How to accept Stripe payments on your own website — without writing code

TL;DR

• • Create a restricted key (rk_live_), not a secret key (sk_live_). Four permissions is all a store needs.
• • A restricted key cannot move money, read customers or change your account settings.
• • Use Stripe's hosted checkout — Apple Pay, Google Pay and SCA come free with it.
• • The money lands in your own Stripe balance on your own payout schedule.
• • You are the seller of record, so sales tax is yours — Stripe Tax can calculate it at checkout.

Restricted key vs secret key

Stripe gives you two kinds of secret. The difference matters more than most setup guides admit.

The four permissions a store needs

• • Checkout Sessions — Write. Creates the payment page your customer lands on.
• • PaymentIntents — Read. Lets the store check a payment really succeeded before marking an order paid.
• • Webhook Endpoints — Write. Lets the store set up order notifications for you, so you never copy a signing secret by hand.
• • Refunds — Write. Only needed if you want to refund from your store dashboard rather than inside Stripe.

Everything else stays at None. That is the whole point.

Setting it up

1. In Stripe, open Developers → API keys and click Create restricted key.
2. Name it something you will recognise, set the four permissions above, and leave everything else as None.
3. Reveal and copy the key — it starts with rk_live_.
4. In your store dashboard, open Settings → Payments & invoices and paste it into the Stripe card.
5. Tick 'Customers can pay by card'. A Card payment option now appears at checkout.

There is no fifth step involving webhooks. Because the restricted key can manage notification endpoints, the store registers its own — which is the step people most often get wrong elsewhere.

Why hosted checkout rather than a card form

• • Apple Pay and Google Pay appear automatically on supported devices, with nothing to configure.
• • The extra bank-approval step European and UK cards legally require is handled for you. Building that yourself is how UK launches fail.
• • Card details never touch your website, so you carry none of the security burden that comes with handling them.
• • Klarna, Afterpay and Link can be switched on in your own Stripe dashboard and appear at your checkout with no change on your side.

The tax part

Connecting your own Stripe account makes you the seller of record. Sales tax and VAT are therefore yours to handle — which is the trade for keeping 100% of the money and controlling the relationship.

If you use Stripe Tax, switch it on in your Stripe dashboard and tick one box in your store settings; Stripe will then calculate tax at checkout. In the US, states can require collection once you pass a threshold — commonly around $100,000 or 200 orders a year, though it varies by state.

Frequently asked questions