Flint vs Stripe

Flint Pay vs Stripe: Stripe processing underneath, the commerce system on top.

Flint Pay runs on Stripe’s card processing and adds the commerce system Stripe leaves you to build: orders, product variants, inventory held at payment, stacked promotions, automatic US sales tax computed after discounts, shipping and pickup, returns, and line-item refunds. On Stripe, its own fulfillment guide leaves saving line items and updating stock to your code after each payment. On Flint the order is the record, and the dashboard, hosted checkout, and buyer account come with your API keys.

See the side-by-side table

3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card

last reviewed 2026-10-15 · sources

01Side by side

Flint vs Stripe, need by need.

The Stripe column is what Stripe's own docs and pricing pages say today, each linked under Sources. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it.

What you need	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing	Flint
Card processing	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Stripe.	Flint: Stripe, on a processing account Flint sets up and runs for you. Card details go from the buyer's browser straight to Stripe.
Order record	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: No order object. The Orders and SKU resources were removed in stripe-node 11.0.0 (2022-11-15), and the fulfillment guide leaves saving line items to your code. Orders API history	Flint: Every checkout, payment link, invoice, and subscription renewal creates an order with line items and server-computed totals.`POST /v1/orders`
Product variants	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: A separate product for each size and color combination, per Stripe's catalog guide.	Flint: Products with options and variants, plus categories, modifier sets, and bundles.`POST /v1/products`
Inventory	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: No stock field on the Product object. The fulfillment guide leaves updating inventory or stock records to your code. Stripe inventory tracking	Flint: Stock per location, held when payment starts, committed when it succeeds, and released when it fails.`held_quantity`
Discount codes	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Checkout Sessions currently support up to one coupon or promotion code.	Flint: Codes and automatic promotions that stack by rules you set, including buy X get Y, with a preview call.`combines_with`
Sales tax	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Stripe Tax, priced separately: 0.5% per transaction on no-code integrations or 50¢ per API transaction, where you're registered.	Flint: Automatic US sales tax computed after discounts and recorded per line, at 0.50% only on payments that carry tax. Or pass your own rates.`tax_money`
Shipping and pickup	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Shipping rates are a fixed amount for the whole order, and only payment-mode Checkout Sessions take shipping options. Local pickup on Stripe	Flint: Region-priced rates, free shipping over a threshold, in-store pickup, scheduled local delivery, and rate callbacks, on one-time orders and on subscription renewals.`POST /v1/delivery-methods`
Refund one item	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: A refund is an amount against a Charge or PaymentIntent; no parameter names a line item. Line-item refunds on Stripe	Flint: Refund by line item and quantity. Flint computes the item's share of the discount and the tax.`line_item_allocations`
Tips online	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Stripe’s tipping features, on-reader and on-receipt, are for Terminal in-person payments. Tips on Stripe Checkout	Flint: Tip presets on hosted checkout and payment links: three percentages or smart fixed amounts.`tip_percent_options`
Invoice late fees	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Invoicing from 0.4% per paid invoice. The documented invoice statuses are draft, open, paid, void, and uncollectible, and neither the lifecycle docs nor the pricing page lists a late fee.	Flint: Payment terms with a fixed or percentage late fee, an overdue status, reminders on your schedule, and credit notes, at 0.40% of invoice-collected payments.`late_fee_policy`
Subscriptions	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: Stripe Billing, 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go. Shipping on Stripe subscriptions	Flint: Any interval, trials, setup fees, and four retries over 16 days. Each renewal is an order that can ship. 0.40% of subscription payments.`POST /v1/subscriptions`
Buyer account	Stripe Payments, Checkout, and Billing: The customer portal manages payment details, invoices, and subscriptions. One-time orders in the portal	Flint: A hosted buyer account with orders, tracking, returns, invoices, subscriptions, and saved cards, or build your own on the same API.`GET /v1/me/orders`

How switching works

02What you build

What do you build around Stripe to sell physical products?

