- Payments live in add-ons, not the core form builder
- What has to be in place first
- Linking a form to Stripe with a feed
- Three ways to collect card details
- Feeds and subscription cancellations trip people up
- Other WordPress form plugins that take payments
- My take before you add a payment form
- Frequently asked questions
Yes, through payment add-ons rather than the core plugin alone. Gravity Forms has add-ons for Stripe, PayPal, Square and Mollie. The Stripe Add-On takes one-time card payments and recurring subscriptions, and you connect a form to it by creating a feed. Without a feed, nothing is sent to Stripe for processing.
Payments live in add-ons, not the core form builder
A WordPress form that takes bookings or orders is only half the job if people then have to pay somewhere else. The short answer is that the plugin can take payments, but the work is done by separate payment add-ons. The documentation lists add-ons for Stripe, PayPal, Square and Mollie.
The Stripe Add-On is the most fully documented. It lets you capture one-time credit card payments or set up recurring subscriptions. PayPal has its own PayPal Checkout Add-On, with its own changelog and guidance on moving across from the older legacy PayPal add-ons.
What has to be in place first
For Stripe Add-On 5.0, the documented prerequisites are:
- Gravity Forms 2.7 or later
- WordPress 5.9 or later
- An SSL certificate on your site
- A Stripe account
If any of those are missing, sort them before you build the form. An out-of-date WordPress install or a site without SSL is the most common hold-up I'd expect on an older small-business site.
Linking a form to Stripe with a feed
A feed is what connects a form to the payment gateway. If no feed is created, nothing is sent to Stripe for processing, however good the form looks.
- Open the form, then go to Settings, then Stripe, then Add New.
- Choose a Transaction Type: Products and Services for single one-time payments, or Subscription for recurring payments.
- Finish the feed settings and save it.
- Add the Stripe Field to the form from the form editor. Its card inputs only show once the form has an active Stripe feed.
- Test in sandbox mode before going live.
The documentation recommends sandbox testing before you make changes and before you update add-ons on a live site. After your first sale, you can see the results on the Sales Results page.
Three ways to collect card details
The Stripe Add-On offers three collection methods. The Stripe Field uses Stripe Elements on your own form. The Stripe Payment Form sends people to Stripe Checkout. And the plugin's own credit card field is still listed, but it's deprecated, so don't build anything new on it.
With the Stripe Field, card details are collected in an iframe hosted by Stripe and aren't stored with your entry data. That's a good thing for anyone worried about holding card numbers on a WordPress site. The field defaults to Stripe's Card Element, and an option in the add-on settings switches it to Stripe's Payment Element, which needs Stripe Add-On 5.0 or above.
If you're still deciding which gateway to use, my comparison of Stripe and PayPal for small businesses goes through the differences.
Feeds and subscription cancellations trip people up
The Gravity Forms Documentation makes two points worth reading twice. Payments only work once a feed links the form to the gateway, so a form with a payment field but no active feed simply won't charge anyone. And Stripe subscriptions can currently only be cancelled from WordPress Admin, through the entry, or from the Stripe admin. There's no Gravity Forms screen where a customer cancels their own subscription.
So if you're selling memberships or monthly services, plan how people will ask to cancel, and make sure someone on your team knows where to do it.
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Other WordPress form plugins that take payments
WPForms has a Stripe Pro addon that handles one-time and recurring payments, connected under WPForms > Settings > Payments with Connect with Stripe.
Formidable Forms builds Stripe payment and donation forms with a drag-and-drop builder once you've connected a Stripe account.
For a wider look at the options, my roundup of other WordPress form plugins and my guide to online form builders for businesses cover more choices.
My take before you add a payment form
Pick your gateway, install its add-on, and create the feed before you touch the form layout, because without the feed nothing gets charged. Use the Stripe Field so card details stay with Stripe, run a sandbox payment end to end, and write down how a subscriber cancels before your first one asks.
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Frequently asked questions
Does Gravity Forms support payments?
Yes, through add-ons for Stripe, PayPal, Square and Mollie.
Can Gravity Forms take recurring payments?
Yes. The Stripe Add-On supports subscriptions through a feed with the Subscription transaction type.
Does the form store card numbers?
Not with the Stripe Field. Card details are collected by Stripe in an iframe and aren't stored with the entry.
Why is nothing reaching Stripe?
Check that the form has an active Stripe feed. Without one, nothing is sent.
How do I cancel a subscription?
Open the entry in WordPress Admin and cancel the Stripe subscription there, or cancel it in the Stripe admin.
