Introduction
Laravel Cashier provides an expressive, fluent interface to Stripe's and Braintree's subscription billing services. It handles almost all of the boilerplate subscription billing code you are dreading writing. In addition to basic subscription management, Cashier can handle coupons, swapping subscription, subscription "quantities", cancellation grace periods, and even generate invoice PDFs.
Note: If you're only performing "one-off" charges and do not offer subscriptions, you should not use Cashier. Instead, use the Stripe and Braintree SDKs directly.
Upgrading Cashier
When upgrading to a new major version of the Cashier, it's important that you carefully review the upgrade guide.
Configuration
Stripe
Composer
First, add the Cashier package for Stripe to your dependencies:
composer require laravel/cashier
Database Migrations
Before using Cashier, we'll also need to prepare the database. We need to add several
columns to your users
table and create a new
subscriptions
table to hold all of our customer's
subscriptions:
Schema::table('users', function ($table) {
$table->string('stripe_id')->nullable()->collation('utf8mb4_bin');
$table->string('card_brand')->nullable();
$table->string('card_last_four', 4)->nullable();
$table->timestamp('trial_ends_at')->nullable();
});
Schema::create('subscriptions', function ($table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->unsignedInteger('user_id');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('stripe_id')->collation('utf8mb4_bin');
$table->string('stripe_plan');
$table->integer('quantity');
$table->timestamp('trial_ends_at')->nullable();
$table->timestamp('ends_at')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();
});
Once the migrations have been created, run the migrate
Artisan command.
Billable Model
Next, add the Billable
trait to your model definition.
This trait provides various methods to allow you to perform common
billing tasks, such as creating subscriptions, applying coupons, and
updating credit card information:
use Laravel\Cashier\Billable;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
use Billable;
}
API Keys
Finally, you should configure your Stripe key in your
services.php
configuration file. You can retrieve your
Stripe API keys from the Stripe control panel:
'stripe' => [
'model' => App\User::class,
'key' => env('STRIPE_KEY'),
'secret' => env('STRIPE_SECRET'),
],
Braintree
Braintree Caveats
For many operations, the Stripe and Braintree implementations of Cashier function the same. Both services provide subscription billing with credit cards but Braintree also supports payments via PayPal. However, Braintree also lacks some features that are supported by Stripe. You should keep the following in mind when deciding to use Stripe or Braintree:
- Braintree supports PayPal while Stripe does not.
- Braintree does not support the
increment
anddecrement
methods on subscriptions. This is a Braintree limitation, not a Cashier limitation. - Braintree does not support percentage based discounts. This is a Braintree limitation, not a Cashier limitation.
Composer
First, add the Cashier package for Braintree to your dependencies:
composer require "laravel/cashier-braintree":"~2.0"
Plan Credit Coupon
Before using Cashier with Braintree, you will need to define a
plan-credit
discount in your Braintree control panel. This
discount will be used to properly prorate subscriptions that change from
yearly to monthly billing, or from monthly to yearly billing.
The discount amount configured in the Braintree control panel can be any value you wish, as Cashier will override the defined amount with our own custom amount each time we apply the coupon. This coupon is needed since Braintree does not natively support prorating subscriptions across subscription frequencies.
Database Migrations
Before using Cashier, we'll need to prepare
the database. We need to add several columns to your
users
table and create a new subscriptions
table to hold all of our customer's subscriptions:
Schema::table('users', function ($table) {
$table->string('braintree_id')->nullable();
$table->string('paypal_email')->nullable();
$table->string('card_brand')->nullable();
$table->string('card_last_four')->nullable();
$table->timestamp('trial_ends_at')->nullable();
});
Schema::create('subscriptions', function ($table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->unsignedInteger('user_id');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('braintree_id');
$table->string('braintree_plan');
$table->integer('quantity');
$table->timestamp('trial_ends_at')->nullable();
$table->timestamp('ends_at')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();
});
Once the migrations have been created, run the migrate
Artisan command.
