WP Simple Pay Lite vs. Pro: Is Pro Worth It? (2024 Update)

Looking to upgrade your WP Simple Pay plan and wondering if it’s worth the price?

WP Simple Pay Lite, the free version of WP Simple Pay available on WordPress.org, comes with basic Stripe payment features.

As you scale your business, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the plugin’s premium plans.

In this article, we’ll go over the different plans and help you decide which is best for your business.

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WP Simple Pay Lite vs. WP Simple Pay Pro

The Pro version of WP Simple Pay offers four unique premium plans. We’ll explain the differences between each plan and determine which option is best for your business.

WP Simple Pay Lite: Best for Beginners

The free version of WP Simple Pay is the best choice if you collect less than $1,650 annually and only need the basic features to accept payments online via Stripe.

The free plugin comes with essential features for accepting payments on your WordPress site:

• Off-site Stripe Checkout form: Add a payment button to your site that redirects users to an off-site Stripe Checkout page to complete the payment
• Payment methods: Besides debit and credit card payments, WP Simple Pay Lite supports Apple Pay / Google Pay, Alipay, FPX, Giropay, iDEAL, Link, Microsoft Pay, and Przelewy24.
• Seamless integration: It integrates with popular WordPress plugins, like AffiliateWP, Divi, Elementor, and even Zapier.

You might wonder why the free version is recommended to only those who collect less than $1,650 annually.

That’s because, with the free plugin, you’ll be charged a processing fee plus an additional Stripe fee for every payment you receive. For example, the fee is 3% + .30 for domestic credit and debit card payments.

The most affordable WP Simple Pay Pro plan (Personal) costs just $49.50 for the entire year and offers fee recovery. This means you can offset the additional fees by purchasing the Personal plan.

WP Simple Pay: Fee Recovery Explained

Let’s take a look at an example…

With a Pro version, if you collect $1,650 annually after covering the Stripe fees, the exact amount of $1,650 will be credited to your account.

On the other hand, with the free version, if you collect $1,650 annually after covering the transaction fees, you’ll only receive $1600.50. That’s because an additional 3% fee ($49.50) will be charged for the payments you receive. (Here’s the math: $1650 * 0.03 = $49.5).

Simply put, if you use the free plugin and collect over $1,650 a year, you’ll pay more in processing fees than the cost of the cheapest Pro plan.

Since an additional fee is not charged with any of the Pro plans, upgrading to a Pro plan makes perfect business sense for you.

With the free version of WP Simple Pay, you’re also missing out on the following features and benefits:

• Not able to keep visitors on your site: Since the on-site payment form is not supported on the free version, the only way to let users make a payment is to redirect them to Stripe Checkout. Visitors who are directed away from your site to complete their transactions are far more likely to abandon the checkout process altogether.
• No drag-and-drop form builder: The plugin’s advanced drag-and-drop payment form builder makes creating a payment form how you want easy.

Verdict: Is the Free Version Best for You?

The free version of WP Simple Pay is built for beginners who collect less than $1,650 a year and only need basic features to accept Stripe payments.

An additional 3% fee will be charged for every transaction, which can be eliminated with any of the Pro licenses.

So, using the free version doesn’t make any business sense if you collect over $1,650 annually.

WP Simple Pay Personal Plan: Best for Removing Processing Fees

With WP Simple Pay’s Personal plan, you’ll get essential payment form builder tools to help you create an optimal customer payment experience.

Here are a few key features and benefits that are not available with the free version:

• On-site Payment Forms: Keep visitors on your site and increase conversions by accepting payments directly on your site without redirecting to the Stripe checkout page.
• Drag-and-Drop form builder: Create your payment forms with a drag-and-drop form builder without coding.
• Payment Form Templates: Dozens of templates give you a head start, so you never have to start a payment form from scratch. All payment forms are also customizable.
• Custom Form Fields: Collect beneficial information from your customers with text fields, dropdowns, and checkboxes.
• User-Entered Amount: Allow your customers or donors to enter a custom amount for payments. This is great for nonprofit organizations that need to accept donations.
• Fee Recovery: Allow or force customers or donors to pay the Stripe processing fee.
• Payment methods: Supports 10+ payment methods, including ACHD direct debit transfers.

What makes the Personal plan unique is that, unlike the free version, you don’t pay a 3% transaction fee. The only processing fee you pay is the typical Stripe processing fee. Plus, you can keep your visitors on your own site.

With its fee recovery feature, WP Simple Pay lets you pass the Stripe processing fees on to your customers or donors so you can collect the full amount without any deductions.

The best part about fee recovery is that you can manually configure the processing fee for each payment method. Since the processing fee is different for each payment method, you can even encourage your customers to choose a payment method with a lower fee, like a direct bank transfer.

Verdict: Is the Personal Plan Best for You?

The Personal plan is ideal for saving the Stripe processing fee for credit and debit cards. It also enables you to keep visitors on your site while accepting payments. No redirection to Stripe checkout is needed.

