Welcome to PayWhirl. This quick start guide is intended to take you through the basics of getting set up to process payments online.
Getting Started with PayWhirl
1. Create a FREE account at PayWhirl.com
Verify your email address to complete the registration. We send an email automatically but you can send another by clicking the green button.
After clicking the link, you will be automatically logged in to your new account!
NOTE: For testing purposes, there are four demo plans and a tutorial widget already configured in your account.
Plans in PayWhirl can be set up to bill your customers for a variety of use cases. Here are just a few examples of different ways plans can be set up to bill your customers:
Charge once - A plan with a single installment works as a one-time payment.
On a recurring schedule - Customize the frequency of billing (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly).
Bill on specific days - Select specific billing dates for a payment plan by selecting the dates on a calendar.
Installment billing - Bills customers for a specific number of installment payments and then end cancels the subscription. (layaway, pre-orders, payment plans, etc.)
Custom billing schedules - Create completely custom billing schedules by combining multiple plans together in a chain.
Pre-Paid subscriptions - Customers pay upfront for a specific number of installments; however orders are generated on a different schedule. For example, a 3-month prepaid plan that generates orders monthly.
On the Selling Plans page, click Create to start building your first selling plan!
Subscription Plan Example: One pound of coffee delivered every other week.
Subscription Plan Example: One pound of coffee delivered every other week.
In this example, we’ll create a simple coffee subscription that charges customers $19.99 every two weeks for a one-pound bag of beans. Most fields stay on their default values, so you can publish quickly and fine-tune later.
1. Open the Selling Plan builder
Dashboard → Selling Plans → Create Plan
2. Core plan details
Field | Example value | Why it matters |
Name | PW Best Coffee Roast – 1 lb | Clear label for you and the customer. |
Charge amount | 19.99 USD | Recurring price your customer pays. |
Charge every | 2 Week(s) | Sets an automatic invoice every other week. |
3. Operational settings (kept on defaults)
Field | Default | Recommendation |
Charge Shipping | Yes | Enable to use PayWhirl's shipping rules to bill for shipping. |
Charge Sales Tax | Yes | Applies PayWhirl tax rules to the main product on the invoice. |
Billing Cycle Start Day | Date of Subscription | First renewal occurs exactly two weeks after sign-up. |
Free Trial | Disabled | Enable later if you’d like to offer a trial bag. |
Installments | No limit | Subscription runs until the customer cancels. |
Customer Cancellation Behaviour | Cancel immediately | Change to End of term if you prefer. Useful for memberships or digital products. |
Setup Charge | 0 | Add an additional charge or product to the invoice. |
4. Optional-but-helpful fields
SKU – enter the product code (e.g., ABC123) so your fulfilment system lines up perfectly.
Enable Plan in Customer Portal – leave Disabled while testing; switch to Enabled when you’re ready for self-serve sign-ups.
Image, Tags, Customer Profile Questions – add branding, filters, or extra data such as grind size.
5. Save and create additional plans as needed
Click Create Plan. PayWhirl will now:
Store the plan so it can be embedded in a widget for display on your site.
Automatically bill each subscriber $19.99 on signup and then every two weeks.
Generate an upcoming invoice for the next one-pound bag of coffee. You can easily fulfill and ship orders when PayWhirl connected to a platform like ShipStation.
Tip: Any changes you make later (price, cadence, trial, etc.) apply only to future invoices.
The plan is ready to be added to a widget to customize the customer-facing view of your selling plan.
Edit your plan settings as needed.
An example of one common change is to set a specific "billing cycle start date" for the month, so customers who subscribe to the plan will all START their subscriptions on the same day of the month, regardless of when they signed up. Each subsequent billing would be on the same day for all subscribers, ensuring predictability.
Another frequent change is to add a "setup fee" to the first purchase or to set a specific number of installments, so the customer's subscription to the plan ends automatically after a specific number of payments.
When you have finished configuring your plan settings, click the blue "Save Plan" button in the bottom right corner of the page.
Repeat the create plan process, and create as many payment plans as needed to cover all your different billing scenarios.
