How to migrate Stripe accounts, customers, products and subscriptions from one account to another

… and not interrupt cashflow…

Hello, I’m one of the people behind Stripe Transfer, a service dedicated to helping people and businesses migrate Stripe accounts when they move from one country to another, from one business entity to another, or are going through an acquisition. Over the last 6 years, my wife and I have helped tons of companies transfer tens of thousands of customers, products, plans, subscriptions and coupon codes — all without any revenue loss or downtime.

Here is how we do that.

Step 1: Create a plan

This process can sometimes feel stressful or overwhelming to our customers. We want to put them at ease by having a well thought out and transparent plan. The plan for most migrations is relatively the same — yet each should be considered fully so that no mistakes are made. In fact, the bulk of the work for our team is in the planning.

During the planning phase we identify potential pitfalls or issues that may arise during the migration. And we mitigate those issues by workarounds we’ve created over the last 6 years, or through manual processes by both teams. So far, we’ve been able to avoid any real downtime for our customers and completely avoid any hiccups in cashflow (yes, zero interruptions in subscriptions payments).

What does a typical plan look like? Like this:

1. Prepare automated tools to transfer the account content (customers, products, plans, prices, coupon codes, and subscriptions). This is a service and set of tools we’ve built up over 6 years and dozens of clients. We have a robust set of tools to help us do this smoothly — yet each time they need to be customized to the customer’s use of Stripe.
2. Request Stripe to transfer Customers and Card data to Account B (this can take 24 hours to 2 weeks). Because of the variability of this, we make sure we are 100% ready to make the transfer prior to requesting Stripe to transfer the customers.
3. Audit the customer transfer between Account A and B.
4. At this point in the process, the customer may choose to discontinue signups in their SAAS app. This isn’t mandatory, and can be planned for, so that no new signups are missed. Each situation is different.
5. Turn off all web hooks and, most of the time, disconnect all apps from Account A.
6. Migrate all Products, Prices, Plans, Coupon Codes, and Subscriptions to Account B in Stripe. In this order. At this time, all Subscriptions will be set to cancel in Account A.
7. Verify the transfer and manually fix any issues that arise. It is typical to have to manually tough about 1 out of every 1,000 subscriptions. The better the planning phase is, the less likely this will need to be done at all.
8. Turn on Webhooks in Account B and connect any apps.
9. At this point, any Price IDs or Subscription IDs will need to be updated in the client’s app database. Again, this is where the planning is crucial. We have worked with large development teams and single-owner businesses and we can still make this happen without a hitch. We can provide detailed reports, spreadsheets, import scripts, and — sometimes, integrations into third party vendor applications to make this go smoothly.

Side note: We have already worked with customers that have their own custom built applications, WordPress, Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, Shopify, Kajabi, Paid Memberships Pro, Memberful, Chargebee, and many others.

Step 2: The migration

With good planning, the migration typically happens on the same day that Stripe does their part of the process. There are circumstances where this process must happen twice in order to get all customers and subscriptions — and Stripe and us are willing to do this process twice. However, we do our very best to plan to do this process only once. This helps make the transfer much cleaner, faster for the customer, and with less potential issues.

Depending on the number of products, subscriptions and other Stripe content the customer has, this process can take several hours to complete. We are fairly methodical in our approach to this transfer to ensure the process is going smoothly. We typically only transfer a few pieces of data at a time before verifying our work along the way. This way any issues are caught early and can be addressed.

Step 3: The audit

We keep a log of every transaction that happens during the migration process. This allows us to debug any issues that arise — though, those are typically few with good planing — and also provide the customer with an idea of what happened and when.

By comparing customers in both Stripe accounts, both visually and programmatically, we can ensure the transfer was a success. Depending on the volume and frequency of the transactions the customer has — we can typically audit the entire account within 24 hours of the migration.

Step 4: Updating your records, app, or third-party service

Now that the work in Stripe is complete, the work begins on making sure the connection with your app, service, website, or third-party vendor services are intact. Services interface with Stripe in a wide variety of ways. They might simply track customer ID from Stripe, or, they may store much more data like Product IDs, Price IDs, Subscription IDs. Each of these can be planned for and prepared so that when the transfer is complete the data can be updated.

We have personally worked with multiple software vendors in our customers behalf to ensure a transfer goes without a hiccup.

If you or your company are in need of our services, please contact us directly at support@stripetransfer.com. Or, review our website for more information. We would be glad to help you through this process.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Stripe migration take?

Here is a visual timeline showing you how long a migration typically takes. Each transfer takes a different amount of time, but this is at least something you can refer to.

Most transfers are complete within 1 month.

How much does a Stripe migration cost?

There are several factors that determine the cost of a transfer such as number of products, the complexity of your subscription model, the software you use, and more. However, we provide free estimates. With a single Zoom conversation we can give you an estimate. Contact us for a free estimate!

What should I have prepared?

If at all possible, it is a good idea to have the new Stripe account created as soon as possible. This way, when we begin our work there is no time waiting for that process to happen.

What if I am a developer? Can I do this myself?

We have worked with freelance developers, companies with a single developer or a team of dozens… of course you could do this on your own. And we’d be glad to consult with you, for a fee, to do so. Please keep in mind, if you are a developer that brings clients to us, we are willing to pay a referral fee. We want you and your customers or employer to be successful. That is our number 1 goal.