What is Stripe?

Introducing Stripe Payments

Stripe is a financial services company allowing internet businesses to accept online payments securely. In other words, Stripe is a third-party payment processor. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and launched in 2010, Stripe enables companies to receive online through easy to use web interfaces, mobile apps, and APIs. Payments made through Stripe land directly into the organization’s single merchant account. Stripe provides its services in over 39 countries and supports more than a million businesses, from start-ups to public companies, across the globe.

The security measures of Stripe are second to none. All transactions are SSL protected, and credit card numbers are fully encrypted. Stripe is a PCI Service Provider Level 1, which is the highest level of payment processing security when it comes to PCI compliance.

Stripe supports most of the major credit card networks such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, digital payment services like Apple and Google pay, plus foreign payment networks such as SEPA, iDeal, Bancontact, Sofort, and Giropay. Stripe processes payments in more than 100 currencies.

Businesses have several ways to receive payments through Stripe:

• Stripe Essentials: Create your own checkout flows with Stripe Essentials. You may combine prebuilt UI components to provide a real customized and enjoyable checkout experience to your customers.
• Stripe Billing: Send custom invoices, request payment from clients, and set up usage-based, recurring, scheduled and promotional payments with Stripe Billing.
• Stripe Sources: This API allows businesses to accept payments from all over the world via a single integration. Alipay, Giropay, and Bancontact are just some examples of supported payment methods.
• In-Person payments: While this payment method is undoubtedly not the most common among online businesses, Stripe still offers the option to receive in-person payments by accepting credit card payments via various mobile card readers and terminals.

Payment Processing

Thanks to Stripe’s direct integrations with most of the popular credit card providers, it provides seamless customer experience and less risk for your business by optimized routing paths, and reduced transaction latency, among others.

Integrations

Stripe offers smooth integrations with hundreds of platforms regardless of the nature of your online business. No coding required! Explore them all here.

Stripe Support

Stripe goes the extra mile to provide exceptional customer support. Should you any have questions or concerns, you may reach out to Stripe 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat. Additionally, Stripe has a massive number of guides and documentations available here.

Stripe account

Setting up your Stripe free account is a straightforward process and it will take only minutes. Once you have your Stripe account created for your business, you may expect benefits such as flat-rate fees; no fees for setup, cancellation, or account maintenance; and various options for customization and integration.

Your Stripe account is similar to a bank account. You have the possibility to create multiple accounts for your business, and each will have its own dashboards, payments, and authorized users.

The Stripe Dashboard is a user-friendly platform where you can manage and configure your account. Features include payments and refunds management, integration monitoring, valuable insight into your business through detailed analytics and charts, among others. Your Stripe dashboard was designed to provide you facilitated access to your most common workflows that are essential to managing your business.

How to test Stripe payments?

To make sure everything goes smoothly with your integration, Stripe offers test and live modes. While the live mode gathers real credit card information and processes real payments, test mode was created to support the development of your business as you have the opportunity to test all functions including payment, without any risks. Testing your checkout is essential before going live with Stripe, and the good news is that in test mode, you can enter the details of Stripe test cards as if you were making a real purchase. Stripe test cards are available here.

Test mode and live mode are completely different “platforms” and should be operated accordingly. Whether you are testing a payment method, setting up a product, plan, price, or a coupon, the test mode is always the best place to start.

Stripe products

Stripe Connect

Stripe Connect is a payment platform for marketplaces such as Kickstarter. Connect acts as a payment processor between customers and merchants. Organizations can set payout timing, customize onboarding, among many other features. Stripe Connect supports more than 100 currencies and credit card payments in over 25 countries.

Stripe Sigma

Stripe Sigma goes beyond standard reporting. Although Stripe’s built-in reporting features offer plenty of valuable insights, Stripe Sigma allows businesses to create completely customizable reports in SQL and analyze their Stripe data.

Stripe Radar

As mentioned above, the security of Stripe is outstanding. Stripe Radar, is a machine learning system which recognizes and differentiates fraudulent and legitimate transactions, protecting your company against fraud.

Stripe is trusted by thousands of online businesses around the world today. Integrate Stripe for your WordPress page today!