Designing an integration
For a more immersive guide, check out our sample integration.
Before you order readers or begin integrating, it’s important to understand your options. You can plan a Stripe Terminal integration for your business in three steps:
- Pick the reader type that works best for in-person payments for your business. Though Stripe Terminal is designed to support multiple reader types in a single deployment, most businesses pick one.
- Choose an SDK type that’s compatible with your chosen reader type and existing software.
- Learn about the high-level architecture for your deployment, based on your choice of reader type and SDK.
Refer to the availability table to see which readers and SDKs are available in each country.
Choosing your reader
The available readers are: BBPOS Chipper 2X BT, and Verifone P400.
- Create a roaming cashier experience, where customers can pay anywhere
- Works with iOS and Android SDKs
- Uses Bluetooth, optimized for mobile checkout experiences
- Accepts tap, swipe, and dip payment methods
- Create a countertop checkout, with customizable customer-facing display
- Works with the JavaScript SDK and currently in beta for the iOS SDK
- Requires internet connection, best for stationary counter checkout
- Accepts tap, swipe, and dip payment methods
Choosing your SDK
The Stripe Terminal SDK is available for JavaScript, iOS, and Android. If you already have an application in one of these programming languages, use the corresponding SDK. If you want to use the Verifone P400 you can use either the JavaScript or iOS SDK. If you want to use the BBPOS Chipper 2X BT you can use either the iOS or Android SDKs. For new point of sale applications, use a language you’re comfortable in.
Planning your deployment
After picking the reader and SDK type for your Terminal integration, learn the high-level architecture for your deployment.
Bluetooth readers
When using Bluetooth readers like the BBPOS Chipper 2X BT, the Terminal SDK facilitates communication between the reader, your application, your backend, and the Stripe API. In this integration, your application runs on a mobile device or tablet, displaying a checkout UI for both the customer and cashier.
Internet-connected readers
When using internet-connected readers like the Verifone P400, the reader screen provides the customer-facing checkout experience and your application provides the cashier-facing UI. The reader runs embedded Stripe reader software to connect to your application over the local network and to Stripe over the internet.
Your application provides the UI for the cashier. The Verifone P400 is compatible with the JavaScript SDK and is currently in beta with the iOS and Android SDKs.
Organizing readers and locations
Whether you’re deploying Terminal in a single store or thousands, use Locations to group and manage your fleet of readers and to ensure that your readers download the proper regional configurations.
Create a location for each physical operating site. If you or your merchants don’t operate in fixed locations, then create and assign your readers to a primary location where most of the payment volume is processed. We recommend that this primary location be accurate at least to the city / state granularity.
Integration shape availability
Not all SDK platforms and readers are available yet in every country. Refer to the following table to understand which readers and SDK platforms you can use in each country.
| Countries | Android | iOS | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
United States |  BBPOS Chipper 2X Bluetooth Verifone P400 InternetBeta | BBPOS Chipper 2X BluetoothVerifone P400 InternetBeta | Verifone P400 Internet |
Canada | Verifone P400 InternetBeta | Verifone P400 Internet |
After deciding what type of integration you’d like to build, start integrating the Stripe Terminal SDK.
The BBPOS and Chipper™ name and logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of BBPOS Limited in the United States and/or other countries. The Verifone® name and logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Verifone in the United States and/or other countries. Use of the trademarks does not imply any endorsement by BBPOS or Verifone.