Squarespace Courses: Adding iDEAL Payments
Update Feb. 25, 2026:
iDEAL payments are now available in Squarespace Payments. Read here to find out what this means.
Table of Contents:
Step 1: Create your course in Squarespace Courses
Step 2: Set up a sales page
Step 3: Create a 'Create Account' page
Step 4: Make a payment link in Plug&Pay
Step 5: Link the payment link to your Squarespace buttons
Step 6: Test the payment process
The full purchase process
Have you created an online course with Squarespace Courses and want to accept iDEAL and Bancontact? Unfortunately, Squarespace doesn't support these payment methods (yet). In this article, you'll learn a simple workaround using Plug&Pay and Mollie, so you can still offer iDEAL and Bancontact payments.
Why doesn't Squarespace support iDEAL payments?
Squarespace is originally an American website builder and therefore supports payment methods that are popular in the U.S., such as credit cards and PayPal. While more payment methods are being added (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay), Dutch and Belgian business owners unfortunately still need to find an alternative solution to iDEAL and Bancontact.
By using Plug&Pay and Mollie , you can still integrate these payment options into your Squarespace Courses checkout process.
The workaround: iDEAL with Plug&Pay & Mollie
The solution consists of three parts:
Plug&Pay – This is Dutch software that lets you offer iDEAL and Bancontact.
Mollie – The payment provider that processes the payments.
Squarespace Courses – A feature in Squarespace 7.1 that lets you create courses. (Unfortunately, Squarespace 7.0 does not offer Courses.)
The purchasing process works roughly as follows:
When a customer clicks a button on your course's sales page, they are redirected to the Plug&Pay checkout page.
The payment itself is processed through Mollie, which is linked to Plug&Pay.
After payment, your customer will be automatically redirected to your website, where they can create their course account.
Step-by-step guide
Follow these 6 steps to enable iDEAL and Bancontact in Courses.
Step 1: Create your course in Courses
In Squarespace, create a Course. (fig 1)
Add a Pricing Plan → Click on "Add a Pricing Plan." (Fig. 2)
Click on the " Create Pricing Plan" button .Under " Pricing," select " Free." (Fig. 3)
Why free? Because payment is processed outside of Squarespace, specifically through Plug&Pay. The customer only gains access to the course after successful payment.In your Course, go to Paywall settings → Click Paywall. (Fig. 4)
Hide the Pricing Plan by clicking the eye icon so that a line appears through it. (Fig. 5)
* You can also set up a Pricing Plan via Selling > Products > Digital Products
** If you're using Plug&Pay, choose the Free plan in Courses. You will then have a 30-minute video upload limit. Of course, you can also put your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and embed them into your website. Vimeo has better privacy settings than YouTube, but that requires a paid Vimeo account. Every choice has consequences, so decide what works best for you.
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Step 2: Create a sales page
Create an attractive sales page in Squarespace with all the details about your course, and add one or more buttons (Button Block) to it.
You'll link the Plug&Pay payment link to these buttons later.
Do you want to hide the header and footer on your sales page? You can do this in the page settings (Navigation tab).
Step 3: Create a 'create account' page
This is the page where your customer will land after payment to create an account.
Create a page in the " Not Linked " section of your website.
Hide this page from search engines (Page settings (gear icon) → SEO → Hide from Search Results).
Add a Pricing Plan block (Fig. 4) and, in the settings for this block, select the correct Course under Pricing Plan.
On the Design tab, change the text on the button to something like “Create your account.” You can hide the rest of the information so that only the button remains. (Fig. 5)
You can also add other text to the page if you want.
Important! Set a URL for this page that is difficult to guess, such as: www.jouwwebsite.nl/account-aanmaken-atrjatpsjbq5q52
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Step 4: Create a payment link in Plug&Pay
First, create an account with both Plug&Pay and Mollie, and link them together. (If necessary, consult the Plug&Pay helpdesk articles.)
In Plug&Pay, create a Product for your course.
In Plug&Pay, go to Pages and create a Payment Page. Under " Thank You Page," select " Custom URL " and enter the link to your Create Account page in the " Thank You Page URL " field. (Fig. 6)
Write down the URL of your payment page (i.e., the payment link).
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Step 5: Link the payment link to your Squarespace buttons
Go back to the sales page, , that you created in step 2.
Go to the edit settings for your button(s) → Add the Plug&Pay payment link.
Make sure the link opens in a new tab.
Step 6: Test the whole flow
By testing the entire checkout process, you can immediately see which emails a customer receives (both from Plug&Pay and Squarespace) and which default text you might want to edit to clarify certain points.
To sum it up
The entire process for purchasing a course is as follows:
Your customer looks at the sales page on your website and gets excited.
Your customer clicks a 'buy' button on your sales page, and the Plug&Pay payment page pops open in a new tab.
Your customer enters their information and pays via iDEAL or Bancontact.
After payment, the student will be automatically redirected to the page on your website where they can create their account.
Your customer creates an account and is immediately directed to the course.
Your customer will receive the invoice via Plug&Pay.
You will be paid via Mollie.
Optional: Connect Mailblue
If you use Mailblue, you can integrate it with Plug&Pay. This allows you to add someone to a list after they’ve made a payment, triggering an automated email series. This can be useful if you want to email your students additional information about the course.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nope, Squarespace only handles credit card and PayPal payments. But don't worry! With a little trick using Plug&Pay and Mollie, you can totally offer iDEAL and Bancontact as payment options.
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Head to Pages → In either your Main Navigation or Not Linked section, click the plus icon and pick Course. Then, just add your lessons and videos and set up a Pricing Plan. You can sell your course using an external payment provider, like Plug&Pay.
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Yes, someone can create an account without paying. However, that account does not necessarily grant access to a course.
If everything is set up correctly, the "Log In" menu item will appear at the top of your navigation bar. When someone clicks on it, a pop-up window opens. At the bottom of this pop-up, in small print, it says: " Forgot your password? Create an account."`
Through this link, someone who hasn’t purchased a course could create an account. However, because no course is linked to that account, that person cannot do anything else. -
Your student will be directed to this "Create Account" page after payment. You may also want to send them an automated email that includes a button linked to this page.
In theory, your student could forward the URL of the Create Account page to someone else. That way, someone could create an account without paying.
You'll receive notifications about new course members, so you can keep an eye on that yourself.
If you have multiple courses and use easy-to-guess URLs, people could easily gain access to your other courses as well.
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It might be that your website was built using Squarespace 7.0. Sadly, this older version doesn't let you add Courses. You'll need to either upgrade to 7.1 or use Member Areas instead.
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Yep! As a student, you only need to create one account, and then you can access all your purchased courses from that single spot – even if you bought them at different times.
When making a new purchase, students can either create a new account or just log in with their existing details. -
No, unfortunately, because you'll get stuck at step 4.2 when using this software. That's because you can't set up a custom thank-you page for each product or course in Ecwid or Shopify.
