Paddle for LearnPress: Course Payments and Subscriptions

Selling online courses should be about sharing your knowledge, not managing complicated payment workflows.

With the Paddle Add-on for LearnPress, you can bring Paddle Billing directly into your course checkout. Accept one-time course payments, offer recurring memberships, and give learners a convenient way to manage their billing, all while keeping payments connected to LearnPress orders.

Whether you’re selling your first course or building a membership-based learning business, LearnPress Paddle helps bring course sales and billing together in one streamlined experience.

What Is the Paddle Add-on for LearnPress?

The Paddle Add-on for LearnPress is a payment gateway integration that connects your LearnPress website with Paddle Billing.

It allows course creators to accept payments through Paddle while keeping transactions connected to their LearnPress orders. In addition to individual course purchases, the add-on supports recurring subscriptions when used with the Membership Add-on for LearnPress.

One of Paddle’s key advantages is its merchant of record model. Paddle handles payment processing and merchant responsibilities for transactions processed through its platform, including applicable tax administration, while you manage your courses and learners through LearnPress.

The integration uses Paddle Billing and Paddle.js, providing a modern checkout experience for your online learning business.

Key Features of the LearnPress Paddle Add-on

The LearnPress Paddle integration brings several useful payment and billing capabilities to your LMS.

• One-Time Course Payments: Accept payments for individual courses through Paddle checkout without creating a separate Paddle catalog product for every one-time purchase.
• Recurring Memberships: Offer daily, monthly, or yearly subscription plans when paired with the Membership Add-on for LearnPress.
• Verified Payment Updates: Keep LearnPress order statuses aligned with confirmed Paddle payment events through secure webhooks.
• Customer Billing Portal: Give eligible learners access to supported billing management features, including payment methods and invoices.
• Refund Management: Support full and partial refund requests through Paddle’s adjustment workflow.
• Sandbox Testing: Configure and test payments before switching to live transactions.

Together, these features make the add-on a practical LearnPress payment gateway for course creators who want to manage both individual purchases and ongoing memberships.

Accept One-Time Course Payments

Selling an individual course should be simple for both instructors and learners. With the Paddle Add-on, learners can select a course, proceed to checkout, and complete their payment through Paddle Billing. The integration connects the payment transaction to the corresponding LearnPress order.

For one-time purchases, you don’t need to create a separate product in Paddle’s catalog for every course. The integration can build the checkout from the LearnPress order, reducing the need to maintain duplicate product records.

Once Paddle confirms a completed transaction through a verified webhook, LearnPress can update the order accordingly. This helps keep the payment experience connected to the course purchase, from checkout to order confirmation.

Offer Recurring Memberships With Paddle

Want to go beyond one-time course sales? The Paddle Add-on also supports recurring payments when paired with the Membership Add-on for LearnPress 4.0.1 or later.

Course creators can offer daily, monthly, or yearly membership plans, with additional options for trial periods and setup fees. This opens up different ways to structure your online learning business, whether you’re offering ongoing access to a course library, a membership program, or regularly updated learning content.

The integration supports two approaches to managing Paddle products and prices:

• Automatic synchronization: Synchronize the relevant Paddle products and prices for your membership plans.
• Manual configuration: Use Paddle Price IDs when you prefer to manage product and pricing details directly.

Subscription events are connected to the membership workflow through Paddle webhooks, helping LearnPress respond to renewals and other subscription changes.

Let Learners Manage Their Billing

A good payment experience doesn’t end when a learner completes checkout. The Paddle Add-on provides a Manage Billing action for eligible order owners, opening Paddle’s customer portal through a secure, short-lived session.

Depending on the available portal features, learners can manage their payment methods and access invoices without requiring instructors to handle every billing request manually.

The add-on also supports full and partial refund requests through Paddle adjustments. Refund requests follow Paddle’s approval process, and the LearnPress order is updated when the corresponding approved refund event is received. This gives course creators a more organized way to connect billing activities with their LearnPress orders.

How to Set Up the Paddle LearnPress Integration

Getting started with the Paddle LearnPress integration involves connecting your Paddle Billing account, configuring the payment gateway, and testing the checkout process.

Step 1: Install the Paddle Add-on

Install and activate the Paddle Add-on on your LearnPress website.

Before getting started, check the documented requirements:

• WordPress 6.0 or later.
• PHP 8.1 or later.
• LearnPress 4.4.1 or later.
• An HTTPS website with a publicly accessible webhook endpoint.
• A Paddle Billing account.

Recurring subscriptions additionally require the Membership Add-on for LearnPress 4.0.1 or later.

Step 2: Connect Your Paddle Account

Navigate to LearnPress → Settings → Payments → Paddle.

Enable the gateway and configure your Paddle credentials, including the API key, Paddle.js client token, and webhook signing secret.

The add-on provides separate sandbox and live configurations, so you can test your setup before accepting real payments.

Step 3: Configure Checkout and Webhooks

In your Paddle account, configure the default payment link and register the webhook endpoint provided in your LearnPress Paddle settings.

Webhooks are an important part of the integration. They allow LearnPress to receive verified payment and subscription events from Paddle.

For example, a course order remains pending until Paddle confirms the payment through a verified transaction.completed event. A successful browser checkout callback alone does not mark the order as paid.

For live payments, make sure your website has completed Paddle’s required approval process.

Step 4: Test Before Going Live

Use Paddle’s sandbox environment to test a course purchase, confirm that payment events reach your website, and check that the LearnPress order updates correctly.

If you’re offering subscriptions, also verify your membership plans, billing cycles, and relevant subscription events.

For detailed configuration instructions, follow the official Paddle Add-on setup guide.

Bring Paddle Payments to Your LearnPress Courses

From individual course purchases to recurring memberships, the Paddle Add-on gives LearnPress course creators a way to bring checkout, payment confirmation, and billing management together.

Whether you’re launching a new course or expanding into subscription-based learning, you can build your payment workflow around the way you want to sell and deliver your content.

Ready to get started? Explore the Paddle Add-on for LearnPress and discover how it can support your online course business.

The Paddle Add-on is also included in the LearnPress Pro Bundle, giving you access to this payment integration alongside other premium LearnPress add-ons.

Frequently asked questions