Connect Stripe
Connecting Stripe lets you take payments on your Vivreal site, keep your products in step between Stripe and Vivreal, and see orders and payouts in the portal.
This page covers connecting Stripe and what the channel gives you. For the full walkthrough of selling, including how products sync and how checkout works on your site, see Selling online.
Before you start
You need a Stripe account, and an admin or owner role in your Vivreal group. Stripe works on every plan.
Give Vivreal a restricted key, never your secret key
Stripe gives you two kinds of key. Your secret key, which starts with sk_, can do everything your Stripe account can do. A restricted key, which starts with rk_, does only the things you tick when you create it.
Stripe asks you not to give a secret key to any outside tool, and has charged accounts that keep doing it since June 2025. Create a restricted key for Vivreal. You can also revoke it on its own later without disturbing anything else in your Stripe account.
1. Create a restricted key in Stripe
In the Stripe Dashboard, go to Developers, then API keys, then Create restricted key.
Name it something you will recognise in a year, such as "Vivreal". Then set exactly these:
| Permission | Access |
|---|---|
| Products | Write |
| Prices | Write |
| Checkout Sessions | Write |
| Coupons | Write |
| Promotion codes | Write |
| Webhook endpoints | Write |
| Payouts | Write |
| Balance | Read |
Leave everything else on None. Create the key and copy it. It starts with rk_live_, or rk_test_ if you are in test mode.
2. Open the Stripe channel
In Vivreal, go to Channels and tap Stripe.
3. Paste the key in
Tap Configure, paste the key, and save.
Vivreal encrypts the key before storing it and never sends it to your browser. Everything that talks to Stripe happens on our servers.
4. Pull your products across
Open the Settings tab and tap Sync from Stripe. Your active products and their prices come into Vivreal.
What you get once it is connected
The Stripe channel has five tabs.
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Overview | Revenue, payouts, orders today, and anything unfulfilled |
| Orders | Every order, with customer details, shipping, and marking orders fulfilled |
| Products | Your synced catalogue, with pricing |
| Sales & Coupons | Run a sale, and create discount codes |
| Settings | Sync, swap the key, and disconnect |
On the Overview and Orders tabs there is an Insights button for a fuller breakdown of orders and payments.
Coupons need Pro or above
The sales half of the Sales & Coupons tab works on every plan. Discount codes do not: they start at Pro, which allows 25 active codes at once, and Pro Plus allows 100. See Plans and limits.
Stripe and Square cannot both be on
A group has one payment provider at a time. If Stripe is connected and you try to connect Square, Vivreal does not fail with an error. It offers a guided changeover: it switches Stripe off, then connects Square, and tells you which step failed if one does.
Pick the one you already take payments through. See Connect Square for the other side.
If something is not working
- "Invalid API key". Check you copied the whole key including the
rk_live_orrk_test_start, and that a test key is not pointed at live products. - Syncing brings in nothing. The key is probably missing a permission. Open it in Stripe and check Products and Prices are both Write.
- Products sync but checkout fails. The key is missing Checkout Sessions. Set it to Write.
- You want to swap the key. Settings, then paste the new one. Nothing else changes.
Try it in test mode first
Switch the Stripe Dashboard to test mode and create a rk_test_ key. You can run the whole thing end to end, then swap in the live key from the Settings tab when you are happy.
Next steps
- Selling online, the full guide to products, checkout and your storefront.
- Set up Stripe payments, the step by step tutorial.
- All connections.