How to Choose Your Payment Gateways in BuddyNext

How to choose your payment gateways in BuddyNext, step by step. Payment gateways are a BuddyNext Pro feature, on BuddyNext, then Monetization, then Payment Gateways. Each gateway has its own box with a switch and a status badge: Stripe and PayPal take card and PayPal payments, Gamification Points lets members redeem a plan with WB Gamification points, Offline payment is recorded by you, and Test (sandbox) tries checkout with no charge. Connected means the provider accepted your keys. Checkout default picks the gateway members meet first, and Default currency sets the currency of new plans. The total is worked out by BuddyNext, so Stripe and PayPal charge exactly that amount.

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In this tutorial you will choose your payment gateways in BuddyNext. You decide how members pay for a plan, and which way checkout offers first. You need BuddyNext Pro. For Stripe or PayPal you also need an account with that provider. It takes about three minutes. There are six steps. Open Payment Gateways. Connect a provider. Read the status badge. Use points or offline payment. Pick the default and currency. Then see it at checkout. Step one. Open Payment Gateways. In the WordPress admin, open BuddyNext, Monetization, then Payment Gateways. Each way to pay has its own box, with a switch and a status badge. There are four. Stripe, Gamification Points, Offline payment and PayPal. A fifth box, Test sandbox, lets you try checkout with no charge. It stays off until you switch it on. Step two. Connect a provider. In the Stripe box, turn on Enable Stripe, then paste the keys from your Stripe account into the three key fields. Once saved, a secret is never shown again. Copy the Webhook endpoint address into your Stripe account, so renewals and cancellations reach your site. PayPal works the same way. It asks for a Client ID, a Secret and a Webhook ID, and a Mode. Sandbox for testing, or Live. One limit to know. PayPal cannot bill a plan that renews when tax is added on top of its price. Step three. Read the status badge. Connected means BuddyNext asked the provider, and the keys work. Not working means the provider refused them. Needs setup means a field is still empty. Off means the switch is off. Here, PayPal is Off. A gateway with no provider to ask shows Active when it is on. Step four. Use points or offline payment. Gamification Points lets members redeem a plan with points. It needs the WB Gamification plugin. Points value sets how many points equal one unit of your currency. Offline payment is for money paid outside the site, such as a bank transfer. Its badge reads Admin only. You record these payments yourself, and members never see it at checkout. Step five. Pick the default and currency. Checkout default chooses the gateway members meet first, from the ones that are active. On Automatic, BuddyNext takes the first of them. If your choice is ever switched off, checkout moves to the next active gateway. Default currency sets the currency of new plans. Then click Save changes. Step six. See it at checkout. Now sign in as a member and choose a paid plan. Under the order, the button leads to your default gateway, and a line names it. The member pays on the provider's own page. The Total is worked out by BuddyNext first, so Stripe and PayPal charge exactly that amount. That is all six. Payment Gateways opened, a provider connected, the status badge read, points and offline payment explained, the default and currency picked, and checkout seen. Your members can now pay the way that suits them. Next in this series: Send renewal reminders.