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Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

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Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#131

Post by merlinbeard »

pc wrote: post #93

(Stripe cofounder.) Hi folks -- as Edwin points out elsewhere in the thread, the article title isn't accurate. (I'll update or delete my comment if it's fixed.) [Update: it was changed. It used to read "Stripe is now charging 0.5% more for recurring charges."] You can happily make recurring charges yourself and no additional fees are incurred. Lots of Stripe customers do this and we don't charge anything extra for it…

We process a significant amount of charges through Stripe and this is hitting us hard. We’re basically being told that you’d like to keep some of our money for yourself. We were never told that we should expect such a fee increase. This smells a lot like bait and switch.

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#132

Post by weego »

edwinwee wrote: post #29

Edwin from Stripe here. It’s worth distinguishing between charging money on Stripe (for which you incur payments pricing) and using Stripe Billing (which is a separately-paid product). Stripe Billing has had this pricing for a few years. For some longtime users of Subscriptions, we originally didn’t change their pricing but are doing so now. We think charging a separate fee for our Billing product is fair, given comp…

We think charging a separate fee for our Billing product is fair, given comparable products in the market (say, Recurly or Chargebee) charge something similar.

Copying what other people in the market are doing is the antithesis of what made Stripe so important when it first launched.

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#133

Post by merlinbeard »

stvhanna wrote: post #125
pc wrote: post #93

(Stripe cofounder.) Hi folks -- as Edwin points out elsewhere in the thread, the article title isn't accurate. (I'll update or delete my comment if it's fixed.) [Update: it was changed. It used to read "Stripe is now charging 0.5% more for recurring charges."] You can happily make recurring charges yourself and no additional fees are incurred. Lots of Stripe customers do this and we don't charge anything extra for it…

is the Subscription API ( https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions ) part of Stripe Billing and thus subject to the additional fee?

yes, as we found out through the email. Even if you send invoices, they will also take a 0.5% of those!

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#134

Post by corentin88 »

stvhanna wrote: post #125
pc wrote: post #93

(Stripe cofounder.) Hi folks -- as Edwin points out elsewhere in the thread, the article title isn't accurate. (I'll update or delete my comment if it's fixed.) [Update: it was changed. It used to read "Stripe is now charging 0.5% more for recurring charges."] You can happily make recurring charges yourself and no additional fees are incurred. Lots of Stripe customers do this and we don't charge anything extra for it…

is the Subscription API ( https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions ) part of Stripe Billing and thus subject to the additional fee?

AFAICT - Yes

[1] In Stripe's API, the subscriptions section is nested under "Billing"

[2] https://www.stripe.com/billing is all about handling subscriptions through Stripe

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#135

Post by heipei »

Nobody is a fan of extra charges, but I am quite happy with Stripe since it's simple enough to use, by now powerful enough to be used even with bigger customers and for us it was the biggest road to being able to send out invoices to customers abroad which can be paid via Credit Card quickly.

Look at it this way: If you're serving big customers on annual plans you can always include text on your invoice about how they can pay via SWIFT / SEPA wire transfer. Of course you're still eating the currency conversion and bank handling fees for accepting those payments.

For us the pain of the 2.9% + 0.5% percent is not big enough to warrant even researching cheaper alternatives. If someone has hot tips for something that allows me to charge via Credit Card, accept payments in various currencies, and has an invoicing and subscription product built in I'm all ears!

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#136

Post by merlinbeard »

alooPotato wrote: post #12

We (Streak yc s11) signed up for Stripe way back in the day and have just been paying their standard payment processing fees for years. We haven't upgraded our API version or used any of their new billing features or anything like that. Basically we get the same value from Stripe we did from the day we integrated. I thought our pricing was going to be grandfathered but this change will cost us tens of thousands of do…

we’re exactly in the same situation.

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#137

Post by edwinwee »

larrik wrote: post #106
Alupis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe - they seemed really not interested in negotiating much at all and I got the impression they feel that their customers should be lucky enough to be allowed to use Stripe as a processor. My company went through negotiations with Stripe earlier this year. We were more than 1.5% + $0.10 away from our current processor, and they wouldn't budge to even match our existing rates. They kept saying they are a better val…

> Stripe Checkout with Fraud detection - which requires you to use their hosted checkout page Does it? In my experience you can just use their Hosted Fields which are actually really great.

You don't have to use Checkout for Stripe's fraud detection, which supports several types of integrations: https://stripe.com/docs/radar/checklist.

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#138

Post by merlinbeard »

If you use stripe to send monthly invoices to your customers (even if they don’t pay by card) this fees is going to apply. If I’m wrong someone please correct me. I’m pulling my hair over this change as a 5+ years old customer.

(edited) typo

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#139

Post by floatingatoll »

jb775 wrote: post #121

I love how a Ycombinator company can quickly get a HN story title changed to censor the whole "price increase" aspect being debated here.

I was in the process of writing an email to the mods requesting that they change it to be more accurate when I found they'd already changed it. Apparently I'm not the only user to do so, since someone beat me to it. I have no associations with YC, HN, or Stripe.

Re: Stripe migrates Stripe Subscriptions users to more expensive Stripe Billing

#140

Post by cabalos »

pc wrote: post #93

(Stripe cofounder.) Hi folks -- as Edwin points out elsewhere in the thread, the article title isn't accurate. (I'll update or delete my comment if it's fixed.) [Update: it was changed. It used to read "Stripe is now charging 0.5% more for recurring charges."] You can happily make recurring charges yourself and no additional fees are incurred. Lots of Stripe customers do this and we don't charge anything extra for it…

I feel that spinning this as a several-year grace period is a bit disingenuous. I'm a huge Stripe fan, but this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Here's the exact notification that went out on April 6, 2018 in the dashboard:

"As a user of Stripe Subscriptions, you will get all the functionality of Stripe Billing's starter plan with no change in price. You can continue using it free of charge on your existing Stripe pricing, even beyond the $1M free threshold. This will be automatically applied to your account. Contact support@stripe.come with any pricing questions"

As far as I can see, the Billing Starter plan has not changed and still applies. Not only that, it claims we get "all the functionality of Stripe Billing.." when this hasn't been the case for a few months. New features have been gated recently, ie. the new customer portal.

You have every right to change your pricing how you see fit. However, if this message was worded as it being a grace period, we would have taken steps two years ago to consider other tools or building something in-house.

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