Testing Recurring
Testing is an important step before launching any donation campaign. This guide walks through what to consider when testing the Recurring Donations add-on.
Most testing steps are covered in the main Test Mode documentation. However, recurring donations have a few extra details to keep in mind.
Testing by Frequency
The only way to confirm that recurring donations are working properly is to create an actual recurring donation and wait for at least one renewal.
The shortest wait time depends on your payment gateway:
- Stripe supports daily recurring donations, so you’ll need to wait at least 24 hours to confirm the renewal is processed correctly.
- PayPal Donations supports monthly as its shortest frequency. That means you may need to wait up to 30 days to fully confirm recurring functionality.
- Square supports weekly as it’s shortest frequency, so testing may require up to 7 days.
Note: Plan your testing around the shortest available frequency supported by your gateway.
Special Gateway Considerations
Some gateways require extra setup or settings to support recurring donations—especially during testing. Be sure to check the documentation for your specific gateway to see if any additional steps are needed.
Testing Locally
Testing recurring donations on a local development site usually doesn’t work well. That’s because most gateways need to send notifications (like webhooks or IPNs) back to your site when the renewal payments are processed.
Tip: Use a live staging environment for more reliable testing of recurring donations, such as InstaWP.
