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SaaS Billing Features Checklist: What to Include in Your MVP
MT
MVPHub Team
•
3 min read
SaaS Billing Features Checklist: What to Include in Your MVP
Building billing for a SaaS MVP is a balancing act. Too few features and customers can't pay you. Too many and you spend months on billing instead of your core product. This checklist separates must-haves from nice-to-haves.
Tier 1: Must-Have (Launch Blockers)
These features must work before you accept your first payment:
- Pricing page — Clear plans with features and prices
- Stripe Checkout — Hosted payment page (handles PCI compliance)
- Subscription creation — User selects plan, pays, gets access
- Webhook handling —
checkout.session.completed,invoice.payment_succeeded,invoice.payment_failed,customer.subscription.deleted - Plan enforcement — Server-side check: does this user have an active subscription?
- Success/cancel redirects — User returns to your app after Stripe Checkout
- Subscription status sync — Database record matches Stripe's subscription status
- Cancel subscription — User can cancel (via Stripe Customer Portal or your UI)
- Payment receipt emails — Stripe sends these automatically if enabled
Tier 2: Important (Add Within First Month)
- Free trial — 7-14 days, with or without payment method
- Stripe Customer Portal — Self-service billing management
- Upgrade/downgrade — Switch between plans without losing access
- Annual billing — Offer both monthly and annual pricing
- Failed payment handling — Retry logic + email notification
- Trial-ending notification — Email 3 days before trial expires
- Billing settings page — Show current plan, next billing date, payment method
Tier 3: Nice-to-Have (Add When Needed)
- Coupon codes — Promotional discounts at checkout
- Referral credits — Account credits for referring new users
- Usage-based billing — Metered charges on top of base subscription
- Invoice history — Downloadable PDF invoices
- Tax collection — Stripe Tax or manual tax configuration
- Multiple payment methods — Save and switch between cards
- Billing email to non-owner — Send invoices to a finance email
- Seat-based pricing — Per-user charges for team plans
- Pause subscription — Temporarily stop billing without canceling
Tier 4: Skip for MVP
Custom invoicing system(use Stripe's built-in invoices)Cryptocurrency payments(focus on cards first)Multi-currency pricing(use one currency, expand later)Complex enterprise contracts(handle manually via email)Revenue recognition system(worry about this at $1M ARR)
Implementation Priority Timeline
| Week | Features |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Pricing page, Stripe Checkout, subscription creation, webhooks |
| Week 2 | Plan enforcement, cancel, billing settings page |
| Week 3 | Free trial, Customer Portal, upgrade/downgrade |
| Week 4 | Annual billing, failed payment emails, trial-ending notification |
Final Thoughts
Your billing system needs to do three things reliably: create subscriptions, enforce access based on plan, and handle payment failures. Everything else is optimization. Start with Tier 1, launch, then iterate.
Building billing now? Read How to Build SaaS Billing With Stripe.
Need a template? Browse SaaS boilerplates on MVPHub.