3. Create a payment widget to display your plan(s) to customers.
PayWhirl's embeddable payment widgets contain everything customers need to complete purchases from your website. Using widgets, customers can select their desired payment plan(s), create an account, answer profile questions, add payment methods, and checkout securely, all without ever leaving your website.
By default, the "tutorial widget" in your account will be pre-loaded with demo plans for you to experiment with. You can view or edit the tutorial widget to see an example of a checkout. It contains four pre-loaded demo plans and allows the customer to select between the different plans. The tutorial widget also comes connected to the PayWhirl Test Gateway, so you can process test charges and see a preview of the checkout flow. Try it now!
Click Widgets in the main menu and "Create" to build your first widget!
There are several different types of widgets to choose from depending on your needs.
Widget Types Overview
Widget Types Overview
Pricing Table - Most Common
Displays multiple plans side-by-side so customers can compare and pick a single subscription.
Ideal for straightforward “good / better / best” offerings where only one plan may be purchased.
Highlights plan names, pricing, and key features.
Payment Form
Simple form checkout that sells one subscription or one-time payment at a time.
Supports both fixed amounts (e.g., $49/month) and flexible amounts (e.g., user-entered donations).
Great for donation drives, single-product subscriptions, or landing pages that need a quick embed.
Multi-Select
Lets shoppers add multiple plans or products—and choose quantities—in a single order.
Perfect for businesses selling software licenses, meal kits, or any “build-your-own box” scenario.
Cart-style experience automatically tallies totals and passes each item into one consolidated checkout.
Upsells - Adds value
Adds optional extras or add-ons to a primary widget at checkout (e.g., grind size, gift wrap, bonus item).
Prices can be flat or percentage-based, allowing dynamic adjustments before the order is finalized.
Increases average order value while keeping the main widget uncluttered.
Gift Code - Perfect for holidays
Generates gift certificates with user-defined values that recipients can redeem later.
Sends personalized gift emails automatically, reducing manual fulfillment work.
Useful for holidays, corporate gifting, or when customers prefer to give store credit over physical items.
Widgets can be chained together to create a more custom sales flow
Choose a widget type and add your selling plan.
Subscription Plan Example (continued): Pricing Table Widget Configuration
Subscription Plan Example (continued): Pricing Table Widget Configuration
Continuing with our coffee example, we will configure our pricing table widget. We have two coffee plans to display to customers, so the number of columns in our widget should be set to 2 for the best results. This will ensure that each of our two plans takes up 50% of the widget's total width.
On PayWhirl, each PLAN lives within a SECTION of a widget. Click the plus to add and the trash to remove a section. You can toggle between widget sections using dropdown in the middle of the settings.
NOTE: New sections in a widget are disabled by default to prevent unfinished edits from appearing live, on already published widgets. You'll notice the widget preview is blank as a result.
After you make your first edit the preview will appear!
Under "Choose a Plan" select the plan you created in step #2. We'll select the coffee plan - delivered every other week for our example.
The basic settings are unique for each section, so you can customize the look and feel of the selling plan. For example:
Override the pricing shown on this page
Add an image
define button colors
Add optional "features" to customers below the pricing information.
In our example, we highlighted a feature called "Free Shipping!", adjusted the pricing text, and added an image to help increase conversions. We also changed the default button text to read "Subscribe Now" to give the widget a call to action.
Please note, you can customize all of the text within PayWhirl. The text is typically edited from the widget settings page or the translation menu in your account.
NOTE: You might have noticed there is no save button anywhere on the widget configuration page!? This is because widget changes save AUTOMATICALLY after each change on this page.
In the second section of our widget, we've configured the settings similar to the first and used the same picture/features.
The coffee widget is now ready to be embedded!
4. Embed your widget into a page on your website
Once your widget is customized, it can be embedded in any page on your website. Widgets allow customers to select payment plans and make secure purchases through your site.
Just copy one of the embed codes from the bottom of your widget settings page and paste it into the HTML of any webpage (or product page) on your website.
NOTE: You can make changes in the widget editor later, and the changes will automatically reflect in your installed widget, without the need to reinstall.
In our example install, we will show BigCommerce, but most website builders and platforms will work similarly. You just need to enable the HTML or "code view" of your page editor before you paste in your PayWhirl embed code.
