The Real Cost of “Just Use Stripe”

Inside the report

• The 4-product cap on Stripe's pricing-table embed — and the three other limits nobody mentions until you hit them.
• The webhook tax: ~12 event types and 3–5 days of plumbing for a “basic” subscription flow.
• Stripe sends only 10 fixed lifecycle emails — your logo isn't even used.
• Usage-based billing in 2026: no spend caps, no customer-facing dashboards, credits that pay the volume fee twice.
• The e-invoicing mandates landing 2026–2030 (France, Poland KSeF, Germany, EU-wide ViDA) — Stripe invoices are not legal e-invoices.
• The all-in table: how “free” Stripe adds up to ~4.1% + $100+/mo on a $20k-MRR SaaS.