Stripe
Payments API with checkout, subscriptions and billing, used by most SaaS companies worldwide.
- Price
- 2.9% + 30¢ per US card; international cards cost more; Billing 0.7%
- Free plan
- No
- Setup
- Needs a developer
- Up and running
- Checkout and subscriptions in test mode in an afternoon; real payments after the account activation review.
What Stripe is for
Stripe handles the part of your product that takes money: the checkout page, saved cards, monthly renewals, failed-payment retries and refunds. You don't build any of that yourself; your app asks Stripe to charge someone and Stripe tells your app when it worked. It takes cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay in dozens of currencies from one account.
How it plugs into your product
- 1Open a Stripe account in your company's country and wait for the activation review before you can take real payments.
- 2Create your plans in the dashboard and turn on the payment methods you want (cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and local methods like SEPA Debit).
- 3In your app, send the customer to Stripe Checkout; your server holds the secret key and creates the checkout session.
- 4Set up a webhook so Stripe tells your app when a payment succeeds, fails or a subscription is cancelled.
Does it fit your idea?
It fits if
- Your SaaS sells to customers in several countries and you want cards in different currencies paid into one account.
- Almost all your customers pay a monthly plan by credit card, like a B2B tool sold to companies with corporate cards.
- You need upgrades, prorating, trials and a customer portal without building them yourself.
Look elsewhere if
- You sell lots of small one-off purchases: on a $3 sale, 2.9% + 30¢ takes about 13%.
- Most of your customers pay with a local method Stripe doesn’t offer where your company is, so you’d need a second gateway anyway.
- You want sales tax and VAT filed for you in every country: Stripe isn't the merchant of record, so Paddle or Lemon Squeezy fit better.
What people only find out after building
Read this before you build on it. Each item links to the official page that says so.
Stripe isn't the merchant of record: registering for, collecting and filing sales tax or VAT in each country you sell to is on you.
Official source: stripe.comStripe Tax only calculates and collects tax, for 0.5% of volume where you're registered. Filing the returns needs the separate Tax Complete plan.
Official source: docs.stripe.comYour first payout usually lands 7 to 14 days after your first live payment, depending on your industry, country and risk level.
Official source: docs.stripe.comSubscriptions run on Stripe Billing, which adds 0.7% of the billed volume on top of the card fee.
Official source: stripe.comEach card dispute costs $15 in the US, and countering it costs another $15 that you only get back if you win.
Official source: stripe.com
Price
2.9% + 30¢ per US card; international cards cost more; Billing 0.7%
No monthly fee; you pay per transaction.
- Fee per sale
- 2.9% + 30¢ (US cards); more on international cards
- Handles taxes (merchant of record)
- No by default; Managed Payments is separate
- Subscriptions
- Yes, Stripe Billing (+0.7% of volume)
Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing
What it costs in practice
A SaaS with 200 subscribers at $29 on US cards: 200 × (2.9% of $29 + $0.30) ≈ $228, plus Billing at 0.7% of $5,800 ≈ $41. About $269 a month in fees, roughly 4.6% of revenue (estimate).
Estimate from the official price. Check it before you decide.
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