Wall Check

Stripe

No subscription floor, but everything is metered per transaction and deep data export is custom-plan only.

Gates 4/5 4 of the five walls fired — the score is a count, not a verdict.

Checked 2026-09-25 · re-check due 2026-11-24. We run this vendor ourselves.

The five walls

✓ Price wall

The free tier ends. The limit you hit while everything still looks free.

Pay-as-you-go: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction. No setup or monthly fees.

source · checked 2026-09-25

Screenshot of the Stripe price source page

! Permission wall

You can see the setting but not touch it. Licenses and admin roles decide what you control.

Data Pipeline (Sigma/warehouse export) is available only on custom plans.

source · checked 2026-09-25

Screenshot of the Stripe permission source page

! Gate wall

A human at the vendor decides your timeline — approvals, reviews, onboarding queues.

Custom/volume pricing requires talking to sales — the discount gate is a human.

source · checked 2026-09-25

Screenshot of the Stripe gate source page

! Meter wall

Cost scales with your success. Per-unit, per-seat, per-message pricing that grows as you do.

Pure meter: every transaction takes a percentage; cost scales in lockstep with revenue.

source · checked 2026-09-25

Screenshot of the Stripe meter source page

! Exit wall

Getting out costs more than getting in. Your data, your domain, your number — who keeps them.

Dashboard CSV export exists; full data-warehouse export sits behind custom pricing and card-data migration is manual.

source · checked 2026-09-25

Screenshot of the Stripe exit source page

The twelve questions

What is the hard number where the free tier ends?
No free tier — pure pay-as-you-go metering

Documents read for this check: pricing page, API docs.

Where Stripe shows up in our fixes

Side-by-side comparisons

We are not paid by this vendor or any vendor listed here. These are the gates we found — which ones you accept is your call, not ours.

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