Payment processor not on your plugin’s list?

Custom Payment Gateway Integration for WordPress Membership Sites

We connect the processor your business needs to the membership or LMS plugin you already run, whether that’s MemberPress, WooCommerce, Paid Memberships Pro, LearnDash, MemberMouse or something else. First we check what your processor can do, then we build the route that fits, renewals included wherever your processor supports them.

Founded 2014, trusted by 100+ membership sites

For TechServe Alliance we built a custom BluePay integration with WooCommerce, and not a single member had to re-enter their payment information or re-subscribe.

Read the TechServe Alliance case study.

Pause the scrolling logos

As seen on

What is a custom payment gateway integration?

A custom payment gateway integration is the code that lets your membership plugin take payments through a processor it doesn’t support out of the box. It handles the first charge and, more importantly, what comes after it: renewals, failed payments, refunds, card updates and cancellations, as far as your processor supports them, so each member’s access can stay in step with what they’ve paid.

Most membership plugins support Stripe, PayPal and a short list of others. When your business needs a different processor, because of your merchant rates, your bank, your country or your business category, you have four ways to connect it. We help you pick the one with the fewest moving parts, then we build it.

Gateways we’ve built, and the time we recommended a switch

Custom integration on WooCommerce

TechServe Alliance

TechServe Alliance, a national trade association, collected member dues through a BluePay merchant account they wanted to keep. When we moved them onto WordPress, we built a completely custom BluePay integration with WooCommerce that preserved all existing subscriptions and transaction history. Not a single member had to re-enter their payment information or re-subscribe.

Corporate members then needed their accountants to pay dues from a link, without logging in, and WooCommerce Subscriptions expects the payer to be logged in. So we built TechServe their own payment gateway and payment form for it.

“Creating our own payment gateway [integration] was the solution.”

Michele Clarke, then CFO, TechServe Alliance

Read the TechServe Alliance case study

Custom gateway on MemberPress

Lingerie Lowdown

Lingerie Lowdown runs their membership on MemberPress, which doesn’t support SecurionPay, the processor they chose (it’s now part of Shift4). We built them a custom MemberPress gateway for it, running alongside PayPal, and later brought it up to date. When they moved to a new processor in 2025, we built their replacement gateway too.

When switching was the safer call

Genealogy Gems

Genealogy Gems moved from aMember to Paid Memberships Pro, and their members paid through PayPal Standard and Payflow, two gateways Paid Memberships Pro had deprecated. We built a custom add-on that brought Payflow back, but most payments were still being rejected, so we moved them to Stripe. In all, we moved more than 1,000 active subscriptions without asking a single member to re-enter payment details.

Lisa Louise CookeFounder, Genealogy Gems

Read the Genealogy Gems case study

We took the same care with saved cards when we moved about 2,500 paying members of The Global Leadership Network to MemberPress: zero credit cards re-entered.

Why your plugin doesn’t support your processor

Each platform’s own payment options stop at a handful of processors. Anything beyond them means an add-on, a route through WooCommerce, an outside checkout or custom work, and the vendors say so themselves: MemberPress’s documentation says that help with a custom payment gateway is “out of the scope of MemberPress support”, and Paid Memberships Pro calls running checkout through WooCommerce “a last resort”.

Here’s what these platforms offer from the vendor itself, built in or as an official add-on. We checked each one against the vendor’s own documentation in October 2026. We work with other WordPress membership and community platforms too, including Memberium and BuddyBoss.

Platform*	Built in or official add-on	How a custom gateway gets added
MemberPress	Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net and offline payments (some need a higher plan)	A gateway built on MemberPress’s own gateway framework. MemberPress support doesn’t help with it.
MemberMouse	Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net, ClickBank and Sticky.io, depending on your plan	MemberMouse doesn’t document a gateway framework. Its guidance is to take payment elsewhere and keep members in sync through its API and hooks.
Paid Memberships Pro	Stripe and manual payments built in, plus official add-ons for PayPal, Paystack, Payfast, Square and CCBill	A gateway built on PMPro’s gateway API. PMPro has deprecated older gateways like Payflow and PayPal Standard.
WooCommerce	Dozens of official gateway extensions. WooCommerce’s own table lists which of them renew automatically with WooCommerce Subscriptions	A WooCommerce payment gateway, plus subscription support if memberships renew automatically.
LearnDash	Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay and 2Checkout	Through LearnDash’s payment gateway hook, or by selling courses through WooCommerce.
Restrict Content Pro (now Kadence Memberships)	Stripe and manual payments, with PayPal, Braintree and Authorize.net in the Pro version	A gateway built on Restrict Content Pro’s gateway class.
LifterLMS	Manual payments built in. Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net and WooCommerce as paid add-ons	A gateway registered with LifterLMS’s gateway API.

