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Stripe Webhook

Real-time notifications from Stripe that trigger automated actions when billing events occur.

Definition

Stripe webhooks are HTTP callbacks that Stripe sends to your application when events happen in your billing system. When a customer subscribes, upgrades, has a payment fail, or cancels, Stripe sends a webhook with event details. Your application (or email platform) catches these webhooks and triggers appropriate responses like sending emails or updating user records.

Why It Matters

For SaaS businesses using Stripe, webhooks are the foundation of billing-related email automation. Without them, you cannot send real-time dunning emails, instant upgrade confirmations, or cancellation follow-ups. The speed and reliability of your billing emails depends entirely on proper webhook handling.

How It Works

You configure a webhook endpoint URL in your Stripe dashboard. When billing events occur, Stripe posts JSON data to that URL containing event type and details. Your system parses the webhook, matches it to the correct customer, and triggers the appropriate email or action. Common events include invoice.payment_failed, customer.subscription.updated, and customer.subscription.deleted.

Best Practices

  • 1Set up webhooks for all billing events, not just failures
  • 2Verify webhook signatures to prevent spoofing attacks
  • 3Process webhooks asynchronously to handle high volume
  • 4Log all webhook events for debugging and auditing
  • 5Use a platform that handles Stripe webhooks natively
  • 6Map webhook events to email sequences systematically
  • 7Test your webhook handling in Stripe's test mode first

Native Stripe Integration

Sequenzy connects directly to Stripe and handles all webhook processing automatically. Billing events trigger emails instantly with no code required.

Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

The essential ones are invoice.payment_failed (dunning), customer.subscription.created (welcome), customer.subscription.updated (upgrade/downgrade confirmation), and customer.subscription.deleted (cancellation). Also consider invoice.paid (receipt) and customer.subscription.trial_will_end (trial expiration warning).

Immediately for transactional emails like receipts and payment failures. Customers expect these within seconds. For less urgent emails like cancellation surveys, a slight delay is fine, but the webhook should still trigger the sequence in real-time.

You can, but it is complex to handle reliably at scale. Modern email platforms like Sequenzy have native Stripe integrations that handle webhooks automatically, matching events to subscribers and triggering appropriate sequences.