Skip to main content
Crave’s hosting model uses an eligible merchant-owned Stripe account for restaurant payments. Crave charges a hosting subscription and takes no order application fee. Stripe processing charges are separate.

​
Hosting billing and customer payments

A live Crave subscription does not activate live restaurant payment processing. Develop is test-only: successful test payments do not create real payouts.

​
Connect the correct account

Use the selected business workspace and an eligible merchant-owned account that is distinct from Crave’s platform account. A Stripe account cannot connect to itself. Not every account, country or sandbox is eligible. The workspace connection belongs to the merchant business and is inherited by supported projects. An existing different account or historical payment ownership must not be silently replaced. A workspace administrator must complete the supported authorization flow and verify the account and environment on return.
Workspace-first authorization without an existing project is being completed. Use the flow available in your environment or contact Crave for assisted setup. Do not interpret an existing connected account as proof that fresh authorization is available everywhere. Crave does not automatically create an Express account for this hosting flow.

​
Checkout integration

The canonical backend selects and verifies the restaurant’s payment account and mode. Use a compatible Storefront SDK/API release to create and confirm the payment session. Account identifiers, secret keys and payment status supplied by a browser are not payment authority. Keep Stripe secret keys on the server. Client confirmation or a return URL alone does not prove that money was captured; display the canonical order/payment result. Do not retry an uncertain charge blindly or label an authorized payment as collected. Follow Accept Payments and the release compatibility notes for the supported integration. Verify account, mode, amount and zero application fee against provider evidence when accepting a test checkout.

​
Before live restaurant payments

Launch hosting and live-payment activation are separate decisions. Confirm the merchant account’s eligibility, capabilities, operational readiness and applicable Stripe arrangements with Crave before accepting live orders. Test checkout, a healthy backend and a paid hosting invoice do not satisfy that review.