What's the difference between Stripe and a billing platform like StackBE?

Stripe is a payment processor—it handles the actual money movement. A billing platform like StackBE sits on top of Stripe and adds subscription management, customer identity, entitlements, and more. Stripe gives you building blocks; StackBE gives you a complete solution.

Should I use a Merchant of Record like Paddle?

Merchant of Record (MoR) platforms handle tax compliance, chargebacks, and legal seller responsibilities. They're great for global selling but charge higher fees (5%+) and you don't own the customer relationship directly. For US-focused or developer-centric products, using your own Stripe account often makes more sense.

How do I handle failed payments?

Implement dunning: automatic payment retries over days/weeks, customer notifications to update payment method, grace periods before revoking access, and easy self-service card updates. Most billing platforms handle this automatically.

What billing model should I start with?

Start with simple tiered pricing: a free tier (or trial) and one or two paid tiers. Don't overcomplicate. You can add usage-based pricing, per-seat pricing, or more tiers later when you have customer data to inform decisions.

Do I need to worry about PCI compliance?

If you use hosted checkout (Stripe Checkout, StackBE checkout), the payment provider handles PCI compliance. Card details never touch your servers. If you want custom payment forms, you need Stripe Elements or similar, and have some PCI requirements (typically SAQ A or SAQ A-EP).

How do I connect billing to feature access?

You need entitlements—a system that knows which features each plan includes and can answer 'does this user have access to X?' StackBE includes entitlements tied to billing. With just Stripe, you build this yourself or use feature flags (which aren't tied to billing).

SaaS Billing Guide: Subscriptions, Payments & Best Practices

What is SaaS Billing?

SaaS billing is the system that handles how you charge customers for your software. Unlike one-time purchases, SaaS billing involves recurring charges, subscription management, and ongoing customer relationships.

A complete SaaS billing system includes:

**Subscription management**: Creating, updating, and canceling subscriptions

**Payment processing**: Collecting payments via credit cards, ACH, etc.

**Invoice generation**: Creating and sending invoices

**Dunning**: Handling failed payments and recovery

**Customer self-service**: Letting customers manage their own billing

**Analytics**: Understanding revenue, churn, and growth

Subscription Models

Flat-Rate Pricing

The simplest model. One price, one set of features.

**Example**: $49/month for unlimited access

**Pros**: Easy to understand, predictable revenue

**Cons**: May leave money on the table, doesn't scale with customer value

Tiered Pricing

Multiple plans at different price points with different features.

**Example**: Free, Pro ($29/mo), Enterprise ($99/mo)

**Pros**: Captures different customer segments, clear upgrade path

**Cons**: Requires defining tiers, customers may feel limited

Per-Seat Pricing

Charge based on the number of users.

**Example**: $10/user/month

**Pros**: Scales with customer growth, easy to understand

**Cons**: Discourages adoption within organizations

Usage-Based Pricing

Charge based on consumption (API calls, storage, etc.).

**Example**: $0.001 per API call

**Pros**: Fair for customers, scales with value delivered

**Cons**: Unpredictable revenue, complex to implement

Hybrid Models

Combine models: base subscription plus usage charges.

**Example**: $99/mo base + $0.01 per additional API call

**Pros**: Predictable base with upside

**Cons**: Complex pricing communication

Key Components of SaaS Billing

1. Customer Management

Every billing system needs to track:

Customer identity (email, name, company)

Payment methods (cards, bank accounts)

Subscription history

Invoice history

2. Plan Configuration

Define your product offerings:

Plan names and descriptions

Pricing (monthly, yearly, etc.)

Trial periods

Feature entitlements per plan

3. Subscription Lifecycle

Handle the full journey:

Trial → Active → Renewal

Upgrades and downgrades

Pausing and resuming

Cancellation (immediate or end-of-period)

For a deep dive, see The Subscription Lifecycle Most Apps Get Wrong.

4. Payment Processing

Collect money reliably:

Credit/debit card processing

Alternative payment methods

Multi-currency support

PCI compliance

5. Failed Payment Recovery (Dunning)

When payments fail:

Automatic retry schedules

Customer notifications

Grace periods

Access revocation decisions

6. Tax Compliance

Handle the complexity:

Sales tax (US)

VAT (EU)

GST (AU, NZ)

Tax calculation and remittance

Build vs Buy

Building In-House

Pros:

Full control

No vendor fees

Custom to your needs

Cons:

Significant engineering investment

Ongoing maintenance burden

Edge cases are endless

Opportunity cost

Using a Billing Platform

Pros:

Faster time to market

Battle-tested code

Someone else handles edge cases

Regular improvements

Cons:

Vendor dependency

Transaction fees

Less customization

For most startups, buying (or using a platform like StackBE) is the right choice. Your competitive advantage isn't in billing code.

Choosing a Billing Platform

Questions to Ask

1. Do they handle auth? Most billing platforms don't. You'll need to integrate separately or choose a unified solution.

2. What are the total fees? Consider processing fees, platform fees, and any percentage of revenue.

3. Do they support your model? Flat-rate is easy. Usage-based billing has fewer options.

4. What about entitlements? How do you check "can this user access feature X?"

5. How's the developer experience? Good docs? SDKs? Responsive support?

Platform Options

See our detailed comparisons:

StackBE vs Stripe Billing

StackBE vs Paddle

StackBE vs Chargebee

StackBE vs LemonSqueezy

SaaS Billing Best Practices

Start Simple

Launch with one or two plans. Add complexity when you have data on what customers want.

Offer Annual Plans

Annual plans improve cash flow and reduce churn. Typically offer 15-20% discount vs monthly.

Make Upgrades Easy

The upgrade path should be frictionless. Prorate charges and activate features immediately.

Handle Cancellations Gracefully

Let customers cancel at end of period (not immediately). They've already paid for that time.

Monitor Key Metrics

Track:

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

Churn rate

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

Trial-to-paid conversion

Failed payment recovery rate

Getting Started

If you're building a SaaS and need billing:

1. Define your pricing model - Start simple, iterate based on data

2. Choose a billing platform - StackBE, Stripe Billing, or alternatives

3. Implement checkout - Use hosted checkout pages for security and simplicity

4. Set up webhooks - Keep your system in sync with billing events

5. Build customer self-service - Let customers manage their own subscriptions

6. Monitor and iterate - Use analytics to improve over time

StackBE handles all of this, plus authentication and entitlements, in one integration.

In This Guide

Comparisons

Articles

Documentation