Stripe
Online payment processing with exceptional developer experience and flexible subscription APIs
This is best used for online payment processing with exceptional developer experience. Stripe is the default payment processor for startups, best for SaaS companies needing flexible payment APIs, subscription billing foundation, and global payment acceptance.
Key tactical use cases: Core payment processing (cards, ACH, SEPA, 100+ payment methods), SaaS subscription billing with Stripe Billing add-on, marketplace payments via Stripe Connect, revenue recognition and financial reporting, and checkout optimization with hosted payment pages.
True cost calculation: Payment processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. International cards add +1%. Currency conversion adds +1%. Stripe Billing adds +0.7%. Stripe Tax adds +0.5%. Stripe Invoicing adds +0.4%. Total for typical international SaaS: ~5%+ of revenue with all add-ons.
Integration universality: HubSpot, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Xero, Chargebee, Recurly, Zapier, virtually every modern SaaS tool, all major e-commerce platforms.
Common stack pattern: Stripe for payments + Chargebee for complex subscription management + ProfitWell/Baremetrics for analytics (Stripe's native reporting is limited).
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