Source: Each vendor’s documentation and pricing pages, checked October 2026. Plugins change their gateway lists, so check the current version before you buy.

*Logos are shown for easy recognition only. They are trademarks of their owners, and showing them doesn’t imply endorsement of, or partnership with, MemberFix.

Owners have asked us about processors that many membership plugins don’t support natively, including merchant accounts through gateways like NMI, Worldpay, Heartland and Nuvei, regional processors like PayU, iyzico, Paystack and Cardcom, direct debit through GoCardless, and high-risk processors, which we cover on our adult membership sites page.

Five things we check before we quote

Before we quote, we check five things with you and your processor, because a gateway can only do what the processor allows.

Your merchant account is approved for your business, including your business category, the countries you sell in and recurring billing. We can’t get you approved, because that decision belongs to your processor.
The processor can charge a saved card or bank mandate, or run its own subscriptions. Without one or the other you only get one-time payments, not automatic renewals. Some regional processors don’t support subscriptions at all, and we learned that the hard way, so we check it first.
The processor sends notifications (webhooks) for renewals, failed payments and refunds, so your site hears about money that moves outside your checkout.
There’s a test environment with test credentials, so we can test renewals, failures and refunds before a real member’s card is involved.
Your membership plugin has a route for it: a gateway framework, WooCommerce, or an API we can sync with.

If your processor fails one of these checks, we tell you on the call and suggest the route that works, even when that route is a different processor.

Four ways to connect your processor, and how we pick

We pick the route with the fewest moving parts that still does everything you need.

Use what already exists

Your plugin may already support your processor through an official add-on, or a well-maintained third-party add-on may exist. We check first, because you shouldn’t pay for code you can install. If an add-on handles one-time payments but not renewals, we tell you before you rely on it.

Run checkout through WooCommerce

WooCommerce has dozens of official payment gateway extensions, and many of them renew subscriptions automatically through WooCommerce Subscriptions. If you run MemberPress, our MemberPress WooCommerce integration plugin lets WooCommerce take the payment while MemberPress keeps managing memberships and access. It also means a future processor change happens in WooCommerce instead of in your membership setup, although existing subscriptions may still need moving.

Build a custom gateway for your plugin

When neither of those fits, we build a gateway on your plugin’s own payment framework, using card fields on your page or the processor’s own payment page, whichever the processor requires. That’s what we built for Lingerie Lowdown on MemberPress and for TechServe Alliance on WooCommerce.

For custom WooCommerce payment gateways, we build on WooCommerce’s payment gateway API and, for memberships that renew automatically, add the WooCommerce Subscriptions features your processor can support, such as renewals, payment method changes and cancellations.

Keep your outside checkout and sync it

Some businesses take payments in a separate checkout or billing system, such as ThriveCart, PayKickstart or Keap. In that case we connect the checkout to your membership plugin by webhook, so each member’s access updates automatically when they buy, renew, cancel or are refunded, as long as the checkout reports those events.

Sometimes the right answer is a different processor. If your processor can’t run renewals reliably, the safest move may be to switch, as Genealogy Gems did. Members don’t always have to re-enter their cards: if you stay on the same processor account, or both processors agree to a secure transfer of saved cards, recreating existing subscriptions against those cards becomes an option. When that isn’t possible, we plan the move so as few members as possible have to act. More on that on our membership migration page.

What a gateway project covers

Taking the first payment is the easy part. We put most of our work, and most of our testing, into everything that happens after it.

Saved cards and renewals

We decide with you whether your site or your processor schedules renewals. We set it up so your site keeps the processor’s token instead of the card number, and we test that renewals charge the right amount before launch.

Notifications from your processor

We check each notification’s signature when your processor provides one, and we build the handlers to ignore repeat notifications for a payment that’s already recorded.

Failed payments and card updates

Depending on what your processor supports, we set up retries, reminder emails, a way for members to update their card, and clear rules for when access pauses. Our guide to failed payments on membership sites covers the options.

Refunds, cancellations and plan changes

Where the processor reports them, we pass refunds and cancellations from one system to the other, and where your plugin and processor support them, we set up upgrades, downgrades and trials to bill the way your pricing says they should.

Security and PCI

We use your processor’s hosted card fields or payment page wherever it offers them, so card numbers go straight to the processor, and we design your logs to leave card data out. That can reduce your PCI obligations, but it doesn’t remove them: your processor and your compliance advisor decide your PCI scope, and we build to it.

