How to accept payments on a static website
You want to sell a consultation, a course, a product or tickets from your landing page. A static site cannot process a card payment itself, and it should not: handling cards is a job for payment companies. Your page only has to send the buyer to them.
Payment links
The simplest option. In your payment provider's dashboard you create a product with a price and get a link. On your page, the Buy button leads to that link; the buyer pays on the provider's secure page and can be sent back to your site.
- Stripe Payment Links: a link per product or price, with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other methods depending on the country. Stripe also offers a Buy Button — a snippet you can embed in the page.
- PayPal: payment buttons and links from your PayPal business account.
Make the Book button in the Prices section open this Stripe payment link in the same tab: LINK.
Platforms that handle sales tax for you
If you sell digital products — courses, templates, e-books — to buyers in many countries, VAT and sales tax quickly become complicated. Some services act as the merchant of record: they become the official seller to the buyer and deal with the tax. Gumroad works this way, and so does Stripe with Managed Payments switched on; Paddle does too, but it is built for software companies. Check their terms and fees; the convenience has a price.
What to set up on the provider's side
- What the buyer sees after paying: a thank-you page on your site, or the provider's confirmation.
- Receipts: providers can email one automatically; in Stripe, switch on receipts for successful payments in the customer email settings.
- Payment alerts: check that you get an email for every payment, not only the first one; in Stripe, it is a notification setting in your profile.
- Test mode: buy from yourself with a test card before going live.
For the thank-you page, ask the agent to create thanks.html and give its address to the payment link settings.
What stays with you
- Sales tax, VAT and invoices, unless you use a merchant of record. Income tax is yours either way.
- Refunds and disputes — through the provider's dashboard; a merchant of record handles disputes itself.
- Your terms of sale: what the buyer gets, delivery, refunds. Put them on a page of the site and link to it next to the button.
- Delivering the product. Gumroad sends downloads for you; with Stripe or PayPal payment links, you email the file yourself or get in touch after the payment notification. Do not put the file on the thank-you page: anyone with its address can open it.
What a static site cannot do
A shopping cart with stock levels and customer accounts with order history need a shop platform. Discount codes and a limit on the number of sales, on the other hand, are settings of a Stripe payment link. If you sell a handful of things, payment links are enough. If you run a shop, a shop platform is the better tool; see website builder or AI agent.
Check before launch
- press every Buy button on a phone;
- make one purchase in test mode and refund it: Stripe's rules forbid testing with a real card;
- check the receipt email; in Stripe's test mode, send it to yourself from the payment's page.