A client (Scottish family association) needs to accept payment for dues. For new members, they also need a fairly detailed form to be submitted with the payment.
(Site is in Foundation 3.)
I’ve found a few posts about payment/cart stacks; many are a couple of years old, and some stacks don’t seem to be actively supported. Machform & subscription options may be more than they need, with just a few transactions or so in a month.
Any recommendations for current stacks that can combine a custom form with a Stripe/Square/etc checkout option?
It’s been a while since I’ve used it but I think Ecwid allows you to have custom checkout fields. You could possibly recreate your form there as part of the checkout process. They have a free plan for limited items.
Another option (if you didnt want to go the Machform route) would just seperate form and payment. After a form is completed, they could be redirected to a payment page and just include any Stripe/Paypal button to complete payment.
The way I would do this is to have a form (using any forms stacks, Foundation 1 will do fine) and set it to go to a payment page on submit (all forms stacks should allow this). This could be a payment page on your own website, or a direct link to a page for an online service like Paypal or Stripe.
I heard the PaySnap3 stack does what you need. I’m in the same boat, only I’m using PayPal to checkout. I’m using Joe’s PayPal stack but the custom fields aren’t coming over into the Paypal purchase details. I’ll be keeping an eye on this post.
I run StacksWeaver.com off Vibracart Pro, the dev @vibralogix is very responsive and actively updates the cart. In my case, I use it with Sitelok, which allows my customers to have an My Account page, with purchase history and downloads area. Its a very robust system and scales nicely.
I use Machform aon a number of sites for exactly this scenario: a detailed form with online payment options. Works brilliantly and their support is good too. Supports Stripe & Paypal. Example: Helicopter Flights where personal details such as names of fliers, height, weight, destination, gift message and a whole lot more are required. You can set machform to send the form even if the payment fails for some reason - useful as you can then contact the sender personally. Also, with Machform, the Stripe receipt is properly referenced - some other payment apps don’t integrate as tightly, and the Stripe receipt will only show a lengthy code that is not easily collated with the Form.
It’s not clear to me why you think MachForm is overkill. Perhaps you think your use-scenario is too simple … others have already addressed that issue. On the other hand, perhaps you think it is too expensive. It’s really worth every penny to have a form app that is solid and works right all the time. Put differently: it’s very reliable and dependable. That makes it worth it in my eyes.
Once you have MachForm (for 1 website or for many) then you might naturally find other uses for it. Quick surveys sent out to members, biographies from members to be shared on the website, etc. etc.
I use it for most site forms now. PHP forms (stacks etc.) are horribly unreliablew now. Not the stack itself, just the way mail is sent and the likelyhood of it getting spammed. Machforms never get spammed and always hit the recipients. Plus, you get a nice archive of all completed forms.
You can use Paysnap for this by using the Option (text) fields to capture additional info but it’s a bit of a workaround and not really a replacement for a detailed form. Machform is a much better fit imho.
Just a sidenote, on your archive of completed forms, @Scott_Williams of StacksAppStacks.com just released his F62SQlite stack that allows you to take a Foundation 6 form and save it into an SQLite database. I have been beta testing it for the last few months and use it with a travel agency that submits a form to a shuttle company to book Airport Shuttles for their clients. As well as sending emails from the form regularly, it puts this data in a database where the shuttle company and the travel agents have access to seeing the progression of the booking and make changes to the data in the database.
Just wanted to mention this, because you mentioned the archive of completed forms. The stack could be used to store in a database all of the submissions from a form. Thought it was worth mentioning. However this MachForm does look really good and I can see its case use.
Thanks so much for the responses! This is great discussion, and great information. ‘Overkill’ was based on a simple need, vs a robust subscription service for essentially one form, if a solution like a form stack and checkout button or redirect would be similar, and simpler for the client after the fact.
That said, seeing some Machform use cases is very helpful. And @mitchellm , your alternative-use suggestions are appreciated as well.
Do you know where the Option (text) field information can be viewed in PayPal? or should it show up in an email that PayPal sends out when a purchase has been made.
TBH my clients haven’t used Paypal much - Stripe is preferred. However, I recall options appear in the email. I’ll have a look at some examples and see if I can be clearer.
I use Paperform.co - their forms are fabulous and you can link them to Stripe or Paypal so that payment is part of the form submission process. Everything is easy and it just works. Very powerful. I got it years ago through AppSumo and must have made at least 100 forms for clients with it - event registration, membership, surveys, you name it. Oh, and they embed easily on any RW page. Just use the HTML stack.