In this article, you'll learn how to set up a subscription payment system with Stripe to collect recurring fees from users on your marketplace. Subscription fees can be charged for different offerings; however, this guide uses the example of a membership fee, a subscription purchase made for access to the marketplace.
You need to set up a separate subscription payment system because Sharetribe’s built-in payment system (Stripe Connect) is specifically designed for splitting payments and commissions between the marketplace, customer, and provider. Subscription fees work differently, requiring recurring payments from your user to your platform directly. A different system is needed.
We'll use Stripe Payment links and Stripe Billing to collect subscription fees from users who want to join your marketplace. Payment links enable you to create a checkout page for your subscription products without any coding, while Stripe Billing lets you manage your users' subscriptions. Though other payment systems are suitable for this use case, we recommend using Stripe's tools.
Note: If you already have a Stripe account, you can skip steps 1 and 2 of this guide and jump straight to step 3.
1. Create and confirm your Stripe account
Creating a Stripe account is free, and you can delete it anytime. To create a Stripe account, go to https://dashboard.stripe.com/register
Fill in the required fields, then create your Stripe account
Go to your inbox to verify your email address. Check your email inbox and look for a confirmation email sent from Stripe (by notifications@stripe.com) named “Verify your email address.”
Click the confirmation link in this email and log in with your credentials.
Your Stripe account is now confirmed! Let’s proceed.
2. Activate payments on your account
As you will receive money from your users via your Stripe account, you have to complete your business profile by providing information such as your business type, industry, address, web URL and your bank account. This data is secured by Stripe and won't be shared with anyone. This process is called “Activating” your account. Click on "Start" on the page to fill in your business profile.
Complete all the fields according to the instructions and set Your website to your marketplace custom domain when asked.
It's OK to activate your account as an individual, you don't need a company ID. For example, in the US, it's okay to use your personal name and SSN in place of an EIN. You can read more about signing up without a tax ID or employer ID number from Stripe here.
The fields in the form vary based on the Business Location, so select that first!
Once completed, click "Agree and submit."
3. Create a product
Once you’ve activated payments in your Stripe account, the next step is to create a product in your Stripe catalog. In Stripe, a product represents the specific goods or services you offer. For your Sharetribe marketplace, this product will be the subscription plan that users will pay to join your marketplace.
To create a product:
Go to "Product catalog" on the left sidebar and add a new product, or click directly on this link.
Fill in the product details:
Name
Description
Image (optional)
Recurring
Select billing period (monthly, yearly, custom)
Price amount
Add your product.
That’s it! You’ve now created your subscription product. If you need to make changes later, you can always edit it by clicking the "Edit product" button on the product page. You can create multiple subscription plans or tiers following the same process.
3.a Multiple subscription plans and tiers
If your subscription offering includes multiple pricing plans and tiers, you'll need to repeat step 3 and create a separate product for each one. However, Stripe's payment page only allows you to show one product, so you need to show your subscription products differently than using the payment link.
The simplest way to do this in Sharetribe would be to set up a content page and add these products there. You can set up a page using the "Pages" feature to outline all available subscription options and link each plan to its corresponding Stripe product. Stripe allows you to generate a unique checkout link for each subscription plan, which you use as the URLs for call-to-action buttons. These URLs are how you connect your marketplace to your payment page.
4. Create a Payment link
After creating the subscription product, the next step is to create the actual payment page. In Stripe, a payment link is a customizable checkout page where you can add subscription products (in this case, subscription plans) from your Stripe catalog.
To create a payment link:
Go to "Payment links" on the left sidebar and create a payment link, or click directly on this link.
Add the subscription product created in the previous step.
(Optional) You can also configure other settings, such as collecting billing address and phone number, allowing promotional codes, and adding a custom payment confirmation message.
Click on Create link.
You can now copy and share the payment page link by clicking the clipboard icon next to the link. Here's an example of a payment link page for a subscription fee
5. Test the payments
When setting up your payment page, it’s a good idea to test the end-user experience before making the payment page live. Stripe makes this easy by offering a Test Mode, which allows you to simulate payments without processing real money.
By switching to Test Mode in your Stripe dashboard, you can create a test version of your payment page. This enables you to see exactly how the payment flow will function for users, but without handling actual money.
Stripe provides test card credentials that you can use to simulate a variety of scenarios, such as successful payments, declined transactions, or processing errors. This process ensures that your setup is working correctly and helps you troubleshoot any potential issues before your payment page goes live.
If you plan to use Zapier to automate the connection between Stripe and your marketplace, note that test payments (payments using test credit card credentials and the test checkout page) do not work as triggers in Zapier.
This means you will not be able to test the fully automated workflow while Stripe is in Test mode. Only Live mode payments on a live checkout page act as triggers. You can use Stripe’s test data only if you are finding the record it creates in Zapier manually while testing your Zap.
Learn more on how to connect Stripe and your marketplace using Zapier.
6. Manage your subscriptions
After users have paid their subscription fees, you can view and manage all active subscriptions by navigating to Billing → Subscriptions in the left sidebar on your Stripe dashboard. This section displays all users with active subscriptions. On each subscription page, you can access subscription details and perform key actions, such as sending a link to update the payment method, modifying, pausing or canceling the subscription.
Final thoughts
Now you have a subscription payment system set up with Stripe. Users can use this page to purchase membership to your marketplace.
To complete your membership fee system, you need to link the payment page you created from your marketplace and you must connect what happens in your payment system to your marketplace. Namely, you must approve the user to join the marketplace when you receive the membership fee.