How to Automate Event Registration with Stripe, Make.com and MailerLite

I run multiple online events every year — paid workshops, webinars, focus sessions, guidance calls. Every single one flows through the same automated registration pipeline I built myself. No manual emails. No spreadsheet updates. No copy-pasting registrant details. Just a clean, reliable workflow that runs in the background while I focus on delivering the actual event.

This post walks you through exactly how I built it — the tools, the logic, and each step — so you can replicate it for your own events.

What you’ll have at the end

Every paid registration will automatically trigger a full onboarding experience without you lifting a finger after the initial build. The moment someone’s payment clears in Stripe, Make.com catches it, identifies which event they registered for, and tells MailerLite to add them to the right group and fire the correct automation sequence.

Your registrant gets an onboarding email within seconds of paying. You get the data, the revenue, and none of the admin.

The stack

Three tools connected in sequence:

• Stripe — payment processing and the trigger point for the entire workflow
• Make.com (free plan) — the automation layer connecting Stripe to MailerLite
• MailerLite — subscriber management and automated email sequences

Make.com sits entirely in the backend. Your registrant never sees it — they move from your landing page to the Stripe checkout to their inbox. The automation runs invisibly in between.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A Stripe account with at least one active payment link or product set up
• A Make.com account — the free plan supports this workflow
• A MailerLite account with at least one group and one automation created
• A MailerLite API key — found in your MailerLite account settings under Integrations

This guide covers the core registration-to-onboarding flow. It does not include cancellation handling, refund webhooks, or multi-currency routing — those are separate workflow extensions you can add once the base scenario is working.

The workflow logic

The scenario has 2 modules, 1 filter, and 1 router:

• Module 1 (Stripe) — watches for new events
• Filter — passes only successful payments through
• Router — directs each registration to the correct MailerLite group based on which event was purchased
• Module 2 (MailerLite) — creates or updates the subscriber, adds them to the group, and triggers the automation

Why the Router matters: Without a Router, you’d need a separate Make.com scenario for every single event. The Router is what makes this setup scalable — once it’s in place, adding a new event takes less than five minutes. You simply add a new route with the new group name.

Step 1: Set up your Stripe payment link with metadata

The key to routing registrations to the correct MailerLite group is Stripe metadata. In your Stripe dashboard, go to Payment Links → Create a link. Under Advanced options, find the Metadata section and add:

• Key: Mailerlite_Group
• Value: the exact name of your MailerLite group (e.g. Your_Event_Name_Month_Year)

Do this for every event payment link. The value must match your MailerLite group name exactly — spelling, capitalisation, underscores.

Step 2: Create your MailerLite group and automation

In MailerLite, go to Subscribers → Groups → Add Group. Name it to match exactly what you put in your Stripe metadata.

Then build your automation: go to Automations → Create automation, set the trigger to “When subscriber is added to a group”, and select your new group.

Activate the automation before you go live — Make.com will add the subscriber correctly, but the automation only fires if it is active at the moment they are added.

Step 3: Create the Make.com scenario

Log into Make.com and click Create a new scenario. Add Module 1 — search for Stripe and select Watch Events. Connect your Stripe account and set the event type to Payment Intent. Make.com will generate a webhook URL — copy it.

Then go to your Stripe dashboard → Developers → Webhooks → Add endpoint, paste the URL, and select payment_intent.succeeded as the event to listen to.

Step 4: Add the filter

Between Module 1 and Module 2, click the small circle on the connection line to add a filter. Set two conditions using the token picker (always pick from the dropdown — never type manually):

• Condition 1: data → object → payment_status equals paid
• Condition 2: data → object → metadata → Mailerlite_Group exists

Set both with AND logic.

Token picker tip. Make.com flattens Stripe’s data structure visually. Manually typed field paths often reference the wrong context and silently fail. Always navigate through the dropdown — it takes 30 extra seconds and saves hours of debugging.

Step 5: Add the Router

After the filter, add a Router module. For each route, set a filter: left side = metadata → Mailerlite_Group, operator = Equal to, right side = the group name for that route.

When you add a new event in the future, simply add a new route to this Router. The rest of the scenario stays untouched.

Step 6: Add Module 2 — MailerLite: Create or Update Subscriber

At the end of each route, add a MailerLite Classic: Create or Update Subscriber module. Connect your MailerLite account via API key and map the fields:

• Email → receipt_email
• Name → shipping → name
• Group → select from dropdown
• Autoresponders → Yes
• Resubscribe → No

Critical setting: Autoresponders: Yes is the single most important setting in this entire workflow. Without it, the subscriber gets added to the group but the automation does not fire. The onboarding email never sends. Double-check this before you test.

Step 7: Test the full flow

Click Run once in Make.com, then make a test payment via your Stripe payment link using a test card (no real charge). Watch each module show a green tick. Check MailerLite — the test subscriber should appear in the correct group with the automation active.

If the filter blocks the event, confirm your Stripe metadata key is spelled exactly as Mailerlite_Group and the group name matches precisely.

Step 8: Activate the scenario

Once the test passes, toggle the scenario to ON using the switch at the bottom left of the scenario editor. Make.com will now watch for Stripe events continuously — no action required from you.

What you can do now

With this workflow active, you can:

• Add a new event in under five minutes — create the Stripe link with new metadata, create the MailerLite group and automation, add a route in Make.com
• Run multiple events simultaneously with zero extra admin
• Track conversion data directly in Stripe — payment volume, drop-off at checkout, revenue per event
• Personalise every onboarding sequence per event — each MailerLite automation is independent and fully customisable

Troubleshooting

Filter blocking all events: Almost always incorrect token mapping. Delete both filter conditions and re-add them fresh by navigating through the token picker: Stripe → Raw Webhook Data → data → object → payment_status. Never type paths manually.

Subscriber added but automation doesn’t fire: Check two things — confirm Autoresponders is set to Yes in the MailerLite module, and confirm the automation is active in MailerLite. A paused or draft automation will not trigger even when subscribers are added correctly.

Wrong group receiving the registration: The Stripe metadata value and the MailerLite group name must be identical — same capitalisation, same underscores, no spaces.

How to check Make.com logs: In your scenario, click History in the left panel. Each run shows a full trace — which modules processed, what data passed through, and where it stopped. Always check the logs before changing your scenario config.

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