Adding payments and subscriptions to your app

Add payments and subscriptions with a payment provider such as Stripe. The provider takes the card details and charges them. It tells your app’s server when a payment succeeds, fails, or a subscription ends, and the server switches features on or off. Your app never stores card details.

The provider handles the cards

People pay on the provider’s own payment form. Card numbers go straight to the provider, never through your server. That keeps the hardest security rules on the provider’s side.

Your server listens for updates

The provider sends your server a message for every change: a payment went through, a card was declined, a subscription was cancelled. The server updates the customer’s account from those messages, not from what the screen says. Someone who edits the page in their browser can’t give themselves a paid plan.

Plans and what they include

Each plan has a list of what it includes: features, limits, number of users. The app checks that list, on the server, before it does anything a plan controls. Changing what a plan includes is then a setting, not new code.

What happens when a payment fails

Cards expire and payments get declined. The provider can retry the payment and email the customer. Your app decides what happens meanwhile: a few days’ grace, a warning in the app, then the paid features switch off. Decide this before launch, not after the first failed payment.

Selling inside iPhone and Android apps

Selling inside a phone app has its own store rules, which affect how the app takes payment and where people can upgrade. I set up the payment path to fit them.

FAQ

Can I give my customers a free trial before they pay? Yes. The provider tracks the trial and starts charging when it ends, unless the customer cancels.

Do my customers get receipts and invoices? Yes. The provider can send receipts, and keeps the invoices and payment history.

Can I add payments to a vibe-coded prototype? Payments need a real server and logins first. See turn a vibe-coded prototype into an app with logins and a backend.