphical analytics and reporting.
Features of Formidable Stripe Payment Form for WordPress
We're about to show you why the Stripe add-on is going to make a lot of Formidable Forms users very happy. Check out these features:
- Collect payments without sending people away from your site.
- Use conditional logic on your Stripe settings to allow your users to choose how they want to pay.
- Setup one-time payments or recurring subscriptions.
- Use the frm-subscriptions shortcode to show a logged-in user their list of subscriptions and allow easy cancellations.
- Use Formidable Pro calculations to charge different amounts based on selections in the form.
- When a charge is refunded in Stripe, it will automatically be marked as refunded on your site.
- Make automatic changes to your entry after a payment is completed, refunded, or failed.
- After the payment is received, trigger other form actions including email notifications, add to MailChimp lists, and Twilio SMS.
Paypal versus Stripe
Paypal and Stripe are both designed for the convenience of being able to accept payments online without worrying about PCI compliance and costly payment gateways or complex merchant accounts. (For a basic primer on PCI compliance, see the FAQs put together by pcicomplianceguide.org.)
Stripe is the new kid on the block, established in 2009, while Paypal has been around since 1998. Interestingly, Stripe is backed by the founders of Paypal, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Stripe co-founders brothers Patrick and John Collison's vision was to make online payment processing as easy as embedding a YouTube video. They have essentially succeeded.
Setup
The complexity of setting up a merchant Paypal account is a little daunting. Stripe's set up process is designed for simplicity. In five minutes, you can set up an account, add the code to your site, and run a nominal charge to your card. That's all it takes to be ready to accept your first payment with Stripe.
Support
When dealing with the lifeblood of your business—the sales transaction—you can't afford to have issues that take days to resolve. Paypal's support process can be time consuming and costly, especially as issues take longer than hours and drag into days to resolve. Stripe is well-known for legendary support that goes above and beyond. Additionally, their developers are available to answer technical questions in #stripe on freenode. Stripe is known to provide support that makes sure everything works. In an age where having something work is more important than ever, Stripe's support is invaluable.
Cost
The cost for Paypal and Stripe are about the same when it comes to the per-transaction processing fee and monthly fee at the basic tier. Both charge 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. At the "pro" tier, however, Stripe doesn't charge a monthly fee, while Paypal's "Payments Pro" plan charges a $30 monthly fee. Paypal also has many different tiers and levels of fees that are not immediately decipherable without spending time researching pricing structure and options. Stripe's simple pay-as-you-go structure is immediately understandable, without hidden fees or multiple options to wade through.
Control Over the Customer Relationship
Probably the most significant difference between Paypal and Stripe is that with Stripe, the site owner keeps control over the customer experience and relationship.
Paypal does its own marketing directly to consumers. Consumers are encouraged to have their own Paypal account (although it is possible to process payments via Paypal even if the consumer does not have an account). When users are directed away from your website to complete a transaction, they encounter Paypal experience and branding, which dilutes the consumer experience with your brand.
Stripe doesn't market to your customers. Stripe doesn't redirect users to its website, away from yours, and Stripe doesn't attempt to foster any relationship with your users. Your customers remain solely in relationship with your brand and site.
Screenshots
Here's a look at a basic sample form using the Stripe payment form for WordPress. Yes, it's that simple to accept payments.
And here's a look at Stripe payment form action. Here’s where option for recurring payments and subscriptions can be set up.
This is a look at the credit card field options.
Downloads the WordPress Stripe plugin for Formidable Forms, and accept payments within your forms in minutes. The Stripe Forms plugin is part of the Elite collection which also includes WooCommerce and a growing group of form style templates and form templates.
This is very useful thank you!
Will this add-on allow for Stripe ACH payments?
No, this isn't yet an option. Thanks for the suggestion so we can track and prioritize!
This add on looks great. Looking forward to implementing for a couple of different projects.
From the screenshots, it looks like this plugin uses the new credit card field for Formidable that was released in March. I'm a little disappointed that the form fields are grouped together. It makes for less flexibility for layout, placeholder text, help text, etc. Is there a way to gain the functionality in this plugin to set placeholder and help text for each of the fields separately?
It isn't a current option to use a non-credit card field type. Can you please create a ticket in the help desk if you still have questions about this? Thanks!
Does it require SSL to work ?
Yes, Stripe requires SSL.
Is there an actual tutorial that explains, step-by-step, how to create a form using formidable forms with the Stripe add-on. I've never done anything like this before and I don't really understand everything I need to include in the form to make this work.
I agree with Kary. I have all the components installed but don't know how to set them up.
Hi Lin. Thanks for checking. We actually do have a blog post with implementation screenshots and a step-by-step walkthrough. Check it out here: https://formidableforms.com/converting-from-paypal-to-stripe-accepting-online-payments-as-a-nonprofit/
Hi Kary, You're in luck! Check out the case study of the Stripe implementation here (with screenshots): https://formidableforms.com/converting-from-paypal-to-stripe-accepting-online-payments-as-a-nonprofit/
Stripe accounted for simplicity? Have you been paid for this review or have you actually tried it? Stripe is only made for engineers. You cannot even set a donation button or a subscription package unless you are a Ruby/Php Yoda.
This review is about using the pre-built Stripe add-on for Formidable Forms. As the developer behind this integration, I can tell you the API and site navigation is worlds better and easier than Authorize.net. Accepting payments on your own site is very different from inserting a PayPal button and sending your visitors to them to complete the payment. Accepting payments on your own site does take more work if you are writing the code yourself. But that's a discussion for another post.
To answer your question, no, this is not a paid review.