Let Buyers Name Their Price

A fixed price asks every buyer for the same amount, whether they’d happily pay more or can only spare a little. A free download is worse: a happy user who wants to chip in has nowhere to do it.

Pay What You Like lets buyers choose what to pay for a product, inside limits you set. The product’s price is the minimum unless you set your own, and the chosen amount becomes the cart line’s real price on the server, so coupons, tax, orders and reports all use it.

Turn On Pay What You Like

1. Switch on Pay What You Like under Stackless → Dashboard.
2. Set the wording under Stackless → Settings → Pay What You Like.
3. Edit a product, open Product data → Pay what you like, tick Pay what you like (Let buyers choose what to pay) and update the product.

Nothing changes for buyers until you tick that box on a product. The store-wide settings are:

• Heading: labels the amount field on product pages and heads the box on the cart and checkout. Default “Name your price”.
• Line under the heading: optional text, for example “Every amount helps keep this project going.” Empty by default.
• Product pages: shows the amount field above Add to cart. On by default. When it’s off, buyers choose in the cart and at checkout.
• Price line: adds “Pay what you like: this price or more” under prices, “Pay what you like, from $5.00” when a simple product has its own minimum, or “Free, or pay what you like” when the minimum is 0. On by default.

Set the Amounts on a Product

The Pay what you like tab shows on simple and variable products. Amounts are in your store currency, and each label shows its symbol, for example Minimum ($).

• Minimum: the lowest amount a buyer can enter. Leave it empty to use the product’s price.
• Suggested amount: filled in for the buyer. Leave it empty to start at the product’s price.
• Maximum: the highest amount a buyer can enter. Leave it empty, or enter 0, to allow up to 1,000,000.
• Quick amount 1 to Quick amount 4: one-tap buttons such as 0, 5 and 10. A button outside the minimum and maximum doesn’t show.

Saving drops what doesn’t fit: an invalid amount, a maximum below the minimum, or a suggested or quick amount above the maximum. Each shows a notice starting “Pay what you like:”.

A variation can tick Fixed price to opt out, or override Pay what you like minimum, Suggested amount and Maximum. Empty fields use the product’s setting, and with no minimum anywhere, each variation’s own price is its minimum. Quick amounts always come from the product.

Offer a Product Free, or Pay What You Like

Set the product’s price to 0 and the minimum becomes 0. The price line reads “Free, or pay what you like”, and the help text says “Enter 0 to get it free, or any amount you like.”

To start buyers at a normal price but still allow 0, keep the price and set Minimum to 0. A quick amount of 0 then gives a one-tap free choice. A cart that comes to 0 needs no payment, so WooCommerce places the order without a payment method.

Where Buyers Choose the Amount

• Product pages: the field sits above Add to cart with your Heading, the quick amounts and a help line such as “Minimum $10.00”. On a variable product it appears once a variation is chosen, unless that variation has a fixed price.
• Classic cart: a “Your price” field under each line. Update cart saves it, and Enter or a quick amount updates the cart straight away.
• Classic checkout: a box with your Heading above the order summary, one field per product. The total refreshes as the buyer types.
• Cart and Checkout blocks: the same box in the order summary. Place order waits until the new total is saved.

An amount outside the limits shows “Enter at least $10.00.” or “Enter at most $50.00.” and stops Add to cart or Place order until it’s fixed.

Put an Amount in a Link

Add stackless_price to a cart, checkout or buy link:

https://example.com/checkout/?stackless_price=25
https://example.com/cart/?stackless_price=10
https://example.com/?stackless-buy=123&stackless_price=25

• The amount goes to the first product in the cart that takes a chosen amount.
• It’s kept inside that product’s limits, so stackless_price=1 on a $19 product with no lower minimum still charges $19.
• It’s applied once, in the currency the buyer is shopping in, then removed from the address. The buyer can still change it.

That’s how one product gets “Pay $5”, “Pay $10” and “Pay $25” buttons on a sales page.

How the Amount Becomes the Price

• Whenever cart totals are calculated, the server sets each line’s unit price from the chosen amount and the product’s current limits. A price sent from the browser is never used.
• The amount is per item, so 2 at $15 costs $30. The same product at two amounts makes two cart lines.
• Coupons and tax work on it like any other price. Fields & Paid Add-ons charges are added on top.
• Each order line keeps the amount, minimum and currency, and the order gets one “Pay what you like” note such as “Ebook: $15.00 (minimum $10.00)”.
• Order again brings the amount back when the buyer shops in the same currency.
• With Multi-Currency Checkout, your amounts are converted, and a product without its own minimum uses its price in that currency. Switching currency resets the line to the new starting amount.
• If you raise the minimum after a buyer chose, their line is charged inside the new limits and checkout shows “Enter at least” until they change it.

Limits

• Subscription products always charge their set price, even with the box ticked.
• Grouped and external products don’t get the tab. Order bump lines always use the bump’s price.
• Add to cart buttons in shop grids have no amount field. Those products start at the suggested amount or the price, and the buyer changes it in the cart or at checkout.
• If the Name Your Price plugin is active, the module pauses with “Paused because Name Your Price is active and does the same job.”
• Developers can use the stackless_pay_what_you_like_settings filter, send stackless_pay_what_you_like_amount with a Store API add to cart, and override the templates in yourtheme/stackless/pay_what_you_like/.