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Stripe payment plans: how to set one up with Paythen

Want to let a customer pay a deposit today and the rest over time? With Paythen, you can connect your Stripe account, create a payment plan and share a link with customers to pay, without writing any code or setting up a whole eCommerce store. Paythen makes Stripe payment plans easy and is a Stripe verified partner.

You choose the amounts and schedule. Your customer signs up through the link, and Paythen manages the schedule and uses your Stripe account to process payments. Once the plan is fully paid, the charges stop and the customer status changes to completed in Paythen and remains available for reference.

It works whether you’re enrolling students in a course, selling a coaching package or collecting an agreed fee for a service.

Create your own payment plan link →

Does Stripe offer payment plans?

Yes, in a few ways. Which one fits depends on whether you want later payments collected automatically and whether you want to write code.

Option	How later payments are collected	Best for
Stripe invoice payment plans Private preview	Split one invoice into up to 50 due dates. Stripe sends reminders, but your customer returns to pay each one by hand.	Occasional invoices where the customer is happy to pay manually.
Stripe Billing subscriptions	Charged automatically. A set number of payments, a deposit or a different first amount needs extra setup, usually through the API.	Teams with a developer.
Buy now, pay later via Stripe Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm	You’re paid upfront and the provider collects from your customer. Higher fees, amount limits and approval checks apply.	Lower-value retail purchases.
Paythen (with your Stripe account)	Charged automatically to your customer’s saved card. Offer fixed instalments, a deposit then instalments, set dates, Pay your way or Flexipay, where customers pick their own schedule within your rules. Reminders, retries and a customer page included.	Courses, coaching, services and events that want flexible plans live in minutes, with no code.

The rest of this guide shows the Paythen option, step by step.

An example: $600 today, then five monthly payments

Say you offer a training program that costs $3,200. You want students to secure their place with $600 paid immediately, then spread the remaining $2,600 over five months.

Your payment plan would look like this:

When	Customer pays
When they sign up	$600
One month later	$520
Two months later	$520
Three months later	$520
Four months later	$520
Five months later	$520
Total	$3,200

That’s six payments altogether—not an ongoing subscription. You can even collect different amounts on pre-set dates or let students pick their own within your parameters.

You can put the payment plan link in your enrolment email or behind a button on your course page. Each student opens it and signs up with no login needed.

Here’s how to set it up.

1. Connect your Stripe account

Create your Paythen account, have a play in test mode and follow the prompts to connect Stripe.

Stripe processes the payments. Paythen gives you the tools to create the plan, share it with customers and manage collection.

You don’t need WooCommerce, Shopify or Eventbrite for this workflow. A payment plan link can work on its own.

2. Choose the amount and payment schedule

Create a payment plan for the product or service you’re selling. Give it a clear, customer-facing name, such as “Acme Corp AI Fundamentals” or ” Acme Agency XYZ Service”.

Decide:

The total your customer will pay.
What they’ll pay when they sign up.
How much they’ll pay after that.
How often payments should happen.
How many payments complete the plan.

For our example, the intended schedule is $600 on signup followed by five monthly payments of $520. Check the total and payment amounts carefully before sharing your link.

Need everyone to pay on the same calendar dates? Use a date-based payment plan. That can suit a course intake or an event with a shared payment deadline. Standard plans instead follow a billing interval based on when each customer signs up.

Or use a Flexipay payment plan to give customers the most flexibility – each customer can choose how they want to pay while meeting your deposit and deadline requirements.

3. Check what your customer will see

Once you create your plan, you can view it exactly like your customer would and make edits as needed.

Open your plan’s payment page and review the name, amounts and schedule. Try this example plan as a customer

Your customer should be able to understand what they’re buying, what’s payable now and what comes next. Make sure your description and payment terms match the offer you’ve agreed with them.

For a course, explain what the first payment secures. For a service, identify the package or work the payments cover.

4. Share your payment plan link

Sharing a Stripe payment plan link in Paythen

Send the link wherever you already interact with customers:

In a follow-up email after a sales call.
Alongside an accepted quote or proposal.
In a course enrolment email.
Through WhatsApp, iMessage or another messaging app.
Behind a payment button on your website.

You don’t have to move the sale into an ecommerce checkout. If you’ve already agreed on the offer, the link is the next and easy step for arranging payment.

