Stripe

Where does Stripe fit when someone buys a plan?

A customer picks your monthly plan in the app, pays on Stripe’s Checkout page and gets back to their account. Stripe Checkout takes the first payment. Stripe Billing can handle the next charge on the schedule you set. Your app connects the purchase to the account and unlocks the features the customer bought.

If you only sell a one-time download, you can start by checking the purchase and delivering the file. A subscription has a longer life. Your app needs to respond again when the customer pays for another month, changes plans or cancels.

When is Stripe the seller and when are you?

With ordinary Stripe payments, your business is the legal seller, also called the merchant of record. If a sale requires sales tax or VAT, your business needs to make sure it’s handled. Turning on tax calculation leaves your business in that role.

Managed Payments is a separate Stripe service. On eligible digital sales, Stripe becomes the seller and takes on covered transaction taxes, payment disputes and payment-related support. You still help customers use your product. Your business remains responsible for indirect tax where Managed Payments does not cover it.

Before using it for a paid app, check your business location, product, customer locations and checkout setup against the eligibility list. Eligible software and downloads are in scope. Physical goods, human-delivered professional services and Connect marketplace sales are outside it.

How do you check that the first payment works?

Create one plan and price in a Stripe sandbox, a separate test environment. Open Checkout while signed in as a test customer. Pay with Stripe’s test details, sign out, sign back in and open the paid feature.

• Try the same journey with a declined payment and with the browser closed before the customer returns. The app should unlock the confirmed purchase and leave the declined one unpaid.
• Complete business verification and the activation requirements for the Stripe service you’ll use. Keep test and live settings separate. Private keys belong on the part of the app that runs on your host, out of the page that visitors receive.

What if the payment succeeds and the customer closes the page?

The account should still get what it bought. Stripe sends your app direct notifications called webhooks. The app checks the signature to verify the sender, then checks whether the payment actually cleared. Some payment methods finish after checkout ends.

Save the connection between the purchase and the account or workspace when you start checkout. Use that record to grant access. A thank-you page is there to tell the customer what happened. Opening it should never be enough to unlock a feature.

Stripe can deliver the same notification twice or send updates in a different order. Make a repeated event safe to process and check the current billing record if two updates disagree. When a customer says they paid and still can’t get in, look at both their Stripe payment and the app’s account link.

Which Stripe fees would a monthly plan incur?

For a standard $20 US domestic card subscription using pay-as-you-go Billing, the listed rates give $0.88 for taking the card payment and $0.14 for billing, or $1.02 in total. If the same charge uses eligible Managed Payments, the 3.5% adds $0.70, for $1.72. These are illustrative USD fees for a $20 charge with no tax added, conversion, payout costs or other services.

The regular card rate can change with the payment method and where the card is from. If you’re the seller, budget separately for any tools or work you need to handle tax. Managed Payments calculates its fee on the full successful charge, including transaction tax.

On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read every column.

How do cancellation and refunds affect access?

Suppose someone paid through the 30th and cancels on the 12th. With a period-end cancellation, they can keep using the plan through the 30th. Stripe can also end a subscription immediately. Check which choice you allow in the Stripe-hosted page where customers manage their subscriptions.

A declined renewal is a different case. Show the customer how to update their payment details. Decide when your app keeps access open during recovery and what it does if the payment still hasn’t come through.

Refunding the payment returns money. Check separately whether you mean to stop future charges or change what the app allows. Stripe uses your available balance for refunds. The original payment processing fee generally stays deducted.

What would it take to move paying customers away from Stripe?

Start with an inventory of how your customers pay and when they renew. Stripe documents a secure transfer of eligible saved card data to a qualifying payment processor. Credentials saved through Stripe Link are excluded.

Export the separate records for subscriptions and payment history and agree with the new service on how to recreate billing. Confirm that the new service can charge each payment method or give affected customers a way to enter it again.

Before switching, make sure the next renewal goes through only once, on the correct date, and keeps the right account active. Keep access to old payment records and a way to handle refunds from before the switch.

Can customers pay other businesses through your app?

If a customer uses your app to pay an independent instructor, the sale and money flow differ from selling your own monthly plan. Stripe Connect supports platforms that onboard sellers and move money between businesses. Managed Payments does not cover Connect sales.

Work out who makes the sale, where the money goes and who handles a refund before wiring up checkout. Then check the Connect setup that matches those decisions.