Payment links: selling from a static site with no backend
A payment link lets a static site sell with a plain anchor tag: no server, no secret keys. How it works, where its limits are, and how to handle the return.
Many sellers assume a store needs a backend: an API route that creates a checkout session with a secret key. For a fixed price digital product, it does not. A payment link is a URL for one product's hosted checkout, and a static site links to it with an anchor tag.
How it works on this site
<a href="https://checkout.dodopayments.com/buy/pdt_123?quantity=1&redirect_url=https://example.com/order/complete">
Get it
</a>- The buyer clicks Get it and lands on the provider's checkout.
- They pay; the provider handles card data, tax and the receipt.
- The provider sends them back to your
redirect_urlwith details on the query string. - Delivery happens by the provider's email, and optionally a page of yours.
There is no secret anywhere in that flow, which means there is nothing to leak and nothing to host.
The return page
The return URL carries things like a payment id and status. Anyone can type those into an address bar, so the page must not release a file because the URL says it was paid. It can show a thank-you and the licence key the provider appended, and hand the actual download to something that checks the key with the provider. It should also strip the query from analytics, which we cover in keeping keys out of analytics.
Test mode is a trap
Most providers have separate test and live checkout hosts. A page shipped with a test link fails quietly: the checkout loads, real cards are declined, and no error reaches you. Generate links from one config that knows which mode the build is in, and fail the build if a public build points at test. Payment test mode pitfalls has the details.
The button those links sit in is the amber buy button from Warm Storefront UI: one per page, with the price, the refund line and what the buyer receives right beside it.
Questions
What is a payment link?
A URL, created in your payment provider's dashboard, that opens a hosted checkout for one product. Your site links to it like any other page; the provider handles the form, tax and receipt.
Is a payment link secure?
Yes. It contains no secret: it identifies a product, and payment happens on the provider's page. The risk to manage is the return page, which must not release anything based on query parameters alone.
What can a payment link not do?
Anything that needs your own server at checkout time: custom pricing per user, cart logic across products, or checking stock. For a fixed-price digital product, none of that is usually needed.