Want your website to bring in donations on a regular schedule, not just once?
A WordPress plugin built for recurring giving charges supporters automatically every week, month or year. Your fundraising runs on its own, and donors tend to stay with your organization longer.
Below you’ll find the strongest picks, each one designed to make giving painless.
First, a quick look at what separates a good recurring donation plugin from a weak one.
What to Look For in a Recurring Donation Plugin
Recurring donation plugins for WordPress vary a lot in how they look and what they can do. A solid one for repeat giving should offer:
- Choice of gateway (Stripe, PayPal and others)
- A donate button you can place on your site with little effort
- More than one currency
- Receipts sent automatically after each payment
- Layouts that adapt to phones and tablets
- Connections to email marketing tools
- Reports that show how donations are coming in
- Styling controls so forms match your brand
The plugins below meet these requirements and come with a strong set of features.
Here they are.
| Product | Price | Rating | Active installs |
|---|---|---|---|
| WP Simple Pay | Free + paid | 4.4/5 | 8,000+ |
| Charitable | Free + paid | 4.9/5 | 10,000+ |
| GiveWP | Free + paid | 4.6/5 | 100,000+ |
| Donorbox | Free + paid | 4.8/5 | 8,000+ |
| PayPal Donation Pro | Paid |
WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay sits at the top of this list as a payments and donations plugin for WordPress. Single gifts and repeat gifts both work out of the box, and no coding is needed.
Forms are built in a drag-and-drop editor: pull in the fields you need, then adjust the layout and wording until the form looks right.
Payments run through Stripe, so supporters can set up a repeat gift right on your page instead of being sent somewhere else to finish.
Donors aren’t stuck with preset sums; they can type any figure into the form themselves. At checkout they also get ACH debit, Google Pay or Apple Pay.
Every form resizes cleanly for phones, tablets and desktops.
For individuals and nonprofits running fundraising campaigns, WP Simple Pay is the top pick here.
Highlights:
- Ready-made Stripe templates for donation forms
- A form builder that newcomers can handle
- Many languages and currencies
- Donors can choose their own amount
- Buttons for Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Editable thank-you messages after a donation
- Built-in spam protection
Pros
- Payment form block and shortcode for Stripe card payments
- Subscriptions available in the free version
- Optional hCaptcha or Cloudflare Turnstile on payment forms
Cons
- Lite adds a 3% application fee to each transaction
- Custom fields, coupons and on-site overlay forms need Pro
- Sends usage data only if the site opts in, and loads Stripe and captcha scripts
WP Charitable
Second on the list, Charitable gives your cause a secure way to take donations.
You can run as many campaigns as you like and set the suggested amounts yourself, or leave the amount up to each donor.
Repeat giving, along with extra crowdfunding tools, comes with the paid Pro version.
Where Charitable shines is record keeping. Without leaving WordPress admin, you can find any single gift, pull CSV exports and handle other donor tasks.
Highlights:
- Emails personalized through custom tags
- Receipts sent to donors automatically
- Payments through PayPal, Authorize.net and other gateways
- Safe, dependable donation handling
Pricing:
No charge for the core plugin; paid upgrades are available.
Pros
- Stripe, PayPal and Square gateways plus offline donations in the free edition
- Campaign builder with templates, goals and progress bars
- Donor database, reports and CSV export
- Built-in reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha and Turnstile spam protection
- Usage tracking is opt-in
Cons
- Lite card payments carry a 3 percent fee on top of gateway fees
- Recurring donations and many integrations need Pro or extensions
- Heavy admin with many upsell screens and menus
- Large codebase of almost 5,000 files
GiveWP
GiveWP is a lean, straightforward option that handles both single and repeat gifts. It works with several payment gateways, PayPal and Stripe among them.
Its forms can be adapted to what your nonprofit needs, and you can collect repeat gifts through a donate button or a popup.
Behind the scenes, GiveWP tracks every supporter and every payment, so following who gives each month or each year takes little effort.
GiveWP has a wider feature set beyond what is covered here.
Highlights:
- Runs with any WordPress theme
- Donor management included
- Links to email marketing services
- Forms where donors set the amount
- Giving by text message
Pricing:
Basic use is free. Paid plans unlock repeat billing and the more advanced tools.
Pros
- Donation forms and campaigns in the free core
- Stripe and PayPal payment gateways included
- Donor records, receipts and a donor export
Cons
- Recurring donations need a paid add-on
- Many advanced features are split into separate paid add-ons
- Large plugin with many admin screens to learn
Donorbox
Donorbox comes from a well-known fundraising service that fits any type of site. Through its WordPress plugin, campaigns with ongoing gifts are simple to launch.
Givers set up a plan that bills every month, at whatever sum suits them. Cards work, as do bank transfers, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay.
To put a form on your WordPress site, you paste in an embed code. Colors, wording and styles are all adjustable so the form fits your design.
Highlights:
- Employer gift matching that lifts conversions
- Donation forms as well as popups
- Apple Pay and Google Pay for donors on phones
- Analytics that follow progress toward your goals
- Works in many currencies
Pricing:
No subscription is needed on the free tier, though Donorbox keeps a share of each gift. The paid Pro plan lowers that share.
Pros
- Embeds a Donorbox campaign with one shortcode
- Two layouts: form only, or form with campaign info
- Campaign can be set per shortcode
Cons
- Donations are processed and stored by the Donorbox service
- Needs a Donorbox account before it does anything
PayPal Donation Pro
PayPal Donation Pro is a good fit for fundraising on your own site, handling both single and repeat gifts. Setup is quick enough that a newcomer can be taking donations after a few clicks.
Setup means two steps: fill in PayPal or merchant account info under Settings, then build a button and pick how people can pay.
The button can go on any page or post: drop its shortcode into the editor, or use the built-in button inserter or the widget instead.
Highlights:
- Compatible with every WordPress theme
- Quick setup
- As many donate buttons as you need
- Handles single and repeat gifts
Picking a Recurring Donations Plugin
Every plugin above handles ongoing gifts well, yet each has its own strengths. Match the choice to the way your group raises money.
Still undecided? These two are the safest choices:
- WP Simple Pay: Simple, secure repeat giving, with Apple Pay, Google Pay and other payment methods that make checkout smoother on phones.
- WP Charitable: Run as many campaigns as you want without transaction fees
With one of these in place, your site can take recurring donations without manual work.
