Stripe

Stripe is the payment processing platform that powers a significant portion of the internet economy, and for good reason.

It provides developers and businesses with a comprehensive suite of APIs and tools for accepting payments, managing subscriptions, handling invoicing, and processing payouts.

For creator businesses, Stripe often works behind the scenes as the payment layer for tools like Teachable, Kajabi, ConvertKit, and Gumroad, but many creators also use it directly to power custom checkout flows on their own websites.

The platform supports one-time payments, recurring subscriptions, usage-based billing, and marketplace payouts across 135+ currencies. Stripe Checkout provides a hosted, conversion-optimized payment page that you can deploy without building any custom UI.

The Customer Portal lets subscribers manage their own billing, update payment methods, and cancel subscriptions without requiring your manual intervention. Stripe Connect enables creators to build platforms or marketplaces where they facilitate payments between multiple parties.

Beyond payments, Stripe offers fraud prevention (Radar), tax calculation and collection (Stripe Tax), revenue recognition, and detailed financial reporting. The documentation is widely regarded as the best in the industry, and the developer experience is exceptional.

For creators who have outgrown simple payment tools and want full control over their billing infrastructure, Stripe provides enterprise-grade capabilities at a straightforward per-transaction pricing model.