Stripe Connect Simplified: Routing Payments in Your Rails App

Building a SaaS where users pay you is easy. But what if you want to build a marketplace? Like Airbnb, Fiverr, or a platform where users pay other users , and you just take a 10% cut? Handling payouts, collecting tax documents, and verifying identities (KYC) is a legal nightmare. As a solo developer, you do not want to touch that data. This is where Stripe Connect comes in. It allows you to route money through your platform, take your application fee, and let Stripe handle all the legal paperwork for your sellers. Here is how to set up Stripe Connect (Express accounts) in your Rails app in 4 steps. The Setup First, add the Stripe gem to your Gemfile : gem 'stripe' Run bundle install . Next, you need a place to save the seller's Stripe ID. Let's add it to our User model. rails g migration AddStripeAccountIdToUsers stripe_account_id:string rails db:migrate Initialize Stripe in config/initializers/stripe.rb : Stripe . api_key = ENV [ 'STRIPE_SECRET_KEY' ] STEP 1: Creating the Connected Ac