Get started with Paddle in PHP

This quickstart walks through installing the Paddle PHP SDK, initializing a client, making your first read-only API call, and verifying webhook signatures.

Before you begin

You'll need:

• A Paddle sandbox account.
• A sandbox API key with permission to read and write products.
• PHP 8.1 or later, with Composer installed.

Install the SDK

Install paddlehq/paddle-php-sdk with Composer:

composer require paddlehq/paddle-php-sdk

Initialize the client

Create a Client with your API key. Use the SANDBOX environment while you're building.

use Paddle\SDK\Client;
use Paddle\SDK\Environment;
use Paddle\SDK\Options;

$paddle = new Client(
    apiKey: getenv('PADDLE_API_KEY'),
    options: new Options(Environment::SANDBOX),
);

For production, drop the options argument:

$paddle = new Client(getenv('PADDLE_API_KEY'));

Make your first request

List products to confirm the client is wired up. The SDK returns an iterable that paginates automatically.

use Paddle\SDK\Client;
use Paddle\SDK\Environment;
use Paddle\SDK\Options;
use Paddle\SDK\Exceptions\ApiError;

$paddle = new Client(
    apiKey: getenv('PADDLE_API_KEY'),
    options: new Options(Environment::SANDBOX),
);

try {
    $products = $paddle->products->list();
    foreach ($products as $product) {
        echo $product->id . '  ' . $product->name . PHP_EOL;
    }
} catch (ApiError $error) {
    echo 'Paddle API error: ' . $error->getMessage();
}

If your sandbox account is empty, the loop runs zero times. Create a product in the dashboard or via $paddle->products->create() to see results.

4. Verify webhooks

You can use webhooks to keep your app in sync with Paddle. For example, you can provision access when a subscription is created, or revoke access when a subscription is cancelled.

The SDK's Verifier accepts any PSR-7 RequestInterface, like Guzzle, Symfony, Laravel (Illuminate\Http\Request::toPsrRequest()), and most modern PHP HTTP frameworks all support this. Always verify the signature before acting on the payload.

use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\ServerRequest;
use Paddle\SDK\Entities\Event;
use Paddle\SDK\Notifications\Secret;
use Paddle\SDK\Notifications\Verifier;

$request = ServerRequest::fromGlobals();
$secret = new Secret(getenv('PADDLE_WEBHOOK_SECRET'));

if (!(new Verifier())->verify($request, $secret)) {
    http_response_code(400);
    exit('invalid signature');
}

$event = Event::fromRequest($request);

switch ($event->eventType) {
    case 'transaction.completed':
        // Provision access, send a receipt, etc.
        break;
    case 'subscription.updated':
        // Sync the subscription to your database.
        break;
}

http_response_code(200);
echo 'ok';

For the full webhook setup flow, including creating notification destinations, picking events, and retry behavior, see Verify webhook signatures.

Next steps

• Explore Laravel Cashier Paddle for a Laravel-native way to build with Paddle.
• Use the webhook simulator to test webhook events.
• Browse the API reference to see every endpoint Paddle exposes.
• View the PHP SDK reference for the full SDK reference.