How to accept payments for online courses in LearnPress

Go to LearnPress > Courses, edit the course and find its pricing settings. Enter a regular price, and add a sale price only if you want to offer a discount. A price of zero makes the course free, so check this field carefully before publishing.

Decide whether students should have lifetime access or whether the course should expire after a set duration. If you need monthly or annual access, treat that as a membership or subscription setup rather than an ordinary one-time course sale.

Open LearnPress > Settings > Pages or the relevant page settings and confirm that the Courses, Profile and Checkout pages are assigned. The checkout page normally needs the LearnPress checkout content or shortcode. If the checkout page is missing, students can reach the course but receive a checkout error instead of a payment form.

Also check whether users must register before paying. LearnPress provides settings for guest checkout, registration at checkout, login at checkout and automatic enrolment after purchase. Make sure WordPress user registration is enabled if your chosen flow requires it.

For a small site selling occasional courses, start with LearnPress's built-in PayPal option. Go to LearnPress > Settings > Payments, open the PayPal settings, enable the gateway, enter the merchant email address and save. Use the sandbox option while checking the flow, then switch to live credentials when ready.

You can also take payment manually by installing the LearnPress Offline Payment add-on, enabling it under LearnPress > Settings > Payments and adding instructions for bank transfer, cash or another agreed method. This route is workable for invoices or local sales, but you must verify the payment and manage enrolment yourself.

Use the WooCommerce route if you need several gateways, coupons, taxes, order tools or a shop-style checkout. Install WooCommerce and the LearnPress WooCommerce integration, enable WooCommerce payment in LearnPress, then configure the actual card, bank-transfer or other gateway inside WooCommerce. LearnPress can change the course button to an Add to cart or single-purchase button.

There are two checkout systems to verify here: LearnPress and WooCommerce. If you allow guest purchases, enable guest checkout and account creation in WooCommerce as well as in LearnPress. Missing this second setting is a common reason the purchase flow stops at checkout.

If you want card payments without adding WooCommerce, install a LearnPress-compatible Stripe payment add-on. Create or use a Stripe account, upload and activate the add-on, then go to LearnPress > Settings > Payments, enable Stripe and enter the required Stripe credentials. The Stripe option should then appear during LearnPress checkout.

For recurring access, confirm that the payment add-on and your LearnPress membership setup support subscriptions. A recurring membership plan normally needs its own billing type, recurring price and billing interval, rather than only a price entered on the course itself.

Open the course in a private browser window and follow the student path: register or log in, click Buy this course, complete a test payment, return to the site and open the course. Confirm that the order changes from pending, the student is enrolled and restricted lessons are available.

For Stripe, use test mode and a Stripe test card rather than a real card. If payment succeeds but access is not granted, check the checkout page assignment, the LearnPress payment setting, the gateway's webhook or notification setup and whether the order is still pending. For the fast route, use LearnPress – Stripe Payment when you need direct card checkout, multiple currencies or recurring course payments without building the WooCommerce stack.