Billable Model
Next, add the Billable
trait to your model
definition:
use Laravel\Cashier\Billable;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
use Billable;
}
API Keys
Next, you should configure the following options in your
services.php
file:
'braintree' => [
'model' => App\User::class,
'environment' => env('BRAINTREE_ENV'),
'merchant_id' => env('BRAINTREE_MERCHANT_ID'),
'public_key' => env('BRAINTREE_PUBLIC_KEY'),
'private_key' => env('BRAINTREE_PRIVATE_KEY'),
],
Then you should add the following Braintree SDK calls to your
AppServiceProvider
service provider's boot
method:
\Braintree_Configuration::environment(config('services.braintree.environment'));
\Braintree_Configuration::merchantId(config('services.braintree.merchant_id'));
\Braintree_Configuration::publicKey(config('services.braintree.public_key'));
\Braintree_Configuration::privateKey(config('services.braintree.private_key'));
Currency Configuration
The default Cashier currency is United States Dollars (USD). You can
change the default currency by calling the
Cashier::useCurrency
method from within the
boot
method of one of your service providers. The
useCurrency
method accepts two string parameters: the
currency and the currency's symbol:
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
Cashier::useCurrency('eur', '€');
Subscriptions
Creating Subscriptions
To create a subscription, first retrieve an instance of your billable
model, which typically will be an instance of App\User
.
Once you have retrieved the model instance, you may use the
newSubscription
method to create the model's
subscription:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->newSubscription('main', 'premium')->create($stripeToken);
The first argument passed to the newSubscription
method
should be the name of the subscription. If your application only offers
a single subscription, you might call this main
or
primary
. The second argument is the specific Stripe /
Braintree plan the user is subscribing to. This value should correspond
to the plan's identifier in Stripe or Braintree.
The create
method, which accepts a Stripe credit card /
source token, will begin the subscription as well as update your
database with the customer ID and other relevant billing
information.
Additional User Details
If you would like to specify additional customer details, you may do
so by passing them as the second argument to the create
method:
$user->newSubscription('main', 'monthly')->create($stripeToken, [
'email' => $email,
]);
To learn more about the additional fields supported by Stripe or Braintree, check out Stripe's documentation on customer creation or the corresponding Braintree documentation.
Coupons
If you would like to apply a coupon when creating the subscription,
you may use the withCoupon
method:
$user->newSubscription('main', 'monthly')
->withCoupon('code')
->create($stripeToken);
Checking Subscription Status
Once a user is subscribed to your application, you may easily check
their subscription status using a variety of convenient methods. First,
the subscribed
method returns true
if the user
has an active subscription, even if the subscription is currently within
its trial period:
if ($user->subscribed('main')) {
//
}
The subscribed
method also makes a great candidate for a
route middleware, allowing you to filter
access to routes and controllers based on the user's subscription
status:
public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{
if ($request->user() && ! $request->user()->subscribed('main')) {
// This user is not a paying customer...
return redirect('billing');
}
return $next($request);
}
If you would like to determine if a user is still within their trial
period, you may use the onTrial
method. This method can be
useful for displaying a warning to the user that they are still on their
trial period:
if ($user->subscription('main')->onTrial()) {
//
}
The subscribedToPlan
method may be used to determine if
the user is subscribed to a given plan based on a given Stripe /
Braintree plan ID. In this example, we will determine if the user's
main
subscription is actively subscribed to the
monthly
plan:
if ($user->subscribedToPlan('monthly', 'main')) {
//
}
Cancelled Subscription Status
To determine if the user was once an active subscriber, but has
cancelled their subscription, you may use the cancelled
method:
if ($user->subscription('main')->cancelled()) {
//
}
You may also determine if a user has cancelled their subscription,
but are still on their "grace period" until the subscription fully
expires. For example, if a user cancels a subscription on March 5th that
was originally scheduled to expire on March 10th, the user is on their
"grace period" until March 10th. Note that the subscribed
method still returns true
during this time:
if ($user->subscription('main')->onGracePeriod()) {
//
}
Changing Plans
After a user is subscribed to your application, they may occasionally
want to change to a new subscription plan. To swap a user to a new
subscription, pass the plan's identifier to the swap
method:
$user = App\User::find(1);
$user->subscription('main')->swap('provider-plan-id');
If the user is on trial, the trial period will be maintained. Also, if a "quantity" exists for the subscription, that quantity will also be maintained.
