Stripe – Payment System Powering Services Worldwide

What is Stripe?

Hi there. I’m Kouta Shimizu, a web director.
In this article, I’ll introduce Stripe, a payment service that provides solutions for online transactions.

If your goal is as simple as setting up a payment system for single products, Stripe is very easy to implement. Also, if what you wanted is not a full-fledged e-commerce site requiring inventory and order management systems, Stripe is a cost-effective solution since you don’t need to pay additional fees for online stores.

Official website

Stripe | Financial Infrastructure to Grow Your Revenue Stripe is a suite of APIs powering online payment processing and commerce solutions for internet businesses of all sizes. Accept payments and scale faster with …

Basic Information of Stripe

Stripe is both the name of a SaaS company specializing in payment services and its flagship product. Its headquarter are placed in the United States and Ireland.

Stripe is used by major global companies such as ZOOM, Shopify, GitHub, and Slack, as well as leading Japanese companies like NIKKEI and KDDI. Many people are likely using it without even realizing it.

Stripe provides the infrastructure for implementing cashless payments, and there are no setup fees or monthly charges for using the service itself. Stripe’s business model applies fees only to transactions processed through the platform.

Supported payment methods include major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even convenience store payments.

With Stripe, you can integrate payment functionality directly into your own website. Alternatively, even without a product page, you can generate payment links via the admin dashboard and send them to customers via email, allowing them to complete their payments.

There are various ways to implement Stripe, with different levels of complexity, but creating a payment link for a single product is simple and easy to set up.

A similar service to Stripe is Square, which started its business by simplifying in-person cashless payments. Later, Square added functionality for building online stores.

As a result, Square is better suited for businesses that focus on cashless payments in physical stores or sales across both physical and online platforms.

On the other hand, Stripe is likely a better choice for those who want to add payment functionality to an existing website or require a higher degree of customization.

Stripe also offers a payment terminal called Stripe Terminal, which supports in-person payments and POS functionality. While it was not available in Japan until around 2020, as of 2023, it appears to be available in the Japanese market.
For more details, please visit the official website.

Official page

Stripe Terminal | Unified Commerce Platform Stripe Terminal allows businesses to offer seamless and custom in-person payments for a unified commerce experience.

What Stripe can do

Key Features

• Credit card payments
• Convenience store payments
• Bank transfers
• Ability to create payment links without an online store
• Issue invoice with payment tracking
• Reporting tools
• Pre-designed payment pages (Stripe Checkout)
• Automated recurring billing, coupons, and free trials (Stripe Billing)

In addition to the above, Stripe offers various other features.

Pricing

There are no setup fees or monthly charges. Similar to Square, transaction fees are applied based on usage.

For the latest pricing details, please refer to the official website.

Official page

Pricing & Fees Find Stripe fees and pricing information. Find our processing fees for credit cards, pricing models and pay-as-you-go fees for businesses.