Reseña de Stripe — El procesador de pagos que utilizo para facturar a clientes y vender servicios online

Before you can sell anything online — a service, a digital product, a consultation, a subscription — you need a way to take payments.

For most independent professionals, this comes down to a simple question: do you want to pay a monthly platform fee for a checkout tool, or do you want to pay only when you actually receive money?

Stripe answers that question with a clear architecture: no monthly fees, no setup costs, no subscription required.

You pay a percentage of each successful transaction and nothing when you are not selling.

For a solo professional at the beginning of their digital revenue journey, this model is more honest than alternatives that charge you regardless of whether you are generating revenue.

I use Stripe for SR Web Marketing to invoice clients and collect payments for services.

Esta es my honest review of how it works, what it costs, and the specific configuration details that matter for Italian and European service professionals.

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a payment infrastructure platform, the underlying technology that enables businesses of all sizes to accept payments online.

Founded in 2010 and now processing hundreds of billions in transactions annually, it is the payment infrastructure behind many of the largest technology companies in the world.

For an independent professional, what matters practically is this: Stripe lets you accept credit and debit cards, bank transfers, digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), and local European payment methods.

All of this is handled through a clean API or through Stripe’s no-code tools — payment links, checkout pages, and invoicing — that do not require technical knowledge to set up.

The key distinction from platforms like ThriveCart is positioning:

• Stripe is a payment infrastructure — it handles the transaction layer.
• ThriveCart is a checkout and funnel platform — it adds upsells, order bumps, sales pages, and affiliate management on top of payment processing.

For a professional who needs complex funnels, ThriveCart is the better tool.

For a professional who primarily needs clean invoicing, one-off service payments, and subscriptions, Stripe handles all of this directly, at a lower cost and without an upfront investment.

What Stripe actually does

Payment links and checkout pages

Stripe’s no-code payment tools let you create a payment page without a website or developer.

You set up a product or service in your Stripe dashboard, generate a payment link, and share it with clients — they click the link and pay directly through Stripe’s hosted checkout page.

Checkout pages are fully customisable: you can add your logo, choose brand colours, set a custom URL, and add custom fields that appear on the checkout form — which is where Italian-specific requirements become particularly relevant (more on this below).

Invoicing

Stripe Invoicing lets you create and send professional invoices directly from the Stripe dashboard.

You enter the client’s details, the service description and amount, and Stripe sends the invoice with a payment link embedded.

When the client pays, Stripe records the payment and sends a receipt.

The invoicing fee is 0.4% per paid invoice on the Starter plan — in addition to the standard card processing fee.

• For a €1,000 invoice, this adds €4 (0.4%) on top of the processing fee.
• For high-value invoices, the fee is capped at €2, making Stripe very cost-effective for B2B invoicing at larger amounts.

Instead, with the Invoicing Plus plan, Stripe sends the invoice automatically once your customer pays through a payment link, so you don’t need to create an invoice for every service you provide – you just send the payment link to the customer, they pay, and they get automatically issued their corresponding invoice by email (in this case, the percentage is 0,5% per transaction).

Invoice sending, reminder sequences, and post-payment receipts are all automated — you configure the behaviour once, and Stripe handles the follow-up.

Subscriptions and recurring billing

Stripe handles recurring payments natively — monthly retainers, annual service contracts, subscription plans.

The billing logic (trial periods, pause options, proration on upgrades or downgrades) is built in.

An additional 0.7% Billing fee applies to recurring transactions on top of the processing fee — so a €200/month retainer incurs the standard processing fee plus €1.40 per month for the subscription infrastructure.

For ongoing client relationships — a monthly SEO retainer, a maintenance and hosting plan — Stripe’s subscription billing is clean, automated, and requires no manual invoice sending each month.

Customisable checkout with custom fields

One of Stripe’s most useful features for Italian and European professionals is the ability to add custom fields to the checkout form.

Esta es essential for compliance with Italian fiscal requirements.

For B2C (individual client) transactions in Italy, you typically need to collect the Codice Fiscale (Italian tax identification code).

For B2B transactions, you need both the Codice Fiscale (or VAT number) and the Codice Destinatario (SDI) — the identifier required for electronic invoices under Italy’s mandatory e-invoicing system.

Stripe’s custom checkout fields let you add these as required input fields on the payment form, collecting the necessary information at the point of payment without any additional tools.

