Hey there! We just wrapped up another big release cycle, and honestly, Knit Pay 9.4 has a lot under the hood.
With version 9.5 already live, it is a good time to look back at what the 9.4 release cycle actually brought to the table. There is a much more capable PayPal checkout, a few long-requested free features, and quite a few quality-of-life improvements for both admins and customers. Let us break it down.
PayPal Checkout Got a Serious Upgrade
This is easily the biggest change in this release. The PayPal experience was rebuilt on the modern JS SDK v6, and instead of just showing the PayPal wallet button and basic card fields, it now surfaces the local payment methods PayPal makes available to each buyer based on their country and currency.
- iDEAL for buyers in the Netherlands.
- Przelewy24 (P24) and BLIK for buyers in Poland.
- Bancontact for buyers in Belgium.
- Trustly for buyers across several European countries.
- Venmo and Bank ACH for eligible buyers in the United States.
- Multibanco for buyers in Portugal.
PayPal wallet, PayPal Credit, Pay Later messaging, and card payments are all still there. The practical difference is that you no longer need separate plugins or custom work to offer the regional methods your customers already know and trust. Buyers see familiar options, which helps reduce abandoned checkouts, and the methods are discovered automatically so there is less manual setup on your end.
The new checkout page is also built for real buyers. It is mobile-friendly, works well on small screens, and keeps the order summary visible while the buyer picks a payment method. That matters because a large share of payments happen on mobile, and every extra tap is a chance for a customer to drop off.
And because this is Knit Pay, the upgraded PayPal checkout works across more than 100 WordPress plugins. That includes WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Contact Form 7, WP Travel Engine, LatePoint, LearnPress, GiveWP, and Paid Memberships Pro — so whether you are running a store, a travel booking site, a course platform, or a membership site, the new PayPal experience is available without any extra configuration.
Apple Pay and Google Pay are on the way
Apple Pay and Google Pay through PayPal are already under development and will be enabled in a future update once production testing is complete. When they land, the same checkout screen will be able to offer those wallets alongside everything else.
Orderbox Is Now Completely Free
Before 9.4, the Orderbox integration itself required Knit Pay Pro. That changed in this release. The Orderbox gateway moved into the free plugin, so any reseller running a hosting or domain storefront can set up the connection without upgrading.
You can start accepting payments through Orderbox immediately using the free Knit Pay gateways — Cashfree, Instamojo, Razorpay, PayPal, and SSLCommerz — with no coding required. If your business needs additional providers as you grow, Knit Pay Pro unlocks 50+ more premium gateways and is free for up to 25 successful transactions every month while you are getting started.
If you are setting this up for the first time, the step-by-step Orderbox integration guide still applies. The difference is simply that the connection itself no longer requires a Pro license.
Four New International Gateways Joined the Pro Lineup
Released alongside Knit Pay 9.4, Knit Pay Pro 1.6 added support for the Nafezly Payments Library, which opened the door to several new providers for merchants serving the Middle East, Africa, and nearby markets. The first four integrations, currently available as beta features for Knit Pay Pro users, are:
- Tap Payments — popular across the Gulf region.
- Paymob — widely used in Egypt and other African markets.
- PayTabs — strong presence in the Middle East.
- Paylink — focused on Saudi Arabia and nearby markets.
They are labeled beta while real-world feedback comes in, so test them in sandbox mode before going live. For small businesses, Knit Pay Pro is completely free for up to 25 successful transactions each month, which makes it easy to try these new gateways without an upfront cost.
Quality-of-Life Improvements for WordPress Plugins
We also polished a couple of existing integrations during the 9.4 cycle:
- Contact Form 7: Each form can now redirect buyers to its own set of payment status pages — completed, cancelled, expired, error, and unknown. If you run multiple forms (say, one for event registrations and another for donations), you can now send each one to a completely different thank-you or follow-up page. No more one-size-fits-all redirects.
- Easy Digital Downloads: Merchants can now integrate multiple Knit Pay payment gateways at the same time, with every active payment method showing as its own gateway inside EDD. This is useful if you want to offer cards through one provider and wallets through another, all within the same store.
A Cleaner, More Reliable Foundation
Under the hood, we cleaned up a few things that make the plugin more stable:
- The OAuth connection flow shared by Razorpay, PayPal, Cashfree, and Zoho Pay was refactored for consistency.
- Stripe no longer sends duplicate payment-method types in certain configurations.
- Name-related fatal errors in Payrexx and NMI were fixed.
None of these are flashy, but they add up to fewer support tickets and smoother checkouts.
And since 9.5 is already live, there is one more thing worth mentioning: the entire Reports section has been completely revamped. You now get a built-in analytics dashboard with multi-currency reporting, so you can track revenue trends, success rates, gateway performance, and payment methods all in one place. But more on that in the 9.5 blog.
Time to Update!
If you were on 9.4 or earlier, the PayPal and Orderbox changes alone made this a worthwhile update. Merchants around the world got more payment options, resellers got a free path into Orderbox, and the reliability fixes reduced the chance of connection or checkout hiccups.
As always, back up your site before updating, test payments in sandbox mode, and reach out if anything feels off.
Have questions? Contact our support team and we will help you get set up.
Happy accepting payments!