Stripe

What it is

Think of the card machine at a checkout counter — it takes the customer's card and moves the money. Stripe is that, in software form: a payment processor. It is a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces, ways for programs to talk to each other) and dashboards that let your app accept credit cards, wallets, and bank payments, then manage subscriptions, invoices, and payouts. It is the default choice for developers because the API is clean, the docs are excellent, and almost every tutorial and library assumes it. You wire it in, customers pay, and the money lands in your bank account.

Strengths

• Best-in-class developer experience — clear APIs, test mode, and great docs.
• Huge ecosystem: SDKs (Software Development Kits, ready-made code bundles), prebuilt checkout, billing, and third-party integrations.
• Flexible enough for one-off charges, subscriptions, marketplaces, and usage billing.
• Strong fraud tooling (Radar) and reliable, well-documented webhooks (automatic notifications when a payment event happens).
• Works in many countries and currencies.

Trade-offs

• It is a payment processor, not a merchant of record. A merchant of record (MoR) is a company that is legally the seller and handles the receipt and taxes for you; Stripe is not that. With Stripe you are the seller of record, so collecting and paying sales tax and VAT (Value Added Tax, a sales tax used in many countries) is your responsibility (Stripe Tax helps calculate it, but you still file it).
• More setup than a hosted storefront; you build more of the flow yourself.
• Compliance, chargebacks, and tax registration land on you as you grow.

When to use it

Reach for Stripe when you want maximum control over the payment flow and are comfortable owning tax compliance, or when you are building something a hosted store can't model — marketplaces, metered billing, complex subscriptions, or a deeply custom checkout.

Vibe coding fit

Stripe is the most AI-friendly payments option because the agent has seen thousands of Stripe examples, so it can scaffold checkout, webhooks, and the customer portal quickly. A webhook here is an automatic message Stripe sends your app when a payment event happens, so your app reacts on its own. The catch is that an agent will happily wire up charges and forget that you now owe tax in dozens of places. Be explicit: tell it whether you want a merchant-of-record setup instead, and always verify webhook signatures. Handle events idempotently too — that is, make sure the same event arriving twice doesn't charge or unlock twice. Test with Stripe's test cards before going live.

// Create a Checkout Session (server-side)
import Stripe from "stripe";
const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);

const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
  mode: "payment",
  line_items: [{ price: "price_123", quantity: 1 }],
  success_url: "https://example.com/thanks",
  cancel_url: "https://example.com/cancel",
});
// redirect the customer to session.url