If you would like to swap plans and cancel any trial period the user
is currently on, you may use the skipTrial
method:
$user->subscription('main')
->skipTrial()
->swap('provider-plan-id');
Subscription Quantity
Note: Subscription quantities are only supported by the Stripe edition of Cashier. Braintree does not have a feature that corresponds to Stripe's "quantity".
Sometimes subscriptions are affected by "quantity". For example, your
application might charge $10 per month per user on an
account. To easily increment or decrement your subscription quantity,
use the incrementQuantity
and
decrementQuantity
methods:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('main')->incrementQuantity();
// Add five to the subscription's current quantity...
$user->subscription('main')->incrementQuantity(5);
$user->subscription('main')->decrementQuantity();
// Subtract five to the subscription's current quantity...
$user->subscription('main')->decrementQuantity(5);
Alternatively, you may set a specific quantity using the
updateQuantity
method:
$user->subscription('main')->updateQuantity(10);
The noProrate
method may be used to update the
subscription's quantity without pro-rating the charges:
$user->subscription('main')->noProrate()->updateQuantity(10);
For more information on subscription quantities, consult the Stripe documentation.
Subscription Taxes
To specify the tax percentage a user pays on a subscription,
implement the taxPercentage
method on your billable model,
and return a numeric value between 0 and 100, with no more than 2
decimal places.
public function taxPercentage() {
return 20;
}
The taxPercentage
method enables you to apply a tax rate
on a model-by-model basis, which may be helpful for a user base that
spans multiple countries and tax rates.
Note: The
taxPercentage
method only applies to subscription charges. If you use Cashier to make "one off" charges, you will need to manually specify the tax rate at that time.
Syncing Tax Percentages
When changing the hard-coded value returned by the
taxPercentage
method, the tax settings on any existing
subscriptions for the user will remain the same. If you wish to update
the tax value for existing subscriptions with the returned
taxPercentage
value, you should call the
syncTaxPercentage
method on the user's subscription
instance:
$user->subscription('main')->syncTaxPercentage();
Subscription Anchor Date
Note: Modifying the subscription anchor date is only supported by the Stripe edition of Cashier.
By default, the billing cycle anchor is the date the subscription was
created, or if a trial period is used, the date that the trial ends. If
you would like to modify the billing anchor date, you may use the
anchorBillingCycleOn
method:
use App\User;
use Carbon\Carbon;
$user = User::find(1);
$anchor = Carbon::parse('first day of next month');
$user->newSubscription('main', 'premium')
->anchorBillingCycleOn($anchor->startOfDay())
->create($stripeToken);
For more information on managing subscription billing cycles, consult the Stripe billing cycle documentation
Cancelling Subscriptions
To cancel a subscription, call the cancel
method on the
user's subscription:
$user->subscription('main')->cancel();
When a subscription is cancelled, Cashier will automatically set the
ends_at
column in your database. This column is used to
know when the subscribed
method should begin returning
false
. For example, if a customer cancels a subscription on
March 1st, but the subscription was not scheduled to end until March
5th, the subscribed
method will continue to return
true
until March 5th.
You may determine if a user has cancelled their subscription but are
still on their "grace period" using the onGracePeriod
method:
if ($user->subscription('main')->onGracePeriod()) {
//
}
If you wish to cancel a subscription immediately, call the
cancelNow
method on the user's subscription:
$user->subscription('main')->cancelNow();
Resuming Subscriptions
If a user has cancelled their subscription and you wish to resume it,
use the resume
method. The user must still
be on their grace period in order to resume a subscription:
$user->subscription('main')->resume();
If the user cancels a subscription and then resumes that subscription before the subscription has fully expired, they will not be billed immediately. Instead, their subscription will be re-activated, and they will be billed on the original billing cycle.
