Paddle - Payment Gateway Plugin for Acelle

Accept global card payments and recurring subscriptions through Paddle — without writing a single line of webhook code. Drop-in plugin for Acelle Mail SaaS billing. Paddle handles tax, hosted checkout, dunning, and renewals. You just collect the payout.

Why Paddle?

Paddle (paddle.com) is a Merchant of Record — meaning Paddle is the legal seller, not you. That single difference removes the hardest parts of running a global SaaS:

• Sales tax / VAT / GST: Paddle calculates, collects, and remits in 200+ jurisdictions for you.
• PCI / SCA / 3DS: Paddle’s hosted checkout is fully compliant; you never touch card data.
• Dunning + retries: Paddle’s smart-retry logic recovers failed renewals automatically.
• Refunds, chargebacks, fraud: Paddle handles disputes; you don’t field bank calls.
• Local payment methods: Cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, iDEAL, Alipay — Paddle adds them, you get them for free.

You set prices in your Paddle dashboard. Customers click “Subscribe” in your Acelle UI. The plugin handles the rest.

What this plugin does

Adds Paddle as a payment-gateway type inside Acelle’s admin. Once installed, your Plans → Payment Gateways screen lets you create one or more Paddle gateways (e.g. one Sandbox for testing, one Production for live customers). Customers checking out can pick Paddle alongside Stripe, Offline, or any other gateway you’ve enabled.

Behind the scenes:

• Hosted checkout — when a customer picks Paddle, the plugin opens a Paddle-hosted checkout (mobile-friendly, supports all Paddle’s payment methods). No iframes, no PCI scope.
• Recurring subscriptions — Paddle owns the subscription lifecycle. Acelle pulls current state on demand and renders it in the existing subscription pages.
• Pull-only sync — no webhook setup required. The plugin does not expose a public callback URL. State is fetched from Paddle when admin/customer opens a subscription page, plus a periodic sync job runs hourly. This means no SSL on a callback subdomain, no HMAC verification, no dedup tables, no queue workers dedicated to webhooks.

Feature highlights

• ✅ Drop-in installation — upload the ZIP through Acelle’s standard plugin installer; activate with one click
• ✅ Sandbox + Production environments selectable per gateway
• ✅ Paddle Billing API — current generation, not Paddle Classic (see compatibility note below)
• ✅ Recurring subscriptions with renewal sync, cancellation sync, plan-change sync
• ✅ One-off transactions also supported
• ✅ Plan ↔ Paddle Price mapping through Acelle’s existing Remote Plan Mapping screen
• ✅ Saved payment-method display at customer checkout (card brand + last 4)
• ✅ Connection test on save — if your API key is wrong, you find out before any customer hits checkout
• ✅ Multi-tenant friendly — each Acelle tenant can configure its own Paddle account
• ✅ Disable without uninstall — flip the plugin to inactive and Paddle disappears from the gateway picker; existing rows are preserved
• ✅ Translated — English included; ships with translation hooks so your installed Acelle language packs (FR, DE, ES, ZH, …) auto-cover the new strings

What’s included

• Plugin ZIP — acelle-paddle-v1.0.x.zip — ready to install
• PHP source — Full source (no obfuscation): ServiceProvider, PaddleGateway service, PaddleCheckoutController, PaddleApi HTTP client
• Documentation — HTML user guide (install / enable / configure / troubleshoot), this listing description
• Screenshots — 8 high-resolution screenshots showing every step of the flow
• Tests — Unit test for PaddleGateway (PHPUnit / Pest compatible)
• License — Envato Regular License (single end-product) — Extended License also available

Compatibility

• Acelle Mail — 4.0.24 and newer
• PHP — 8.1+ (matches Acelle’s own minimum)
• Paddle account — Paddle Billing (current generation) — not Paddle Classic. New Paddle accounts are Billing by default.
• Server — Outbound HTTPS to api.paddle.com and sandbox-api.paddle.com on port 443. No inbound public endpoint needed.
• Database — Uses Acelle’s existing payment_gateways table — no new migrations in v1

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to set up a webhook URL in my Paddle dashboard? No. This plugin uses pull-based sync. There is nothing to register in Paddle’s webhook settings page. (You can still register webhooks for your own analytics if you want — they won’t conflict with this plugin.)

My Paddle account uses Vendor ID + Auth Code instead of an API key. Will this plugin work? That is Paddle Classic, not Paddle Billing. This plugin targets Paddle Billing. Paddle has stopped onboarding new sellers onto Classic; if your account predates ~2023 and is still on Classic, request a migration from Paddle support before installing.

Does it work with Stripe, Offline, and other gateways enabled at the same time? Yes. Acelle supports multiple active gateways concurrently — customers see all enabled options at checkout and pick one. This plugin only registers paddle as a new option; it does not interfere with existing gateways.

Can I run a sandbox gateway and a production gateway side by side? Yes. Each payment_gateways row stores its own API key + environment. Add two gateways: one Sandbox, one Production. Customers see whichever you’ve marked as enabled.

Does it support one-off (non-subscription) charges? Yes. Both subscription plans and one-off plan purchases route through Paddle’s POST /transactions endpoint and a hosted checkout.

Will my existing Stripe / Braintree subscriptions break? No. The plugin is purely additive. Existing gateways and active subscriptions on those gateways are untouched.

Is the source open / unobfuscated? Yes. All PHP source is delivered as plain .php files — no ionCube, no obfuscator. You can audit, fork, and customize it under the Envato license terms.

Changelog

v1.0.1 — Current

• Initial public release on CodeCanyon

(Future releases will be appended here. CodeCanyon emails buyers when a new version is uploaded.)

Support

• Documentation: full HTML user guide bundled with the ZIP (also linked from the CodeCanyon item page)
• Item comments: ask publicly under the item’s Comments tab
• Direct contact: see the Author column on the CodeCanyon item page

Reasonable scope: install help, configuration help, bug reports against an unmodified install. Out of scope: custom development against the plugin source, Acelle core modifications, Paddle account / dashboard issues (those go to Paddle support).

License

Envato Regular License — use in a single end-product (one Acelle install / one Acelle SaaS instance). For SaaS providers reselling Acelle to multiple end customers under their own brand, the Extended License applies. Full terms: https://codecanyon.net/licenses/standard