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Our "enterprise" experience with Stripe after $1B+ processed (be careful)

28 points Boulderchaim | 1 comments | 12 Dec 25 14:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source

Hi guys,

In middle of a stripe Shakedown and feel like I this is something to warn others of.

We rent vehicles and implemented stripe in 2017. We process a massive volume and must have spent 1B+ with stripe so far.

We love stripe, the tools the software ect. But recently they have been closer to a mob boss than a vendor as they must know their customers are highly locked in.

Over time, our deal evolved into a multi‑year minimum annual fee commitment with “enterprise” pricing. On every renewal, the pattern has been:

Stripe pushes the minimum annual fees higher.

If we don’t naturally hit that minimum, they expect us to burn the difference on add‑on products and “nice to have” features just to satisfy the commit.

We’re warned that if we don’t find a way to hit the minimum, they can just take the full amount out of revenue.

What I would think of before picking stripe.

Make your integration portable. Don't use vender form/card logic. 2. Use an invoices platform that can easily switch card provider. 3. Push back on the small yearly minimum, as they will just raise it next time instead of focusing on you making more money stripe focuses on itself.

To anyone working at stripe, you guys built an awesome product, just wish you could maintain the culture that got you to where you are.

Good luck

1. thiago_fm ◴[16 Dec 25 14:34 UTC] No.46288998[source]▶
With that much revenue, maybe it's time to look into your ratios of payment processing method being used.

For example, if 90% use Credit card, go with a simpler and cheaper payment provider and implement a mechanism that switches between them based on some frontend configuration.

I've worked for a company that they've essentially done that.

I know you might then need to handle having two places where you have invoices etc, but for the amount you are transactioning, it might be the right way to go.

This isn't important only to reduce how much you pay, but your lock-in and dependency on them, otherwise you have no leverage on those negotiations.

Your pain, their profit!