Subscription Trials
With Credit Card Up Front
If you would like to offer trial periods to your customers while
still collecting payment method information up front, you should use the
trialDays
method when creating your subscriptions:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->newSubscription('main', 'monthly')
->trialDays(10)
->create($stripeToken);
This method will set the trial period ending date on the subscription record within the database, as well as instruct Stripe / Braintree to not begin billing the customer until after this date.
Note: If the customer's subscription is not cancelled before the trial ending date they will be charged as soon as the trial expires, so you should be sure to notify your users of their trial ending date.
The trialUntil
method allows you to provide a
DateTime
instance to specify when the trial period should
end:
use Carbon\Carbon;
$user->newSubscription('main', 'monthly')
->trialUntil(Carbon::now()->addDays(10))
->create($stripeToken);
You may determine if the user is within their trial period using
either the onTrial
method of the user instance, or the
onTrial
method of the subscription instance. The two
examples below are identical:
if ($user->onTrial('main')) {
//
}
if ($user->subscription('main')->onTrial()) {
//
}
Without Credit Card Up Front
If you would like to offer trial periods without collecting the
user's payment method information up front, you may set the
trial_ends_at
column on the user record to your desired
trial ending date. This is typically done during user registration:
$user = User::create([
// Populate other user properties...
'trial_ends_at' => now()->addDays(10),
]);
Note: Be sure to add a date mutator for
trial_ends_at
to your model definition.
Cashier refers to this type of trial as a "generic trial", since it
is not attached to any existing subscription. The onTrial
method on the User
instance will return true
if the current date is not past the value of
trial_ends_at
:
if ($user->onTrial()) {
// User is within their trial period...
}
You may also use the onGenericTrial
method if you wish
to know specifically that the user is within their "generic" trial
period and has not created an actual subscription yet:
if ($user->onGenericTrial()) {
// User is within their "generic" trial period...
}
Once you are ready to create an actual subscription for the user, you
may use the newSubscription
method as usual:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->newSubscription('main', 'monthly')->create($stripeToken);
Customers
Creating Customers
Occasionally, you may wish to create a Stripe customer without
beginning a subscription. You may accomplish this using the
createAsStripeCustomer
method:
$user->createAsStripeCustomer();
Once the customer has been created in Stripe, you may begin a subscription at a later date.
Tip!! The Braintree equivalent of this method is the
createAsBraintreeCustomer
method.
Cards
Retrieving Credit Cards
The cards
method on the billable model instance returns
a collection of Laravel\Cashier\Card
instances:
$cards = $user->cards();
To retrieve the default card, the defaultCard
method may
be used;
$card = $user->defaultCard();
Determining If A Card Is On File
You may check if a customer has a credit card attached to their
account using the hasCardOnFile
method:
if ($user->hasCardOnFile()) {
//
}
Updating Credit Cards
The updateCard
method may be used to update a customer's
credit card information. This method accepts a Stripe token and will
assign the new credit card as the default billing source:
$user->updateCard($stripeToken);
To sync your card information with the customer's default card
information in Stripe, you may use the updateCardFromStripe
method:
$user->updateCardFromStripe();
Deleting Credit Cards
To delete a card, you should first retrieve the customer's cards with
the cards
method. Then, you may call the
delete
method on the card instance you wish to delete:
foreach ($user->cards() as $card) {
$card->delete();
}
Note: If you delete the default card, please make sure that you sync the new default card with your database using the
updateCardFromStripe
method.
The deleteCards
method will delete all of the card
information stored by your application:
$user->deleteCards();
Note: If the user has an active subscription, you should consider preventing them from deleting the last remaining payment source.
Handling Stripe Webhooks
Both Stripe and Braintree can notify your application of a variety of events via webhooks. To handle Stripe webhooks, define a route that points to Cashier's webhook controller. This controller will handle all incoming webhook requests and dispatch them to the proper controller method:
Route::post(
'stripe/webhook',
'\Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController@handleWebhook'
);
Note: Once you have registered your route, be sure to configure the webhook URL in your Stripe control panel settings.
