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Stripe
How customers pay you, without you touching card numbers.
1. Learn it
- Checkout is a hosted payment page — you send people to it, Stripe handles the card.
- A subscription is a price that repeats; a one-off is a price that doesn't.
- A webhook is Stripe telling your app 'this person paid' — without it, your app never knows.
- Test mode uses fake cards. Live mode is real money. Check which you are in.
Cost: Percentage per transaction; free to set up.
2. Practice it
Simulated — nothing real happensFollow the money
A user pays but is still on the free plan. Where in the chain is the break?
3. Connect it
Real — your own account- 1Create a Stripe account and stay in test mode.
- 2Copy the secret key into your app's secrets — server side only.
- 3Set up a webhook endpoint and verify the signature on every request.
MessyDev never signs you up, spends your money, or touches your accounts. You do that part.
4. Use it
The moment you want money for the thing you built.
Honest alternatives
There is no single correct stack. Any of these would be a reasonable choice instead.
- Paddle (handles sales tax for you)
- Lemon Squeezy