I'm working on a custom stripe subscription integration for my SaaS web app for more than a month now. I implemented the same thing 5 years ago, and it somehow feels a lot harder now.<p>The biggest part of added complexity is "SCA" (like 2FA for payments) which was enforced to the whole industry by the EU regulation. Writing custom JavaScript is now required to get custom integration working :/<p>But, despite this external complexity, I'm also constantly struggling with Stripe's API and the overall approach. Their docs are terse and concise - written like manpages: you have to have an overall understanding of the system to use them effectively. I turned to their tutorials and videos, but they're very simplistic: they explain only the most basic scenarios.<p>I find myself doing a lot of manual testing - using stripe's API with a variety of scenarios just to figure out how things work. Then, once I understand a certain feature I have to figure how it works with the rest of the integration.<p>Example feature: "only add product to the subscription once it's paid for". Not even Stripe support developers knew how to handle this correctly - they did point me to the right direction, but I had to do a lot of manual API testing.<p>TL;DR I feel Stripe's API became too complex, and too "low-level" to work with directly. I often wish there was a library that would handle all the communication with Stripe. Or at least an extensive video-course that would get you very familiar with all the scenarios.<p>Am I the only one that has this impression?
I looked at stripe years back when it was first trending and getting a lot of buzz and even then it looked to me like it was way too complex when compared to what I was doing with PayPal, which is simply setting up an account for new users or updating the timestamp for user renewals, and adding a PayPal button for their use on documents they create with the apps.<p>I've heard a lot of complaints about PayPal over the years but I've never had a problem with them. But I have seen a lot of complaints about Stripe the past couple years now, so you're certainly not alone trying to figure what they need from you.