Build a subscriptions integration

Install the Stripe client of your choice:

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

And then install the Stripe CLI. The CLI provides webhook testing and you can run it to make API calls to Stripe. This guide shows how to use the CLI to set up a pricing model in a later section.

# Install Homebrew to run this command: https://brew.sh/
brew install stripe/stripe-cli/stripe

# Connect the CLI to your dashboard
stripe login

For additional install options, see Get started with the Stripe CLI.

Create your products and their prices in the Dashboard or with the Stripe CLI.

This example uses a fixed-price service with two different service-level options: Basic and Premium. For each service-level option, you need to create a product and a recurring price. (If you want to add a one-time charge for something like a setup fee, create a third product with a one-time price. To keep things simple, this example doesn’t include a one-time charge.)

In this example, each product bills at monthly intervals. The price for the Basic product is 5 USD. The price for the Premium product is 15 USD.

Stripe needs a customer for each subscription. In your application frontend, collect any necessary information from your users and pass it to the backend.

If you need to collect address details, the Address Element enables you to collect a shipping or billing address for your customers. For more information on the Address Element, visit the Address Element page.

<form id="signup-form">
  <label>
    Email
    <input id="email" type="email" placeholder="Email address" value="test@example.com" required />
  </label>

  <button type="submit">
    Register
  </button>
</form>

const emailInput = document.querySelector('#email');

fetch('/create-customer', {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    email: emailInput.value,
  }),
}).then(r => r.json());

On the server, create the Stripe customer object.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -d email={{CUSTOMER_EMAIL}} \
  -d name={{CUSTOMER_NAME}} \
  -d "shipping[address][city]"=Brothers \
  -d "shipping[address][country]"=US \
  -d "shipping[address][line1]"="27 Fredrick Ave" \
  -d "shipping[address][postal_code]"=97712 \
  -d "shipping[address][state]"=CA \
  -d "shipping[name]"={{CUSTOMER_NAME}} \
  -d "address[city]"=Brothers \
  -d "address[country]"=US \
  -d "address[line1]"="27 Fredrick Ave" \
  -d "address[postal_code]"=97712 \
  -d "address[state]"=CA

Let your new customer choose a plan and then create the subscription—in this guide, they choose between Basic and Premium.

On the frontend, pass the selected price ID and the ID of the customer record to the backend.

fetch('/create-subscription', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    priceId: priceId,
    customerId: customerId,
  }),
})

On the backend, create the subscription with status incomplete using payment_behavior=default_incomplete. Then return the client_secret from the subscription’s first payment intent to the frontend to complete payment.

Set save_default_payment_method to on_subscription to save the payment method as the default for a subscription when a payment succeeds. Saving a default payment method increases the success rate of future subscription payments.

# Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = 
'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'

post '/create-subscription' do
  content_type 'application/json'
  data = JSON.parse(request.body.read)
  customer_id = cookies[:customer]
  price_id = data['priceId']

  # Create the subscription. Note we're expanding the Subscription's
  # latest invoice and that invoice's payment_intent
  # so we can pass it to the front end to confirm the payment
  subscription = Stripe::Subscription.create(
    customer: customer_id,
    items: [{
      price: price_id,
    }],
    payment_behavior: 'default_incomplete',
    payment_settings: {save_default_payment_method: 'on_subscription'},
    expand: ['latest_invoice.payment_intent']
  )

  { subscriptionId: subscription.id, clientSecret: subscription.latest_invoice.payment_intent.client_secret }.to_json
end

At this point the Subscription is inactive and awaiting payment. Here’s an example response. The minimum fields to store are highlighted, but store whatever your application frequently accesses.

{
  "id": "sub_JgRjFjhKbtD2qz",
  "object": "subscription",
  "application_fee_percent": null,
  "automatic_tax": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "billing": "charge_automatically",
  "billing_cycle_anchor": 1623873347,
  "billing_thresholds": null,

Use Stripe Elements to collect payment details and activate the subscription. You can customize Elements to match the look-and-feel of your application.

