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Template structure

Notion-Paywall is a plug-n-play serverless Next.js boilerplate. It consists of two main parts.

1. The frontend
   • containing the paywalled Notion page renderer
   • the checkout call-to-action button
   • a simple, password-less email-signin form
   • a thank-you page, shown after a successful purchase
   • and, of course, a dark-mode toggle.
2. The backend (API routes):
   • /api/auth to hide the paywall; powered by NextAuth.js
   • /api/checkout_sessions to generate Stripe Checkout links
   • /api/webhooks to listen to Stripe charge_succeeded events
   • /api/upsert_user to store newly created customers
   • /api/send_email to send “welcome” and “sign-in” emails
   • /api/notify_slack to send bot messages to Slack

Required plumbing

Notion token

Notion-Paywall uses the notion-client package. It uses the token_v2 cookie to talk to Notion’s backend and request your Notion content. To retrieve your personal token, you’ll need to sign into Notion.com via the browser — not the Mac/Windows/phone app!

• Chrome dev tools screenshot:

Database

You’ll need a database connection to store your customers’ emails and their sign-in sessions. Notion-Paywall uses Prisma.io to abstract all user auth database operations away. It ships with a schema.prisma that connects to MongoDB but you can easily opt for MySQL, Postgres, and other vendors. If you’re new to this, setting up a MongoDB cluster is [super easy](https://www.mongodb.com/docs/atlas/cluster-tier/](https://www.mongodb.com/docs/atlas/cluster-tier/).

• The default Notion-Paywall schema.prisma config file looks like this:

SMTP-capable email provider

Notion-Paywall sends emails through the nodemailer package so you’ll need an SMTP transporter. All major email players support this…

• For example, your Mailgun credentials would look like this:

Stripe API keys + webhook secret

Notion-Paywall talks to your Stripe account via the publishable key from the frontend and the secret key from the backend. Stripe, in turns, talks to Notion-Paywall via webhooks which need to be verified to prevent malicious activity.

• Choosing which webhook events to listen to:

Optional plumbing

Slack