Stripe lets you take card payments and run subscriptions online, from a simple checkout link to a full billing system. It's for founders selling software, services, courses or anything else online. There's no special deal right now: you pay Stripe's standard pay-as-you-go fees, with no free plan, trial, discount or credit on top. The standard offer is simple, though. There are no setup, monthly or hidden fees, and you pay only when a card charge succeeds. On Stripe's UK pricing, standard UK cards are 1.5% + 20p and EU cards are 2.5% + 20p, with higher rates for premium UK and international cards.
What it can do for you
Send a payment link today, add a hosted checkout to your site, or bill customers monthly with Stripe Billing, which costs 0.7% of billing volume on top of card fees. It handles invoices, receipts, failed-payment retries and a customer portal. If you'd rather not deal with sales tax and VAT abroad, Managed Payments acts as merchant of record for an extra 3.5% per transaction.
What people like
Developers and founders value its reliability, documentation and how much it connects to. It works in many countries and scales from a first sale to a large business without changing provider.
The honest downsides
- Accounts can be frozen. Reddit has many stories of accounts closed or payouts held after a risk review, often for up to 120 days. Keep records, and know that in at least one UK case the Financial Ombudsman ordered held funds released.
- Tax is your job by default. Standard Stripe doesn't collect and file VAT or sales tax for you; Managed Payments does, at extra cost.
- Fees stack. Card fees, Billing and add-ons each charge separately, so work out your real rate.
Skip it if
- you sell in person mostly (a card-reader setup may suit you better)
- you sell software globally and don't want any tax admin (consider a merchant of record)
Alternatives
There's nothing we list that's better as a general payments platform. Different fits:
- Paddle handles global sales tax for software and SaaS for a flat 5% + 50¢ per transaction.
- Square if you also take payments in person.
Some links may be affiliate links. They help keep WebTools.directory running at no extra cost to you.
Comments