The Payment Element securely collects all necessary payment details for a wide variety of payments methods. The payment methods currently supported by both the Payment Element and Subscriptions are credit cards, Link, SEPA Direct Debit, and BECS Direct Debit.

Set up Stripe Elements

The Payment Element is automatically available as a feature of Stripe.js. Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file. Always load Stripe.js directly from js.stripe.com to remain PCI compliant. Don’t include the script in a bundle or host a copy of it yourself.

<head>
  <title>Checkout</title>
  <script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <!-- content here -->
</body>

Create an instance of Stripe with the following JavaScript on your checkout page:

// Set your publishable key: remember to change this to your live publishable key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = Stripe(
'pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

Add the Payment Element to your page

The Payment Element needs a place to live on your payment page. Create an empty DOM node (container) with a unique ID in your payment form.

<form id="payment-form">
  <div id="payment-element">
    <!-- Elements will create form elements here -->
  </div>
  <button id="submit">Subscribe</button>
  <div id="error-message">
    <!-- Display error message to your customers here -->
  </div>
</form>

When the form above has loaded, create an instance of the Payment Element and mount it to the container DOM node. In the create the subscription step, you passed the client_secret value to the frontend. Pass this value as an option when creating an instance of Elements.

const options = {
  clientSecret: '{{CLIENT_SECRET}}',
  // Fully customizable with appearance API.
  appearance: {/*...*/},
};

// Set up Stripe.js and Elements to use in checkout form, passing the client secret obtained in step 5
const elements = stripe.elements(options);

const paymentElementOptions = {
  layout: "tabs",
};

// Create and mount the Payment Element
const paymentElement = elements.create('payment', paymentElementOptions);
paymentElement.mount('#payment-element');

The Payment Element renders a dynamic form that allows your customer to select a payment method. The form automatically collects all necessary payments details for the payment method that they select.

Optional Payment Element configurations

• Customize the Payment Element to match the design of your site by passing the appearance object into options when creating an instance of Elements.
• Configure the Apple Pay interface to return a merchant token to support recurring, auto reload, and deferred payments.

Complete payment

Use stripe.confirmPayment to complete the payment using details from the Payment Element and activate the subscription. This creates a PaymentMethod and confirms the incomplete Subscription’s first PaymentIntent, causing a charge to be made. If Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is required for the payment, the Payment Element handles the authentication process before confirming the PaymentIntent.

Provide a return_url to this function to indicate where Stripe redirects the user after they complete the payment. Your user might first be redirected to an intermediate site, like a bank authorization page, before being redirected to the return_url. Card payments immediately redirect to the return_url when a payment is successful.

const form = document.getElementById('payment-form');

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  const {error} = await stripe.confirmPayment({
    //`Elements` instance that was used to create the Payment Element
    elements,
    confirmParams: {
      return_url: "https://example.com/order/123/complete",
    }
  });

  if (error) {
    // This point will only be reached if there is an immediate error when
    // confirming the payment. Show error to your customer (for example, payment
    // details incomplete)
    const messageContainer = document.querySelector('#error-message');
    messageContainer.textContent = error.message;
  } else {
    // Your customer will be redirected to your `return_url`. For some payment
    // methods like iDEAL, your customer will be redirected to an intermediate
    // site first to authorize the payment, then redirected to the `return_url`.
  }
});

When your customer submits a payment, Stripe redirects them to the return_url and includes the following URL query parameters. The return page can use them to get the status of the PaymentIntent so it can display the payment status to the customer.

When you specify the return_url, you can also append your own query parameters for use on the return page.

When the customer is redirected back to your site, you can use the payment_intent_client_secret to query for the PaymentIntent and display the transaction status to your customer.

Use one of the query parameters to retrieve the PaymentIntent. Inspect the status of the PaymentIntent to decide what to show your customers. You can also append your own query parameters when providing the return_url, which persist through the redirect process.

