The difference between inline and checkout form layouts

WP Full Pay supports two types of payment form layouts:

1. Inline
2. Checkout

These layouts come with different visuals, and there are functional differences as well.

You can download WP Full Pay plugin for free, create the forms and test Stripe transactions on your WordPress site.

Inline forms

Inline forms are best when you have enough space on the page to display the entire form at once.

• Ideal for scenarios where there is ample screen space to display the entire form on a single page.
• All fields are displayed simultaneously, and when the payment button is pressed, the form is submitted.
• Suited for situations where users can complete the payment process without leaving the current page.

Inline payment forms show all fields together, and when the payment button is clicked, the form is submitted.

⚠️ Important: Inline forms use the Stripe Payment Element, which initializes a new PaymentIntent every time the page loads or is refreshed. This means each page load creates an incomplete transaction in your Stripe dashboard, even if the visitor never interacts with the form. On high-traffic pages or pages that are frequently refreshed, this can result in a large number of incomplete entries in your Stripe dashboard.

If minimizing incomplete Stripe transactions is important to you, consider using a Checkout form instead. Checkout forms only create a transaction record in Stripe when the visitor actively submits the form.

Checkout forms

Checkout forms are best when space is limited or when you want to embed payment forms in a pricing table. These forms are hosted by Stripe. The plugin sends visitors to the checkout form for payment and ensures they're redirected back to the starting page after payment.

• Suitable when screen space is limited or when embedding payment forms in a pricing table.
• Hosted by Stripe, meaning the actual payment form is on Stripe's platform.
• The plugin redirects visitors to the checkout form for payment and ensures they are redirected back to the starting page after completing the payment.
• Useful when a more compact or embedded form is preferred, and the payment process involves redirection to a dedicated checkout page.

Checkout forms display a button on the page which opens the form on Stripe’s website:

Checkout forms might display additional fields on the page:

Pressing the button sends the visitor to the checkout form where one can enter name, credit card data, billing address, and submit the form:

Submitting the form redirects back to your website, and the customer gets feedback on the page the checkout form was opened from:

Functional differences of inline and checkout forms

• Inline forms allow users to complete the entire payment process on the current page, while Checkout forms involve redirection to a dedicated Stripe-hosted page.
• Checkout forms are advantageous when space is a constraint or when the desire is to embed payment forms within a specific context, such as a pricing table.

PaymentIntent creation

Inline forms and Checkout forms behave differently with respect to when Stripe payment records are created:

• Inline forms create a new Stripe PaymentIntent every time the page containing the form is loaded or refreshed. This happens as part of the secure initialization process for the Stripe Payment Element. As a result, you may see a large number of incomplete PaymentIntent entries accumulating in your Stripe dashboard — one per page view, regardless of whether a payment was actually attempted. These entries are not charges and will never result in money being collected.
• Checkout forms do not create a PaymentIntent (or Checkout Session) until the visitor clicks the payment button and is redirected to Stripe's hosted page. This means entries in Stripe are only created near the time of an actual transaction.

If minimizing the number of incomplete PaymentIntent entries in your Stripe dashboard is important, switching from an inline form to a Checkout form is the recommended approach.

The choice between Inline and Checkout forms depends on the design preferences, available screen space, and the desired user experience for handling payments on your WordPress site.

The following table compares the two layouts in detail:

	Inline	Checkout
Visuals	The entire form is visible on the page	Only the (optional) product selector, and the button to open a form are on the page
Payment location	On your website	On stripe.com’s hosted page
Stripe customer behavior	Existing customer used on repeat purchase	New customer created on every purchase
PaymentIntent creation	Created on every page load (visible in Stripe dashboard as incomplete, not charges)	Created only when visitor initiates checkout
SCA / 3DS compliant	Yes	Yes
PCI compliant	Yes	Yes
Display languages	Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish	34 languages
Currency format	Configurable	Auto-detected
Translate/change labels	Yes	No
Product images shown	No	Yes
Discounts	Coupons and promotional codes	Promotional codes
Billing address	Supported	Supported
Shipping address	Supported	Supported
Custom fields	Supported	Supported (Displayed on the website, not on Stripe’s hosted page)
Simple button layout	Not applicable	Yes
Billing anchor day	Yes	No
Email receipts	Plugin and Stripe	Plugin and Stripe
Google reCAPTCHA	Supported	Supported
Customer portal	Supported	Support with side effects, due to Stripe customer behavior (see above)
Tax behavior	No tax, fixed, and dynamic via Stripe tax rates	No tax, fixed, and dynamic via Stripe tax rates
Thank you page	Supported	Supported
Stripe dashboard impact	Incomplete PaymentIntent created on every page load/refresh, even without user interaction	No Stripe record created until the visitor actively submits the form