Build your own Stripe integration
✗ Better to BuyLet's be clear: you should not build a payment processor. Stripe, Paddle, and LemonSqueezy exist because payments involve banking regulations, PCI compliance, fraud detection, and currency handling that would consume your entire engineering team. But you absolutely can and should build sophisticated systems on top of these platforms.
Usage-based pricing, custom invoicing, complex discounts—build exactly what your business needs.
Pause, upgrade, downgrade, prorate—your rules, not Stripe Billing's limitations.
Branded experience for managing subscriptions, not Stripe's generic portal.
Custom reporting, cohort analysis, MRR calculations your way.
Abstract payment providers; switch from Stripe to Adyen without rewriting.
Custom retry logic, personalized failed payment emails, win-back flows.
| Layer | Tools | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Provider | Stripe or Paddle | Stripe for control, Paddle for simplicity (they handle tax). Use Stripe unless tax is painful. |
| Webhook Handler | Inngest or custom | Payment webhooks must be idempotent and reliable. Inngest handles retries. |
| Database | PostgreSQL | Financial data needs ACID guarantees. No eventual consistency for money. |
| State Machine | XState or custom | Subscription states are complex. State machines prevent impossible transitions. |
| Resend + React Email | Transactional emails for invoices, receipts, failed payments. | |
| PDF Generation | React-pdf or Puppeteer | Branded invoices and receipts. React-pdf for simple, Puppeteer for complex. |
Copy this into Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT to generate a working implementation:
Official examples for every integration pattern.
Pricing engine abstraction. Interesting approach to plan management.
Open-source billing platform. Study for complex metering.
Enterprise billing. Heavy but feature-complete.