If you run a real estate website on the Houzez theme and your visitors keep asking for iDEAL, this guide explains why it is missing, what your options are, and the fastest way to add it.
Houzez is one of the most popular real estate themes on WordPress, but it does not support iDEAL out of the box. It ships with Stripe and PayPal only. For a Dutch audience, and much of Europe, that is a real problem, because iDEAL is the payment method most people expect to see.
The good news: you can add it, and it does not require rebuilding your site. Below we cover the short answer, why the gap exists, the three routes people usually take, and a step-by-step setup for the route we recommend.
The short answer
To add iDEAL to Houzez, you connect your site to a payment provider that offers iDEAL, and Mollie is the standard choice in the Netherlands. There are two ways to do that: install WooCommerce with a chain of extensions and connect Mollie through it, or install a dedicated plugin that adds Mollie to the Houzez checkout directly.
The direct route is faster, lighter and does not turn your property site into a webshop. That is what Mollie for Houzez does, and it takes a few minutes to set up. If you just want the steps, skip to the setup section. If you want to understand the choice first, keep reading.
Why doesn’t Houzez support iDEAL by default?
Houzez includes its own membership and payment system, and for card payments it relies on Stripe and PayPal. Those two cover a global audience reasonably well, but they do not include iDEAL, and they do not include the other local European methods that often convert better in their own country, such as Bancontact in Belgium, Przelewy24 and BLIK in Poland, or TWINT in Switzerland.
iDEAL is not a card. It is a bank-based method, run through a provider such as Mollie, and it needs an integration that Houzez does not include on its own. So the theme is not doing anything wrong, it simply leaves this to a third-party gateway. Your job is to add that gateway.
Your three options, compared
Most Houzez site owners who want iDEAL end up choosing between three routes.
Option one, do nothing. You keep offering only cards and PayPal, and you keep losing the visitors who expected iDEAL and hesitated at the checkout.
Option two, WooCommerce plus extensions. You install WooCommerce, a subscriptions extension, a memberships extension and a Mollie connector, then wire it into the Houzez package system. The trade-off is a full webshop running underneath a property site, a stack of plugins to maintain, a second checkout for your buyer, and usually a developer to set it up.
Option three, a dedicated Houzez plugin. You install one plugin built for Houzez that adds Mollie to the checkout you already have. It is purpose-built for one theme, so setup is quick and there is nothing extra to maintain. This is the route we recommend.
The WooCommerce route works, and for a site that also needs a real online store it can make sense. But for the single job of accepting iDEAL on a Houzez membership site, it adds a lot of weight for little gain. That is exactly the gap Mollie for Houzez was built to close.
How to add iDEAL to Houzez with Mollie for Houzez
Mollie for Houzez is a plugin made specifically for the Houzez theme. It adds Mollie to the Houzez checkout directly, alongside your existing Stripe and PayPal options, without WooCommerce.
Before you start, you will need a free Mollie account and a site running on HTTPS, which Mollie requires for live payments. Here is the full setup.
- Install and activate the plugin. Upload it in your WordPress admin and activate it, exactly like any other plugin.
- Connect Mollie. Paste your Mollie API keys. That is the only credential you need. The plugin verifies the connection for you.
- Choose your payment methods. Switch on iDEAL, and any of the other methods you want to offer. Your checkout will only show what suits each visitor.
- Test it safely. Run a payment in test mode to see the whole flow end to end, so your first real payment is never your first payment.
- Go live. Flip one switch. iDEAL now appears in your Houzez checkout for memberships, listings and featured upgrades.
A Quick Start Wizard walks you through the Houzez settings people usually miss, and there is a built-in guide for Apple Pay and Google Pay. No code, and no theme files are touched, so a Houzez update will not break your setup.
One important detail about recurring memberships. iDEAL is a single-use method, so a subscription cannot renew on iDEAL alone. The first iDEAL payment sets up a SEPA Direct Debit mandate, and renewals then run automatically through Mollie. Mollie for Houzez handles this for you, so members can pay the first time with iDEAL and simply stay subscribed after that.
What you get beyond iDEAL
Adding iDEAL is the reason most people arrive, but the plugin covers the whole payment side of a Houzez site, so you are not stitching several tools together.
- 30 payment methods in total, including Bancontact, credit and debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA Direct Debit, and local options across Europe. You choose which appear, and availability depends on your Mollie account and country.
- Recurring memberships that renew automatically, with self-service cancellation from the member’s own dashboard.
- Charging for every part of Houzez: membership packages, individual listing submissions, and featured or upgraded listings.
- Refunds from your WordPress admin, full or partial, in bulk if you need, with no separate Mollie login.
- An analytics dashboard, more than twenty automatic emails, and payment links with a QR code for getting paid off-site.
- An admin in six languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
- EU consumer compliance built in, with an optional right-of-withdrawal checkbox at checkout.
Is it safe to add a payment plugin to Houzez?
It is a fair question, because a payment plugin handles money and sensitive data. Mollie for Houzez was built with that in mind. Your Mollie keys are stored with AES-256-GCM encryption and shown only masked. The webhook Mollie calls is protected with a secret token. Every payment status is verified directly with Mollie rather than trusted from the browser. And card details never touch your website, because the payment happens on Mollie’s own hosted checkout.
On top of that, a real-time webhook and an hourly safety net make sure no payment is left unconfirmed, and careful guards around subscriptions and refunds prevent a double click or a network retry from ever causing a double charge.
Requirements at a glance
- The Houzez theme, version 4.x
- WordPress 6.0 or higher
- PHP 8.1 or higher
- A free Mollie account
- A site running on HTTPS
Add iDEAL to your Houzez site: https://blog.quantumaddons.com/
Frequently asked questions
How do I add iDEAL to Houzez?
Install a plugin that connects Houzez to a provider offering iDEAL. Mollie for Houzez does this directly, without WooCommerce: install it, paste your Mollie API keys, switch on iDEAL, test in sandbox and go live. It appears in the standard Houzez checkout.
Does Houzez support iDEAL by default?
No. Houzez includes Stripe and PayPal out of the box, but not iDEAL or other local European methods. You add iDEAL through a payment gateway such as Mollie.
Do I need WooCommerce to accept iDEAL on Houzez?
No. WooCommerce with several extensions is one way to do it, but a dedicated plugin like Mollie for Houzez adds iDEAL to the Houzez checkout directly, without a webshop platform running underneath your site.
Can I accept recurring membership payments with iDEAL?
Yes. Because iDEAL is single-use, the first payment sets up a SEPA Direct Debit mandate, and renewals then run automatically through Mollie. The plugin handles this, and members can cancel themselves from their dashboard.
Which other payment methods can I add besides iDEAL?
30 in total, including Bancontact, credit and debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA Direct Debit, Przelewy24, BLIK, TWINT, EPS and Cartes Bancaires. You choose which appear, and availability depends on your Mollie account and the customer’s country.
Will adding this plugin break my Houzez theme?
No. It uses the theme’s own checkout and touches no core files, so a Houzez update will not break your setup. Your settings and data are also preserved across plugin updates.
What do I need to get started?
The Houzez theme 4.x, WordPress 6.0 or higher, PHP 8.1 or higher, a free Mollie account, and a site on HTTPS.
Learn more on the feature overview (https://blog.quantumaddons.com/mollie-for-houzez-features/), the pricing page (https://blog.quantumaddons.com/mollie-for-houzez-pricing/), or the documentation (https://blog.quantumaddons.com/docs/mollie-for-houzez-theme/).
Mollie for Houzez is a Quantum Add-ons product. Premium WordPress plugins, built with security and reliability. Made in the Netherlands.