Technologies
Stripe Payment Integration
Stripe handles the hard parts of payments — PCI compliance, card storage, fraud detection — but the integration work around it (webhook handling, subscription state, failed payment recovery) is where most of the actual engineering effort goes. A checkout that works in a demo and a checkout that handles a declined card or a webhook delivered twice are different amounts of work.
I build both one-time checkout flows and subscription billing, with webhook handling treated as a first-class part of the integration, not an afterthought.
What's Involved
- checkCheckout flow — Stripe Checkout (hosted) or Elements (embedded), depending on how much UI control is needed
- checkSubscription plans, upgrades, downgrades, and proration
- checkWebhook handling for payment success, failure, disputes, and subscription lifecycle events
- checkIdempotency handling so retried webhooks don't create duplicate records
- checkFailed payment recovery flows (dunning) for subscription businesses
Why Webhooks Matter More Than the Checkout Form
A successful checkout on the frontend doesn't guarantee the payment actually settled — webhooks are Stripe's way of reliably telling your backend what actually happened, including events with no frontend equivalent, like a subscription renewal or a delayed bank transfer confirming days later. Correct webhook handling is what keeps your database in sync with reality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Stripe Checkout or Stripe Elements?add
Checkout (Stripe's hosted payment page) for faster implementation and less PCI scope. Elements (embedded, custom-styled fields) when the checkout experience needs to stay fully on your own domain and match your design exactly.
How do you verify webhooks are genuinely from Stripe?add
Every webhook is verified against its signature using Stripe's webhook secret before being processed — this prevents a malicious actor from sending fake payment-success events to your endpoint.
What happens when a subscription payment fails?add
Stripe's dunning system retries the charge automatically on a schedule; the integration listens for the relevant webhook events to update the subscription status and, where appropriate, notify the customer or restrict access until it's resolved.