Stripe

Stripe is the gold standard for online payments. If you're building a SaaS product, selling digital products, or accepting any kind of online payment, Stripe makes it straightforward with excellent docs and a developer-friendly API.

Why Use Stripe

Industry Standard: Stripe powers millions of businesses from startups to Fortune 500 companies. It's trusted, reliable, and has solved every edge case you can imagine.

Subscriptions Made Easy: Building a SaaS? Stripe Billing handles recurring subscriptions, trials, upgrades, downgrades, metered billing, and dunning (retrying failed payments) automatically.

Excellent Developer Experience: The API is clean, the docs are comprehensive, and there are official SDKs for every language. Setting up payments takes hours, not weeks.

Beyond Just Payments: Stripe also handles invoicing, tax calculation, fraud prevention, and compliance. You get a full billing infrastructure, not just payment processing.

Key Features

• Payment Processing - Accept credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay
• Subscriptions - Recurring billing with flexible plans and pricing
• Invoicing - Automatic invoice generation and delivery
• Payment Links - No-code payment pages for quick sales
• Checkout - Pre-built, conversion-optimized payment pages
• Tax Automation - Stripe Tax handles sales tax and VAT
• Fraud Prevention - Machine learning-powered fraud detection
• Connect - Build marketplaces and platforms
• Terminal - In-person payment hardware

Pricing

Stripe doesn't have monthly fees - you only pay per transaction:

Standard Pricing:

• 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge
• No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden costs
• Volume discounts available for larger businesses

This means:

• $0 cost until you make your first sale
• If you sell a $100 product, Stripe takes $3.20
• If you make $1,000/month, you pay ~$32/month in fees

Perfect For

• SaaS products with subscriptions
• One-time product sales
• Course creators and digital products
• Marketplaces and platforms
• Mobile apps with in-app purchases
• Any business accepting online payments

Integration With Other Tools

Stripe integrates seamlessly with:

• Next.js via the Stripe SDK
• Supabase for tracking customers
• Clerk or Auth.js for user authentication
• Vercel for hosting
• Resend for sending receipt emails

Getting Started

1. Sign up at stripe.com
2. Get your API keys (test mode and live mode)
3. Install the Stripe SDK: npm install stripe
4. Create products and prices in the dashboard
5. Add Stripe Checkout to your app

Code Example

import Stripe from 'stripe';

const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);

// Create a checkout session
const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
  line_items: [{
    price: 'price_1234', // Your price ID
    quantity: 1,
  }],
  mode: 'subscription',
  success_url: 'https://yoursite.com/success',
  cancel_url: 'https://yoursite.com/cancel',
});

// Redirect user to session.url

Common Patterns for Solo Builders

Simple SaaS Subscription:

1. Create products in Stripe Dashboard
2. Use Stripe Checkout for the payment page
3. Handle webhooks to activate accounts
4. Use customer portal for self-service cancellations

One-Time Payments:

1. Create Payment Links in dashboard (no code needed)
2. Or use Stripe Checkout for custom flows
3. Handle checkout.session.completed webhook

Freemium SaaS:

1. Let users sign up without payment
2. Add Stripe Checkout for upgrade flow
3. Use webhooks to update subscription status

Alternatives to Consider

Lemon Squeezy or Paddle: Merchant of record that handles tax compliance automatically. Costs more (5% + processing fees) but handles all tax/VAT collection and remittance. Great if you're selling globally.

Gumroad: Simpler, good for digital creators, but less flexible for SaaS products.

PayPal: Widely recognized but worse developer experience and higher dispute rates.

For most solo builders, especially SaaS, Stripe is the best choice. It's what investors and acquirers expect to see, it scales with you, and the developer experience is unmatched.

Tips for Solo Builders

• Use Stripe Checkout instead of building your own payment form
• Enable tax automation via Stripe Tax (saves hours of tax research)
• Set up webhook handlers correctly - they're critical for subscriptions
• Use test mode extensively before going live
• Enable customer portal so customers can manage their own subscriptions
• Monitor your Stripe Dashboard for failed payments and disputes

Stripe takes a percentage, but the time you save and mistakes you avoid make it worth every penny.