Hint: If you’ve agreed on a payment plan, you can still incentivize customers to consider paying in full as they are checking out by using a “pay in full discount” on our Pay your way and Flexipay plans. This shows an optional “pay now” option on the same link as the payment plan. Here’s an example of a Pay your way plan that costs $1,000 + a $20 admin fee for the payment plan and $1000 minus 10% for the pay in full option – visible at the one payment link you share.

Try a customer checkout of this Pay your way plan

5. Let Paythen manage the scheduled payments

After your customer signs up, the remaining payments are collected automatically according to their plan schedule.

Paythen sends upcoming-payment reminders and provides a customer page where they can check their balance, access receipts and update their card details. Explore the customer tools.

If a scheduled payment fails, Paythen handles automatic notifications (for you and the customer) and retries. You can see which customers need attention in the dashboard without keeping a separate spreadsheet of due dates. How failed payments work.

Automatic collection doesn’t guarantee that every payment will succeed. Some payments may still need customer action or follow-up from your team. These are clearly identified in your dashboard so you can quickly follow up and resolve this with the customer.

Selling through a store, a form or another app?

A single plan link works well when everyone pays the same price. When the total or the customer changes each time, use a Paythen template: one link that creates a fresh payment plan for each customer, with the amount and their details passed in from wherever they started.

Online stores: our WooCommerce payment plans plugin adds a payment plan option at checkout, so shoppers can pay off any cart over time. On Shopify, customers choose the Paythen payment plan option at checkout and get an email with their own plan link to start paying, set up once with Zapier (Shopify payment plans).
Your existing forms: keep the enrolment, booking or order form you already use (Jotform, Gravity Forms, Typeform and similar) and send customers on to a template link. Their plan is created with the details they just entered, and you can lock pre-filled fields so they can’t be changed.
Advanced workflows with Zapier: connect Paythen to 7,000+ apps. Send a tailored plan link when a deal closes in your CRM, or update your email, CRM and accounting tools when a customer signs up or their status changes. See integrations.

Can I create a payment plan using Stripe alone?

Yes, in a limited way. Stripe has invoice payment plans currently documented as a private-preview feature.

Those invoice plans let you divide an invoice into payments with separate due dates. However, Stripe’s documentation says customers must return to the payment page for subsequent payments; those plans don’t automatically charge saved payment details. See Stripe’s current payment plan documentation. If you’d rather have each instalment charged automatically, with reminders and retries, that’s what Paythen adds on top of your Stripe account.

The walkthrough above is for a different workflow: creating a shareable Paythen link with automatic instalment collection, reminders, retries and more, through your connected Stripe account.

Do I receive the full amount upfront?

No. With Paythen, you receive payments as your customer pays each instalment. Transfers to your bank follow your Stripe payout schedule.

Paythen isn’t a lender and doesn’t advance the unpaid balance. Your business retains the risk of a customer not completing their payments – although we provide you various tools that help you minimise and mitigate this.

When a payment comes through, it immediately and directly goes into your Stripe account, and from there it is paid out by Stripe (less Paythen and Stripe fees) to your bank account based on your payout schedule.
More about when you get paid.

What does it cost?

Paythen costs 2% per payment, plus Stripe fees. There’s no monthly fee. Many businesses choose to pass these on to customers for the convenience of a payment plan as a small surcharge or admin fee. Weighing this against buy now, pay later? See Stripe buy now, pay later vs your own payment plans.

Set up a payment plan for your next customer, student or client

Start with what you already sell—a course, a coaching package or a client project. Decide what’s due today and how you want to collect the balance.

Then create your plan and share the link wherever they are – email, whatsapp, link in bio. You can use the same link for one customer or many.

Create your payment-plan link →

Need a hand choosing the right payment plan or schedule? Just tell us what you’re selling through the chat icon on this page and we’d love to help you set this up!

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We’ll ask you to connect your Stripe account or create a new one once you sign up. Paythen works with Stripe.

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Payment Pages

Date-based templates: bill on the same day each month

Date-based plan templates now have a second way to set payment dates. Instead of picking fixed and pre-set calendar dates, you can choose a day of the month – say the 15th – and a total number of payments. Each customer is then charged on the 15th of every month, starting from when they sign up, plus an optional sign up fee.