// Initialize Stripe.js using your publishable key
const stripe = Stripe(
'pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

// Retrieve the "payment_intent_client_secret" query parameter appended to
// your return_url by Stripe.js
const clientSecret = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search).get(
  'payment_intent_client_secret'
);

// Retrieve the PaymentIntent
stripe.retrievePaymentIntent(clientSecret).then(({paymentIntent}) => {
  const message = document.querySelector('#message')

  // Inspect the PaymentIntent `status` to indicate the status of the payment
  // to your customer.
  //
  // Some payment methods will [immediately succeed or fail][0] upon
  // confirmation, while others will first enter a `processing` state.
  //
  // [0]: https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-methods#payment-notification
  switch (paymentIntent.status) {
    case 'succeeded':
      message.innerText = 'Success! Payment received.';
      break;

    case 'processing':
      message.innerText = "Payment processing. We'll update you when payment is received.";
      break;

    case 'requires_payment_method':
      message.innerText = 'Payment failed. Please try another payment method.';
      // Redirect your user back to your payment page to attempt collecting
      // payment again
      break;

    default:
      message.innerText = 'Something went wrong.';
      break;
  }
});

To complete the integration, you need to process webhooks sent by Stripe. These are events triggered whenever state inside of Stripe changes, such as subscriptions creating new invoices. In your application, set up an HTTP handler to accept a POST request containing the webhook event, and verify the signature of the event:

# Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = 
'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'

post '/webhook' do
  # You can use webhooks to receive information about asynchronous payment events.
  # For more about our webhook events check out https://stripe.com/docs/webhooks.
  webhook_secret = ENV['STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET']
  payload = request.body.read
  if !webhook_secret.empty?

During development, use the Stripe CLI to observe webhooks and forward them to your application. Run the following in a new terminal while your development app is running:

stripe listen --forward-to localhost:4242/webhook

For production, set up a webhook endpoint URL in the Dashboard, or use the Webhook Endpoints API.

You’ll listen to a couple of events to complete the remaining steps in this guide. See Subscription events for more details about subscription-specific webhooks.

Now that the subscription is active, give your user access to your service. To do this, listen to the customer.subscription.created, customer.subscription.updated, and customer.subscription.deleted events. These events pass a subscription object which contains a status field indicating whether the subscription is active, past due, or canceled. See the subscription lifecycle for a complete list of statuses.

In your webhook handler:

1. Verify the subscription status. If it’s active then your user has paid for your product.
2. Check the product the customer subscribed to and grant access to your service. Checking the product instead of the price gives you more flexibility if you need to change the pricing or billing interval.
3. Store the product.id, subscription.id and subscription.status in your database along with the customer.id you already saved. Check this record when determining which features to enable for the user in your application.

The state of a subscription might change at any point during its lifetime, even if your application does not directly make any calls to Stripe. For example, a renewal might fail due to an expired credit card, which puts the subscription into a past due state. Or, if you implement the customer portal, a user might cancel their subscription without directly visiting your application. Implementing your handler correctly keeps your application state in sync with Stripe.

It’s common to allow customers to cancel their subscriptions. This example adds a cancellation option to the account settings page.

Account settings with the ability to cancel the subscription

function cancelSubscription(subscriptionId) {
  return fetch('/cancel-subscription', {
    method: 'post',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      subscriptionId: subscriptionId,
    }),
  })
    .then(response => {
      return response.json();
    })
    .then(cancelSubscriptionResponse => {
      // Display to the user that the subscription has been canceled.
    });
}

On the backend, define the endpoint for your frontend to call.

# Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = 
'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'

post '/cancel-subscription' do
  content_type 'application/json'
  data = JSON.parse request.body.read

  deleted_subscription = Stripe::Subscription.cancel(data['subscriptionId'])

  deleted_subscription.to_json
end

Your application receives a customer.subscription.deleted event.

After the subscription is canceled, update your database to remove the Stripe subscription ID you previously stored, and limit access to your service.

When a subscription is canceled, it can’t be reactivated. Instead, collect updated billing information from your customer, update their default payment method, and create a new subscription with their existing customer record.

Test payment methods

Use the following table to test different payment methods and scenarios.

Monitor events

Set up webhooks to listen to subscription change events like upgrades and cancellations. Learn more about subscription webhooks. You can view events in the Dashboard or with the Stripe CLI.

For more details, see testing your Billing integration.