The gateways and tools we reach for, and the situation each one is best at.
We are gateway-agnostic. The brief decides the tool — these are the ones we trust enough to ship.
Gateways
Stripe
Default for most US, EU, and APAC products. Strong APIs, mature SDKs, the deepest webhook event coverage on the market.
Gateways
PayPal
When your customers expect the PayPal button. Smart Buttons for embedded checkout, Marketplaces for splits.
Gateways
Razorpay
Default for India and South Asia. UPI, cards, netbanking, and wallets in one integration. Subscriptions API supported.
Gateways
Paddle
Merchant-of-record, so they handle EU VAT, US sales tax, and chargebacks. Best for SaaS that does not want to run a billing engine.
SDKs
stripe-php / Stripe.js
Server SDK plus Stripe Elements for hosted card fields.
SDKs
PayPal Server SDK
Orders v2 + Subscriptions v1 with Smart Buttons on the client.
SDKs
razorpay-php
Standard Checkout, Subscriptions, and Route for splits.
SDKs
Paddle Billing SDK
Subscriptions, prices, and the customer portal — all hosted by Paddle.
Webhooks
Stripe CLI
Local webhook forwarding and event replay. Indispensable during integration.
Webhooks
ngrok
For PayPal, Razorpay, and Paddle — secure tunnel to your local handler.
Webhooks
Idempotency keys
Every state-changing call to a gateway carries one. Every webhook handler keys on the event id.
Compliance
PCI SAQ-A
Default scope when using gateway-hosted card fields. We never touch raw card numbers.
Compliance
3D Secure / SCA
EU PSD2 and UK SCA flows handled by the gateway out of the box.
Reporting
Reconciliation jobs
Cron / queue worker pulls balance transactions and diffs against your DB. Mismatches alert.
Reporting
PDF + CSV exports
Daily report finance can read without engineering help.