With the Personal plan, you can accept multiple payment method options that are supported by Stripe, including ACH Direct Debit transfers, digital wallets, and more. With the fee recovery feature, you can even collect payments without deductions by passing on Stripe fees to the buyers.

Price: The Personal plan costs $49.50/yr.

WP Simple Pay Plus Plan: Great for Accepting Recurring Payments

If your business accepts recurring payments but doesn’t want to use the advanced features that the Professional plan offers, like free trials and setup fees, then the Plus plan is the best choice.

With the Plus plan, you get everything you need to accept subscription payments:

• You get everything in the Personal plan and the license to use the plugin on up to 3 sites.
• Subscription Payments: Take your business to the next level by accepting monthly, quarterly, or annual recurring payments.
• Automatic Billing: Bill users on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule.
• Optional Recurring Toggle: Allow users to choose between one-time and recurring payments. Best for donation forms paired with custom payment amounts.
• Send Renewal Reminders: Let your customers know about upcoming payments with automatic email renewal reminders.
• User-Managed Subscriptions: Reduce subscription churn by allowing your subscribers to manage their payment details.

Verdict: Is the Plus Plan Best for You?

Choosing the Plus plan would be ideal for freelancers and small businesses that accept subscription payments on a regular basis. With this plan, you can remove the need to manually collect payments every billing cycle. It’s also best for nonprofits that want to allow donors to make recurring payments.

Price: The Plus plan costs $199.50/yr.

Professional Plan: Get All the Tools You’ll Ever Need to Make More Money

Do you want to make the most of the WP Simple Pay plugin?

Then, choose the Professional plan that comes with everything you’ll ever need from the #1 Stripe payments plugin for WordPress.

Here are some key benefits you can enjoy with the Professional plan:

#1. Make High-End Products and Services Affordable to Everyone to Boost Conversions and Average Order Value

If you’re selling a high-end product or service on your site and want to make it affordable to most of your potential customers, then the Professional plan is the right choice for you.

WP Simple Pay Pro lets you create a few different payment plans to give your customers flexibility over how they pay for their purchases on your site.

• Installment payments: Allow customers to split up their purchase amounts into flexible installments.
• Buy Now, Pay Later: Get the full amount upfront while allowing your customers to pay regularly with a 0% interest rate via Affirm, Klara, and Afterpay.
• Charge Setup Fees: Collect an additional setup fee on the first payment of a subscription billing cycle.
• Offer Free Trials: Offer a free trial period before collecting the first subscription payment.
• Bacs Direct Debit: If your business is based in the UK, you can offer your customers their preferred payment method, Bacs Direct Debit, for recurring payments.
• Cash App Pay: In addition to several other payment method options, you can accept Cash App Pay, the most popular payment method among the Gen Z demographic.

#2. Sell Products With Limited Availability

This is a great feature for time-sensitive events or limited-edition products, such as concert tickets, fundraising event registrations, or custom-made items. With the plan’s smart inventory management, you can limit the number of times each price option can be purchased.

#3. Accept Payments Within a Specified Time Period

Form scheduling is ideal for taking pre-orders or offering paid event registrations on your site. You can decide when to start or stop accepting payments and easily set it up using the form builder.

#4. Boost Payment Conversions With a Dedicated Landing Page

Easily convert your visitors into customers by accepting payments on a distraction-free landing page that’s built specifically for your payment forms. The landing pages you create with WP Simple Pay are independent of your WordPress theme, meaning they don’t include distracting elements like headers, navigation menus, and sidebars.

Plus, you can customize the header, logo, and the color scheme.

Building a landing page is recommended especially if you want to collect additional information from your customers or if you think your payment form is too long.

#5. Collect Location-Based Taxes

Automatically collect the correct tax based on where your customers are located. By collecting location-based taxes, you can stay compliant with the tax rules in the jurisdiction where you’re selling your products or services.

Verdict: Is the Professional Plan Best for You?

You’ll need to choose the Professional plan if you…

• Sell high-end products or services: Make your products or services more affordable for most of your customers with installment plans and Buy Now, Pay Later services.
• Sell products with limited availability: Control when your payment forms start and stop accepting payments to avoid selling out-of-stock items.
• Accept payments within a limited timeframe: Hide payment forms after a certain date and time.
• Need to automatically calculate and collect location-based taxes to stay tax-compliant regardless of where you sell your products.
• Want to boost payment form conversions with distraction-free payment pages.
• Want to globalize your eCommerce business and expand into new markets.

Pricing: The Pro plan costs $199.50/yr.

WP Simple Pay Elite Plan: Solution for Agencies

The only difference between the Professional and the Elite plan is that the Elite plan gives you the license to use the plugin on an unlimited number of sites, whereas, with the Professional plan, you can only use it on ten sites.

The Elite plan is best for agencies and smart business owners who want to use the plugin on 10+ sites.

Pricing: $299.50/yr.

That’s it!

We hope this article has helped you learn what the differences are between each of the WP Simple Pay premium plans available.

If you liked this article, you might also want to check out: Is WP Simple Pay Worth It? (Review in 2023).

What are you waiting for? Get started with WP Simple Pay today!

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