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Updated: 05/10/2024
( 15 minutes reading )
Payment gateways are essential to any online business these days. Without them, website owners would need to apply very harsh security settings on their hosting servers to enable credit card processing. To explain why this is, let's first introduce you to what a Payment Gateway is.
A payment gateway is a platform through which your clients will transfer money to you in exchange for a specific service or product. It serves as the "bridge" between you and your customer's bank/credit institution. The Gateway is also a mediator and tracks for any unclarities with the transaction using various security implementations, such as Fraud Protection, 3D passwords, and different authentication methods. People use them in their everyday life without even knowing it. PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay are good examples of payment gateways.
Now that we know what Payment Gateways are let's continue with this tutorial and explain how you can integrate them into your WHMCS and enable safe credit card processing for your customers.
Before proceeding with the Payment Gateway integration, you must log inside your WHMCS admin area. Once logged in, please hover your mouse over the wrench icon on the top right side of the screen. Once you do that, you will see a drop-down menu with a few options. Please click on the "System Settings" option.
Doing so will redirect you to the "System Settings" page, where you will find a variety of settings related to WHMCS. Please use the search bar on the left side of the screen and type in "Payment Gateways" to filter out available functionalities and find the one you need to proceed with the integration.
Once this option presents itself, please click the "Payment Gateways" option.
After doing so, you will be redirected to the "Payment Gateway" integration page. From there, you can choose which payment gateway to integrate, and WHMCS will provide you with the means to do so.
To begin your selection, please click on the "-> Visit Apps and Integrations" button located on the top right side of the screen.
Performing this action will redirect you to the "Apps & Integrations" page, revealing all the Payment Gateway settings.
On the top, you will see WHMCS's recommended options. You will find many other options underneath, as WHMCS has APIs and integration options for anything you can think of.
However, we suggest using the recommended options, as they are regarded as very reputable gateways, and customers will feel safer when making purchases. In addition, their integrations will likely be much easier for you as a service provider.
This tutorial will show the integration method for PayPal and Stripe, which are recommended and the most common choice for any service provider.
PayPal is a payment gateway allowing you to safely and securely receive customers' money for your digital/physical products.
Customers have to link their bank accounts and credit/debit cards to their PayPal account to use it. In turn, PayPal will serve as the middleman between you (the merchant/vendor) and their bank institution, allowing them to securely transfer money for digital/physical products.
To start the PayPal payment gateway integration, please return to the "Payment Gateway" integration page. You should be able to do so by clicking your browser's "Go Back" button.
Once there, you will see the "PayPal Basic" drop-down menu.
Please click on it to reveal all settings allowing you to integrate it on your order form. Let's go through all the configurations and explain them for better understanding.
IMPORTANT: If you do not type in the API credentials, you will not be able to manage refunds, subscription cancellations, and account balances from WHMCS and will have to log inside PayPal to do so.
IMPORTANT: To ensure all invoices are marked paid immediately after the payment transaction, please enable Instant Payment Notification (IPN) under "Selling Preferences" within your PayPal account.
Once you input all the required settings and are satisfied with them, please click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
If you want to deactivate the module entirely, you can click on the "Deactivate" button located on the right side of the "Save Changes" button.
The second gateway integration we will go through is the Stripe payment gateway integration.
Stripe is an online payment system allowing clients to transfer funds for digital/physical goods vendors/retailers offer on their websites. They provide a safe and secure environment and mediate the transaction between the customer and the seller.
Their task is to ensure that the transaction is performed accordingly and both sides are satisfied - the client for receiving their desired product and the vendor for receiving the payment.
To set up Stripe on your WHMCS, please proceed and open the "Payment Gateway" integration page. To do that, please use the steps explained earlier in this tutorial.
Once there, please click on the "-> Visit Apps and Integrations" button located on the top right side of the screen.
Doing so will redirect you to the "Apps and Integrations " page. You will see the "Recommended Apps" in the middle of the screen. Please click on the "Stripe" content box to start the Stripe integration.
This action will open a pop-up window, and you will see the "Activate" button on the right side of the window. Please click on it.
After a brief loading screen, you will be redirected to the "Payment Gateways" page, and you will see the Stripe drop-down window expanded with all the available settings revealed.
Let's go over all the available options.
Once you input all the required settings and are satisfied with them, please click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
If you want to deactivate the module entirely, you can click on the "Deactivate" button located on the right side of the "Save Changes" button.
This covers our Payment Gateway integration tutorial for WHMCS. We hope this was useful and you were able to set up your payment gateways without any issues. If you enjoyed this tutorial, check the other articles in our WHMCS tutorial section!
Nikola is an accomplished tech-savvy extraordinaire with over six years of experience in the web hosting field. He started as a customer care representative and quickly rose the ranks to become a support supervisor and, eventually - the head of the technical department in HostArmada. His deep understanding of the client's needs, combined with his technical knowledge, makes him the perfect man to create the ideal harmony between client satisfaction and professional problem-solving. You will often find him creating helpful tutorials, articles, and blog posts that help existing customers get around.
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