Stripe review in 2024

Detailed review of Stripe

Stripe is one of the first payment services built not on a monolithic design, but on a microservice platform. Now many systems are heading over to microservices, but for Stripe this is not just a method of organization, but a business philosophy. This is expressed primarily in the fact that even at the standard payment of 2.9% + 30 cents, the user receives a set of functions, each of which is represented by a separate microservice.

The convenience of such a design is obvious in that each service independently scales, and can have its own database and support. Connecting, disconnecting, or adjusting one service does not affect the operation of the system as a whole. This makes the mechanism for accepting payments as stable as possible and resistant to any destructive factors that would disrupt or stop the operation of a monolithic solution.

It is worth noting that Stripe.com releases about 100 updates per year. Also, every year new solutions for businessmen appear in the application store on the website. Without exaggeration, the company offers a rich potential for adapting and scaling almost any business.

Stripe’s success by the numbers:

• 3.1 million websites use Stripe;

• 48 patents belong to the company;

• 13 thousand requests are processed per second;

• 135 currencies are supported;

• 35 countries have localized options;

• 10 minutes is the average service connection time.

Stripe users often praise the application. Despite the abundance of services, functions, and options, they are all managed through a single application that can be installed on a mobile gadget.

Useful services of Stripe:

• Stripe Checkout. A turnkey solution that adapts to the customer's device and location to accept payments. It comprises a payment page with integrated features to boost conversions. The page can be customized.

• Stripe Elements. A solution for creating your own payment form on the site. Consists of a fully customizable UI builder for a branded interface with support for CSS styles and built-in payment logic.

• Stripe Radar. A proprietary solution based on machine learning. The service analyzes the activity of the business environment, preventing acts of fraud. It reacts by following the protection matrix of the platform.

• Stripe Adaptive Acceptance. This is another service with machine learning that allows you to automate the processing of typical and recurring payments. The service itself detects behavior patterns and saves them, accelerating payment processing many times over.

• Card account updater. Many payment systems continue to work with cards that the issuing bank has replaced or blocked. To prevent this from creating problems, the card registry updating in Stripe occurs continually and automatically.

• Payment links. This service creates links with specified conditions for accepting payments. The link opens a working payment page that does not require input from your own online store. The type of payment pages is customizable.

• Buy now, pay later. A business owner can connect Klarna or an equivalent service to his online store so that the client can receive the goods right now and pay for them later within a certain time or by splitting a large payment into several small ones.

There are dozens of such services on Stripe.com. Each of them can be connected to the existing business model, getting an additional function to increase conversion.

Advantages of the Stripe payment system:

• Stripe payments are processed instantly, except for situations where delays are due to interbank interactions or local laws.

• The system allows you to accept more than 20 types of payments, including electronic transfers, from debit and credit cards. 

• Works at online and offline sales outlets.

• Stripe is not a monolith, but a group of microservices. The user can disable an unnecessary service at any time and connect a new one.

• Integration takes a minimum of time.

• Services are managed through a mobile application with a simple and intuitive interface. It is possible to delegate to staff access and partial authority to conduct specified activities.

• A profitable indicator is the 2.9% + 30 cents for a paid account and almost no other service offers a lower commission. In general, the system has loyal fees.

• The service allows the online store to process payments in 135 currencies, while it is available in 48 countries (with 35 having localized functions; while for others special conditions may apply).

• Stripe.com provides detailed information on compliance with US and EU financial management standards. It is PCI DSS Level 1 Certified with PSD2, and is Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) compliant.

Types of accounts in the Stripe payment system

Stripe offers one account type, no premium or advanced accounts. All services are connected to the account discretely and only at the request of the user. You can enable/disable any function through the application with just a couple of presses on the screen. The convenience of the approach can hardly be overestimated, because it makes it possible to almost completely reshape the financial policy of the organization, being, say, on the road.

The grouping of services on the stripe.com website is selected in such a way that the user can quickly find a specific set of solutions for their business, or develop one for their own tasks without using the recommended templates.

For example, you can use Stripe Checkout to create ready-made checkout pages. These pages are easy to brand, but sometimes the site design does not allow such solutions. In this case, you either finalize the site or use Payment Links to create an additional payment link with an independent page that is not linked to your site. This may be a temporary measure or a promotional offer. These links and pages are often used as part of A/B testing.

Banking features

Stripe is a payments infrastructure for the internet service. It's not a mobile bank, however, Stripe does have some neo-banking features. First, it facilitates payments and transfers. Users of the system can accept payment in various ways, including electronic payment services, and debit and credit cards. They also can issue and pay invoices.

The peculiarity of this payment service is that it allows you to automate accounting and taxation following regional requirements and standards. Some neobanks also provide such services. The difference is that Stripe is aimed at helping businesses, it does not have solutions for individuals. This makes for a slightly different scale of services and service stack.

Social programs of Stripe

The company offers the Stripe Climate social program. If the user agrees to the terms of the program, 1% of his income goes to leveling carbon dioxide emissions into the planet's atmosphere. One hundred percent of the funds received from users go to the program, the service does not charge any commissions or fees from these payments.

Stripe has its own staff of environmentalists and engineers who research carbon emission, design, and implement environmental restoration solutions in collaboration with leading US research institutes. This is a unique initiative aimed, among other things, at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. It is critical because reforestation and soil carbon sequestration are not enough to offset the damage already made to nature. Fundamentally, new solutions are needed, and Stripe is looking for them.

Each user of the system who joins the program receives an individual certificate and a unique badge that he can place on his resource. In that way, your customers will know that your company is preserving and restoring the environment. As a result, brand confidence increases.

How to open an account at Stripe

Go to dashboard.stripe.com and click on the "Register" button. The headnotes on the benefits of registering with Stripe will be presented on the left of the screen, and the registration form is located on the right side. Enter your email address, and first and last name, select the country where you implement your business, and create a password. After that, check the box indicating that you agree to the terms of service, and click the "Register" button.

You will receive an email, click on the link in it to confirm your registration. After logging into your account, in the main menu of your user account, click on the "Start" button and fill out the application for opening an account. Here you also need to indicate the country where you have a business, as well as enter the address and postal code. Finally, specify the type of business. In addition to the data already entered, you will need to provide the address of the actual residence, phone number, and the last 4 digits of your social security number.

Fill in the details about your business and how you sell your products. In the following form, enter the contacts of your technical support service. Finally, link your bank account number and click on the "Continue" button. Verification of data may take some time, after its completion you will receive a notification by mail. You can now go to the developer dashboard in the top right corner of your user account home page to add API keys.

To generate keys, go to Settings, then Payments, then Debit & Credit Cards, and select Stripe from the services menu. Now you have the opportunity to enable payment acceptance on your site. Further, in the user account, you can connect client authentication, additional currencies, etc. Adjusting the settings is available at any time, do not forget to click on the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the page.

You can download the Stripe Dashboard application for accessing your user account from a mobile gadget in the Play Market or the App Store by going to the appropriate digital store and entering "Stripe" in the search box. To log in, you need to use the email and password data that you entered during registration.

Technical support

In the footer of the site, there is a "Contacts" section. In it, the user can ask technical support a question by filling out a simple form. It is also possible to send a question by email, it is indicated in the same section. Stripe has its own Discord server, where technical support specialists are on duty around the clock. Another way to communicate is live chat, which is available on the website and in the app. Finally, the user can phone the call center, which works without breaks and on weekends.