Stripe's documentation is excellent. Stripe's edge cases are not documented.
Subscription downgrades mid-cycle, proration calculations, failed payment recovery, webhook idempotency, and Stripe Connect payout splits — these are the payment integration problems that only show up in production with real billing events. A developer who has shipped Stripe Billing and Stripe Connect across multiple productions knows where these are. Fixed scope, fixed price.
You need Stripe integration done correctly — not just the happy path, but the full billing lifecycle including failed payments, refunds, plan changes, and the webhooks that keep your database in sync.
Stripe integration looks simple in the quickstart documentation: create a PaymentIntent, confirm with a card, show success. That's 30 minutes of work. The full production payment integration is 2–4 weeks of work, and most of it is in the cases that don't appear in the quickstart:
Webhook processing. Stripe sends webhook events asynchronously for every billing event: subscription created, subscription updated, invoice paid, invoice payment failed, customer.subscription.deleted, payment_intent.succeeded, charge.refunded. Each event needs to be received, verified (Stripe-Signature header), processed idempotently (the same event might be delivered more than once), and translated into a state change in your application database. Webhook processing that isn't idempotent creates duplicate state (two paid invoices, two subscription records, two email confirmations).
Failed payment recovery. When a subscription invoice payment fails, Stripe initiates a dunning process (retries at defined intervals). Your application needs to handle the invoice.payment_failed event (show the customer a payment failure notification), the customer.subscription.past_due status transition (restrict access for past-due customers), and the customer.subscription.deleted event (cancel access when the dunning cycle exhausts). Applications that don't handle this cycle have customers with cancelled cards who continue to have full access indefinitely.
Stripe Connect. Marketplace and platform payment splitting via Stripe Connect requires understanding the difference between Standard, Express, and Custom accounts; managing connected account onboarding (the identity verification requirements that Apple and Android app stores require); and the Transfer and Payout objects that move money from the platform to connected sellers.
A production Stripe integration with Billing, Connect where required, webhook processing, and the billing lifecycle events that most Stripe integrations miss — implemented correctly from the start.
Stripe Billing for subscriptions
Products, Prices, and Subscription objects configured correctly. Stripe Checkout for new subscription onboarding. Stripe Customer Portal for self-service plan changes, payment method updates, and cancellation. Proration configured correctly for mid-cycle plan changes.
Webhook processing infrastructure
Webhook endpoint with Stripe signature verification. Idempotency via webhook event ID tracking (processed events recorded in the database, duplicate deliveries ignored). Event handlers for the full subscription lifecycle: created, updated, past_due, cancelled, invoice paid, invoice payment failed.
Failed payment handling
invoice.payment_failed → notify customer, show in-app payment update prompt. customer.subscription.past_due → restrict feature access. customer.subscription.deleted → downgrade to free tier, send cancellation confirmation. The full dunning lifecycle handled.
Stripe Connect for platforms
Connected account onboarding flow (Express or Custom depending on requirements). Transfer creation for marketplace payouts. Payout timing and minimum threshold configuration. Connected account dashboard via the Stripe Connect embedded components.
Revenue reporting
MRR, ARR, churn, and expansion revenue metrics derived from Stripe data — either via Stripe's built-in analytics or custom reporting queries against the synced subscription state in your application database.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A production Stripe integration with Billing, Connect where required, webhook processing, and the billing lifecycle events that most Stripe integrations miss — implemented correctly from the start.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Stripe integration is a defined scope — the payment flows, the webhook handlers, and the billing lifecycle events are enumerated in the spec. Fixed scope, fixed price.
Related engagements.
Stripe is the right payment processor. Integrating it correctly is harder than it looks.
Read more02You have the SaaS idea. We build the production MVP while you close your first customers.
Read more03Marketplaces are harder to build than most applications. The complexity is in the transaction layer.
Read moreQuestions, answered.
Stripe Billing is for collecting subscription and one-time payments from your own customers (SaaS subscriptions, service fees, etc.). Stripe Connect is for marketplaces and platforms where you collect money from buyers and pay out to sellers or service providers — you're the intermediary, not the end recipient. Many products use both: a SaaS product that also has a marketplace component uses Billing for their subscription and Connect for the marketplace payments.
Apple requires that subscription purchases within an iOS app use Apple's StoreKit (IAP), not Stripe. This is a hard App Store guideline requirement — using Stripe for in-app subscription purchases causes App Store rejection. The correct architecture: StoreKit for in-app subscription management on iOS, Stripe for web subscription management, with a backend that validates StoreKit receipts and syncs subscription state. We've implemented this architecture and know the specific receipt validation requirements.
Stripe's Checkout and Stripe Elements handle PCI compliance by design — card data never touches your server or codebase, so you're in the lowest PCI DSS scope tier (SAQ A). Custom card collection (collecting card numbers in your own form and sending to your server) is strongly discouraged. All RCB Software Stripe integrations use Stripe Elements or Checkout to maintain SAQ A compliance.
Stripe Billing integration as part of a web application typically runs $25k–$45k for the full application. If you have an existing application and need Stripe Billing or Connect added, the integration scope alone is $8k–$18k depending on complexity. Fixed-price.
Standalone Stripe integration: 3–5 weeks. As part of a full application build: included in the 10–14 week timeline.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.