Questions about Pro Forms

Hello-

I found a couple articles about Pro-Forms ( here and here), but need more details.

For my project, I will be using PayPal standard. I’m trying to understand what features will still be available when I’m not using PayPal Pro.

1) Can you give me the quick summary of what Pro-Forms does? I don’t see any definition of it in the documentation.

Here’s what I think it might be:

PayPal Pro makes it look like your site is doing all of the payment processing. The user isn’t taken to the PayPal site, and you can make your checkout look very slick. PayPal Pro still does the payment processing, but it happens behind the scenes.

S2 Member Pro Forms lets you make the cool custom checkout pages on your WP site. Pro-Forms use special “Pay Now” buttons that take care of the behind-the-scenes payment.

Is that right?

What parts of the cool custom checkout pages depend on using PayPal Pro? What will still work with standard PayPal?

2) This picture makes it look like a Pro Form can gather all the account creation information and custom profile information. It looks like it can create the user account automatically. The reg thank you page article suggests at least one could pass through all the values in the callback.

Is that correct?

Thank you-
Janet

Hello Janet,

You got everything right if I’m not mistaken.

What parts of the cool custom checkout pages depend on using PayPal Pro? What will still work with standard PayPal?

Check this article for that: Knowledge Base » PayPal® Services / A Quick Comparison
And also this FAQ question: Pre Sale FAQs » To use s2Member® Pro Forms, will I have to use PayPal® Pro?

EDIT:
I updated the pro-form knowledge base article so that it’s clearer on what a pro-form is.

Hope this helps. :)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by  Eduan. Reason: Added article info

Hi Eduan-

Thanks for the updates. I’m still looking for more information.

“The great thing about pro-forms is that they allow you to control the whole checkout process, you are sure that they will see what you intended them to see. The pro-form allows you to make your registration look great, while processing all the PayPal/Authorize.net info behind the scenes, so the user doesn’t need to go to paypal.com, everything happens behind the scenes and your user will have a smooth payment.”

1) What does “control the whole checkout process” and “they will see what I intended them to see” mean?

I get that PayPal Pro lets site owners keep their own branding. There’s no side trip to PayPal.com and return to the site. It’s more elegant.

Tell me what S2 Pro Forms gives me when I’m not using PayPal Pro. Tools to make a really pretty page? The ability to make multi-page custom checkout flow?

What functionality can I expect from S2 Pro Forms without PayPal Pro?

2) I saw that I can still use regular PayPal buttons on my site. Can I use them inside an S2 Pro Form signups? Of course it won’t have that nice seamless payment processing, but oh well. Can I mix the two?

I did find the PayPal service comparison earlier, and it was handy to understand the payment options. At this time it’s not worth $30 a month, even if it makes a very pretty form. ( And I’m not knocking pretty forms – I like a smooth purchase as much as the next customer.)

Support, please tell me what functionality S2 Pro Forms provides. There’s no description in the documentation, and there’s no YouTube tutorial.

-Janet

1) What does “control the whole checkout process” and “they will see what I intended them to see” mean?

I get that PayPal Pro lets site owners keep their own branding. There’s no side trip to PayPal.com and return to the site. It’s more elegant.

That’s basically it, you can control the checkout process in a more elegant way, your customers will pay and create their account at the same time, and it will retain the look of your website.

Tell me what S2 Pro Forms gives me when I’m not using PayPal Pro. Tools to make a really pretty page? The ability to make multi-page custom checkout flow?

What functionality can I expect from S2 Pro Forms without PayPal Pro?

If you don’t have PayPal pro, then I believe you will still be able to use pro-forms, but won’t be able to accept various credit cards, only PayPal payments, but you still have the pro-form look and idea.

2) I saw that I can still use regular PayPal buttons on my site. Can I use them inside an S2 Pro Form signups? Of course it won’t have that nice seamless payment processing, but oh well. Can I mix the two?

You can use both pro-forms and normal buttons (even buttons created over at PayPal), you can combine them anyway you want, but you can’t have one inside the other (just to clarify that).

Hope this helps. :)

What functionality can I expect from S2 Pro Forms without PayPal Pro?

The same as with PayPal buttons, but with Express Checkout: Buy Now sales can be paid with a card, without having a PayPal account, but Subscriptions would need the user to login to his PayPal account.

Pre Sale FAQs » To use s2Member® Pro Forms, will I have to use PayPal® Pro?

I saw that I can still use regular PayPal buttons on my site. Can I use them inside an S2 Pro Form signups?

The pro-form already has the Express Checkout button, which gives a very similar experience to the PayPal Standard button.

Thanks, that’s very helpful.

Cristián, PayPal also offers an Advanced plan ( see their plan comparison) which allows merchants to charge without the user leaving their website, for only $5.

Does S2 Member Pro Forms work with PayPal Advanced the same way it works with PayPal Pro? I’m not familiar with the mechanisms that let PayPal Pro work with S2Member, and can’t tell if there’s a different mechanism between PayPal Pro and PayPal Advanced, or whether it looks the same at the API level.

Cheers-
Janet

Hi Janet,

PayPal Advanced is a new offering from PayPal. The current version of s2Member does not support PayPal Advanced, but we will be adding support for it in the next major release of s2Member, which will be coming soon (we don’t have a release date, but we’re approaching the beta-testing stage, so it shouldn’t be too long).