The FinTech sector is known as a highly competitive industry, and breaking into the payments business can often feel like a challenge. The barriers to entry seem daunting, leaving aspiring entrepreneurs wondering if they can ever be able to gain a foothold in this fast-paced industry.
But fear not! In this article, we uncover the hidden opportunities in the payments industry and guide you on how to build a solution like Stripe to break into the financial market.
Key points
- Features of Stripe system for payment processing
- Opportunities for developing FinTech software
- How to build a solution similar to Stripe
What is Stripe?
Stripe is an Irish-American financial services and software-as-a-service company that provides a suite of payment processing and financial infrastructure tools for businesses. It was founded in 2010 and has since become a leader in the online payments industry.
Stripe enables the secure and efficient processing via credit card payments and transfers those funds to the merchant account. Stripe’s software includes both a payment processing platform and a credit card payment gateway, both of which are necessary for a successful online transaction – making it the most efficient software to choose for online payments.
Key Stripe statistics 2023
- Stripe has 3 million customers worldwide, conforming to the Backlinko data.
- For every $100 billion of transaction value, Stripe gets $2.9 billion, following the Crunchbase data.
- According to Forbes Magazine, Stripe is valued at $115 billion.
Stripe global availability
Experience the power of Stripe, available in an impressive 47 countries worldwide. Seamlessly accept payments in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, and many more. Stripe empowers businesses with its online payment system, making transactions effortless across borders.
Countries, where Stripe is supported
Source: Stripe
Although the reach of Stripe is enormous, it is important to note that it is not currently supported in some regions of the world.
However, this opens up promising opportunities for financial software development. Countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Central African Republic, Cuba, Yemen, Venezuela and Panama, which require a separate online payment system, offer a unique landscape for innovation without directly competing with Stripe.
In countries where Stripe is not currently available, there are still significant prospects for developing payment systems solutions. These regions often offer untapped market potential and the opportunity to develop innovative payment solutions. This allows you to stay ahead of the curve, adapt to regional requirements, and capitalize on opportunities for your business in the evolving financial world.
What are the advantages of Stripe?
When it comes to processing online payments and managing financial transactions, Stripe stands out as an exceptional choice for FinTech businesses. With a wide range of benefits and features, Stripe enables payment companies to streamline their operations and unlock new opportunities. Here are some key points that make Stripe the preferred payment processor:
Ease of integration
Stripe offers a user-friendly interface and a robust set of APIs and developer tools that make it easy to integrate payment services into websites, mobile apps, and other platforms. The company provides extensive documentation, code libraries, and plugins for popular e-commerce platforms to simplify the integration process.
Flexible payment options
Stripe supports a wide range of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and localized payment options.
For example, the system facilitates Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover cards; digital wallets such as Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Microsoft Pay and WeChat Pay; and “Buy Now, Pay Later” options including Klarna and Afterpay.
Subscription and recurring billing
The system provides powerful tools for managing recurring payments and subscriptions. Businesses can easily set up subscription plans, manage billing cycles, and automate payment collection to streamline the management of subscription-based services.
Enhanced security and fraud prevention
Stripe places a high value on data security and offers integrated security measures to protect sensitive customer information. It complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), and card data is securely stored and tokenized, reducing the risk of data breaches. Stripe uses machine learning algorithms and behavioral analytics to detect suspicious activity and protect against fraud.
Customization and branding
The company enables businesses to customize the payment experience to match their brand identity. This includes customizing checkout forms, adding company logos, and customizing the payment flow to create a consistent and branded user experience.
24/7 customer support
Stripe is known for its responsive and helpful customer support and offers assistance through documentation, developer forums and direct support channels.
These advantages make Stripe a popular choice for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, looking for a reliable and feature-rich financial solution.
However, like any payment service system, Stripe has its limitations. For example, Stripe’s features for retail stores and restaurants are limited compared to its robust online payment service providers capabilities. Additionally, Stripe’s open APIs and tools can be difficult to use without technical expertise.
Pros and cons of Stripe payment processor infrastructure
| Pros | Cons |
| Transparent pricing structure with no setup, cancellation, or monthly fees. | In-person retail businesses and restaurants may experience limitations in utilizing Stripe’s features and capabilities. |
| Support for a wide range of payment methods and currencies. | Open API and tools may require software development expertise to fully utilize. |
| The checkout flow in Stripe is highly customizable, allowing for tailored and personalized payment experiences. | |
| Round-the-clock customer support through various channels, including phone, email, and live chat. | |
Building a payment processing solution like Stripe
Stripe is one of the most popular payment platforms, and building a solution like Stripe can seem like a daunting task.
