Setup checklist

Welcome to Paddle! This guide walks through all the steps that you need to get started with Paddle, build an integration, and prepare for go-live.

The steps in this guide apply to your sandbox account, unless otherwise stated. We walk through setting up your live account in our go-live checklist.

Get started

1. Sign up for Paddle

   Create your Paddle accounts and invite your team.

2. Verify your live account

   Provide some information to verify your domain, your business, and your identity.

3. Complete initial configuration

   Configure key settings like your balance currency and whether prices include tax, and create API keys.

4. Add products to your product catalog

   Add subscription plans, recurring addons, one-off charges, and other items to Paddle.

5. Integrate with your frontend

   Integrate Paddle with your frontend using Paddle.js and Paddle Checkout.

6. Create notification destinations

   Use webhooks to get notified when events happen in your Paddle system.

7. Handle subscription lifecycle events

   Build workflows to handle subscription lifecycle events, like signing up, pausing, or canceling.

8. Test and go live

   Test your integration fully, then start the transition to your live account.

Sign up for Paddle

When you're ready to get started with Paddle, sign up for Paddle accounts. There are two kinds of Paddle account:

• Sandbox — for testing and evaluation
• Live — for selling to customers

We recommend signing up for both kinds of account. You generally build your integration with your sandbox account, then transition your integration to a live account when you're ready to start selling.

• Sign up for sandbox account

  Your sandbox account is for evaluation and testing. All transactions are tests, meaning they're simulated and any money isn't real.

  Sign up for a sandbox account, then confirm your email address.

• Sign up for live account

  Your live account is where customers can make purchases. Transactions are real, meaning payment methods are charged and you earn real money.

  Sign up for a live account, then confirm your email address.

• Invite your team

  Add your team members to Paddle to start collaborating on setup, integration, and the daily operation of your subscription management solution.

  Go to Paddle > Business account > Team members, then add accounts for your team members. Do this for both your sandbox and live accounts.

Verify your live account

Account verification is where we ask for some information about who you are and what you're selling to make sure that we can work together. It helps keep the Paddle platform safe for everyone.

It only takes a few moments to complete, and our verification team are available to help throughout.

You only need to do this for your live account. It can sometimes take a few days to complete verification, so we recommend starting the process in live before you start integrating with sandbox.

• Verify your domains

  Domain verification makes sure you own the domains where you use Paddle Checkout, and that the products sold meet the Paddle Acceptable Use Policy.

  Add your domains to Paddle > Checkout > Request domain approval. Wait for approval.

  Learn more: What is domain verification?

• Verify your business

  Business verification checks the business information that you provided when you signed up for Paddle. This happens automatically in most cases, but sometimes we might need more information from you.

  Look out for emails from our verification team and reply if you receive them.

  Learn more: What is business verification?

• Verify your identity

  Identity verification is a check on anyone significant at a business, like anyone who owns more than 25% of a company. If you signed up as an individual, we'll ask you to verify your own identity.

  Look out for an email from our verification team, then complete identify verification.

  Learn more: What is identity verification?

Complete initial configuration

Before you start building an integration, configure key settings for your sandbox account. You can always change these settings later.

• Generate API keys

  Create API keys to interact with the Paddle API. We recommend creating keys and familiarizing yourself with authentication before getting started.

  Go to Paddle > Developer tools > Authentication to generate API keys.

  Send a request to the /event-types endpoint to test your authentication.

  Learn more: Authentication

• Set default payment link

  Your default payment link is a quick way to open Paddle Checkout for a transaction. It should be a page that includes Paddle.js, typically your checkout page.

  Go to Paddle > Checkout > Checkout settings, expand Default payment link, then add a default payment link.

  You can set this to localhost or another test domain while working with sandbox. Change this later once you've built a checkout.

  Learn more: Set your default payment link

• Set up payment methods

  Choose the payment methods you want to use with Paddle Checkout. You can turn on payment methods in a couple of clicks — no need to sign up for merchant or partner accounts.

  Go to Paddle > Checkout > Checkout settings, expand Payment methods, then check the payment methods you want to offer.

  Card is always on for checkouts, and bank and wire transfer is always on for invoices.

  Learn more: Payment methods

• Set sales tax settings

  Choose whether prices should be inclusive or exclusive of taxes by default. Typically, prices are exclusive of tax when selling to businesses and in regions with sales taxes.

  Go to Paddle > Checkout > Sales tax settings to set your sales tax setting.

• Set balance currency

  Choose the currency that you want to hold earnings in. Paddle automatically converts payments in other currencies to your balance currency, ready for payout.

  Go to Paddle > Business account > Currencies to set your balance currency.

  We recommend choosing a currency that matches your bank account.

Add products to your product catalog

Your product catalog includes subscription plans, recurring addons, and one-off items.

• Create products and prices

  Products describe the items that customers can purchase. They have related prices that describe how you charge for them. Add products and prices to Paddle for your subscription plans, recurring addons, and one-off items.

