SaaS Integration Fresh

A complete guide to building a SaaS business on Stripe Billing.

Integration components

Component	Description	Code required?
Product modeling	Create products and configure pricing models	No (Dashboard)
Entitlements	Control feature access based on subscription	Yes
Pricing table	Embeddable UI for plan selection	No
Free trials	Trial periods before first charge	No
Discounts	Coupons and promotion codes	No
Customer portal	Self-serve subscription management	No
Invoices	Subscription and one-off invoices	No
Tax	Automatic sales tax / VAT / GST	No
Webhooks	React to subscription events	Yes
Revenue recovery	Smart Retries + dunning emails	No
Revenue recognition	Automated accrual accounting	No
Testing	Test clocks and simulation	No

Product modeling

Stripe supports these SaaS pricing structures:

• Flat rate (good-better-best tiers)
• Per-seat
• Usage-based
• Tiered (volume or graduated)
• Multiple products in one subscription
• Multiple prices per product

Create products in Dashboard → Product catalog. Add prices with the desired billing interval and model.

Entitlements

Use entitlements to provision feature access without querying the full subscription chain.

1. Create features that represent functionality you offer
2. Associate features with products via ProductFeatures
3. Subscribe customers — Stripe automatically creates active entitlements
4. Check active_entitlements at access time to decide what to enable

Listen for entitlements.active_entitlement_summary.updated to react to subscription changes in real time.

Pricing table

Embed a pricing table to show your plans and convert visitors to subscribers. Customers choose a plan and go directly to Stripe Checkout. Manage everything from the Dashboard.

Free trials

Offer trials via Checkout with subscription_data.trial_period_days. Optionally require no payment method during trial and collect it before trial ends.

Set email reminders (Dashboard → Settings → Billing → Emails) so customers provide payment info before the trial ends.

Customer portal

Enable the customer portal so customers can self-serve:

• Update subscription (upgrade, downgrade)
• Cancel subscription
• Add or update payment method
• Update billing and shipping info
• Review invoice history

Configure in Dashboard → Settings → Billing → Customer portal.

Monitor subscription activity

Set up webhook endpoints to listen for events:

Event	Action
customer.subscription.created	Provision access
customer.subscription.updated	Update feature access
customer.subscription.deleted	Revoke access
customer.subscription.trial_will_end	Send trial-ending reminder
invoice.payment_succeeded	Confirm renewal, send receipt
invoice.payment_failed	Alert customer, trigger recovery
entitlements.active_entitlement_summary.updated	Sync feature access

Revenue recovery

Enable Smart Retries and dunning emails in Dashboard → Settings → Billing. No code required. Stripe automatically retries failed payments at optimal times and notifies customers of issues.

Tax

Enable Stripe Tax in Dashboard. After you register to collect taxes in a jurisdiction, Stripe automatically calculates and collects the correct tax amount at checkout.

Stripe Tax supports: US sales tax, EU VAT, UK VAT, AU GST, and more.

Testing

Use test clocks to simulate subscription lifecycle events without waiting for real time:

• Advance time to trigger renewals, trials ending, dunning
• Test upgrade/downgrade flows
• Verify webhook handling

Create test clocks in Dashboard → Testing → Test clocks.

Revenue recognition

Use Stripe Revenue Recognition to automate accrual accounting. Revenue is recognized when earned, not when collected — important for annual subscriptions, prepaid plans, and refunds.

Enable and configure in Dashboard → Revenue recognition.