Stripe
A developer-first payments platform for one-off charges, subscriptions and marketplaces.
The gold standard for taking payments in code — superb docs, APIs and dashboard. Free to integrate; they take a cut per transaction. If you're charging money, you'll probably start here.
Stripe is the payments layer most software runs on. It handles one-off charges, subscriptions, marketplaces, invoicing and more behind a famously good API and dashboard. You stay in control of the checkout and billing flow; Stripe handles the hard parts of actually moving money.
Start with this
import Stripe from 'stripe';
const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);
// create a hosted checkout for a subscription
const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
mode: 'subscription',
line_items: [{ price: 'price_123', quantity: 1 }],
success_url: 'https://example.com/success',
cancel_url: 'https://example.com/cancel',
});
// then redirect the customer to session.urlThe take, for AI builders
For people building with AI, Stripe is the safe default for charging money: the docs are so good that an agent can wire up Checkout correctly in one pass, and the test mode lets you build the whole flow before a cent moves. The one thing it does not do is handle sales tax and VAT for you — if you sell globally and don't want to become a tax expert, a merchant of record like Paddle or Lemon Squeezy sits on top of (or instead of) Stripe and takes that burden.
When to reach for it
✓ Good fit
- Taking real payments — subscriptions, one-off charges, marketplaces
- You want best-in-class developer docs, APIs and a dashboard
- You want full control over the checkout and billing flow
✕ Not for
- You don't want to handle global sales tax / VAT yourself
- You just need a quick buy button for one product (Gumroad is simpler)
Alternatives
A merchant of record that handles tax and compliance for you, on top of card processing.
A developer-first merchant of record with entitlements like license keys and GitHub access.
Related in Payments & commerce
Chargebee
A subscription billing and revenue management platform for recurring businesses.
- billing
- subscriptions
- saas
Subscription billing once it gets complicated — trials, proration, dunning, revenue ops. Worth it when your billing logic has outgrown raw Stripe; overkill before that.
Visit ↗Gumroad
A simple platform for creators to sell digital products, memberships and courses.
- payments
- creators
- digital-products
The simplest way to sell a digital product — paste a button, get paid. Great for creators and quick launches; the per-sale fee is the trade for zero setup.
Visit ↗Lemon Squeezy
A merchant-of-record platform for selling digital products and SaaS, handling tax compliance.
- payments
- merchant-of-record
- saas
Payments plus the tax-and-compliance headache handled for you, since they're the merchant of record. The indie-friendly way to sell digital products without becoming a tax expert; now owned by Stripe.
Visit ↗