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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?

#111

Post by anamexis »

joshpadnick wrote: post #110
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?

You could use subscription schedules to end the subscription after 12 months.

https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-s...

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#112

Post by AnhTho_FR »

zcombynator wrote: post #67

Interesting that one YC company publicly attacks another YC company. I thought there's at least some "family" vibes there, instead of bitching each other now.

Hi! I work at Lago. As we wrote in the disclaimer of the article, we're just stating how our positioning is different, extract here:

"We were told recently: “We love your ‘Stripe hate’ content”. While it was intended as a compliment, ‘Stripe hate’ has never been our intention.

We partner with Stripe Payments and love their products. Our own product is an alternative to Stripe Billing (and Chargebee, Recurly, etc.) but with a deep focus on B2B and product-led companies. We actually have common investors on our cap table (e.g. Y Combinator and others)."

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#113

Post by swyx »

theturtletalks wrote: post #109
cutenewt wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

why exactly? is this just some form of xkcd-style "there were too many APIs so i built a superAPI" line of thinking? or is there something more fundamental about this problem you are referring to

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#114

Post by joshpadnick »

anamexis wrote: post #111
joshpadnick wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You could use subscription schedules to end the subscription after 12 months. https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-s...

Yep, tried that. But we want an auto-renewing contract of 12 months, and subscription terms require you to have an end date.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#115

Post by kurrik »

joshpadnick wrote: post #110
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?

Yes, this is definitely a use case we've been working on. If you'd be willing to email me any more details about how you need things to work at ark@stripe.com I'll make sure the feedback makes it to the people working on it.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#116

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…

(This is my second feature request on this thread; apologies for any noise.)

Stripe Billing helpfully allows you to set the original subscription start date to a past date, but only at subscription creation time. If we could modify the subscription start date, then Stripe could be authoritative for when 100% of our subscriptions actually started.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#117

Post by AnhTho_FR »

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?

Hi! I work at Lago.

Billing is still a huge nightmare for engineers, this is what we're going after -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31424450

We've built and scaled it internally in a 5x Fintech Unicorn before joining YC, we would have loved to use an off the shelf solution, but none of them were a fit.

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#118

Post by AnhTho_FR »

swyx wrote: post #113
theturtletalks wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

why exactly? is this just some form of xkcd-style "there were too many APIs so i built a superAPI" line of thinking? or is there something more fundamental about this problem you are referring to

Interested in the answer too! Maybe you meant being a 'metering x billing layer' that can easily connect to any PSP, unlike 'Stripe Billing' that is only usable with 'Stripe Payments'?). In that case, we'd connect to 'Stripe Payments' (not Stripe Billing), which we already do :) Genuinely looking forward to your thoughts!

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#119

Post by AnhTho_FR »

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.

Hi neosat! I work at Lago and co-wrote the post, this was exactly our intention. Thanks for pointing that out :)

Re: Why doesn't Stripe use Stripe Billing?

#120

Post by AnhTho_FR »

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…

Hey Ark, I work at Lago, thanks for the detailed answer!
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