Pay-To-View Lite

Description

Pay-To-View Lite enables time-limited rentals of digital media using PayPal and credit card payments. It’s perfect for selling and streaming your digital content with full control over price and rental duration.

Pay-To-View for WordPress

Tired of giving away your valuable videos for free or struggling with complicated membership systems?

You don’t need to anymore.

Meet Pay-To-View, a simple yet powerful pay-per-view rental system built for content creators, educators, tutorials, filmmakers, streaming services, and more.

With Pay-To-View, you can sell time-limited access to your videos, or any digital content, right on your WordPress site. No subscriptions needed — just direct payments and full control over your content.

Your viewers don’t need to register or create accounts. They simply choose a video, make a secure payment, and gain instant access for the limited time you’ve set in your plugin settings.

Creators love Pay-To-View because it’s lightweight, easy to use, and integrates seamlessly with PayPal. You can set your own prices, decide how long rentals last, track every transaction, and publish your videos anywhere using shortcodes.

Turn your video library into a revenue stream — in minutes.

Demo of how the Plugin Works

Watch this quick YouTube tutorial to understand how the plugin works:

Link to YouTube https://youtu.be/dAEMXh6OAyw

Pay-To-View Lite Features

  • Accept PayPal and credit card payments
  • Set custom currency
  • Fixed time-limited rentals and fixed duration for all media files (for example: set the price $3.99 for a 48-hour rental and these settings will be automatically applied to all media files)
  • Complete rental log
  • Built-in shortcode generator
  • Works with most common WordPress media players that support shortcodes (like Presto Player, FV Player, HTML5, etc.) and YouTube & Vimeo
  • Automatic confirmation emails to the buyer (you can control Sender, Subject, and Message)
  • Admin settings for currency, pricing, and rental duration

Pay-To-View Basic & PRO Features

  • All Lite features
  • Set custom pricing per media file (e.g., one video $2.99, another $4.99)
  • Set custom duration per media file (e.g., one video 2 hours, another 48 hours)
  • Full customization of the rental button (colors, labels, hover effects) with live preview
  • Control if notifications are sent to admin when a rental is made
  • Control if confirmation mail is sent to the buyer (Sender, Subject, Message)
  • Complete rental log with CSV export
  • All shortcodes stored in a list
  • Priority bug fixes
  • Automatic updates

Upgrade to Pay-To-View Basic & PRO

Buy or upgrade to Basic & PRO at: https://theappmill.com/paytoview/pricing_plans.html

The difference between Basic and PRO is mainly support time and bug fixes; the feature set is identical.

How It Works

  1. Install and activate the plugin (full instructions on https://theappmill.com/paytoview/installation.html)
  2. Go to Settings > Pay-To-View Lite and add:
    • PayPal business account email and Client ID (get one here: https://developer.paypal.com/api/rest/)
    • Price (fixed in Lite, fixed or individual in Basic/PRO)
    • Rental duration (fixed in Lite, fixed or individual in Basic/PRO)
    • Currency
  3. Add a media file to a post/page and choose a unique Rental ID for it.
  4. Go to the Shortcode page:
    • Add the Rental ID
    • Price and duration auto-filled from settings (Lite) or set individually (Basic/Pro)
    • Select a media player (Presto Player, YouTube, HTML5, etc.)
    • Add media ID or URL
    • Click Generate Shortcode
  5. Paste the shortcode into your page/post.
  6. Publish — the rental button will now appear. Visitors can click, pay securely, and watch instantly.
  7. Every rental is logged automatically (Date, Email, Rental ID, Expiration, etc.)
  8. Confirmation emails sent (configurable)
  9. Visitors never need to register — simple pay, watch, and leave experience.

External Services

  • Integrates with PayPal using official JavaScript SDK
  • Includes a link to an upgrade info page on https://theappmill.com/paytoview/pricing_plans.html

Upgrade to PRO (external link)

The “Upgrade to PRO” admin menu item loads a page on https://theappmill.com/paytoview/pricing_plans.html
– External links: https://theappmill.com
– Terms: https://theappmill.com/paytoview/terms.html
– Privacy Policy: https://theappmill.com/paytoview/privacy.html

No user data is sent externally.

PayPal Integration

  • Uses PayPal JavaScript SDK (client-side) to render payment buttons and process transactions
  • Client ID required from PayPal Developer Dashboard
  • PayPal business email used to receive payments
  • No personal data sent externally; plugin does not use IPN
  • PayPal Terms: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full
  • Privacy: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full

License

GPL-2.0-or-later: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Screenshots

Installation

  1. Upload plugin via Add New in WordPress
  2. Activate under Plugins
  3. Configure PayPal Client ID, currency, price, and duration under Settings > Pay-To-View Lite
  4. Generate shortcodes on the Shortcode page and paste into posts/pages
  5. View completed rentals under the Rental page

Watch this quick YouTube tutorial to understand how the plugin works:

Link to YouTube https://youtu.be/dAEMXh6OAyw

FAQ

Can I customize the rental price and duration?

Lite version uses fixed settings for price and duration. Upgrade to PRO version for custom pricing and duration per media file: https://theappmill.com/paytoview/pricing_plans.html

Which video players are supported?

Pay-To-View works with most WordPress-compatible players that generate shortcodes, including YouTube and Vimeo.

How do payments work?

Securely via PayPal (accounts or credit cards). Set up a REST API Client ID: https://developer.paypal.com/api/rest/

How long does a rental last?

Lite allows one fixed rental duration. The PRO version allows individual duration per media file. Rentals automatically expire using a cookie.

Can I see who has rented my media?

All versions have a Rental log and CSV export.

Do viewers need to register?

No registration is required. Visitors can pay, watch, and leave immediately.

Can I use YouTube or other URLs as rental media?

Yes, add the URL or media ID in the shortcode generator.

Does it work with all themes?

Yes. Designed to work seamlessly with most WordPress themes.

Reviews

August 7, 2025
I’ve tried other plugins, but this one nails it with the option to set different prices on different videos. We rent instruction videos on our site so this suits us perfect! And for our customers – the viewers – it is super easy to rent a movie on our site now as they can pay with credit cards and not only PayPal! Great job! /Tom
Read all 3 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Pay-To-View Lite” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Translate “Pay-To-View Lite” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.2.8

  • Added a tutorial.
  • Enhancing the code.
  • Major design changes.
  • Added a shortcode list

1.2.7

  • Minor design changes.

1.2.6

  • Improved plugin design and styling.
  • Updated admin interface styling and visual improvements.
  • Minor UI refinements and cleanup.

1.2.5

  • Updated the upgrade page content and feature comparison.

1.2.4

  • Updated the upgrade page content and links.

1.2.3

  • Moved the tutorial video higher in the readme and added it to Installation
  • Updated plugin links from liserasmussen.se to theappmill.com

1.2.1

  • Added “How the Plugin Works” section with tutorial video to readme.txt
  • Added ptv_logotype.svg to the admin folder for brandin

1.2.0

  • Secured video link until valid rental
  • Minor bug fixes & stability improvements

1.0.1

  • Minor fixes and performance improvements

1.0.0

  • Initial release of Pay-To-View Lite