Are you looking to accept payments through your website? WordPress is definitely the platform to do it on. Going through PayPal is an easy way to accept payments and services from all over the world.
There are many reasons why you would need to accept payments through PayPal on through your WordPress website. For one PayPal is a reliable, trusted service and it integrates seamless with WordPress.
Many other eCommerce platforms will allow you to setup forms and process payments in exchange for a fee. This means even receiving donations will cost you money. While there are plenty of services that are well worth the price, it’s not always in your best interest to use them. There are many free plugins that enable you to process payments or take donations. This way you can avoid fees and still take payments from your website.
Perhaps you are selling goods, services or accepting donations. Whatever your reasons, having the capability to accept payments on your website is one of the most useful features to have. In my opinion PayPal is the easiest way to take secure payments from your WordPress site. Using a PayPal payment gateway can give people the confidence to send you a payment.
In this post we have a roundup of 8 free plugins that allow you to accept PayPal payments through your website. Some of these provide a simple PayPal gateway and some are shopping cart plugins for selling goods or services.
My Scenario
As a web design enthusiast/noob I get to work on projects for my friends and acquaintances to learn skills and get my feet wet. I recently setup a site for a non-profit animal rescue and I needed a way for people to donate online. For many non-profits PayPal is the way to go. It’s hassle free and works well in most regions across the globe.
We needed a way to quickly setup donations that were coming in and the organization doesn’t have enough resources to hire a professional developer or designer to set it up. So I took this opportunity to try a few free PayPal plugins for WordPress.
In the future I hope to upgrade the website to include a WooCommerce payment solution with more payment gateways. But until I do my homework on the finer points of payment gateways and eCommerce with WordPress (blogs on that will be coming in the near future ) — I will go the free plugin route. So far the plugins I’ve tried have served their purpose wonderfully.
Give — WordPress Donation Plugin
Give, like all the plugins on this list is easy and works great for accepting PayPal through your site. With Give you have the power to help you raise funds for a worthy cause at no cost.
There’s no shopping cart system involved with this plugin, just a simple page with the features needed to take donations. The free plugin comes with a PayPal payment gateway and options for testing it online or offline.
There are also a number of addons available for purchase from the plugin’s author. You can do things like integrate a third party mailer like MailChimp, add payment gateways and send receipts to donors. This is a solid plugin with good documentation.
Download Give
PayPal Donations
This is another plugin specifically for collecting donations on your WordPress site. It adds a donation shortcode and sidebar Widget to your site. It’s very easy to integrate. Simply add your PayPal ID and configure a few other settings to get going. You can have your donation button up and running in a few minutes.
There’s no unnecessary options to deal with. It has options for currency, button, payment method, a return page and localization. There aren’t any options for upgrades or addon services with PayPal Donations. Just like the Give plugin it works perfectly and the documentation is strong. It’s a great option for any non-profit, church or cause.
Download PayPal Donations
PayPal for WooCommerce
This plugin comes highly recommended. It’s quite extensive for a free plugin. The features, ease of use and all around functionality matches that of plenty of paid plugins.
If you have an eCommerce site powered by WooCommerce, PayPal for WooCommerce is a good option. You get a solid PayPal gateway that works with PayPal Express, PayPal website Payments as well as PayPal Payments Pro.
This plugin integrates your site with PayPal nicely. You don’t have to worry about dealing with any details. You won’t have to navigate to your WooCommerce or PayPal interface. Once you install it you can manage your orders and organize everything from the WordPress dashboard.
Download PayPal for WooCommerce
WordPress Simple Payment Paypal Shopping Cart
The name of this plugin may be a mouthful, but it does a great job of describing this plugin. With WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart you get just what you’d expect. A free solution to help collect funds for goods or services on your WordPress website. It lets you put an “Add to Cart” button on your site to sell products. There is no third party provider to deal with. Just install the plugin, connect it to your PayPal account and that’s it.
Use a shortcode to add it anywhere on your site. You can sell anything with this plugin. Services, physical products or media files. Customers downloading your products will receive an email confirmation link to their file.
There’s a minimum number of options, giving you just what you need and nothing else. From the backend you can change settings. This plugin is lightweight and great for the price (FREE).
Download WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart
Easy PayPal Shopping Cart
This is another shopping cart plugin hosted on PayPal. You can place a cart button anywhere on your site with a shortcode when you are looking to sell something. This simple plugin is a good solution if you want to sell something on your site.
Your visitors can pay through PayPal or use their credit/debit card. It’s a quick and easy setup. The settings page on the backend gives you a brief tutorial on how to get started and in a couple minutes you’ll be up and running. If you’d like to charge for shipping you must get the paid upgrade of this plugin for that feature.
Download Easy PayPal Shopping Cart
PayPal for Digital Goods
This plugin is lightweight and great if you’ve got digital goods and want to sell them. You can generate a PayPal button for any digital file using an inline popup window. Your customer won’t have to leave your site to complete the payment.
It works well and it’s quite simple. Create a “Buy Now” button on the landing page for your digital download. When customers click the button a window pops up leading to PayPal’s login page. If you’ve got the goods, this plugin will help you sell em’.
Download PayPal for Digital Goods
WordPress PayPal
This plugin, much like it’s name, is straightforward and to the point. It lets you add a PayPal button to collect funds from your site. Easily create several types of buttons. You can put up an “Add to Cart,” “Buy Now,” “Donation,” or “Subscription” button in seconds.
It’s easy enough for the least tech savvy users to configure. It’s great for a basic eCommerce site. There may be some features to be desired, but for a free plugin it’s a great solution. The documentation is well-written as is this plugin. Sell in any currency and make some dough with this handy little plugin.
Download WordPress PayPal
Easy PayPal Digital Downloads
Last but not least on the list is Easy PayPal Digital Downloads. With a shortcode you can transform your site into an eCommerce website to sell digital products. This plugin is written by an official PayPal partner and is supposed to work well with any WordPress theme.
This plugin works by opening a popup window where your customers can pay. This doesn’t require customers to leave your site. They can simply pay and go about their business. Additionally you don’t need to purchase an SSL from your host because the payment will be processed by PayPal’s server.
This is a secure and easy to use plugin. It contains support for 25 currencies, testing through PayPal SandBox and 4 button types to choose from.
Download Easy PayPal Digital Downloads
Final Word
As you can see all of these plugins give you good ways to allow your visitors to pay via PayPal. Whether you are looking to sell products, services or take donations, one of these plugins can help. Hopefully you can find something that works for your situation. If you want something easy and fast anyone on of the plugins mentioned will do the trick. You won’t have to worry about keeping track of complicated payment gateway setups or securing your customers’ info. PayPal will take care of all that for you.
I hope that you find something that works for you in this list of free plugins. Let us know if you know in the comment section if you any other good PayPal plugins for WordPress, or if you have tried any of the plugins on this list.