## Managing Subscriptions in Stripe Billing

This documentation group provides comprehensive guidance on building and managing subscription-based billing systems using Stripe. It covers the entire lifecycle of a subscription, from initial setup and pricing models to advanced features like entitlements, prorations, and flexible billing.

### Core Concepts and Setup

*   **How subscriptions work:** Understand the fundamental concepts of recurring payments, subscription lifecycles, and Stripe's features for managing subscriptions.
*   **Build a subscriptions integration:** Learn the essential steps to create and manage subscriptions for recurring payments, including product catalog setup, customer registration, and payment collection.
*   **Design a subscriptions integration:** Explore various charging models (flat rate, per-seat, tiered, usage-based) and checkout options to tailor your subscription offering.
*   **Recurring pricing models:** Delve into different pricing strategies like flat-rate, per-seat, tiered, and usage-based pricing to effectively monetize your products and services.
*   **Set up flat rate pricing:** Learn how to implement a simple, fixed-price subscription model for service tiers.
*   **Set up per-seat pricing:** Understand how to charge customers based on the number of users or licenses they require.
*   **Embeddable pricing table for subscriptions:** Discover how to create and embed a visually appealing pricing table on your website that directs customers to Stripe Checkout.

### Subscription Lifecycle Management

*   **Configure trial offers on subscriptions:** Implement free or paid trial periods to attract new customers and allow them to experience your service.
    *   **Use free trial periods:** Specifically learn how to configure free trial periods using the legacy `trial_end` parameter.
    *   **Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions:** Ensure your trial offers comply with card network regulations.
*   **Entitlements:** Understand how to map product features to subscription statuses, enabling automated granting and revocation of access.
*   **Modify subscriptions:** Learn how to update existing subscriptions, including changing prices, quantities, and billing periods, and manage prorations.
    *   **Change the price of existing subscriptions:** Specific guidance on upgrading or downgrading subscription tiers.
    *   **Prorations:** Understand how partial charges and credits are calculated when subscription details change.
    *   **Pending updates:** Learn how to handle subscription updates that require payment confirmation.
*   **Cancel subscriptions:** Discover how to cancel customer subscriptions through the API or the Dashboard.
*   **Pause subscriptions:** Learn how to temporarily halt service delivery and invoice generation for subscriptions.
*   **Pause payment collection:** Understand how to temporarily stop collecting payments for subscriptions without affecting service delivery or invoice generation.
*   **Bill customers in advance:** Implement prebilling to charge customers for multiple future service periods at once.
*   **Subscription schedules:** Automate changes to subscriptions over time, such as future start dates or upgrades/downgrades.
*   **Backdate subscriptions:** Learn how to bill customers for past service periods, useful for migrations or record-keeping.
*   **Mixed interval subscriptions:** Configure subscriptions that include items with different billing periods on a single subscription.

### Billing and Payment Configuration

*   **Set the subscription billing renewal date:** Understand how to configure billing cycle anchors to control subscription renewal dates.
*   **Enable billing mode:** Explore the benefits of using flexible billing mode for increased flexibility and access to new features.
    *   **Compare classic and flexible billing mode:** Understand the differences and choose the best billing mode for your integration.
*   **Set up payment methods for subscriptions with no initial payment:** Learn how to collect and authorize payment methods when a subscription doesn't require an immediate charge.
*   **Set payment methods per-subscription:** Configure specific payment methods for individual subscriptions for greater flexibility.

### Migrating and Integrating Subscriptions

*   **Migrate subscriptions to Stripe Billing:** Learn the different methods for importing existing subscriptions into Stripe Billing.
    *   **Migrate subscriptions to Stripe Billing using toolkit:** Utilize the Billing migration toolkit for a no-code migration process.
    *   **Migrate subscriptions to Stripe Billing using Stripe APIs:** Import subscriptions programmatically using Stripe's APIs.
*   **Integrate with third-party payment processors:** Understand how to manage Stripe subscriptions and invoices with external payment processors.

### Payment Methods for Subscriptions

This section details how to set up subscriptions with various payment methods:

*   **ACH Direct Debit:** Set up subscriptions using US bank accounts.
*   **Amazon Pay:** Integrate subscriptions with Amazon Pay.
*   **Bacs Direct Debit:** Set up subscriptions for UK customers using Bacs Direct Debit.
*   **Bank transfer:** Configure subscriptions to accept payments via bank transfers.
*   **BECS Direct Debit:** Set up subscriptions for Australian customers using BECS Direct Debit.
*   **Boleto:** Learn how to use Boleto vouchers for subscription payments.
*   **Cash App Pay:** Integrate subscriptions with Cash App Pay.
*   **iDEAL with SEPA Direct Debit:** Set up subscriptions using iDEAL for initial payment and SEPA Direct Debit for recurring payments.
*   **Klarna:** Integrate subscriptions with Klarna for flexible payment options.
*   **Korean Cards:** Set up subscriptions using local South Korean credit and debit cards.
*   **Naver Pay:** Integrate subscriptions with Naver Pay.
*   **PayTo:** Accept subscription payments using PayTo.
*   **PayPal:** Set up subscriptions with PayPal.
*   **Pix:** Configure subscriptions to accept payments via Pix.
*   **Pre-authorized debit in Canada:** Set up subscriptions with Canadian pre-authorized debits.
*   **Revolut Pay:** Integrate subscriptions with Revolut Pay.
*   **SEPA Direct Debit:** Set up subscriptions for EU customers using SEPA Direct Debit.
*   **Stablecoins:** Accept recurring stablecoin payments from customer crypto wallets.
*   **TWINT:** Integrate subscriptions with TWINT.

### Advanced Features and Integrations

*   **Entitlements:** (Also listed under Lifecycle Management)
*   **Using webhooks with subscriptions:** Learn how to use webhook events to manage subscriptions and react to asynchronous activity.
*   **Manage subscriptions on iOS:** Utilize the Stripe Billing SDK for iOS to manage subscriptions and entitlements within your iOS applications.
*   **Integrate a SaaS business on Stripe:** A broader guide on leveraging Stripe products, including Billing, for SaaS business models.