Testing your Stripe connection
Once you’ve connected Stripe and created at least one paid plan, run a one-time self-test to verify the full signup flow works — from Checkout to membership provisioning to the welcome email — before you share your link with real members.
Why we recommend this once
Stripe Connect has a handful of silent failure modes: an unfinished KYC field, a missing capability, a webhook misconfiguration, a price in the wrong currency. The fastest way to catch all of them at once is to actually buy your own plan. You’ll see exactly what your members see, and we mark your account as verified once the charge clears.
This is the same flow your members will follow. No test mode, no sandbox — a real charge against your live Stripe account.
What to expect
- Open Settings → Payments and click Test your Stripe setup.
- You’ll be sent to a real Stripe Checkout page for your cheapest paid plan.
- Pay with your own card. You’ll land on your member site’s success page with a confirmation that the setup works end-to-end.
- We provision a real Membership doc tied to your owner email — identical to what a paying member would get.
- Once the webhook fires, Settings → Payments shows the 🎯 Verified with test purchase badge.
Refunding the test charge
Refunding takes about 30 seconds:
- Open your Stripe dashboard.
- Find the most recent payment (it’ll be tagged with
selfTest: truein metadata). - Click Refund. The subscription is cancelled automatically when you refund the initial payment.
- Our
subscription.deletedwebhook tears down your test Membership doc.
Refund within 7 days. We’ll show a reminder banner on Settings → Payments until you do.
FAQ
Will my real members see this test?
No. The test purchase creates a Membership doc tied to your owner email only. It’s invisible to other members.
Does this cost me anything?
You’ll be charged the plan price — but you refund it to yourself in Stripe. The only cost is Stripe’s processing fee on the original charge (typically refunded too on full refunds, but check your dashboard).
Can I re-run the test?
Yes. The button stays available on Settings → Payments. Each test creates a fresh Checkout session.
What if the charge succeeds but the webhook doesn’t fire?
You’ll see the Stripe payment, but the verified badge won’t appear. Reach out to support — webhook misconfiguration is the most common cause and we can debug it together.