Stripe

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a payments platform covering everything from one-off checkout links to full subscription billing, invoicing, and marketplace payouts, all behind an API and dashboard most developers already know from having used it somewhere else. It's the reference implementation other payment tools get compared against, with documentation and SDK coverage that's rarely matched, which is a large part of why it's the default rather than one option among many.

Key features

• Checkout, Payment Links, and a fully custom Elements-based flow, covering everything from no-code to fully bespoke payment UIs
• Subscription billing with proration, trials, metered usage, and coupons handled natively, not bolted on
• Stripe Connect for marketplace and platform payouts to multiple parties
• Deep webhook and API coverage, with mature SDKs across essentially every major language
• Built-in fraud detection (Radar) and dispute handling tools

Who it's for

The right starting point for almost any product that needs to charge a card, from a solo SaaS to a marketplace. The one common reason to look elsewhere is merchant-of-record needs, where you want a provider to handle global sales tax and VAT compliance on your behalf, since Stripe Tax helps but doesn't fully take on that liability the way a dedicated merchant-of-record does.

Pricing

Pay-as-you-go, a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction, with no monthly subscription for the core payments product. Additional products like Billing or Connect add their own usage-based fees.