Ultimate Guide to Integrating Stripe Payments in Laravel 12: Step-by-Step Tutorial for Developers

Integrating payment gateways is a crucial step for modern web applications, enabling seamless financial transactions and enhancing user experience. Stripe payments integration in Laravel 12 provides developers with a powerful, flexible way to handle online payments securely and efficiently. This guide walks you through the entire process, breaking down complex steps into actionable insights and real coding examples.

Setup: Preparing Your Laravel 12 Project

Before integrating Stripe, ensure you have a fresh or existing Laravel 12 project set up. Laravel 12 comes with improved type safety and performance optimizations, which makes it an excellent platform for handling secure payment transactions.

Start by creating a new Laravel project or updating your existing one to Laravel 12:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-laravel-stripe-app "^12.0"

Verify your environment is ready with PHP 8.1+, Composer, and other dependencies installed.

Create Your Stripe Account and Obtain API Keys

To interact with Stripe, you must have a Stripe account. Visit stripe.com and sign up if you haven't already.

Once registered, navigate to the Dashboard > Developers > API keys section. Here you'll find your Publishable key and Secret key. For security, use your test keys during development.

Keep your secret key confidential; never expose it in frontend code.

Install Necessary Laravel Packages for Stripe

Laravel doesn’t come with Stripe integration pre-installed. The most common and reliable package is stripe/stripe-php. Install it via Composer:

composer require stripe/stripe-php

Additionally, consider using Laravel Cashier if you plan to manage subscriptions and billing, but for a straightforward payment integration, the Stripe PHP SDK will suffice.

Configure Stripe API in Laravel

Add your Stripe keys to your .env file:

STRIPE_KEY=pk_test_your_publishable_key
STRIPE_SECRET=sk_test_your_secret_key

Then, add corresponding entries in config/services.php:

'stripe' => [
    'key' => env('STRIPE_KEY'),
    'secret' => env('STRIPE_SECRET'),
],

To keep your controller clean, create a dedicated service class for Stripe interactions:

namespace App\Services;

use Stripe\Stripe;
use Stripe\PaymentIntent;

class StripeService {
    public function __construct() {
        Stripe::setApiKey(config('services.stripe.secret'));
    }

    public function createPaymentIntent($amount, $currency = 'usd') {
        return PaymentIntent::create([
            'amount' => $amount,
            'currency' => $currency,
        ]);
    }
}

This abstraction helps manage Stripe API calls cleanly.

Building the Stripe Payment Form in Laravel

Stripe Elements allow you to create secure, customizable payment forms. Include Stripe.js in your Blade template:

<script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>

Create a form with a card element placeholder:

<form id="payment-form">
  <div id="card-element"></div>
  <button id="submit">Pay</button>
  <div id="card-errors" role="alert"></div>
</form>

Add JavaScript to handle Stripe Elements and payment submission:

const stripe = Stripe("{{ config('services.stripe.key') }}");
const elements = stripe.elements();
const card = elements.create('card');
card.mount('#card-element');

const form = document.getElementById('payment-form');
form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();
  const {paymentIntent, error} = await stripe.confirmCardPayment(clientSecret, {
    payment_method: { card: card }
  });
  if (error) {
    document.getElementById('card-errors').textContent = error.message;
  } else if (paymentIntent.status === 'succeeded') {
    alert('Payment successful!');
  }
});

Replace clientSecret dynamically from your backend controller when rendering the view.

Handling Payments on the Backend

In your Laravel controller, inject the Stripe service and create a PaymentIntent:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Services\StripeService;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class PaymentController extends Controller
{
    protected $stripe;

    public function __construct(StripeService $stripe)
    {
        $this->stripe = $stripe;
    }

    public function createPayment()
    {
        $amount = 5000; // $50.00 in cents
        $paymentIntent = $this->stripe->createPaymentIntent($amount);

        return view('payment-form', [
            'clientSecret' => $paymentIntent->client_secret,
        ]);
    }
}

This approach keeps your server logic clean and secure, only exposing the necessary client secret to the frontend.

Best Practices for Stripe Integration in Laravel 12

• ✓ Use environment variables to store keys securely and avoid hardcoding sensitive data.
• ✓ Validate all data on both client and server sides to prevent fraudulent transactions.
• ✓ Handle exceptions gracefully by catching Stripe API errors and informing users clearly.
• ✓ Test thoroughly using Stripe’s test mode and webhooks to simulate payment flows.
• ✓ Implement webhooks to update payment statuses asynchronously for better reliability.

For developers managing freelance projects incorporating payment systems, understanding how to find reliable development talent can be crucial. For more information on hiring expert developers to assist with integrations like this, check out our guide on How to Find a Freelance Web Developer in Wigan: A Comprehensive Guide. It offers actionable strategies for selecting the right candidates for your project.

Additionally, since mobile traffic dominates today’s web, optimizing payment forms and checkout flows for mobile users is essential. If you want to ensure your payment pages rank well and perform optimally on mobile devices, our article on Adapting to the Mobile-First Indexing in SEO provides valuable insights on aligning your development with recent SEO trends.

Conclusion

Integrating Stripe payments in Laravel 12 is a straightforward yet powerful way to add secure payment processing to your applications. By following this step-by-step tutorial, leveraging Laravel’s modern features, and adhering to best practices, developers can deliver smooth payment experiences that build trust and drive conversions. Remember to keep security top of mind, test extensively, and consider expanding functionality with webhooks or Laravel Cashier for subscriptions.