How to Create a Subscription in Stripe: A Step-by-Step Guide

Enable the Stripe Customer Portal in your Stripe dashboard under Billing > Customer Portal settings. Configure which products and plans customers can manage through the portal. Copy the generated portal link and integrate it into your application's user dashboard. Create a button or link that directs authenticated users to the customer portal with their email prefilled as a query parameter. Users can then manage their subscriptions including upgrading/downgrading plans, changing payment methods, viewing invoice history, and canceling subscriptions. Stripe handles the underlying complexity while providing a professional self-service experience for your customers.

The Stripe Customer Portal allows customers to view and manage their subscriptions, including changing payment methods, viewing invoices, and canceling subscriptions. Enable the portal through Settings > Billing > Customer Portal in the Stripe dashboard. Create a billing portal session using stripe.billingPortal.sessions.create() with the customer ID and return_url. The return_url should redirect customers back to your application after they use the portal.

Stripe Customer Portal enables customers to self-manage subscriptions through a simple link. The no-code version requires email verification since anyone can access the link. Stripe uses unique Customer IDs (not emails) for each customer, so businesses should maintain one record per customer. Test mode requires real emails for verification. Businesses can customize branding colors and configure what customers can do: pause, upgrade, downgrade, cancel, and switch plans. To integrate, create a page in your website builder and add a link to the Stripe portal URL. The portal requires existing customer records, which are created when customers complete payments. Customers can view their subscription plan, access invoice history and receipts, and manage their subscriptions independently. This self-service capability reduces support tickets and allows customers to make changes without developer intervention.

The premium page implements access control by checking if users are authenticated and have premium plans. The implementation fetches user profiles from the database and redirects to the homepage if users are not on premium plans. Instead of hardcoding subscription status, the application uses a server action to dynamically check if users are subscribed. The result is used in the navbar to show/hide the premium button and billing portal. The Stripe Customer Portal allows users to manage subscriptions, update payment methods, and view invoices. Setup involves activating the portal in the Stripe dashboard, adding subscription products, configuring upsell options (e.g., upsell monthly to yearly plan), and storing the portal URL as an environment variable.

The Stripe customer portal enables users to self-manage subscriptions including upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations. When users modify their plans through the portal, Stripe triggers events that your backend must listen for and respond to appropriately. A critical consideration is that Stripe events can arrive out of order due to network issues or system delays. Your application must be designed to handle events in any sequence without failing, as Stripe will retry failed events. This requires idempotent code that can safely apply the same event multiple times without causing data inconsistencies.

Dunning management is an automated process that notifies customers of payment failures and attempts to recover payments. In Zoho Billing, you can configure Dunning management for three types: subscriptions with autocharge (credit/debit cards), subscriptions without autocharge (direct debit), and onetime invoices. For autocharge subscriptions, configure retry preferences including days between attempts and customize email notifications. For non-autocharge subscriptions, set the grace period after invoice overdue. When final retry attempts fail, configure actions like marking unpaid, canceling subscriptions, or reversing invoices. Track failed payments using the At Risk report under Churn in the Reports module.

Automated collections systems handle failed payments by automatically sending email reminders with payment request links and configurable dunning retries, running in the background to restore customers to their recurring schedules; to add old failed payments, change their status to 'recurring' so they enter the automated process on the next batch run, and the automated collections batch should be scheduled 1-2 hours after the recurring batch (typically at 4 AM if recurring runs at 3 AM) to ensure it starts after the recurring batch completes.

Dunning management is the systematic process of recovering failed payments through automated customer communications, where merchants configure a dunning cycle (length and cadence of email attempts) and customize email templates to notify customers of failed payments and encourage them to update their payment methods, with configurable end-of-cycle behaviors for invoices and subscriptions such as remaining active or expiring.

Payment dunning is a systematic approach to recovering failed subscription payments by automatically notifying customers, retrying charges, and sending follow-up communications to prevent involuntary churn. The process involves using a payment received trigger to detect failed transactions, configuring retry schedules (typically 3 attempts with delays between attempts), and building automated workflows that send invoices, email/SMS reminders, and final notices. Best practices include being proactive with renewal reminders, maintaining a positive and helpful tone, offering multiple payment options, and respecting retry schedules while complying with legal guidelines.