Each box on the left is code and data your team writes, tests, and keeps in sync with Stripe after every payment, refund, and return. On Flint each job is already a field or an endpoint on the order.

Around Stripe Checkout, you build

checkout.session.completedyour database

Orders
An orders table and an order lines table
written from checkout.session.completed
Variants
A Stripe product per size and color
mapped back to the catalog you keep
Inventory
A stock table, a hold at checkout start
and a sweep that releases expired holds
Promotions
Your own stacking and best-offer logic
because a Checkout Session takes one code
Refund tax
Each line's tax and discount share, stored
and recomputed for every partial refund
Returns
A returns table, inspections, restocking
and the refund each approved return triggers
Order history
An order history page for one-time buyers
beside the portal's invoices and subscriptions
Fulfillment
A handler safe to run twice, concurrently
plus a fulfillment status you record yourself

8 systems to build, run, and keep in sync

On Flint, you read the order

ord_1kmn0aExampleGET /v1/orders/{order_id}

Orders
orderPOST /v1/orders
Variants
variantsPOST /v1/products
Inventory
held_quantityGET /v1/inventory-levels
Promotions
combines_withPOST /v1/promotions
Refund tax
line_item_allocationsPOST /v1/refunds
Returns
returnPOST /v1/returns
Order history
ordersGET /v1/me/orders
Fulfillment
fulfillmentsorder.paid

1 order · 1 API key · 1 webhook stream

Stripe's fulfillment guide →Does Stripe track inventory? →

03After the payment

What runs on your server after a Stripe Checkout payment?

Stripe's guide asks for a fulfillment function that survives repeat and concurrent calls, retrieves the session with its line items, checks the payment status, fulfills, and records that it did. The left pane is that function with its database writes filled in. The right pane is the whole handler on Flint.

Stripe: the fulfillment function, filled in

import Stripe from "stripe";

const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY!);

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const event = stripe.webhooks.constructEvent(
    await request.text(),
    request.headers.get("stripe-signature")!,
    process.env.STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET!,
  );

  if (
    event.type === "checkout.session.completed" ||
    event.type === "checkout.session.async_payment_succeeded"
  ) {
    await fulfillCheckout(event.data.object.id);
  }
  return new Response(null, { status: 200 });
}

// must be safe to call twice, even at the same time, for one session
async function fulfillCheckout(sessionId: string) {
  const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.retrieve(sessionId, {
    expand: ["line_items"],
  });
  if (session.payment_status === "unpaid") return;

  await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
    if (await tx.orders.findBySession(sessionId)) return; // already done

    const order = await tx.orders.insert({ sessionId, total: session.amount_total });
    for (const line of session.line_items!.data) {
      await tx.orderLines.insert({
        orderId: order.id,
        priceId: line.price!.id,
        quantity: line.quantity,
        tax: line.amount_tax, // kept for the partial refund later
      });
      await tx.stock.decrement(line.price!.id, line.quantity!); // your count, not Stripe's
    }
    await tx.fulfillments.insert({ orderId: order.id, status: "pending" });
  });
}

Stripe's required steps, with its TODOs and the optional writes its guide suggests (saving line items, updating stock) filled in. The order tables, the duplicate check, and the stock count are yours to run and back up.

Flint: order.paid

import { Client } from "@flintpay/node";

const flint = new Client({
  baseUrl: "https://api.withflintpay.com",
  apiKey: process.env.FLINT_API_KEY!,
});

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const rawBody = new Uint8Array(await request.arrayBuffer());
  const { event, known } = flint.verifyWebhook(
    rawBody,
    Object.fromEntries(request.headers),
    [process.env.FLINT_WEBHOOK_SECRET!],
  );

  if (known && event.event_type === "order.paid") {
    // lines, tax, discounts, and committed stock are on the order
    await startShipment(event.data.object.order_id);
  }
  return new Response(null, { status: 204 });
}

The cart went in by variant, so Flint priced each line, held the stock at payment, and committed it on success. order.paid fires once per order, and a retry carries the same webhook id.

Which Stripe webhook event should you trust? →

04Included

What does a Flint account include that Stripe leaves to you?

