SaaS Monetization Kit - Use Cases

Who This Is For

SaaS founders and developers who need to add payment processing, subscriptions, and billing to their applications. Whether you're launching your first pricing tier or scaling a complex multi-product SaaS, this kit handles Stripe integrations, subscription lifecycle, webhook handling, and usage-based billing.

Use Case 1: Launch Tiered Pricing (Startup MVP)

Scenario: You have a working app and need to add 3 pricing tiers (Free, Pro at $29/mo, Enterprise custom). No subscription management yet—just get paid.

Prompt: @stripe-pro Build a tiered pricing setup with Stripe: Free tier (no payment), Pro ($29/month), Enterprise (custom quote). Create products, prices, and a checkout flow. Include test cards for sandbox.

Outcome: Functional checkout with Stripe products/prices configured, test mode ready, sample checkout URLs.

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Use Case 2: Manage Subscription Lifecycle (Recurring Revenue)

Scenario: Customers sign up, get 14-day trial, then auto-charge monthly. Some cancel, some upgrade. You need to handle all states: active, paused, canceled, expired trial.

Prompt: @stripe-pro Implement full subscription lifecycle: trial periods (14 days), automatic charging, upgrade/downgrade with proration, cancellation at period end. Use webhooks for payment success/failure. Show customer subscription status portal.

Outcome: Complete subscription state machine, webhook handlers for invoice events, self-service pause/upgrade/cancel endpoints.

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Use Case 3: Usage-Based Billing (Per-API-Call Pricing)

Scenario: Your API charges per 1000 requests. Customers need real-time usage tracking, billing only for what they use, with overage warnings. Implement metered billing that triggers monthly invoices.

Prompt: @stripe-pro Set up usage-based billing with Stripe meters: track API requests per customer, meter events every hour, monthly invoicing with overage charges at $0.01 per 100 requests. Include usage dashboard for customers.

Outcome: Meter event streaming setup, usage aggregation logic, monthly invoice generation, customer-facing usage dashboard.

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Use Case 4: Handle Failed Payments & Dunning (Revenue Protection)

Scenario: 2% of payments fail (expired cards, insufficient funds). You lose $5K/month to failed charges. Set up retries and dunning notifications so customers can fix their cards before cancellation.

Prompt: @stripe-pro Implement payment failure recovery: 3 retry attempts over 5 days with exponential backoff, dunning emails after each failure, customer portal to update payment method, auto-retry after update. Track dunning metrics.

Outcome: Retry logic with exponential backoff, email templates, payment method update flow, failure metrics dashboard.

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Use Case 5: Automated Benefit Delivery (License Activation)

Scenario: When a customer pays for your product, automatically unlock features: GitHub repo access, Discord role, license key, or file download. No manual work.

Prompt: @payment-integration Use Polar's automated benefits: on purchase, automatically grant GitHub repo access, Discord role 'Pro User', and email license key. Revoke on cancellation.

Outcome: Webhook handlers for benefit grant/revoke, integrations with GitHub/Discord/email, permission sync logic.

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Quick Start Workflow

1. Use case 1: Set up Stripe products/prices → create checkout → test with test cards
2. Use case 2: Add subscription creation → implement webhook handlers → build customer portal
3. Use case 3: Define meters in Stripe → stream usage events → aggregate for invoicing
4. Use case 4: Implement retry logic → configure dunning emails → add payment method update flow
5. Use case 5: Connect payment webhooks → add benefit grant logic → test end-to-end

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Pro Tips

• Test thoroughly: Use Stripe test mode with test cards (4242... always succeeds, 4000... always fails)
• Webhook reliability: Implement idempotent handlers—webhooks retry, so process events by idempotency_key
• Proration strategy: Decide upfront: immediate (credit), end-of-cycle (wait), or none (manual only)
• Subscription metadata: Store custom fields (team_id, plan_version, billing_cycle_start) in subscription metadata
• Monitoring: Alert on payment failures, failed webhooks, and unusual usage spikes before customers complain