Testing and launch

Before launch we test an agreed list of scenarios in your processor’s sandbox, where it has one: new signups, renewals, declines, refunds, cancellations and plan changes. We keep a rollback plan ready and watch the first real renewals.

After launch

Gateway code needs attention when your plugin, WordPress or the processor’s API changes. We can look after it as part of Managed TechOps.

Is a custom gateway the right fit for you?

Good fit if

You run a WordPress membership, course or association site that already takes payments
Your plugin doesn’t support the processor you need, or supports it for one-time payments only
You have a merchant account you want to keep, for your rates, your bank or your country
Stripe or PayPal won’t work for your business, and a new processor has already approved you
You need a payment flow your plugin can’t do, like paying from a link without logging in

Not the right call if

You want to build your own payment processor or payments platform. That’s a fintech project, outside WordPress membership work.
You need someone to get you approved by a processor. That decision is between you and the processor.
You want card numbers stored on your own server. Processor tokens and hosted fields exist so you don’t have to.
Your site isn’t on WordPress, or you aren’t taking payments yet.

What does a custom payment gateway cost?

We don’t publish prices for gateway work, because the effort depends on your processor and your setup.

What moves your number

Whether you need automatic renewals or only one-time payments
How complete the processor’s API and documentation are, and whether it has a sandbox
Which route fits: an existing add-on, WooCommerce, a custom gateway or a webhook sync
Whether existing subscriptions have to move from another processor
How many payment flows you need, such as checkout, upgrades, paying from a link or invoices

It starts with a quick call. Tell us your platform and your processor, and we’ll tell you which route fits and what we need to check. If you go ahead, we send you a written scope that says what it takes before any build starts. If subscriptions have to move between processors, that part is a migration, and migrations start at $3,000. We handle ongoing care through Managed TechOps, month to month, and if you ever leave, you keep everything we built.

Custom payment gateway FAQ

Which payment gateways does MemberPress support?

MemberPress supports Stripe, PayPal, Square and Authorize.net, plus offline payments, and some of these need a higher MemberPress plan. Other processors need a third-party add-on, a custom gateway, a route through WooCommerce or an outside checkout, and MemberPress’s documentation says help with custom gateways is outside the scope of its support. We can build the custom gateway or the WooCommerce route.

Can you add a custom payment gateway to WooCommerce?

Yes. We build it on WooCommerce’s payment gateway API, and for memberships that renew automatically we add the WooCommerce Subscriptions features your processor can support, such as renewals, card changes and cancellations. First we check whether an official extension already does the job.

Will members have to re-enter their cards if we change processors?

Not always. If you stay on the same processor account, or both processors agree to a secure transfer of saved cards, recreating the subscriptions against the cards members already gave you becomes an option. We moved more than 1,000 subscriptions for Genealogy Gems, and about 2,500 paying members for The Global Leadership Network, without members re-entering their cards. When a transfer isn’t possible, we plan the move so as few members as possible have to act.

Our processor is closing our account. What should we do first?

Get a new processor to approve you before anything else, and ask both processors whether your saved cards can be transferred. Then talk to us: we’ll check the new processor’s API, pick the route and plan the switch around your renewal dates.

Do you store card details on our server?

No. We set your site up to keep the processor’s tokens instead of card numbers, and we use its hosted card fields or payment page wherever it offers them, so card numbers go to the processor. That can reduce your PCI obligations without removing them: your processor and your compliance advisor decide your PCI scope, and we build to it.

How much does a custom payment gateway cost?

It depends on the processor’s API, whether you need renewals, and which route fits. We don’t publish prices. On a quick call we tell you which route makes sense, and we give you a written scope before we build anything.

Reviewed by Vic Dorfman, founder of MemberFix, WordPress membership developer with 10+ years building and supporting membership sites. Last reviewed: October 2026.

What our clients say

Read Avery West’s story

100% I would recommend MemberFix. 100%. No, you guys killed it for us.

Chris ZauggThe Global Leadership Network Read the case study
When we began this project, our goal was to move away from a patchwork of outdated and inflexible systems and establish a modern, integrated tech stack and membership CRM that could truly scale with our needs.

Lori FitzsimonTechServe Alliance Read the case study
Love having MemberFix on my team! It’s priceless to have the peace of mind knowing someone who really understands how WordPress and the membership software works is just an email away. Your responses have been courteous and prompt, your help and advice invaluable.

Lindsay CMind Muscles for Traders

The work behind it

TechServe Alliance A patchwork of legacy systems replaced with one modern membership platform Read the case study
The Global Leadership Network 2,500 members moved onto MemberPress without a single payment interrupted Read the case study
A 17-year-old membership site moved from aMember to Paid Memberships Pro Read the case study