CANDI/Use cases/Digital downloads

Sell digital downloads If the sale is genuinely one-off with nothing around it, your payment provider can already do this alone. Here is when it is worth a billing layer, and when it is not.

Start in test mode Read the docs

From 3.9% all in · No monthly fee · Test mode is open today

Be honest first

Sometimes you do not need us. This is the same note that is on our homepage.

When you do not need CANDI. If all you sell is a one-off card payment — nothing to renew, no licence to issue, no credits to meter, no affiliate to attribute — your payment provider already does that on its own. Take the payment directly. CANDI earns its place when there is a billing model around the sale.
When it is worth it

The moment one thing is attached. Downloads rarely stay purely one-off.

  • The download comes with a licence key to issue and later revoke.
  • You want an affiliate or revenue split attributed to the sale.
  • You run discount codes and want them to behave consistently.
  • You want a customer portal so buyers can re-download and find receipts themselves.
  • You want signed webhooks so fulfilment is driven by a verified event, not a redirect.
  • You later add a subscription tier and would rather not run two billing systems.

Each of those is small on its own. Together they are the system people end up building by accident, one weekend at a time.

Before you build

What is live today. Test mode is the whole API.

Where CANDI actually is today. Live payments are not switched on yet, so nobody is taking live money through CANDI. Test mode is fully open — its own database, its own keys, the whole API, and Stripe onboarding, so you can connect a Stripe account and build the entire integration today. Stripe hosts the verification; CANDI never sees your identity documents.
Also billable

The other three. Same API — combining them is one integration, not four.

Licence keys

Issue on payment, limit activations, revoke on refund.

AI and usage credits

Prepaid balances and metering, with idempotent writes.

SaaS subscriptions

Plans, proration, dunning and a customer portal.

Get started

Try it in test mode. Decide after you have integrated it, not before.

Start in test mode Read the docs

From 3.9% all in · No monthly fee · Test mode is open today

Questions

Answered plainly. Including the ones where the answer is no.

Does CANDI host the files for my download?

No. CANDI is the billing layer — it records the order and fires a signed webhook so your own system can fulfil. File hosting stays yours.

Should I use CANDI for a single one-off product?

Probably not. If there is nothing to renew, issue, meter or attribute, take the payment directly through your payment provider.

Can I add subscriptions later without migrating?

Yes — one-off sales, subscriptions, licences and credits are the same API.