Announcing Mindspun Payments

The easy way to offer Stripe-powered payments and subscriptions in WordPress

Digital creators are spoiled for choice when searching for e-commerce and payment plugins for WordPress.

WooCommerce is the leading solution, and several alternatives focus on digital downloads and subscriptions where full shopping carts are not needed.

This leaves a gap between larger plugins offering too many features and smaller ones missing the one you really need, which is what we are trying to bridge.

We are also solving our challenges, which is often the starting point of a product. We needed a solution for our projects but couldn’t find one that checked all the boxes. They were either too complex or missing key features. We also wanted to avoid having to install additional add-ons.

As we built the first iteration, we considered who else Mindspun Payments could work well for. We came up with this list:

• Time-poor Digital Creators that typically sell a limited number of products
• WordPress Developers going to market with products such as themes, plugins and website assets
• Entrepreneurs building WordPress-powered SaaS products
• Publishers setting up paywalls to monetize premium content
• Online coaches with great content to sell

Keeping the end user in mind is always a good exercise, helping focus on what matters.

Designed to get you going quickly

This was our #1 goal right from the start for our WordPress Stripe plugin. It shouldn’t take someone hours to install and configure their store.

Here’s how it works:

• We let Stripe do much of the heavy lifting. Create and manage products and transactions there – their UI is very good.
• Install Mindspun Payments and sync over products, uploading the digital asset associated with each and/or the licensing server credentials (if you’re selling software)
• Set the Check-Out and Login pages. Build them with the block editor or any page builder you’re using, matching your website’s branding.
• Embed payment widgets via the Block Editor or using shortcodes with your favorite page builder.
• Set up gated content based on what products customers have subscribed to.

And you’re off!

Our plugin will create the full shopping cart and account management functionality, from registration and purchase to login and user account management. A key idea, which we are passionate about, is that customers shouldn’t jump from one platform to another to complete the purchase – it’s really the first rule of e-commerce. With Mindspun Payments, the experience is ‘on brand’ and seamless.

If you have a spare 3 minutes this video walks you through the whole process.

Built for the Block Editor

Half way through our beta testing we realized that users wwould much prefer using native blocks rather than shortcodes. So we built them.

This delayed the launch of Mindspun but was a useful exercise for us to dive deep into Block development. With the release of WordPress 6.3 and a growing number of exciting block-based products, it was the right time to commit to what is effectively the future of WordPress.

Mindspun Payments comes bundled with Mindspun Responsive Blocks, a free plugin we developed to make sure the purchase experience is consistent on all devices. When the same controls are available in core you won’t need this. Until then, you have granular control of every element.

What’s next for Mindspun Payments

The plan is not to layer on additional functionality but to keep it simple and ‘essential.’ That said, if there’s a strong case for building a new feature, we’ll consider it. We’ll continue to fine tune the back end for usability and front-end to improve the customer experience – we know how important that is for conversion rates.

As we learn more about how Mindspun Payments is used, we’ll create new blocks to help customers build great E-commerce experiences.

We’re keen to work with other solution providers – hosting companies, theme and plugin devs and marketplaces – that are interested in offering Mindspun Payments to their customers.

Launch offer – get 50% off

Mindspun Payments is priced at $99/year. Like most commercial plugins, it won’t stop working if you don’t renew. You just won’t get more updates.

For a limited time only, we’re offering a 50% discount for the first year. Head over to the Mindspun Payments page to learn more and buy a copy. You will also see how it works from a customer’s perspective.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Matt Laue
Founder