For Italian professionals handling both B2C and B2B clients, this is a genuinely important capability that many generic checkout tools do not address.

Multi-currency and international payments

Stripe processes payments in 135+ currencies and handles currency conversion automatically.

For independent professionals with international clients — which includes most of my work across Italy, Spain, and wider Europe — Stripe manages the currency complexity without requiring separate accounts per country.

International card transactions carry a +1.5% surcharge above the standard processing rate, and currency conversion adds a further +1.0%.

For a client paying in USD on a European account, this means an effective rate of approximately 4.4% + €0.30 rather than the standard 2.9% + €0.30 — worth factoring into your pricing for international work.

Payout timing

Stripe transfers funds to your bank account on a standard 7-day rolling basis for new accounts, moving to 2-day payouts once your account establishes a payment history.

Instant payouts are available at a 1% fee with a €0.50 minimum if you need same-day access to funds.

Standard payouts are free.

What Stripe costs — the full picture

Stripe’s pay-as-you-go model means costs scale directly with revenue.

There are no monthly fees on the standard plan, but the per-transaction fees accumulate across processing, add-on services, and occasional dispute costs.

Core processing

• Standard European card: 1.5% + €0.25 per successful transaction
• Non-European card: 2.9% + €0.30 per successful transaction
• Manual card entry (you type the number): additional 0.5%

Invoicing (one-time invoices)

• Starter: 0.4% per paid invoice — capped at €2 per invoice
• Plus: 0.5% per paid invoice — capped at €2 per invoice
• For a €500 invoice: €2.00 invoicing fee (Starter) + processing fee
• For a €3,000 invoice: €2.00 invoicing fee (capped) + processing fee — the cap makes Stripe very efficient for high-value B2B invoices

Subscriptions/recurring billing

• 0.7% of billing volume on top of the standard processing fee
• A €200/month retainer: processing + €1.40/month

Other costs to know

• International card surcharge: +1.5%
• Currency conversion: +1.0%
• Dispute/chargeback fee: €15 non-refundable per dispute (refunded if you win)
• Instant payouts: 1% fee with €0.50 minimum
• Standard payouts: Free

The honest total cost picture: for a straightforward European client paying a €1,000 service invoice by card, you pay approximately €15.00 + €2.00 invoicing = €17.00 total — an effective rate of 1.7%. At that level, Stripe is one of the most cost-effective professional invoicing and payment solutions available.

The honest limitations

The settings are scattered

This was the frustration I mentioned in my own use of Stripe — the initial setup requires navigating multiple sections of the dashboard that are not intuitively linked.

Business information, payout settings, tax configuration, invoice templates, custom checkout fields, and email receipt settings all live in different places.

Once you work through the initial configuration, it is mostly set-and-forget.

But that first configuration takes longer than Stripe’s clean interface suggests it should.

Stripe does not host digital files

Like ThriveCart, Stripe does not host your digital product files — it handles the payment and can send a receipt, but product delivery requires a separate solution.

For digital products, Kit includes native file hosting and delivery, making it a natural companion to Stripe for digital product sales at low volume.

Disputes are costly

The €15 non-refundable chargeback fee is a real cost in client-facing service businesses.

Stripe refunds the fee if you win the dispute, but the admin burden and uncertainty are real.

Clear contracts and documented client agreements reduce dispute risk significantly.

No built-in funnel capabilities

Stripe handles the payment; it does not build the sales page, add upsells, or manage affiliate tracking.

For a full checkout funnel, ThriveCart adds that layer on top of Stripe’s payment infrastructure.

Stripe vs alternatives for service business payments

On ThriveCart specifically: ThriveCart and Stripe are complementary rather than competing tools. ThriveCart actually uses Stripe (and PayPal) as its underlying payment processor — when a client pays through a ThriveCart checkout, Stripe handles the transaction. If you need checkout funnels, upsells, and affiliate management on top of payment processing, ThriveCart is the right choice. If you primarily need clean professional invoicing and one-off or recurring service payments, Stripe alone is sufficient and more cost-effective.

Pros and cons of using Stripe

Is Stripe right for you?

My verdict on Stripe

Stripe is not the easiest payment tool to configure — I will be honest about that.

The dashboard is comprehensive, the settings are spread across multiple sections, and getting the invoicing, tax settings, custom checkout fields, and payout configuration right takes an afternoon of focused work.