Stripe Billing now supports usage-based billing for software companies, particularly important in the AI industry where inference costs are significant. The implementation involves creating meters to measure usage (such as words translated), reporting usage data in real-time, connecting to pricing logic, and integrating with the rest of the RFA suite. With GitHub Copilot integration, developers can generate code snippets for meter events through natural language prompts, significantly accelerating implementation.

Metered or usage-based billing is a business model where B2B companies charge customers based on their actual consumption of products or services, with invoices generated at the end of each billing cycle covering usage from the previous term and the base plan for the next period. The system allows businesses to define when usage can be added to subscriptions, how subscriptions behave at billing cycle end, and how usage charges are calculated (sum of all usage, maximum usage, or most recent usage). Usage can be added manually through the UI or automated via APIs and bulk operations. Revenue recognition typically recognizes usage from the previous billing term and the base plan in the next period.

A usage-based billing platform enables businesses to track and charge customers for actual resource consumption through a systematic workflow: creating customers with unique identifiers, configuring meters to track specific usage events with aggregation methods and dimensions, designing pricing plans with rate models (per unit, per block, tiered) that can vary by dimensions like device type or region, assigning customers to plans, and generating metered invoices that display usage data and calculated charges according to the pricing plan.

Stripe Billing is a comprehensive platform that enables businesses to launch various revenue models including subscriptions, usage-based billing, and invoicing; it requires creating products and prices as foundational elements, supports flexible pricing models from simple flat-rate subscriptions to complex metered billing, and includes tools for managing customer trials, coupons, and revenue recovery through automated payment retries and failed payment handling.

For tiered pricing, calculate cost for each tier separately and sum them. Example: First 6 minutes at R$1.40/min = R$8.40. Remaining 8 minutes at R$1.15/min = R$9.20. Total = 8.40 + 9.20 = R$17.60.

This section covers Stripe Checkout integration for payment processing. It explains how to create products in the Stripe Dashboard with pricing and images, how to use Stripe Payment Links for simple checkout pages, and how to integrate Stripe Checkout for custom checkout pages. The section covers Stripe.js integration using script tags, environment variables for API keys, and configuring success and cancel URLs for redirect handling.

This tutorial demonstrates how to integrate Stripe payment processing into a Spring Boot web application using a custom checkout flow where the browser communicates directly with Stripe's API, ensuring credit card data never reaches your server; the implementation involves creating a PaymentIntent endpoint on the server, embedding Stripe.js in the client-side form, and handling payment confirmation asynchronously through webhooks to fulfill orders after successful transactions.

Stripe Payment Links is a no-code solution that allows businesses to create payment URLs directly from the Stripe dashboard without writing any code, enabling simple integration of payment functionality into websites by simply pasting the generated link into buttons or links.

Implementing Stripe payment involves: (1) Installing Stripe package; (2) Loading Stripe.js with publishable key; (3) Creating checkout session using Stripe API; (4) Handling payment confirmation; (5) Redirecting to success or error pages. Backend API implementation involves: (1) Creating API route for checkout; (2) Importing Stripe from server-side; (3) Accessing Stripe secret key from environment variables; (4) Creating checkout session with Stripe API; (5) Configuring line items with quantity, price, currency, name, description, and image; (6) Setting payment method type, shipping address collection, mode, success URL, and cancel URL; (7) Returning session ID in response; (8) Handling errors gracefully. The payment flow should be seamless and provide clear feedback.

This segment covers full Stripe payment integration and the complete checkout flow. Create API routes in 'src/routes/api/stripe-checkout/server.ts' using RequestHandler types. Initialize Stripe with secret keys and API versioning (2022-11-15). Transform cart items into Stripe's line items format (price, quantity) for the checkout session. Create sessions using 'stripe.checkout.sessions.create()' with line_items, mode, success_url, and cancel_url. Configure Stripe products in the dashboard and link them to application products using API IDs. Implement the frontend checkout using fetch API with POST requests to Stripe endpoints. Handle JSON responses and redirect users to session URLs using 'window.location.replace()'. Create success and cancel routes to handle post-payment states. Test with Stripe's test card numbers (4242 4242 4242 4242). This completes the full e-commerce integration from cart to payment confirmation.