Complete Guide to Stripe Webhooks

Stripe sends dozens of event types — payment_intent.succeeded, invoice.paid, customer.subscription.deleted, and many more. Handling them reliably is critical for any payment-enabled application.

Why Stripe Webhooks Matter

• **Real-time updates** — Know immediately when payments succeed or fail
• **Reliable delivery** — Stripe retries failed webhooks for up to 3 days
• **Event ordering** — Some events must be processed in order

Setting Up HookSniff as Your Stripe Webhook Receiver

1. In Stripe Dashboard → Developers → Webhooks
2. Add endpoint: `https://api.hooksniff.com/v1/inbound/stripe`
3. Select events to listen for
4. HookSniff receives, verifies, and forwards to your server

Verifying Stripe Signatures

Stripe signs every webhook with a timestamp and signature. HookSniff verifies this using the `stripe-signature` header and your webhook secret.

Handling Common Event Types

def handle_stripe_event(event):
    if event['type'] == 'payment_intent.succeeded':
        fulfill_order(event['data']['object'])
    elif event['type'] == 'invoice.paid':
        activate_subscription(event['data']['object'])
    elif event['type'] == 'customer.subscription.deleted':
        deactivate_account(event['data']['object'])

Idempotency

Stripe may deliver the same event more than once. Always use the event ID as an idempotency key.

Monitoring with HookSniff

• Dashboard shows every Stripe event with payload and status
• Alerts on delivery failures
• Replay failed events with one click