Subscription billing that handles upgrades, downgrades, and renewals correctly.
Subscription billing is more complex than one-time payments. Plan changes that prorate correctly, trials that convert automatically, failed payment retry sequences, and cancellation flows — each has edge cases that can cost revenue if implemented incorrectly.
Need subscription billing built with Stripe — plans, trials, upgrades/downgrades, and customer billing portal
Stripe subscription billing edge cases:
Trial → Paid conversion:
Trial period set at checkout. Stripe charges automatically at trial end. The webhook: customer.subscription.trial_will_end (3 days before) for a reminder email, invoice.payment_succeeded after first charge to update the user's access.
Plan upgrades (prorating): User upgrades from $29/month to $99/month mid-billing cycle. Stripe prorates by default: charges the difference for the remaining days. Behavior is configurable — can be set to charge immediately, at next renewal, or not prorate.
Failed payment recovery: Stripe's Smart Retries automatically retries failed renewals using machine learning to pick the best time. Email dunning sequences (Stripe sends by default, or customized via webhooks) notify the customer.
Cancellation at period end:
Most SaaS products allow access until the end of the billing period. Stripe: cancel_at_period_end: true marks the subscription to cancel at period end. Update access on the customer.subscription.deleted webhook.
Customer Portal: Stripe's hosted customer portal allows customers to: update payment method, view invoices, change plan, cancel. Enable via the Stripe dashboard. No custom billing UI needed.
Stripe subscription integration with plan management, trial handling, upgrade/downgrade proration, and customer billing portal
Stripe products and prices
for each plan
Subscription creation
with trial handling
Upgrade/downgrade
with proration
Webhook handlers
for subscription lifecycle events
Customer Portal
link integration
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
Stripe subscription integration with plan management, trial handling, upgrade/downgrade proration, and customer billing portal
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
Subscription billing scope is the plan structure and the lifecycle events. Fixed-price.
Questions, answered.
Use Stripe Customer Portal for payment method updates, invoice downloads, plan changes, and cancellation. Build custom UI only for upsell flows or upgrade paths that require custom logic.
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.