Using Hosted Checkout with Stripe or PayPal instead of Webflow eCommerce Plan?

Design help General
1

I need some advice regarding selling my subscription service on my Webflow website. I find the Webflow eCommerce plan to be expensive, especially considering the additional 3% fee for each subscription sale. I’m looking for a more cost-effective solution.

I’m considering using a hosted checkout provided by either Stripe or PayPal instead. This would involve adding a URL to a “Button” on my website, which would direct customers to a dedicated and hosted checkout page offered by either Stripe or PayPal.

My question is, can I effectively manage my subscriptions by using a hosted checkout instead of the Webflow eCommerce plan?
Are there any limitations or drawbacks to this approach that I should be aware of?

I would greatly appreciate any insights or experiences you can share on this matter.

2

Using those hosted solutions won’t replace what Webflow eCommerce provides, other than the payment portion of it.

Did you not need the eCommerce solution and just accept payments? More details of what you’re trying to do will help.

3

Thank you for the info!

In my case, I don’t actually require full eCommerce functionality as I will be offering only one service without a shopping cart. However, I do need to offer three pricing tiers for my service: a 1-month price, a 3-month price, and a 6-month price. Essentially, users should be able to select their desired pricing tier and proceed to start using my design service.

Considering this specific scenario, I’m curious to know if it is possible to achieve this using Webflow without opting for the eCommerce plan. Instead, I would like to explore the option of using a hosted checkout solution like Stripe or PayPal to handle the payment process.

4

Gotcha.

That’s not a problem.

From what it sounds like you could simply take advantage of Webhooks with those hosted payment processors.

With Stripe as the example, you could setup their no-code payment links:

They host the payment page for you and you link out to it from your Webflow site.

When someone makes a payment a Stripe Webhook is triggered that sends this info into your Webflow CMS, Airtable, wherever you want.

You’d use Make (Integromat) to glue that all together.

Stripe → Make → Webflow CMS

You could take it one step further and send them a Webflow Memberships invitation as well.

Stripe → Make → Webflow Memberships

Regardless, taking advantage of Webhooks and glueing it all together with Make (Integromat) is the key to making this work.

Here are some tutorials using Webhooks and the API with Webflow that may help:

5

Thanks for the awesome guide!

I really appreciate the detailed explanation!

But here’s the thing: I’m all about keeping it simple and exciting! The website is just for a marketing purposes; there are not any backend crazy stuff :slight_smile:

After a user subscribes, all they need is an order confirmation email, which I’m confident Stripe can handle like a pro.
And for cancellations, they can shoot me an email, or better yet, use the super-convenient self-hosted Stripe solution.

I’m expecting a maximum of four clients at a time, and I want to avoid complex flows.

One question that popped into my mind is: In this case, do I need to use the CMS from Webflow at all?
And more importantly, will I be able to avoid the extra 3% fee charged by Webflow?

Thanks again for your incredible guidance!

6

No, you do not, and in that case you do not need to use Webhooks.

Yes, this is outside of Webflow, only Stripe fees apply.

7

Thank you!!! So helpful!

8

Hi @Pavle_Lucic.
Josh with Foxy here. If you don’t get what you need, you might consider our seamless Webflow integration: https://foxy.io/webflow

  • Easily convert any Webflow button or form to a Foxy subscription
  • Connect to 100+ gateways and payment methods
  • Embed a customer portal to allow customers to manage their subscriptions/memberships, view order history, update billing, and more (all inside of your Webflow site)
  • Unlimited free trial
  • and more!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need help getting started: hello@foxy.io

Thanks,
Josh