---
title: "New to Stripe? Learn the key concepts for software developers."
description: "The guide introduces software developers to Stripe’s main objects and workflows for integrating payments, recurring billing, and related account activity. It begins with Payment Intents, which specify an amount and currency, track a payment’s lifecycle, and produce a client secret for completing the frontend flow, then covers Payment Methods and Customers, including Setup Intents and attaching a default payment method. For subscriptions, it distinguishes Products, Prices, and Subscriptions, and explains using events and webhooks to react to asynchronous payment and subscription changes while verifying webhook signatures. It also describes Disputes, refunds, and expanded API responses, including retrieving related resources in one call. The guide recommends starting in test mode and using dashboard logs while consulting Stripe’s documentation and changelog as the platform evolves."
---

# New to Stripe? Learn the key concepts for software developers.

[Stripe](https://yomu.fyi/company/stripe) · James Beswick · Jan 29, 2025

**Type:** Tutorial

## Summary

The guide introduces software developers to Stripe’s main objects and workflows for integrating payments, recurring billing, and related account activity. It begins with Payment Intents, which specify an amount and currency, track a payment’s lifecycle, and produce a client secret for completing the frontend flow, then covers Payment Methods and Customers, including Setup Intents and attaching a default payment method. For subscriptions, it distinguishes Products, Prices, and Subscriptions, and explains using events and webhooks to react to asynchronous payment and subscription changes while verifying webhook signatures. It also describes Disputes, refunds, and expanded API responses, including retrieving related resources in one call. The guide recommends starting in test mode and using dashboard logs while consulting Stripe’s documentation and changelog as the platform evolves.

## Context

Developers integrating Stripe for the first time must navigate its extensive feature set and specific terminology. Payment integrations also involve asynchronous state changes, recurring billing complexities, failed payments, disputes, refunds, and tracking customer payment history.

## Approach / What changed

The guide explains Stripe’s core objects and workflows with JavaScript examples, covering Payment Intents, Payment Methods, Customers, Setup Intents, Products, Prices, Subscriptions, events, webhooks, disputes, refunds, and expanded responses. It also describes webhook signature verification, dashboard debugging tools, test mode, and using Stripe’s documentation and changelog.

## Takeaways

- A Payment Intent records the payment lifecycle, accepts an amount and currency, and provides a client secret for completing the frontend payment flow. Its ID can be stored with a cart or session and reused for the same transaction.
- Stripe’s subscription model separates what is sold into Products and pricing into Prices, while a Subscription connects a Customer to a Price and tracks billing periods, status, and trials.
- Events and webhooks notify applications about asynchronous payment and subscription changes, while a signing secret helps verify that webhook requests are genuine.

**Tags:** [Authentication](https://yomu.fyi/topic/authentication), [Reliability](https://yomu.fyi/topic/reliability), [REST APIs](https://yomu.fyi/topic/rest-api), [Testing](https://yomu.fyi/topic/testing)

- Source: [Stripe](https://stripe.dev/blog/new-to-stripe-learn-key-concepts-software-developers)
- Source URL: https://stripe.dev/blog/new-to-stripe-learn-key-concepts-software-developers
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-08-28T08:57:43.474Z

[Read original post](https://stripe.dev/blog/new-to-stripe-learn-key-concepts-software-developers)