Leaky Paywall Recurring Payments

Easily set up recurring payments with the Leaky Paywall - Recurring Payments add-on.  When a subscription is set to recurring, a subscriber account is automatically created in Stripe or PayPal. This is where their credit card information is saved. The customer will be billed automatically on the interval you specify for the length of the subscription.

Plugin Installation

In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload. Find the zip file of the plugin files and upload it to your site. After you upload the plugin you can activate it.

Setup

1. After you install and activate the Recurring Payments plugin, you will get a new option on the level settings for Leaky Paywall. You can choose to set a level to use recurring payments by checking the box. This works for both Stripe and Paypal.

2. In Stripe, add webhooks to receive data when a recurring payment is attempted by Stripe. This is needed in order to ensure Leaky Paywall knows when a new payment has been made.

You can find your webhook URL under Leaky Paywall > Payments > Stripe Settings.  Remember to use the url in your settings, not the exact url in the screenshot.

In Stripe if you go to Account Settings -> Webhooks, it should have something like the screenshot below. When setting up the webhook, make sure you choose to receive all events.

These are the events that the core Leaky Paywall plugin uses.  If you are having timeout errors in Stripe, at a minimum we recommend enabling these.  However, please note that over time Stripe has added new events, so it is possible that more may be required at a later date.  That is why recommend receiving all Stripe events. 

In your Stripe dashboard, go to Developers > Webhooks and click "+ Add endpoint".  Enter the Endpoint URL and click on "+ Select Events".

Check the box for "Select all events" and then add the endpoint.

Optional: add a signing secret

If you want additional security, you can add the Stripe webhook signing secret to Leaky Paywall.  Click "Reveal" to see the signing secret generated by Stripe.  Copy this secret and paste it into the Leaky Paywall setting under Stripe for either test or live signing secret, depending on what mode you are currently in.

Change Subscription (Stripe Only)

You can enable the "Change your subscription" link on the My Account page under Leaky Paywall > Payments > Recurring Payments.  This allows a subscriber with a recurring subscription to easily switch to another level right from their account page.  They do not have to fill out the registration form again, or re-submit payment information.  

You can change the levels and their order that are shown in the modal using the "Change Subscription Levels" setting.

Note: This feature only works with the Stripe payment gateway and recurring levels. 

When enabled, this will add a "Change your subscription" link to the My Account page under the "Your Subscription" table.

Cancel Link and Modal

Retention is an important part of the paid subscriber journey. With Leaky Paywall's cancellation modal, you can customize the messaging that subscribers see when they attempt to cancel their recurring subscriptions.

You can enable the cancel link and modal under Leaky Paywall > Payments > Recurring Payments.  This gives you the ability to customize the text shown when someone clicks on the "Cancel subscription" link on their My Account page. You can also choose to show or hide a "reason for canceling" survey textarea.  

The "reason for canceling" data is saved on the user and can be accessed by clicking on "Edit WP User" from the Leaky Paywall subscriber table. 

Cancel Emails

When you activate the Recurring Payments extension, it will add a " Canceled Subscription Email" under the Emails tab in your Leaky Paywall settings.  You can use this to send an email to the administrator and/or the subscriber every time a subscription is canceled.  

Subscriber Billing Management and Credit Card Update

A subscriber with a recurring subscription can update their credit card information on their My Account page.  If you are using Stripe or Authorize.net as your payment gateway, when the subscriber clicks on "Manage Billing" it will reveal a credit card update form. If you are using Paypal, they will see a link to Paypal where they can update their payment information.