If you’re collecting payments through an online form, the checkout experience matters. Customers who prefer PayPal—and there are a lot of them—are more likely to complete a transaction when PayPal is available as an option rather than card-only.
PlatoForms now supports PayPal natively through a PayPal Payment widget. This guide covers how it works, when to use it, how to set it up, and tips for getting the best results.
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What the PayPal Payment widget does
The PayPal Payment widget embeds PayPal’s smart button suite directly into your form. When a respondent reaches the payment step, they see a set of payment buttons—PayPal, credit or debit card, and Pay Later—without leaving the form or being redirected to a separate checkout page.
This is different from linking out to a PayPal payment page. The entire flow—form submission and payment—happens in one place.
When to use a PayPal payment form
A PayPal payment form works well when:
- Your customers expect PayPal. As of the end of 2025, PayPal has approximately 439 million active accounts globally. An Ipsos study commissioned by PayPal found that 59% of PayPal users have abandoned a purchase because PayPal wasn’t available.
- You’re collecting variable amounts. Registration fees, service tiers, order totals—the widget supports dynamic pricing based on what the user selects in the form.
- You want to offer multiple payment methods without building separate flows. PayPal, card, and Pay Later are all handled through a single field.
- You already use Stripe and want to add PayPal alongside it. Both integrations can run on the same form independently.
If you’re comparing PayPal and Stripe as options: Stripe vs PayPal: Which One Should You Use?
Common use cases:
- Order forms — sell products with real-time pricing
- Donation forms — let donors choose their amount
- Registration forms — collect event or membership fees
- Subscription forms — set up recurring payment flows
- Payment forms — general-purpose payment collection
How to set it up
Here’s an overview of the setup process. Full details are in the PayPal Payment documentation.
Step 1 — Add the field
In the PlatoForms form builder, find PayPal Payment widget under Enhanced Features in the left toolbar and drag it into your form.
Step 2 — Connect your PayPal account
The properties panel shows two connection slots:
- PayPal — your live merchant account for real payments
- PayPal (Sandbox) — a test account for previewing the payment flow
Click Connect under the live slot and complete the OAuth authorization. Once connected, the button changes to Revoke Connection.
Step 3 — Set the payment amount
Choose between:
- Fixed Amount — every submission charges the same price
- Amount from a form field — the charge updates dynamically based on user selections (see below)
Step 4 — Add item description and currency
Set the currency and an order description that will be visible to the buyer. The description supports variables like {{form_name}} and {{tracking_code}}.
Step 5 — Test, then go live
Use Sandbox mode to verify the payment flow with test funds before switching to live. See Testing below.
Dynamic pricing: charge different amounts based on form selections
To charge different amounts depending on what a user selects:
- Add a Short Text field to the form, label it (for example,
pricing), and mark it as Hidden on Form. - In the PayPal widget properties, set Payment Amount Field to that hidden field.
- Use form logic to set the field’s value based on user selections.
For example:
IF (product is “Coffee”) THEN (set pricing field) to “2”
The widget reads the calculated value at checkout and charges accordingly. You can optionally include {{pricing}} in the widget label to show the live amount to users as they fill out the form.
This approach works the same way as dynamic pricing with Stripe.
Tips for PayPal payment forms
A few practices that make a meaningful difference in completion rates:
Start with simple fields, end with payment.
Form respondents are more likely to complete a form when they begin with low-friction fields like name and email before reaching the payment step. Put the PayPal widget at or near the end of the form.
Include clear product or service descriptions.
The PayPal widget shows an order description to the buyer at checkout. Make this specific—what they’re paying for, in plain language. Vague descriptions increase hesitation and chargebacks.
Use dynamic pricing to avoid ambiguity.
If your form offers multiple options at different prices, use the dynamic pricing approach above so the amount shown in the PayPal widget always matches what the user has selected. Mismatches between a stated price and the checkout amount are a common drop-off point.
Split long forms into pages.
If your form has many fields, use page breaks to keep each step focused. A form with 20 fields on one page is harder to complete than the same form split across 4–5 shorter pages.
Test on mobile before publishing.
PayPal’s smart buttons are responsive by design, but it’s worth previewing your full form on a mobile device before going live to confirm the layout and field spacing work as expected.
Use sandbox mode—not real transactions—for testing.
Unlike some payment form tools that require a small real transaction to verify the integration, PlatoForms uses PayPal’s sandbox environment. No real money is involved during testing. See Testing below.
Testing before going live
Before publishing your form, test the full payment flow using PayPal’s sandbox:
- Connect a sandbox account in the PayPal (Sandbox) slot of the properties panel.
- Open the form in Preview mode—the sandbox connection is used automatically in preview.
- Complete a test transaction using a PayPal sandbox test account.
Your sandbox accounts are listed under Testing Tools → Sandbox Accounts in the PayPal Developer Dashboard. The first account is a business account for receiving payments; the second is a personal account for making test payments. Use an incognito window when logging in as the buyer to avoid account conflicts.
Once you’re satisfied the flow works correctly, publish the form. Live submissions will use the account connected in the PayPal slot.
Video walkthrough
FAQ
Does PlatoForms charge extra fees for PayPal payments?
No. PlatoForms does not add transaction fees on top of PayPal’s standard rates.
Can I offer both PayPal and Stripe on the same form?
Yes. You can add both a PayPal Payment field and a Stripe Payment field to the same form. Each connects independently. If you want to let respondents choose their preferred method, add a Choice field with PayPal and Stripe as options, then use form logic to show the corresponding payment field based on their selection:
- If payment method = PayPal → show PayPal field
- If payment method = Stripe → show Stripe field
This keeps the form clean and only presents the relevant checkout to each user. For an especially smooth experience with this setup, try Conversational Mode.
What payment methods does the PayPal widget support?
The widget shows PayPal, credit or debit card, and Pay Later—whatever PayPal makes available in the buyer’s region.
Can I use dynamic pricing with PayPal?
Yes. Link the widget to a hidden field and use form logic to set the value. See Dynamic pricing above.
Where can I find the full setup documentation?
See Set PayPal Payment properties in the PlatoForms docs.