One API and one dashboard. Checkout, payment links, orders, catalog, inventory, discounts, fulfillment, returns, refunds, the buyer account, and reporting are in the 3.79% + 35¢ card rate, with no monthly fee. Invoices, subscriptions, and automatic tax are priced add-ons.

Products carry options and variants, plus categories, modifier sets, and bundles.

POST /v1/products

Stock is held per location when payment starts, committed on success, and released on failure.

held_quantity · committed_quantity

Codes and automatic promotions stack by rules you set, with a preview call that shows the result first.

POST /v1/discount-previews

Automatic US sales tax is computed after discounts and recorded on each line item and in the order total.

tax_money

Shipping prices by region, goes free over a threshold, or switches to in-store pickup or scheduled local delivery.

POST /v1/delivery-methods

Returns run from a policy, with inspections, restocking fees, exchanges, and buyer self-serve.

POST /v1/return-policies

Refund a line item and its share of the discount and the tax goes back with it.

line_item_allocations

Hosted checkout and payment links offer tip presets, as percentages or smart fixed amounts.

tip_percent_options

Invoice payment terms carry a fixed or percentage late fee, with reminders on your schedule.

late_fee_policy

Subscription renewals are orders, so a box ships, quotes shipping, and gets taxed every cycle.

POST /v1/subscriptions

Buyers get a hosted account with their orders, tracking, returns, invoices, and saved cards.

GET /v1/me/orders

Pricing →The commerce API →Selling physical goods on Flint →

05Who Flint is for

Flint is built for US businesses selling online.

If that describes you, everything above is running the day you create your account.

US businesses

Flint onboards businesses in the US and pays out in USD to your own bank account. Buyers can pay from anywhere with a card.

Online payments

Hosted checkout, payment links, invoices, or Stripe Elements on your own site, with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit, and Affirm.

Goods and services

Orders that ship, get picked up, deliver locally, or fulfill as a download or a service, with stock held at payment.

Developers and agents

A public OpenAPI spec, Node and PHP SDKs, a CLI, llms.txt, and MCP servers a coding agent can read.

06Switching

How do you switch from Stripe to Flint?

One flow at a time. Your frontend keeps Stripe.js and Stripe Elements for card entry; the calls your backend makes change.

Recreate the catalog
POST /v1/products
Create each product with its options and variants, and keep the Stripe product id in metadata so your reports and support tools resolve during the cutover.
Replace Checkout Sessions and Payment Links
POST /v1/checkout-sessions
Create an order from the cart and open a hosted checkout for it, or create a Flint payment link. Both collect what the order owes, with tax and discounts already computed.
Move subscribers without a second charge
POST /v1/subscriptions
Recreate each recurring price as a subscription plan. Flint has no card import, so each subscriber first saves a card on Flint, in the hosted buyer account or on your own page. Then create their subscription with an imported billing start set to the start of the period Stripe already billed. Flint charges nothing for that period and takes over at the next renewal.
Fulfill from order.paid
order.paid
Move the job your checkout.session.completed handler runs to order.paid, and verify Flint's webhook signatures in place of Stripe's.
Go live
Run each flow in a sandbox with Stripe's test cards, then switch to live keys. The host and the paths stay the same.

Read the Stripe migration guide →

07Start

From a sandbox key to a paid test order in ten minutes.

Node

npm install @flintpay/node

CLI

npm install -g @flintpay/cli

Test keys are prefixed flint_test_ and bound to a sandbox with its own data, so nothing you try there touches live money. Pay with 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC.

Then read these

01
Migrating from StripeThe object map, one flow at a time
02
Does Stripe have an Orders API?
03
Stripe alternatives, rankedSquare, PayPal, Adyen, and merchants of record
04
Stripe inventory tracking
05
Refund one line item on Stripe
06
Accept your first payment

Sources

Where each claim comes from.

