A Stripe integration that works in test mode is an afternoon of work. One that survives production traffic, failed cards, and refund requests is a different discipline.
Webhooks are the source of truth
Never mark an order paid from the redirect page — browsers close, networks drop. Order state changes only when the webhook says so, webhooks are verified and idempotent, and every event that fails processing lands in a queue you can replay.
Let Stripe do the heavy lifting
Checkout, the customer portal, and dunning emails are problems Stripe has already solved. Custom billing UI is rarely worth owning — wire the primitives together and spend the budget on the product instead.
If any of this maps to a project you are planning, I am happy to talk it through — no pitch, just a second pair of eyes. Start a conversation
