How do Apple Pay and Stripe coexist?

Question

I don't think I am understanding how payments work from a mobile app (or how Stripe is necessary).

Does Apple Pay actually charge the user? Or is it just responsible for creating a token that allows a charge for X dollars on a specific credit card and therefore requiring something like Stripe, which actually charges the card?

If anyone could clarify that would be helpful.

Answer 1

ApplePay is a payment method which is basically a layer in front of a credit card. ApplePay can be used to pay the same way your can with your creditcard.

Stripe is a payment gateway. They implement different payment methods and provides a unified interface for accepting various payment methods.

Stripe is not needed to accept ApplePay, but can be used if preferred. If you only plan on accepting ApplePay then go for that. If you plan on implementing more than a few payment methods, I can highly recommend a payment provider as this simplifies things on the long haul.