  Go to Paddle > Catalog > Products to start adding products and prices.

  Learn more: Create products and prices

• Create discounts

  Discounts let you reduce the amount a customer has to pay by a percentage or fixed amount. They can be one-time or recurring, and apply to an entire transaction or just items that you choose.

  Go to Paddle > Catalog > Discounts to start adding discounts.

  Learn more: Create products and prices

• Request approval for taxable categories

  Taxable categories determine what kinds of items you're able to sell with Paddle. They make sure that you charge the correct amount of tax for your products. Standard Digital Goods is available by default, but you should request approval for other taxable categories if you require them.

  Go to Paddle > Catalog > Taxable categories to request approval for other taxable categories.

  Learn more: Why do I need to select taxable categories for my products?

Integrate with your frontend

Integrate Paddle with your frontend using Paddle.js and Paddle Checkout.

Paddle Checkout handles securely capturing card details or payment using another payment method when customers sign up, change their payment details, or want to pay invoices by card or other payment method.

• Build a checkout

  Use Paddle.js to integrate Paddle Checkout with your website or app. You can build an overlay checkout with a few lines of code, or create an integrated experience using inline checkout.

  Use Paddle.js to build a checkout.

  Learn more: Build an overlay checkout or build an inline checkout

• Handle checkout success

  If you like, you can redirect to a success page or build custom logic that runs when checkout completes.

  Build a success page and add it to your checkout page, or use Paddle.js events to build custom logic.

  Learn more: Handle checkout success

• Update your default payment link, or build a default payment link page

  Your default payment link is a quick way to open Paddle Checkout for a transaction. You can set this to the checkout page that you built, or create another page that includes Paddle.js.

  If you want your default payment link page to be different from your checkout page, build a new page that includes Paddle.js.

  Go to Paddle > Checkout > Checkout settings, expand Default payment link, then update your default payment link.

  Learn more: Set your default payment link

• Build a pricing page

  Pricing pages show prospects the products that you offer and how much they cost. Paddle lets you build dynamic preview pages using Paddle.js and the Paddle API.

  Use Paddle.js and the Paddle API to build a pricing page.

  Learn more: Build a pricing page

Create notification destinations

Notifications let you get notified when key events happen in Paddle. They can be delivered as webhooks or emails.

You'll typically use webhooks to keep your app in sync with Paddle. When something happens in Paddle, like a new customer signs up or a subscription is cancelled, Paddle can send you a webhook so you can build logic to handle this in your app.

• Create notification destinations

  Create notification destinations to tell Paddle where to deliver webhook notifications and which events you want to receive notifications for.

  Go to Paddle Developer tools > Notifications to start creating notification destinations.

  Learn more: Work with notification destinations

• Allowlist Paddle IP addresses

  Paddle only sends webhooks from certain IP addresses. For security, we recommend that you allowlist Paddle IP addresses and reject responses from others.

  Allowlist Paddle IP addresses on your webhook server.

  Learn more: Webhooks

Handle subscription lifecycle events

Build workflows to handle subscription lifecycle events, like when customers sign up, upgrade or downgrade, or pause or cancel their subscription. You should provision your app for each event to make sure a customer has the right level of access.

• New subscription workflow

  Paddle automatically creates a new subscription for recurring items where a checkout completes or an invoice is issued.

  Provision your app when a new subscription is created in Paddle.

  Learn more: Handle provisioning and fulfillment

• Cancel subscription workflow

  You should provide a way for customers to cancel their subscription when they no longer want to your user your software. Paddle stops billing them indefinitely.

  Build a workflow to let customers cancel their subscription using the Paddle API. Provision your app so that customers don't have access once canceled.

  Learn more: Cancel a subscription

• Pause subscription workflow

  You can offer a pause subscription function to let customers take a break and come back later. Paddle stops billing until their subscription resumes.

  Build a workflow to let customers pause and resume their subscription using the Paddle API. Provision your app so that customers have limited access while paused.

  Learn more: Pause a subscription

• Update payment workflow

  Customers need a way to change the payment method that they use to pay for subscription renewals and charges. This is important where subscriptions are past due.

  Build a workflow to let customers update their payment details using Paddle.js and the Paddle API.

  Learn more: Update payment details

• Upgrade and downgrade workflow

  If you offer multiple plans, you should provide a way for customers to upgrade or downgrade their subscription. You might also sell addons, like additional users or modules, that you should let customers add or remove.

  Build a workflow to let customers upgrade or downgrade, and add or remove any recurring items.

  Learn more: Upgrade or downgrade or add or remove items

Test and go live

Test your integration fully, then start the transition to your live account.

• Test your integration

  Before you go live, test subscription scenarios to check that your integration works.

  Run through all the subscription lifecycle events yourself to test that they work.

• Start go-live process

  You're ready to move from your sandbox account to your live account.

  Follow our go-live checklist to walk through setting up your live account and switching your integration to work with live.

  Learn more: Go-live checklist

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