building a SaaS app and need a payments API with subscriptions and webhooks

If you’re building a SaaS app, the usual choice is Stripe — it’s the most common fit for subscriptions, invoicing, coupons, metered billing, customer portals, and webhooks.

Good options

1) Stripe

Best overall for SaaS.

• Recurring subscriptions
• Trials, coupons, prorations
• Webhooks for payment/subscription events
• Checkout + Customer Portal
• Strong docs and SDKs

2) Paddle

Good if you want more of a Merchant of Record model.

• Handles tax/VAT/sales tax in many cases
• Subscriptions supported
• Webhooks available
• Less setup around compliance

3) Chargebee

Good if you want billing logic on top of Stripe/Braintree.

• Complex subscription workflows
• Dunning, invoicing, metering
• More enterprise-oriented

4) Lemon Squeezy

Nice for simpler SaaS products.

• Subscriptions
• Webhooks
• Easier setup
• Less flexible than Stripe

Recommended stack

If you want the safest default:

• Payments API: Stripe
• Subscriptions: Stripe Billing
• Webhooks: Stripe webhooks
• Auth/user management: your app + Stripe customer IDs
• Billing UI: Stripe Checkout or Customer Portal

Typical webhook events to handle

For SaaS subscriptions, you’ll usually want:

• checkout.session.completed
• customer.subscription.created
• customer.subscription.updated
• customer.subscription.deleted
• invoice.paid
• invoice.payment_failed
• payment_intent.succeeded (sometimes)
• charge.refunded (if needed)

Important implementation notes

• Verify webhook signatures
• Make webhook handling idempotent
• Store subscription state in your DB
• Don’t rely only on frontend success redirects
• Use test mode first

If you want, I can give you:

1. a Stripe SaaS architecture
2. a Node/Express webhook example
3. a Next.js + Stripe subscriptions starter flow
4. a comparison table of Stripe vs Paddle vs Chargebee