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Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

getlago.com

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Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#101

Post by cutenewt »

kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

Lago is really gunning for Stripe Billing.

Is Lago barking up the wrong tree? Or is there really an untapped opportunity here?

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#103

Post by AlecSchueler »

neosat wrote: post #95
kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

Thanks for some internal insights. I think the original post wasn't making the point that such a use case is not possible to build but rather that the architecture and design choices of Stripe Billing are not optimized for these use cases and don't make it easy.

I loved the answer but it's a good point to raise in return, what makes migration to internal billing so unappetising for the teams at Stripe?

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#105

Post by rtanks »

kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

This is great information. Thanks!

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#106

Post by longboardcat »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #103
neosat wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for some internal insights. I think the original post wasn't making the point that such a use case is not possible to build but rather that the architecture and design choices of Stripe Billing are not optimized for these use cases and don't make it easy.

I loved the answer but it's a good point to raise in return, what makes migration to internal billing so unappetising for the teams at Stripe?

Hopefully because there's an actual business to be building.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#107

Post by paxys »

This isn't as much of a gotcha as they think it is. Amazon was using Oracle databases until like 2019, 13 years after the launch of AWS. Same with pretty much every large company that has a mature hand-crafted tech stack in place. Sometimes the costs and complexity of migration are simply not enough to justify switching, even if the target product is your own.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#108

Post by Biganon »

kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

So, same reason why Microsoft uses SAP instead of Microsoft Dynamics. They would use their own product if they were to start now, but migrating from SAP would cost them millions and take a lot of time.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#109

Post by theturtletalks »

cutenewt wrote: post #101
kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

Lago is really gunning for Stripe Billing. Is Lago barking up the wrong tree? Or is there really an untapped opportunity here?

If Lago builds a billing UI and API that can connect to Stripe Billing, Paddle, Authorize.net, PayPal, etc. then that is a huge opportunity.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#110

Post by joshpadnick »

kurrik wrote: post #66

(I work on Stripe Billing). This is a question we raise fairly regularly internally at Stripe. The real, prosaic answer is because when we started working on Stripe Billing in 2017, Stripe had already built an internal billing system to bill its own customers. Stripe was 7 years old at that point. At the time, we got lots of feedback from the folks who had built that system. Our goal was to build a flexible billing s…

We use Stripe Billing and it's gone very well overall, but the biggest miss for us is that Stripe conflates "contract term" with "billing frequency." We sign up customers for annual contracts but bill them monthly, but Stripe Billing only understands the "bill monthly" part of that.

Are there any plans for first-class contract term support coming?

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