By default, this controller will automatically handle cancelling subscriptions that have too many failed charges (as defined by your Stripe settings), customer updates, customer deletions, subscription updates, and credit card changes; however, as we'll soon discover, you can extend this controller to handle any webhook event you like.
Note: Make sure you protect incoming requests with Cashier's included webhook signature verification middleware.
Webhooks & CSRF Protection
Since Stripe webhooks need to bypass Laravel's CSRF protection, be sure to list the URI as an
exception in your VerifyCsrfToken
middleware or list the
route outside of the web
middleware group:
protected $except = [
'stripe/*',
];
Defining Webhook Event Handlers
Cashier automatically handles subscription cancellation on failed
charges, but if you have additional Stripe webhook events you would like
to handle, extend the Webhook controller. Your method names should
correspond to Cashier's expected convention, specifically, methods
should be prefixed with handle
and the "camel case" name of
the Stripe webhook you wish to handle. For example, if you wish to
handle the invoice.payment_succeeded
webhook, you should
add a handleInvoicePaymentSucceeded
method to the
controller:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController as CashierController;
class WebhookController extends CashierController
{
/**
* Handle invoice payment succeeded.
*
* @param array $payload
* @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
*/
public function handleInvoicePaymentSucceeded($payload)
{
// Handle The Event
}
}
Next, define a route to your Cashier controller within your
routes/web.php
file:
Route::post(
'stripe/webhook',
'\App\Http\Controllers\WebhookController@handleWebhook'
);
Failed Subscriptions
What if a customer's credit card expires? No worries - Cashier includes a Webhook controller that can easily cancel the customer's subscription for you. As noted above, all you need to do is point a route to the controller:
Route::post(
'stripe/webhook',
'\Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController@handleWebhook'
);
That's it! Failed payments will be captured and handled by the controller. The controller will cancel the customer's subscription when Stripe determines the subscription has failed (normally after three failed payment attempts).
Verifying Webhook Signatures
To secure your webhooks, you may use Stripe's webhook signatures. For convenience, Cashier automatically includes a middleware which validates that the incoming Stripe webhook request is valid.
To enable webhook verification, ensure that the
stripe.webhook.secret
configuration value is set in your
services
configuration file. The webhook
secret
may be retrieved from your Stripe account
dashboard.
Handling Braintree Webhooks
Both Stripe and Braintree can notify your application of a variety of events via webhooks. To handle Braintree webhooks, define a route that points to Cashier's webhook controller. This controller will handle all incoming webhook requests and dispatch them to the proper controller method:
Route::post(
'braintree/webhook',
'\Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController@handleWebhook'
);
Note: Once you have registered your route, be sure to configure the webhook URL in your Braintree control panel settings.
By default, this controller will automatically handle cancelling subscriptions that have too many failed charges (as defined by your Braintree settings); however, as we'll soon discover, you can extend this controller to handle any webhook event you like.
Webhooks & CSRF Protection
Since Braintree webhooks need to bypass Laravel's CSRF protection, be sure to list the URI as an
exception in your VerifyCsrfToken
middleware or list the
route outside of the web
middleware group:
protected $except = [
'braintree/*',
];
Defining Webhook Event Handlers
Cashier automatically handles subscription cancellation on failed
charges, but if you have additional Braintree webhook events you would
like to handle, extend the Webhook controller. Your method names should
correspond to Cashier's expected convention, specifically, methods
should be prefixed with handle
and the "camel case" name of
the Braintree webhook you wish to handle. For example, if you wish to
handle the dispute_opened
webhook, you should add a
handleDisputeOpened
method to the controller:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Braintree\WebhookNotification;
use Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController as CashierController;
class WebhookController extends CashierController
{
/**
* Handle a new dispute.
*
* @param \Braintree\WebhookNotification $webhook
* @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Responses
*/
public function handleDisputeOpened(WebhookNotification $webhook)
{
// Handle The Webhook...