But once it is set up, it runs correctly, automatically, and at the lowest ongoing cost of any comparable professional payment solution.

For SR Web Marketing, Stripe handles my client invoicing — sending the invoice, chasing payment, recording receipt, and filing the transaction — without any manual intervention on my part.

The ability to collect codice fiscale and SDI data at checkout is a specific and important feature for Italian client work that I have not found handled as cleanly anywhere else.

At 1.5% + €0.25 per European card transaction with no monthly fee, Stripe is the most cost-effective way I have found to take professional payments as an independent service provider.

You pay when you earn — which is exactly how payment infrastructure should work for a solo business.

No affiliate link — I recommend this tool from genuine daily use. Visit the official Stripe website below.

👉 Visit Stripe

Preguntas frecuentes

What is Stripe and how does it work?

Stripe is a payment infrastructure platform that allows businesses to accept online payments — credit and debit cards, bank transfers, digital wallets, and local payment methods — without a monthly fee. You pay a percentage of each successful transaction. Stripe offers no-code tools (payment links, hosted checkout pages, invoicing) alongside its API for developers who want deeper customisation.

Does Stripe charge a monthly fee?

No — Stripe’s standard plan has no monthly fee, no setup cost, and no subscription. You pay 1.5% + €0.25 per successful European card transaction (2.9% + €0.30 for non-European cards), plus additional fees for optional services like invoicing (0.4%) and subscription billing (0.7%).

Can Stripe handle professional invoicing?

Yes — Stripe Invoicing lets you create, send, and automate professional invoices directly from the dashboard. The fee is 0.4% per paid invoice (Starter plan), capped at €2 for high-value invoices, in addition to the standard card processing fee. Invoices include automated payment reminders and receipts. That said, if you want your invoices to be issued automatically after a customer pays through one of your payment links, you will need to upgrade to the Invoicing Plus plan, where the cost is 0.5% per paid invoice, which offers you an additional set of features.

Can I collect codice fiscale and Codice Destinatario (SDI) through Stripe?

Yes — Stripe’s custom checkout fields allow you to add required input fields to your payment form. This is how I collect codice fiscale for B2C transactions and both codice fiscale / VAT number plus Codice Destinatario (SDI) for B2B electronic invoice compliance in Italy. Custom fields can be marked as required so buyers cannot complete the checkout without providing them. Once the payment has been processed, you should go to the “Transactions” tab to gather that data to be used on electronic invoices you are planning to issue with your main invoicing software compliant with the Italian law (custom fields on checkout can be found on the “Transactions” tab only).

What is the difference between Stripe and ThriveCart?

Stripe is a payment infrastructure — it handles the transaction, invoicing, and subscription billing layer. ThriveCart is a checkout and funnel platform that adds upsells, order bumps, sales pages, and affiliate management on top of payment processing — and it uses Stripe as one of its underlying payment processors. Use Stripe if you need clean professional invoicing and service payments. Use ThriveCart if you need a full sales funnel with conversion-optimised checkout pages and upsell sequences.

Does Stripe support recurring payments and subscriptions?

Yes — Stripe handles recurring billing natively, including monthly and annual subscriptions, free trials, payment plan instalments, proration on plan changes, and dunning (automated failed payment recovery). An additional 0.7% Billing fee applies to recurring transactions on top of the standard processing fee.

Is Stripe suitable for Italian professionals and businesses?

Yes — and it handles some Italy-specific requirements better than most alternatives. The custom checkout fields feature allows the collection of codice fiscale (required for both B2C and B2B Italian transactions), VAT number, and Codice Destinatario (SDI) for electronic invoice compliance. That said, when creating custom fields in your checkout page, those fields will appear in the “Transactions” tab, not on the payments tab; therefore, when you need to issue an electronic invoice using your main Italian invoicing software, you will need to retrieve that data from the “Transactions”. Stripe also supports SEPA Direct Debit for European bank transfers, which can reduce fees for Italian and European client payments compared to card processing.

Sergio Stanga Diseñador Web WordPress y Especialista en SEO · SR Web Marketing Ayudo a autónomos y pymes en toda Italia, España y Europa a crear páginas web en WordPress que generen leads orgánicos a largo plazo y visibilidad en búsquedas de IA — sin depender de las redes sociales. Sobre Sergio LinkedIn