Because each customer’s dates are calculated automatically when they check out, plans created this way always have payment dates in the future. With fixed pre-set dates, customers signing up after any date had passed had to pay a larger lump-sum on sign up to catch up. If what you’re selling doesn’t have a hard cut off date, this new approach can work well. For plans where everyone must complete payments by a specific date, the existing date-based or Flexipay setup continues to work well.

When you create or edit a date-based template, choose Same day each month under “How should payment dates be set?”, then set:

Which day of the month — any day from the 1st to the 31st. If you pick the 29th, 30th or 31st, shorter months use their last day, and the following month goes back to your chosen day.
Number of monthly payments — the total is split evenly between them, to the cent, so the payments always add up to the exact total.
When the first payment is — for customers who sign up before your chosen day, start their payments in the same month or wait until the following month. Eg: with the 15th, a customer signing up on 9 October first pays on 15 October with “Start in the same month”, or on 15 November with “Start from the following month”. Anyone signing up on or after the 15th starts the following month either way.

You can still add a one-time upfront fee, like a deposit or setup fee, which is charged at sign up – either on top of the total or deducted from it. As you fill in the details, an example schedule shows exactly what a customer signing up today would pay and when.

paythen-same-day-each-month-preview

Fixed dates are still the best fit when everyone is working towards the same date – a trip, a retreat or a course start – and you want every customer paid up by a specific date in the future.

Same day each month suits ongoing sales where customers sign up at any time, but you want payments being charged on a predictable day every month regardless of when someone signs up.

This is only available for date-based plans created via templates at the moment. This will roll out to date-based plans created directly via the dashboard in the future too. As always, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have questions or feedback, reach out via the chat icon 💬

👉 Create a date-based template in your dashboard
👉 Date-based payment plans guide

Admin

Paythen now has a one-click test mode toggle – you can switch to this anytime to try out new plan types, understand how a new discount would work, test new templates and understand customer progression first-hand. You get real emails in test mode from simulated events – just like your customers would. Use test mode to fast-forward payment plans, get customer-facing emails, simulate what happens when a payment fails, and test new things without any live payments.

To try test mode, just flip the switch next to the Paythen logo. A yellow “You’re in test mode” label stays on while you’re in it so there’s never any doubt about which data you’re looking at. Flip it back and you’re in live mode exactly where you left off. The first time you or someone on your team toggles on test mode, we’ll add some sample test mode data you can check out. Create more by signing up to a test plan yourself. Wipe it with one-click whenever you want.

Build and refine new plans — payment plans, Pay your way, date-based, Wait for it, Flexipay, subscriptions and one-off payments, plus templates and discount codes.

See exactly what customers see — open any test plan link and go through the full checkout with simulated card fields. No real card is saved or charged. Use a real working email to ensure you get the same emails customers would. You can toggle your admin email settings for test mode separate to your live mode settings too.

Simulate what happens next — test plans don’t advance on their own, so each test customer’s page has controls to simulate the next payment, a failed payment, or send the upcoming payment reminder.

Get the real emails — sign up with a working email and the customer and admin emails land in your inbox, clearly marked as test-mode emails. Email settings in test mode are separate, so you can switch them on or off without affecting live.

Copy between modes — move plans, templates and discounts from test to live once you’re happy, or bring a live plan into test to try a change. Each copy is a new, isolated object and not synced between modes in real time to avoid accidental changes. Copy back and forth as often as needed.

Start fresh any time — add a set of sample customers, plans, templates and discounts in various statuses, or wipe all test data with one click via Settings › Account info. Live data is never touched when you do this.

Test test mode templates with WooCommerce — If you’re using our WooCommerce plugin, you can use a test-mode template link to check the full store-to-payment-plan flow before going live – this gives you a full picture of what your customers will see using your exact plan setup and configuration. Don’t forget to change this to a live template link once you’re done testing!

A few things to know

Test mode doesn’t currently work with Zapier and creates no data in your Stripe account. Early access features like Offers and our Rewardful integration aren’t available in test mode yet. If you need to test a full workflow involving Zapier or Stripe data, use a separate Paythen demo account connected to a Stripe sandbox.

