How to Add Payments to Your Indie Product Fast

Adding payments is the step that turns a “project” into a “business.” Stripe is the most developer-friendly payment platform available — great docs, a solid sandbox, and global coverage.

Integration overview

1. Create a Stripe account: Complete KYC identity verification (usually 1–2 business days).
2. Choose your pricing model: One-time charge (payment_intent) or subscription (subscription)?
3. Use Stripe Checkout: A few lines of code surface a hosted payment page — no need to build payment UI yourself.
4. Configure webhooks: Listen for payment_succeeded / invoice.paid events to trigger business logic (activate membership, send email, etc.).

Key gotchas

• Never expose your Secret Key on the frontend — only the Publishable Key.
• Test every failure scenario (card declined, webhook retry) in the sandbox before going live.

Get the money flowing first, then optimize the checkout experience.