Stripe Series #1: What is Stripe and how does this payment gateway work?

Stripe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripe_(company) is one of many solutions for online payments. Its main product is the ability to easily implement payments over the internet. For me, it was the first time to implement such a service and I have to say that I was surprised by a few things, or even tried some dead ends before I figured out how everything works. Because there are more ways to set up payments.

Stripe and the rest

Let's say we have a product (physical or virtual goods, like a "ticket" to an online training course) that we want to sell over the Internet. We can reach for a solution like Shopify https://www.shopify.com, but if we only need a payment gateway, Shopify would be the classic cannon for sparrows (by the way, it also offers payments via Stripe https://www.shopify.com/stripe).

Another alternative - but better if we want to sell mainly on Czech territory, are similar local services, offered by e.g. ComGate, PayU, GoPay, ThePay, Pays.cz, Global Payments. These offer more in terms of features, such as integration of payments via local banks.

Stripe also offers multiple payment methods https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-methods/overview, but what works probably the most reliable globally is payments via credit card, or payment cards.

Stripe does not support payments via bank transfer. This was a surprise to me, I thought there would be some sort of virtual bank account linked to Stripe to send money to. But I haven't found anyone offering this globally. It does support SEPA payments, for example, see. Bank debits: SEPA Direct Debit payments https://stripe.com/docs/payments/sepa-debit, but that means the customer would have to enable debiting in their bank account, which doesn't sound like a simple 1-click solution.

It should also be said that Stripe charges payment fees of 1.4% and 2.9% respectively https://stripe.com/en-cz/pricing

Setting up an account

Setting up an account is very simple, no unnecessary complexities. This is plenty enough for testing. However, to fully activate the account, you will need to fill in additional business details afterwards in the administration, the bank account number where the money will be transferred, etc.

Stripe dashboard

The dashboard is the main signpost where everything can be checked, set up, tracked ...

Conclusion

This article was just a quick introduction to online payments using the Stripe platform. It can be said that Stripe is a global standard (just like PayPal for example), for payments only/mainly within the country it is probably better to reach for some local solution.

In the sequel we will look at something more specific, namely the basic Stripe objects like Customers, Products, Prices ... and what payment methods exist -  Stripe checkout, Hosted invoice page ...