# Take payments with PayPal

> Connect your own PayPal account so customers can pay with their PayPal balance or a card — useful for overseas buyers who don't want to type card details.

Guide: https://sitesplaced.com/help/payments-and-orders/connect-paypal · Section: Payments & Orders · Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

**PayPal** is the second button most online shoppers look for, and for some — older buyers, and anyone buying from another country — it's the only one they trust. Connecting it takes two values from your own PayPal account, and every payment lands in **your** PayPal balance. We never hold your money.

## Get your Client ID and Secret

1. Sign in at [developer.paypal.com](https://developer.paypal.com) with the PayPal account that should receive the money.
2. Open **Apps & Credentials**.
3. Make sure you are on the **Live** tab, not Sandbox. (Sandbox is PayPal's practice mode — the money isn't real.)
4. Click **Create App**, give it a name like *My store*, and create it. If you already have an app, just open it.
5. Copy the **Client ID**, then click **Show** under Secret and copy that too.
6. In your store dashboard, open **Settings → Payments & invoices**, paste both into the **PayPal** card, leave Mode on **Live**, and click **Connect PayPal**.

> **Live and Sandbox credentials are not interchangeable:** Sandbox credentials only work against PayPal's test system. If you connect with sandbox credentials and set Mode to Live (or the other way round), connecting will fail — which is deliberate, because the alternative is orders that look paid but never settle.

## What your customers see

A **PayPal** option appears at checkout. Choosing it takes the customer to PayPal to approve the payment, then straight back to your store, where the order is completed and confirmed. They can pay with their PayPal balance, a linked bank account, or a card — even without a PayPal account, in most countries.

## Safety

- Your **Secret is encrypted** before it is stored and never appears on your website.
- Money goes **straight to your PayPal balance**. We cannot take it, move it, or pay ourselves from it.
- **Disconnect** removes both values from our systems immediately. You can also delete or rotate the app's secret inside PayPal at any time.

## Common questions

**Q: Should I use PayPal or Stripe?**

Both, if you sell overseas — they cost you nothing to have connected and different customers prefer different buttons. Stripe covers cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay; PayPal covers people who keep a PayPal balance or don't want to type card details into a shop they don't know.

**Q: I'm in India — can I use this?**

PayPal works differently for Indian merchants and is mainly aimed at receiving payments from abroad. If you already have a working PayPal business account you can connect it. For Indian customers paying in rupees, Razorpay is the better option because it supports UPI.

**Q: The customer paid but the order says pending.**

PayPal only moves money when the customer comes back to your store after approving. If they closed the tab on PayPal's page, the payment was authorised but never completed. Ask them to place the order again — nothing was charged.

**Q: Where do I issue refunds?**

In your PayPal account, under the transaction. The order in SitesPlaced won't change automatically for PayPal refunds — update its status manually so your records match.