As always, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have questions or feedback, reach out via the chat icon 💬

👉 Try test mode in your dashboard now
👉 Testing in Paythen guide
👉 Understand demo accounts (vs. test mode)

Payment Pages

If you’ve ever wanted to give your customers more say in how they pay — without losing control over key aspects, Flexipay offers exactly that. It’s our most flexible plan type, and it puts the power of choice in your customers’ hands, within the rules you set. This helps you attract and sell to more customers.

Flexipay plans let each of your customers design their own payment schedule when they check out. You define the rules — the minimum deposit, the completion timeframe or date, and whether to allow customers to pay in full — and each customer picks what suits them. No two customers need to be on the same schedule. One might pay weekly over 3 months, another monthly over 6 — all from the single plan link you create. 🙌

Try a live Flexipay demo here to see exactly what your customers experience.

Flexibility for your customers doesn’t mean ambiguity for you. As the business owner, you set the key parameters like:

Minimum payment — what customers need to pay upfront – $100, 10%, etc.
Completion timeframe or date — all payments must be completed within a specific timeframe from sign up (eg: 12 months) or a specified date (eg: 28 January 2027)
Allow pay-in-full — decide whether you want to offer the option to pay in full
Pay-in-full discount — optionally reward customers who pay the full amount upfront

Flexipay also supports ecommerce and other scenarios where each customer has a varying total via templates. This lets you bring the power of Flexipay plans to any workflow you have including WooCommerce, Shopify and almost anything else via Zapier.

Flexipay is a great fit for businesses where customers have varying budgets or cash flow preferences — and where a one-size-fits-all plan isn’t ideal. Some examples include:

🎓 Coaches & course creators — let students choose a deposit and pace that suits their cashflow

📸 Photographers & creatives — offer payment flexibility without lengthy back-and-forth on custom plans

🏋️ Fitness & wellness — training packages and retreats where clients have different financial rhythms

🎪 Events & experiences — sell tickets or packages months in advance and let customers spread the cost their way, while having a hard completion date for everyone x days before the event

🛠️ Service businesses — take on clients who need flexibility without abandoning your payment terms

If you currently use our Pay Your Way plans for flexibility, Flexipay takes that further — giving customers true control over their own schedule, not just a choice between two fixed options. Talk to us about migrating your existing Pay your way plans to Flexipay if this suits your needs better.

As always, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have questions or feedback, reach out via the chat icon 💬

👉 Try the Flexipay demo
👉 Flexipay setup instructions

Zapier

If you use Paythen with your ecommerce store either via the email based flow (eg: for Shopify) or our plugin (like WooCommerce), the flow typically involves customers completing the checkout with the payment plan option chosen, and then either being shown or emailed their payment plan link.

For WooCommerce, the order status automatically changes if they complete their payment plan payment, but for email based workflows like Shopify, Webflow, Eventbrite and any others, once a customer is emailed their payment plan link, you had to manually check if they had paid by logging into the Paythen dashboard, and then manually following up.

You can now fully automate this process with our new Find Customer action available in Zapier. In your zap where you send customers the Paythen payment plan link, just add a short delay after the current flow (eg: wait for 10 minutes) and then use the Find Customer action to check if the customer exists in Paythen. If they do, you can update your eCommerce store order – eg: adding a note and/or tag in Shopify and passing the customer’s Paythen link for reference or in other platforms, you can update the status of the order directly too.

If the customer doesn’t exist, this means they haven’t signed up to their payment plan yet – you can set it up in Zapier to send them a reminder with custom text in it and include the payment plan link again. You can then continue to do this multiple times for a few hours or even a few days after the order was placed, and cancel the order and more as needed if the customer doesn’t pay eventually.

The same setup works when you’re using Paythen with any third party form tool, or any other custom workflows where you show / email them the payment plan link. You can now just add a short delay, then check if they have paid and exist as a customer in Paythen, and if not, trigger one or more reminders and take further steps as needed.

This process required manual admin till now – but can now be fully automated, saving you time. To get started, open your Zapier account and in the action step, choose “Find Customer”. You can modify your existing zap by adding a delay after you send the payment plan link, then checking if the customer exists in Paythen, and then either updating the order in your eCommerce platform or other system (find order and add a note in Shopify for example), or if not found, you can then trigger another reminder email with custom text. You can then set up further steps to check again, say in 1 hour, 4 hours, 2 days, etc to continue automated follow-ups as needed.

If you’re not sure how to do this with your workflow, just reach out to us via the chat icon and we’ll help you get set up.