Stripe

The payments layer for the internet — take cards, run subscriptions, and let a hosted page handle the scary parts (PCI, 3-D Secure, tax).

What it is

An API and a set of hosted pages for charging money. Stripe Checkout gives you a pre-built, PCI-compliant payment page; webhooks tell your server when a payment actually succeeds. You get cards, wallets, subscriptions, and tax handling without touching a card number yourself.

When to use it

Any time real money changes hands — one-off purchases, subscriptions, usage billing. It’s the default for a founder who wants to charge customers this week, not build a payments team.

When NOT to

If you only need to collect interest (a waitlist, not a sale) you don’t need it yet. And for pure marketplace payouts at scale you’ll grow into Connect and its extra complexity — start with Checkout, add that later.

Used in

Backs the checkout and webhook in Take Payments, the billing half of the AI SaaS Stack.