PaySlate vs WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is the most established Stripe plugin in the WordPress directory, with around 9,000 active installs and a strong rating. We build PaySlate, so the bias is disclosed up front, and the places WP Simple Pay genuinely beats us are stated plainly below. Every claim here was verified in August 2026.
The honest answer to “which is better” is that they do different jobs, and picking wrongly costs you more than picking the weaker product. WP Simple Pay builds payment forms: a button or a form on a page, someone pays, Stripe records a charge. PaySlate sends invoices: a document addressed to a named client for a specific amount, with a due date, a status, and a reminder when it is late.
At a glance
| PaySlate | WP Simple Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | Invoice a client and get paid | Take a payment on a page |
| Invoice record with a client and due date | Yes | No |
| Status tracking: sent, viewed, partial, paid, overdue | Yes | No |
| Automatic overdue reminders | Yes | No |
| Deposits and partial payments with balance tracking | Yes, free | No |
| Free gateways | Stripe and Square | Stripe |
| Gateways beyond Stripe | Square free; PayPal, Checkout.com, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy on Pro | Stripe only |
| Merchant of record for VAT and sales tax | Yes, on Pro | No |
| Active installs | New (launched July 2026) | ~9,000 |
The test that tells you which one you need
Ask what happens after the money arrives. If the answer is “nothing, that was the transaction”, you want a payment form and WP Simple Pay is excellent at that. Selling a fixed-price thing, taking a booking deposit off a landing page, collecting a donation.
If the answer involves a person who owes you a specific amount by a specific date, and you need to know later whether they paid, you want invoices. A payment form cannot tell you that an invoice is nine days overdue, because there is no invoice.
Gateways
WP Simple Pay is a Stripe plugin, deliberately and by name. That focus is a strength: it goes deep on Stripe rather than shallow on ten processors.
PaySlate ships Stripe and Square free, and Pro adds PayPal, Checkout.com, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy. One gateway is active at a time, and each invoice keeps the gateway it was created with, so switching never breaks an invoice a client is midway through paying.
Where WP Simple Pay wins
Maturity and trust. Around 9,000 sites run it, with a long review history. PaySlate launched in July 2026 and has neither. If you want the safe, proven choice for taking a Stripe payment, that is a legitimate reason to pick it.
Form building. Custom fields, subscription options, coupon handling, on-page checkout flows. PaySlate does not build payment forms at all and is not trying to.
They can coexist. These are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of sites should run a payment form on the pricing page and invoice their retainer clients separately.
Which one fits you
Choose WP Simple Pay if you sell a fixed thing from a page and the transaction ends when the card clears.
Choose PaySlate if you bill named clients for varying amounts, need to know what is outstanding, and want deposits and reminders handled for you. See how it works or pricing.