However, with the right approach and technology stack, building a payment processing solution like Stripe is possible. You can start in-house development or use a ready-made FinTech Platform. Below we list the steps to follow to create the financial software from scratch.
In-house Stripe-like software development
Step 1. Discovery and research stage
The first step in building a financial solution like Stripe is to define your requirements. You need to determine what features and functionality you need to include in your online payment platform.
Some of the features you may want to include are payment acceptance, payment management, fraud detection and reporting.
These details form the basis for calculating the project budget. This process includes prototyping and conceptual design with your design team. The exploration phase also helps assess the extent to which the technology, functionality, and overall aesthetics meet the requirements.
Step 2. Choose the right technology stack
Choosing the right technology stack is crucial to the success of your payment system. You need to select technologies that are reliable, scalable and secure.
Some of the technologies you should consider include:
- Programming languages: Java, Python, Ruby, or PHP
- Frameworks: Spring, Django, Ruby on Rails, or Laravel
- Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB
- Payment Gateway: Stripe, PayPal, or Braintree
Step 3. Build your payment platform
Once you have defined your requirements and chosen your technology stack, it’s time to start building your payment system. You need to develop an architecture that is scalable, secure, and reliable. You also need to implement the features and functionalities that you defined in step one.
Step 4. Test your financial software
Testing is a critical aspect of building a payment platform. You need to thoroughly test your platform to ensure that it meets your requirements and that it is secure and reliable. You should perform both functional and non-functional testing to identify any issues or bugs.
Step 5. Launch your FinTech platform
Once you have completed testing and made any necessary changes, it’s time to get your FinTech platform up and running. You need to ensure that your platform complies with all relevant regulations and is capable of processing a high volume of transactions.
Although in-house software development gives you full control over the project and allows for direct communication among team members, it can be a time-consuming and difficult process.
According to a study conducted by DevSkiller, it takes about 40 days to hire an in-house developer, which can extend the development time to several years.
Building a payment solution using pre-developed software
To speed up the development process and accelerate the time-to-market, you can use pre-built solutions and benefit from a provider’s technical expertise in FinTech software development.
You can develop a solution like Stripe or extend your offering by providing merchants a complete package of online and offline financial services without starting from scratch with SDK.finance‘s payment Platform.
It is a cloud payment acceptance software system that serves as a foundation to start growing your revenue by providing a complete stack of online and offline payment acceptance services for merchants.
With over 400 API endpoints, you can connect to a wide range of third-party services quickly and cost-effectively.
The Platform offers a range of out-of-the-box features:
- roles & permissions management
- transactions management
- merchant’s digital wallet
- instant/regular payouts
- payment acceptance
- payment initiation
- users onboarding
- refunds initiation
- online POS
The SDK.finance payment Platform is a shortcut to the product development cycle. Our technical team takes care of all pre-launch testing procedures and fixes most bugs, so you don’t have to waste time.
Using a ready-made solution helps you save development costs by paying only for the services you need, and gives you the flexibility to grow or shrink your development team as needed.
SDK.finance expertise
SDK.finance has extensive expertise in developing payment systems solutions that can be used as a foundation for a system like Stripe.
Our team helped redesign the technology and processes behind the client company’s transaction accounting system and introduce a renewed, scalable, and future-proof solution.
As a result, a leading company ( MENA PSP ) has transformed its central transaction accounting system using our on-premise software. Now, this innovative system can be seamlessly connected to the customer’s extensive network of point-of-sale terminals (POS) in several countries in the MENA region.
We also helped MPAY wallet create a reliable payment-oriented ecosystem, building it on our general leger layer. When MPAY e-wallet began to expand its ecosystem and add more features and services, the SDK.finance software made expansion smooth and painless.
With SDK.finance payment software expertise, you can build a solution like Stripe in a short time, saving time and resources on the development process.
Conclusion
Building a payment processing solution like Stripe requires careful planning, the right technology stack, and a thorough understanding of the payments industry. The development process can be difficult and time-consuming, but with a reliable software provider, you can speed up the process and get into the financial market faster.
With more than 15 years of experience in FinTech software development, SDK.finance knows firsthand what it takes to build a scalable payments product. Contact us to start building your own financial solution like Stripe.
