Stripe Expert
Product advisor that guides you through choosing the right Stripe products and integration approach for your specific business needs.
How This Skill Works
- Understand your business - Identify your business model, requirements, and stage
- Recommend products - Map your needs to the right Stripe product stack
- Choose integration path - Select the right implementation approach for each product
- Hand off to implementation skills - Route to specialized
stripe-*skills for actual code
This skill does NOT write implementation code. It advises on WHAT to use and WHY. For implementation, use the specialized skills listed below.
Quick Advisor: What Do You Need?
What are you trying to do?
|
+-- Accept payments (one-time)?
| Products: Payments (Checkout or Payment Element)
| Skill: stripe-payments
| Cost: 2.9% + $0.30/txn
|
+-- Recurring billing / subscriptions?
| Products: Billing + Payments
| Skill: stripe-billing
| Cost: 0.7% billing + 2.9% + $0.30/txn
|
+-- Marketplace with sellers/providers?
| Products: Connect + Payments + Payouts
| Skill: stripe-connect
| Cost: 2.9% + $0.30/txn + $2/mo/active account (Express)
|
+-- Embedded banking / wallets / card issuing?
| Products: Treasury + Issuing + Connect
| Skill: stripe-treasury
| Cost: Custom pricing (contact Stripe sales)
|
+-- Tax calculation and compliance?
| Products: Tax (+ Payments or Billing)
| Skill: stripe-revenue
| Cost: 0.5%/txn
|
+-- Fraud prevention?
| Products: Radar (+ Payments)
| Skill: stripe-money-management
| Cost: Included with standard pricing; Fraud Teams $0.07/txn
|
+-- Financial reporting / analytics?
| Products: Sigma, Revenue Recognition, Reporting
| Skill: stripe-revenue
| Cost: Sigma free for 1M rows; RevRec included with Billing
|
+-- Refunds, disputes, payouts?
| Products: Core payment operations
| Skill: stripe-money-management
Business Model Advisor
Match your business type to a recommended Stripe stack:
| Business Model | Must Have | Should Have | Nice to Have | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS | Billing, Payments | Tax, Customer Portal | Revenue Recognition, Sigma | references/business-guides.md |
| E-Commerce | Checkout, Payments | Tax, Radar | Payment Links, Sigma | references/business-guides.md |
| Marketplace | Connect, Payments | Radar, Tax | Treasury, Sigma | references/business-guides.md |
| On-Demand/Gig | Connect, Payments | Issuing | Instant Payouts | references/business-guides.md |
| Fintech/BaaS | Treasury, Connect, Issuing | Identity | Capital | references/business-guides.md |
| Creator Economy | Connect, Payment Links | Billing | Checkout | references/business-guides.md |
| B2B/Enterprise | Invoicing, Payments | Tax, Billing | Sigma, Revenue Recognition | references/business-guides.md |
| Non-Profit | Checkout, Payment Links | Billing | Tax | references/business-guides.md |
| Mobile App | Payments (mobile SDK) | Billing | Apple/Google Pay | references/business-guides.md |
| Physical Retail | Terminal, Payments | Radar | Checkout (online) | references/business-guides.md |
| Crypto/Web3 | Crypto Onramp, Payments | Connect | Identity | references/business-guides.md |
| Usage-Based API | Billing (meters) | Revenue Recognition | Sigma | references/business-guides.md |
For detailed guides per business type: references/business-guides.md
Integration Approach Advisor
Payment Acceptance: Which Integration?
| Approach | Code Required | Customization | Best For | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payment Links | None | Low | Quick launch, social selling | Minutes |
| Checkout Sessions | Server only | Medium | Most businesses, MVPs | Hours |
| Payment Element | Server + Client | High | Custom branded checkout | Days |
| Custom (PI API) | Full stack | Total | Specialized payment flows | Weeks |
Default recommendation: Start with Checkout Sessions. Move to Payment Element when you need more UI control.