The fulfillment function must handle repeat calls, retrieve the session with its line items, check the payment status, fulfill, and record fulfillment status; the guide lists saving line items in your own database and updating inventory or stock records among what it may also do. Fulfill orders
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Orders and SKU resources removed in stripe-node 11.0.0, released 2022-11-15. stripe-node migration guide for v11
github.com · checked 2026-10-15
A separate product for each size and color combination. How products and prices work
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
The Product object's attributes, none of them a stock or quantity on hand. The Product object
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Checkout Sessions currently support up to one coupon or promotion code. Add discounts
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Shipping rates are fixed amounts for the entire order, and only payment-mode Checkout Sessions support shipping options. Charge for shipping
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
A refund names a Charge or PaymentIntent and an amount; no parameter names a line item. Create a refund
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
On-reader and on-receipt tipping are Terminal features. Collect tips
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Invoice statuses: draft, open, paid, void, and uncollectible. How invoicing works
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Invoicing Starter at 0.4% and Plus at 0.5% per paid invoice. Stripe Invoicing pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Billing at 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go. Stripe Billing pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
Stripe Tax Basic at 0.5% per no-code transaction or 50¢ per API transaction, where you're registered. Stripe Tax pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
The customer portal manages payment details, invoices, and subscriptions. Customer portal
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15

last reviewed 2026-10-15 · corrections: Flint Help

FAQ

Questions people ask.

What is the difference between Flint Pay and Stripe?

Stripe processes payments, and its fulfillment guide leaves the order record, stock updates, and fulfillment status to code on your server. Flint runs on Stripe's processing and adds that commerce system: orders with line items, product variants, inventory held at payment, promotions that stack, automatic US sales tax computed after discounts, shipping and pickup, returns, line-item refunds, invoices with late fees, subscriptions, a hosted buyer account, and a dashboard.

Is Flint a good alternative to Stripe for a small business?

Yes, for a US business selling goods or services on its own website or app that wants orders, inventory, promotions, sales tax, shipping, returns, and invoices without building them. Flint has no monthly fee and one published card rate, 3.79% + 35¢, which covers Stripe’s processing fees and the core commerce system; invoices, subscriptions, and automatic tax are priced add-ons. Sign up on the web or from the terminal with flint signup.

Is there a Stripe alternative with orders and inventory built in?

Flint. Every checkout, payment link, invoice, and renewal creates an order with line items and server-computed totals, and stock is tracked per location: held when payment starts, committed when it succeeds, and released when it fails. Stripe removed its Orders and SKU resources from stripe-node in version 11.0.0 (November 2022), and its Product object has no stock field.

Does Flint use Stripe?

Yes. Stripe processes every card payment on Flint. Card details go from the buyer's browser to Stripe, so neither your server nor Flint sees card numbers. Flint sets up and runs the processing account for each business, so you sign up once and hold one set of API keys. Flint does not connect to a Stripe account you already have.

How much does Flint cost compared with Stripe?

Flint charges 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with no monthly fee. The rate covers Stripe’s processing fees and includes checkout, payment links, orders, catalog and inventory, discounts, fulfillment, returns, refunds, the buyer account, and reporting. Invoices and subscriptions are 0.40% each, and automatic tax is 0.50% on payments that carry tax. On Stripe, Billing is 0.7% of Billing volume, Stripe Tax is 0.5% per transaction on no-code integrations, and Invoicing starts at 0.4% per paid invoice, before the code you write for orders, stock, and returns. Flint pricing

Can I move Stripe subscribers to Flint without charging them twice?

Yes. Flint has no card import, so each subscriber first saves a card on Flint, in the hosted buyer account or on your own page. Then create their Flint subscription with an imported billing start set to the start of the period Stripe already billed. Flint charges nothing for that period, computes its end from the plan interval, and takes over at the next renewal. Stripe migration guide

Keep Stripe's processing. Stop building the store around it.

Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Create an order by variant, take a test payment, and refund one line with its share of the tax.

Read the Stripe migration guide

Or run npm install -g @flintpay/cli && flint signup to create your account and a sandbox key from the terminal. CLI guide

More comparisons · last reviewed 2026-10-15