In our example install, we will show BigCommerce, but most website builders and platforms will work similarly.
In our example install, we will show BigCommerce, but most website builders and platforms will work similarly.
You just need to enable the HTML or "code view" of your page editor before you paste in your PayWhirl embed code.
Adding a PayWhirl widget to a BigCommerce page
Open the page editor
BigCommerce Admin → Storefront → Web Pages → Create a Page (or Edit an existing one).
Choose the page type
Select “Contain content created using the WYSIWYG editor below.” This lets you embed custom HTML.Switch to HTML view
In the editor toolbar click “HTML/Source” (often shown as<>). A pop-up with raw code appears.Paste the PayWhirl snippet
Insert the entire<script …> … </script>block PayWhirl provides—nothing else needs to be changed.Save & confirm
Click OK to close the code window, then Save (or Save & Exit) for the page itself.Preview
View the page on your storefront to confirm the widget loads and autoscrolls as expected.
That’s it—The PayWhirl widget is now live on a BigCommerce page.
5. Testing with the PayWhirl Test Gateway - VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Now it's time to test a checkout using the PayWhirl test gateway to make sure everything works as we'd expect.
WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND TESTING WITH THE PAYWHIRL TEST GATEWAY BEFORE CONNECTING A LIVE PAYMENT GATEWAY!
Once you are satisfied with the customer experience, you can connect a LIVE merchant processor and payment gateway to our account. Stripe is available on all PayWhirl plans, and we offer several other gateways if you upgrade to any of our paid monthly plans.
6. Connect a live gateway to PayWhirl and LAUNCH!!!
From the main menu in your account, click on Payment Gateways.
Your customer portal registration and widgets are ALL configured to use the PayWhirl Test Gateway by default.
YOU NEED TO TOGGLE THE GATEWAY SETTING IN EACH WIDGET AFTER THE LIVE GATEWAY IS CONNECTED.
This also goes for the CUSTOMER PORTAL REGISTRATION. Ensure to use your live gateway after it's connected.
Note: For security reasons, you must connect a live payment gateway to add more than 10 TEST CUSTOMERS to your account.
TEST GATEWAY WARNING!!!
CUSTOMER PAYMENT METHODS WILL NEVER BE SAVED ON THE PAYWHIRL TEST GATEWAY.
TEST CUSTOMERS CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO LIVE CUSTOMERS ONCE THEY ARE SAVED AS TEST CUSTOMERS.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CONNECT YOUR WIDGET(S) & CUSTOMER PORTAL TO A LIVE PAYMENT GATEWAY before publishing any pages with widgets.
Toggling Widget to a Live Gateway
Once you are finished testing and have connected a LIVE gateway to your account, you can select the new gateway from your WIDGET & PORTAL SETTINGS.
Navigate back to the "Widgets" main menu item and click on the name of the widget you'd like to connect to your live gateway.
At the very bottom of the edit widget page, click on "Advanced Settings" to reveal your payment gateway list. Select your live gateway and repeat for any additional widgets.
That's it! We were able to set up a couple of plans, build a widget and embed it into a page on our site. However, please note this is just one basic example of how PayWhirl can be used to process payments online.
Customer Management
In addition to payment widgets, PayWhirl offers a "Customer Login widget" that allows you to embed a customer portal directly into your website making customer management a breeze.
Many businesses embed the PayWhirl customer portal on a "member or subscription login" page so customers can access their accounts and make changes as needed. However, the customer portal can also be linked directly as it's hosted in the cloud.
Within the portal, your customers can manage their account information, purchase additional subscriptions, change subscriptions, customize orders, change shipping addresses, add or remove payment methods, see future invoices, buy gifts for others, skip payments, and more.
NOTE: You can also disable your customers' ability to cancel subscriptions or remove their payment methods on file, if required, from your advanced settings menu.
Final Thoughts
There are an almost infinite number of configuration options within PayWhirl, so please let us know if you need help figuring out the best way to structure PayWhirl for your business.
What's next? Ready for more?
You might want to customize your email settings and templates or connect with an existing integration. One of the most useful features of PayWhirl is our ability to create orders in connected systems like BigCommerce or ShipStation.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
The PayWhirl Team