## Stripe Subscriptions: Managing Recurring Payments and Customer Billing

This documentation suite provides a comprehensive guide to implementing and managing subscription services using Stripe Billing. It covers everything from the fundamental concepts of how subscriptions work to advanced features like flexible billing, custom pricing models, and integrating various payment methods.

### Core Subscription Management

*   **How subscriptions work:** Understand the lifecycle of a subscription, from creation to renewal, and the key features Stripe offers for managing recurring payments.
*   **Building a subscriptions integration:** Learn the steps involved in creating a robust subscription integration, including product catalog setup, customer registration, payment collection, and monitoring.
*   **Designing your subscription integration:** Explore different pricing models (flat rate, per-seat, tiered, usage-based) and checkout strategies to best suit your business needs.
*   **Set billing cycles:** Configure the renewal date for your subscriptions to align with your business logic.
*   **Configure trial offers:** Implement free or paid trial periods to attract new customers and test conversion rates.
*   **Entitlements:** Manage customer access to product features based on their subscription status.

### Advanced Subscription Features

*   **Billing modes (Classic vs. Flexible):** Compare and understand the differences between classic and flexible billing modes, with a recommendation to use flexible for enhanced capabilities.
*   **Mixed interval subscriptions:** Combine subscription items with different billing periods into a single subscription and invoice.
*   **Backdate subscriptions:** Bill customers for past usage or time periods.
*   **Subscription schedules:** Automate changes to subscriptions over time, such as future start dates or upgrades/downgrades.
*   **Pending updates:** Manage subscription updates that require successful payment before being applied.
*   **Bill customers in advance:** Allow customers to pay for multiple service periods upfront.
*   **Prorations:** Understand how partial charges and credits are calculated when subscription details change.
*   **Quantities:** Subscribe customers to multiple products or multiple quantities of a single product on a single invoice.

### Subscription Lifecycle Management

*   **Modify subscriptions:** Update existing subscriptions without needing to cancel and recreate them, including changing prices, quantities, and billing periods.
*   **Cancel subscriptions:** Learn how to manually cancel subscriptions and understand automatic cancellation policies.
*   **Pause subscriptions:** Temporarily suspend service delivery and invoice generation for subscriptions.
*   **Pause payment collection:** Halt payment collection for a subscription while continuing service and invoice generation.

### Pricing and Discounts

*   **Recurring pricing models:** Explore different pricing strategies like flat rate, per-seat, tiered, and usage-based pricing.
*   **Set up flat rate pricing:** Implement a simple pricing model where customers pay a fixed amount for a service tier.
*   **Set up per-seat pricing:** Charge customers based on the number of users or licenses.
*   **Coupons and promotion codes:** Apply discounts to subscriptions and subscription items.
*   **Embeddable pricing table:** Create and embed a customizable pricing table on your website.

### Payment Methods and Integrations

*   **Collect a payment method with no initial payment:** Authorize and store payment methods for subscriptions that don't require an immediate charge.
*   **Integrate with third-party payment processors:** Utilize Stripe subscriptions and invoices with external payment gateways.
*   **Set payment methods per-subscription:** Specify available payment methods for individual subscriptions.
*   **Set up subscriptions with various payment methods:** Guides for integrating specific payment methods including:
    *   ACH Direct Debit
    *   Amazon Pay
    *   Bacs Direct Debit (UK)
    *   Bank transfers
    *   BECS Direct Debit (Australia)
    *   Boleto
    *   Cash App Pay
    *   iDEAL with SEPA Direct Debit
    *   Kakao Pay
    *   Klarna
    *   Local South Korean cards
    *   Naver Pay
    *   Nigerian cards
    *   PayPal
    *   PayTo
    *   Pix
    *   Pre-authorized debit (Canada)
    *   Revolut Pay
    *   SEPA Direct Debit (EU)
    *   Stablecoins
    *   TWINT

### Migration and Events

*   **Migrate subscriptions to Stripe Billing:** Learn how to import existing subscriptions using the Billing migration toolkit or Stripe APIs.
*   **Using webhooks with subscriptions:** Receive notifications of subscription activity to manage your integration asynchronously.

### Platform-Specific Integrations

*   **Manage subscriptions on iOS:** Utilize the Billing SDK for iOS to manage subscriptions and entitlements within your mobile application.
*   **Integrate a SaaS business on Stripe:** Guidance on building a Software as a Service business with Stripe Billing and other products.