Subscription Creation: Which Path?
| Approach | Best For | Complexity |
|---|---|---|
Checkout (mode: 'subscription') | New customers, simple plans | Low |
| Subscription API + Payment Element | Existing customers, complex plans | Medium |
| Customer Portal | Self-service changes/cancellation | Low (add-on) |
Connect: Which Account Type?
| Account Type | Onboarding | Dashboard | Liability | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Stripe-hosted | Full Stripe | Account holder | Sellers with existing Stripe |
| Express | Stripe-hosted (branded) | Express | Shared | Most marketplaces (default) |
| Custom | You build | You build | Platform | White-label, full control |
Default recommendation: Express accounts for most platforms.
Connect: Which Charge Flow?
| Flow | Statement Shows | Fund Flow | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Destination | Platform | Platform -> Seller | Most marketplaces (default) |
| Direct | Seller | Seller (platform takes fee) | Seller-branded experiences |
| SCT | Platform | Platform -> Multiple sellers | Complex multi-party splits |
Default recommendation: Destination charges for most platforms.
For detailed integration decision trees: references/integration-decision-guide.md
Architecture by Stage
MVP (Week 1-2)
- Checkout Sessions for payments (hosted, fast, handles SCA)
- Payment Links for quick sharing
- Webhooks for fulfillment (
checkout.session.completed) - Test mode with Stripe CLI
Growth (Month 1-3)
- Payment Element for custom checkout UX
- Stripe Tax for automatic tax calculation
- Customer Portal for self-service (if subscriptions)
- Radar rules for fraud prevention
- Billing for subscriptions
Scale / Platform (Month 3+)
- Connect for marketplace/platform payments
- Treasury for embedded financial services
- Revenue Recognition for accounting compliance
- Sigma for custom analytics
- Data Pipeline for warehouse export
Stripe Product Catalog
For the complete catalog of all 27+ Stripe products with capabilities, pricing, prerequisites, and integration details: references/product-catalog.md
Quick Pricing Reference
| Product | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Payments | 2.9% + $0.30 | Per successful card charge (US) |
| International | +1.5% | Cross-border surcharge |
| Billing | 0.7% | Of recurring billing volume |
| Connect (Express) | $2/mo/account | + 0.25% + $0.25 per payout |
| Connect (Standard) | Free | Stripe bills connected accounts directly |
| Tax | 0.5% | Per transaction |
| Radar | Included | Standard ML; Fraud Teams $0.07/txn |
| Identity | $1.50 | Per verification |
| Terminal | 2.7% + $0.05 | Per in-person transaction |
| Issuing | $0.10 virtual / $3.00 physical | Per card created |
| Revenue Recognition | Included | With Billing |
| Sigma | Free (1M rows) | Then $0.02/1K rows |
| Treasury / Capital | Custom | Contact Stripe sales |
Specialized Implementation Skills
Once you've chosen your products and approach, hand off to these skills:
| Skill | Covers | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| stripe-payments | Payment Intents, Checkout, Payment Element, Payment Links, 3DS | Accepting any payment |
| stripe-billing | Subscriptions, invoicing, usage-based, trials, customer portal, dunning | Recurring revenue |
| stripe-connect | Connected accounts, onboarding, charge flows, platform fees, payouts | Marketplace / platform |
| stripe-treasury | Financial accounts, money movement, card issuing, crypto onramp | Embedded finance / BaaS |
| stripe-revenue | Tax, revenue recognition, Sigma, reporting, data pipeline | Tax and financial compliance |
| stripe-money-management | Payouts, refunds, disputes, Radar, balance, multi-currency | Money operations |
Cross-Cutting Concerns (All Integrations)
Every Stripe integration needs:
- Webhook endpoint - Verify signatures, handle events idempotently, return 200 quickly
- Error handling - Classify errors (card decline vs API error vs network), never expose raw errors
- Idempotency keys - On all mutating API calls, derived from business IDs
- Test mode - Use Stripe CLI (
stripe listen), test cards, test clocks
References
- references/product-catalog.md - Complete Stripe product catalog: capabilities, pricing, prerequisites, anti-patterns
- references/business-guides.md - Business-type specific guides: SaaS, marketplace, e-commerce, fintech, and 8 more
- references/integration-decision-guide.md - Integration approach decisions: payment paths, framework setup, webhook architecture, testing