PayPal integration for international gyms
Yes — MyGymDesk gyms on the Pro plan can connect their own PayPal business account to collect payments directly from members. PayPal powers member-portal membership, class and freeze purchases, the member shop, self-serve signups, payment links and recurring auto-renew. It’s built for international (non-INR) gyms; Indian rupee accounts use Razorpay instead.
What you can do with it
International membership renewals
A member of an overseas gym renews or upgrades their plan by approving a PayPal Smart Button; capture and activation run server-side and a dated invoice and receipt are generated automatically.
Selling products in the member shop
Gyms accept PayPal at checkout for the in-app member shop, with the authoritative total computed server-side and the order captured and finalised automatically.
Public self-serve signups and trials
A prospective member joining through the gym’s public self-serve page can pay with PayPal, which creates the member, activates the plan or booking, and sends welcome and receipt notifications.
PayPal payment links
Generate a payment link for an outstanding bill that the customer settles with PayPal; the payment propagates back to the bill and flips it to paid.
Recurring auto-renew memberships
For eligible plans, members set up auto-renew billed through PayPal Billing Plans on the gym’s own PayPal account — a hands-off recurring-revenue path for international gyms.
How to set it up
- 1On the Pro plan (or above), open Settings → Integrations → the ‘Payment Gateway & UPI’ tab.
- 2On the ‘Manual keys’ sub-tab, pick ‘PayPal’ from the gateway dropdown (only one gateway can be active at a time).
- 3In the PayPal Developer Dashboard, create a REST app, then paste its Client ID and Client Secret into the form. Toggle Test Mode (Sandbox) on or off; optionally add a Merchant ID.
- 4Click ‘Test Connection’ — a live PayPal OAuth probe against sandbox or live confirms the credentials.
- 5Turn on ‘Enable PayPal’ and click ‘Save Settings’; the secret is encrypted and any other active gateway is disabled.
- 6Optional: copy the shown webhook URL into your PayPal app’s webhooks, subscribe to the capture events, and paste the returned Webhook ID back into the form.
- 7Note: your gym’s currency must be non-INR — PayPal payments in INR are rejected, so PayPal is the international-gym gateway alongside Stripe.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
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