Paypal Checkout Integration – Beta

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Amy Hufford

MembershipWorks now offers the ability for administrators to implement Paypal Checkout as your organization’s payment gateway. With this method, users making payments on your website can choose to:

Pay with their Paypal account, or
Pay with their debit or credit card, or
Pay with other eligible payment methods such as Venmo, Pay Later, Paypal Credit (note that eligibility is determined automatically by Paypal, depending on the user and location).

You’ll need a Paypal Business account to use Paypal Checkout. Paypal does not charge a monthly fee for Paypal Checkout, but your organization will still be charged Paypal transaction fees.

How to use Paypal Checkout

Go to https://developer.paypal.com, click “Login to Dashboard” and login with your Paypal business account credentials.
Navigate to “My Apps & Credentials”.
Click on “Live” in the Sandbox/Live selector and click Create App under the “REST API apps” section.
Under “App Name” enter “MembershipWorks” and click Create App.
Note down the Client ID and Secret (click “Show” to see the Secret).
Under the Live App Settings check just “Accept payments” and “Transaction Search” then click Save.
In MembershipWorks navigate to Organization Settings > Integration. Under Payments select Paypal Checkout as the Payment Gateway, then enter the Client ID and Secret from step 5. Click Save & Continue at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

FAQs

Is automatic recurring credit card billing available with Paypal Checkout?

Yes, however do note that there are some features that are not possible when using Paypal Checkout as compared to Authorize.net or Stripe. Your members will not be able to use their payment method on file to quickly pay for events, items, donations, or board listings. There are also limitations on how the automatic recurring billing can be managed by the admin (see below).

Are there disadvantages with Paypal Checkout?

Additional steps for users
With Paypal Checkout, users making payments will have a popup that redirects to Paypal. This feature forces the user into additional steps, clicks, and typing. Additional steps can lead to an increased likelihood of checkout abandonment by the site visitor.

Paying for events, carts, donations or listings using card on file is not available
If your organization uses Stripe or Authorize.net, members who are on automatic recurring billing can pay for events, forms/carts/donations or board listings with one click by using their payment method on file. This is not an option when using Paypal as your payment gateway.

Administrative limitations
If you are currently using Stripe or Authorize.net, you will lose some administrative features by switching to Paypal Checkout. With Paypal Checkout, administrators can not:

Alter a member’s Next Renewal Date once the subscription has started.
Switch the member’s auto recurring billing between different billing intervals (eg. from monthly billing to yearly billing). The admin can still switch a member’s billing between different billing amounts if the same billing interval is kept.
Trigger one-off payments for members against their payment method on file.

How is Paypal Checkout different from Paypal Payments Pro?

Disadvantages of using Paypal Checkout vs. Payments Pro:

Paypal Checkout charges a higher transaction fee than Paypal Pro. As a U.S. merchant, you’ll pay 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction for Checkout versus 2.89% + $0.49 per transaction for PayPal Pro.*
Paypal Checkout forces users into additional steps which may increase the possibility that the user will abandon the checkout process. With Payments Pro, the user enters their credit card information directly on your site and is not taken elsewhere to complete the transaction.
With Checkout, users who are trying to avoid logging in and choose to simply use their debit or credit card have to type additional information. They also have to view additional content that encourages them to create a Paypal account. This can be a distraction that can hinder the likelihood of completing the transaction.

Advantages of using Paypal Checkout:

Paypal Checkout does not incur a monthly fee (charged by Paypal) while Paypal Payments Pro does.
Users can use their Paypal accounts to make payments.

What happens to my members on automatic recurring billing if I change to Paypal Checkout?

Current MembershipWorks customers who seek to switch to Paypal Checkout should note that any auto recurring billing that is set up with Paypal Website Payments Pro, Payflow Pro, Authorize.net, or Stripe will continue to be processed through that corresponding payment gateway. If a member returns to your website and updates their payment method/card, at that time MembershipWorks will set up new auto recurring billing for that member using Paypal Checkout and will cancel the old auto recurring billing with your former gateway.

You should not cancel any other gateway account until all of the auto recurring billing associated with your other gateway has been canceled.

Learn more about Paypal vs. Stripe vs. Authorize.net.

* Fees were accurate when this post was published, but are subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, please see the PayPal website.

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