I am testing an integration with my Ghost site that requires detecting when new subscriptions are added. I have connected my Stripe account in test mode, set up my paid tiers, and confirmed the tiers are available under Products on my Stripe dashboard.
When I add a complimentary subscription to a member on Ghost, it does not show up in Stripe. Is this normal, or is there something else I need to do?
Since Stripe is a payment processor and they are not paying, why do you want them to be visible in Stripe?
As I said, I am testing an integration. This is a test, not a real member. I figured I could use complimentary subscriptions to trigger a ‘new subscription added’ event.
I’m not sure it works to use a non-payment to test a payment system.
This thread suggests to me that complimentary subscriptions should show in Stripe as a pricing option.
Let me give a bit more context. My site will have a free newsletter and an optional paid membership that offers perks, so my members will be a mix of free and paid. I am offering an exclusive role in my Discord server for paid members, which is why I am building an integration.
Ghost offers webhooks for when a member is created, updated, or removed. New members are easy: if paid, proceed. Member Updated is not as useful because it triggers on every member update; when they login, when they change their email, etc. It may trigger dozens — eventually hundreds — of times a day. I only want to know when someone upgrades to paid or downgrades to free, so I thought it would be more efficient to simply track when new Stripe subscriptions are added or cancelled, and grant or remove the role accordingly.
If you can’t get it to trigger this way for testing, you could put stripe in test mode, which will let you do the whole sign up process with a test credit card. You wouldn’t want to do that with a production site (because test mode payments aren’t going to really create payouts), but it’s pretty useful for a dev site.
@Cathy_Sarisky ’s simple statement is a very important point and gets to the heart of what test cards are for.
It’s a safe place to experiment and make mistakes.
When new to using them ‘live’ on the wild-west internet for the first time, it can seem daunting to dare to do that. The how-to’s are thorough and have all the answers, but to newbys seem like yet another foreign language to learn (in addition to coding etc). Reading them is initially confusing and perhaps undertaken less than thoroughly?
Real cards are for real payments on live sites and vice versa.
Having half the system switched off only tests half the system.
Thanks. I did mention Stripe was already in test mode. Combined with that, I did end up using test credit cards and everything went smoothly.