Worst payments plugin EVER

Hi there

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We understand how technical issues can be frustrating, and we’re always here to provide support. Don’t hesitate to open a thread in the dedicated support forums if you have questions.

Errors can occur due to various reasons and not necessarily because the plugin is malfunctioning. To provide appropriate guidance, we would need more details about the problems you are encountering.

About ‘Reference Transactions’, it’s a standard requirement across not only our plugin but for all recurring payment solutions using PayPal. This is a protocol set by PayPal itself to ensure secure transactions and prevent fraud. It’s not something that’s determined by us or any other plugin.

As far as I am aware, the only PayPal integrations for WooCommerce that support PayPal Subscriptions are the old PayPal Standard (which used a deprecated API version) and the PayPal Payments plugin.

The PayPal Subscriptions feature in the PayPal Payments plugin is currently going through beta testing. If all goes according to plan, it will be officially available to everyone with the next update. Testing instructions can be found here: https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-paypal-payments/wiki/Testing-features-previews

If there are any other third-party PayPal integrations for WooCommerce that implement PayPal Subscriptions that you’re aware of, we would appreciate your input. We’re always interested to learn about new developments in the field 🙂

If you have any other questions or require further clarification on any issues, our team is happy to assist.

Kind regards,
Niklas

Hi @dhilditch

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts, and I understand the concerns you’ve raised and I’d like to provide a bit more insight to clarify a few things.

The only reason to use Reference Transactions instead of regular PayPal subscriptions is so that people can change payment levels at a later date. i.e. the new API still allows you to create standard subscriptions without requiring reference transactions.

It is true that Reference Transactions provide flexibility in changing payment amount. However, there’s actually a bit more to it. Reference Transactions also provide capabilities such as the ability to charge buyers whenever needed and for any amount you desire. Plus, it offers one-click payment confirmations for repeat buyers, which can help improve repeat-businesses. This capability is subject to vetting by PayPal to prevent potential fraudulent activities.

If you were to offer the basic PayPal subscriptions that people can set up without reference transactions and then simply have the subscription created in paypal then mirrored in WooCommerce then it would work without reference transactions.

This is something the latest version of the PayPal Payments plugin is actually working towards. The feature is still in beta, and not yet fully developed. But once it’s ready and released, it should bring a new level of accessibility for subscription applications with PayPal in WooCommerce. You can read more about it here: https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-paypal-payments/wiki/Testing-features-previews
Except for the old PayPal Standard, I am not aware of a single PayPal integration for WooCommerce that integrates the PayPal Subscriptions feature besides the PayPal Payments plugin.

The downside of this is that admins could not change the payment amount – if they wanted to change the payment amount, it would require the purchaser’s intervention to cancel and start a new subscription, but the fact is that this model is IDEAL for many of us.

With PayPal Subscriptions, there are certain limitations, but the payment amount can be updated after the subscription is created and active. However, the billing cycles are on a fixed schedule with no option to be adjusted. The only way to change the billing cycle is to create a new PayPal Subscription plan.

In order to enable reference transactions at PayPal, you need to earn $10,000 per month in fees which if your entire business plan is based around setting up a subscription model is clearly not possible – we can’t make the money until we can take the subscriptions.

PayPal does not strictly require a minimum monthly revenue for this feature. The approval depends on each individual case and the level of trust established with PayPal. They are actively working on making it easier for merchants to get approval for such advanced features, e.g. by recently adding a new option to request approval directly from your PayPal account.

I just ended up disabling PayPal for the subscriptions and went with Stripe instead. It’s probably looking like in order to achieve what I want I’m going to have to code a payments plugin myself and I really don’t have the time. I’ve applied to Braintree in the meantime as they look to have a solution that works.

I understand your decision to switch to Stripe for subscriptions. It’s worth noting, though, that Stripe and PayPal are different systems with their own unique functionalities. For instance, PayPal requires advanced permissions for ‘billing agreements’, which is specific to transactions between PayPal accounts and not applicable to card payments via PayPal.

The PayPal Payments plugin integrates automatic card payments for subscriptions when you sign up for Advanced Card Processing. This feature, which is easier to enable compared to Reference Transactions, allows the processing of automatic subscription renewal payments with the most popular credit/debit cards, just like Stripe.

I hope this helps clear up some points and provides a better overview on the requirements and functionality regarding subscriptions. If there’s anything else you’re wondering about, or if anything I’ve said needs more clarification, please feel free to start a thread in the support forums so the team can provide more guidance. Thanks!

Kind regards,
Niklas