Recurring payments
Understand your options for charging customers on a recurring basis.
Stripe offers several ways to charge customers on a recurring basis. This guide helps you understand which method or approach best supports your business.
This guide offers a few ways to understand your options:
- Use cases : Find the right use case for your business.
- Types of recurring payments : See all the recurring payment types that Stripe supports.
- Stripe products : Check which Stripe products support your recurring payment use case.
Use cases
Accept recurring payments
Let customers pay you regularly and repeatedly through Stripe.
Split purchases into a few payments
Create installment plans to let customers pay you a total amount in a limited number of partial payments.
Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions
Set up the customer portal so your customers can create and manage their own subscriptions.
Accept recurring donations
Let customers make donations to your organisation on a regular basis.
Migrate existing subscriptions to Stripe
Move your existing subscriptions from a third-party service to Stripe.
Types of recurring payments
The following tabs describe the different types of recurring payments that Stripe supports.
| Overview | Use Stripe Billing to create and manage your subscriptions through the Dashboard or programmatically through the API. Create a payment link with a recurring product. Create a subscription through the Dashboard or build a subscriptions integration. Create subscription schedules for complex subscription use cases. If you use Connect, create subscriptions for connected accounts and end customers. |
| Features | No coding required. (You can optionally use the Subscriptions API and pre-built components such as Stripe Checkout and Elements to build a programmatic subscriptions integration.) Customise appearance and behaviour in your app. Supports multiple products and prices in different currencies. Supports responsive web and mobile native. Website required. You can use Stripe Elements to customize the appearance of payment forms. |
| Use cases | Accept payments from customers on a recurring basis Accept recurring donations Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Migrate existing subscriptions to Stripe |
Stripe products for recurring payments
The following table describes which Stripe products support recurring payments.
| Product | Features | Use cases |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Links | No coding Customize branding One payment link for one or more products Mobile support for responsive web No website required; share link through SMS, email, or social media Stripe Tax support | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Accept recurring donations |
| Invoicing | No coding required. (You can optionally use the Invoices API and pre-built components such as Stripe Checkout and Elements to build a programmatic invoicing integration.) Customise branding and templates. One invoice for one or more products. Optionally combine one-time and recurring products. Mobile support for responsive web. No website required. Share invoices through customer portal, hosted invoice page, or as PDFs. Stripe Tax support. | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Accept recurring donations |
| Subscriptions | No coding required. (You can optionally use the Subscriptions API and pre-built components such as Stripe Checkout and Elements to build a programmatic subscriptions integration.) Customise full appearance of payment forms and checkout experience. Multiple products, prices, pricing models, and currencies. Mobile support for responsive web. No website required. You can also add subscriptions to your site. Stripe Tax support. | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Accept recurring donations |
| Checkout | Minimal coding Customize branding Multiple products and prices in different currencies Mobile support for responsive web Website required, but Stripe hosts the payment page Stripe Tax support | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Split purchases into a few payments Accept recurring donations |
| Elements | More coding Customize full appearance Multiple products and prices in different currencies Responsive web and mobile native Website required; you add Elements to your payment page Stripe Tax supported with your own tax integration | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Split purchases into a few payments Accept recurring donations |
| API | Most coding Customize full appearance, accept payments through your own UI Multiple products and prices in different currencies Website required; accept payments through your own UI Stripe Tax supported with your own tax integration | Accept recurring payments Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions Split purchases into a few payments Accept recurring donations |
Accept recurring payments
Stripe offers several ways for you to accept recurring payments. Use Subscriptions with Stripe Billing, PaymentIntents, SetupIntents, or Invoicing.
Use subscriptions to accept recurring payments
Save and re-use payment information for recurring charges
Use invoices to automatically charge customers
Split purchases into a few payments
In some markets, network rules prohibit using subscription schedules to set up instalment plans because they might be mistaken for an ongoing subscription.
Use a buy now, pay later payment method
Accept card payments in instalments
Enable customers to manage their own subscriptions
If you want your customers to manage their own accounts and recurring subscriptions, use the customer portal. Stripe hosts the customer portal, which allows your customers to self-manage their payment details, download invoices, and manage their subscriptions in one place. Read the no-code customer portal guide for complete details.
Integrate with the customer portal API
Set up the customer portal
See what your customers can do in the customer portal
Accept recurring donations
You can accept recurring donations with Stripe, in the same way as recurring payments. For example, you have a llama rescue organisation, Llama House, and want to allow supporters to choose an amount for a recurring, monthly donation. You can use Payment Links to create a link to share on social media and email. From the same payment link, you can also generate a QR code to add to flyers, and an embeddable buy button for your website, all from the Dashboard.
Accept recurring donations with Payment Links
Migrate existing subscriptions to Stripe
If you have existing subscriptions in another system, you can migrate them to Stripe Billing. Read the guide for more information.