}
}
Failed Subscriptions
What if a customer's credit card expires? No worries - Cashier includes a Webhook controller that can easily cancel the customer's subscription for you. Just point a route to the controller:
Route::post(
'braintree/webhook',
'\Laravel\Cashier\Http\Controllers\WebhookController@handleWebhook'
);
That's it! Failed payments will be captured and handled by the controller. The controller will cancel the customer's subscription when Braintree determines the subscription has failed (normally after three failed payment attempts). Don't forget: you will need to configure the webhook URI in your Braintree control panel settings.
Single Charges
Simple Charge
Note: When using Stripe, the
charge
method accepts the amount you would like to charge in the lowest denominator of the currency used by your application. However, when using Braintree, you should pass the full dollar amount to thecharge
method:
If you would like to make a "one off" charge against a subscribed
customer's credit card, you may use the charge
method on a
billable model instance.
// Stripe Accepts Charges In Cents...
$stripeCharge = $user->charge(100);
// Braintree Accepts Charges In Dollars...
$user->charge(1);
The charge
method accepts an array as its second
argument, allowing you to pass any options you wish to the underlying
Stripe / Braintree charge creation. Consult the Stripe or Braintree
documentation regarding the options available to you when creating
charges:
$user->charge(100, [
'custom_option' => $value,
]);
The charge
method will throw an exception if the charge
fails. If the charge is successful, the full Stripe / Braintree response
will be returned from the method:
try {
$response = $user->charge(100);
} catch (Exception $e) {
//
}
Charge With Invoice
Sometimes you may need to make a one-time charge but also generate an
invoice for the charge so that you may offer a PDF receipt to your
customer. The invoiceFor
method lets you do just that. For
example, let's invoice the customer $5.00 for a "One Time Fee":
// Stripe Accepts Charges In Cents...
$user->invoiceFor('One Time Fee', 500);
// Braintree Accepts Charges In Dollars...
$user->invoiceFor('One Time Fee', 5);
The invoice will be charged immediately against the user's credit
card. The invoiceFor
method also accepts an array as its
third argument. This array contains the billing options for the invoice
item. The fourth argument accepted by the method is also an array. This
final argument accepts the billing options for the invoice itself:
$user->invoiceFor('Stickers', 500, [
'quantity' => 50,
], [
'tax_percent' => 21,
]);
If you are using Braintree as your billing provider, you must include
a description
option when calling the
invoiceFor
method:
$user->invoiceFor('One Time Fee', 500, [
'description' => 'your invoice description here',
]);
Note: The
invoiceFor
method will create a Stripe invoice which will retry failed billing attempts. If you do not want invoices to retry failed charges, you will need to close them using the Stripe API after the first failed charge.
Refunding Charges
If you need to refund a Stripe charge, you may use the
refund
method. This method accepts the Stripe charge ID as
its only argument:
$stripeCharge = $user->charge(100);
$user->refund($stripeCharge->id);
Invoices
You may easily retrieve an array of a billable model's invoices using
the invoices
method:
$invoices = $user->invoices();
// Include pending invoices in the results...
$invoices = $user->invoicesIncludingPending();
When listing the invoices for the customer, you may use the invoice's helper methods to display the relevant invoice information. For example, you may wish to list every invoice in a table, allowing the user to easily download any of them:
<table>
@foreach ($invoices as $invoice)
<tr>
<td>{{ $invoice->date()->toFormattedDateString() }}</td>
<td>{{ $invoice->total() }}</td>
<td><a href="/user/invoice/{{ $invoice->id }}">Download</a></td>
</tr>
@endforeach
</table>
Generating Invoice PDFs
From within a route or controller, use the
downloadInvoice
method to generate a PDF download of the
invoice. This method will automatically generate the proper HTTP
response to send the download to the browser:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('user/invoice/{invoice}', function (Request $request, $invoiceId) {
return $request->user()->downloadInvoice($invoiceId, [
'vendor' => 'Your Company',
'product' => 'Your Product',
]);
});