[andrewfromx]

i think the idea is if you code your app using TEST_MODE you can make all the test charges you want with 4111 1111 1111 1111 card. Then when you are ready go live switching to LIVE_MODE with no code changes is guaranteed to work the same but with real cards.

[x0xrx]

Having extensive experience running billions of dollars through Stripe, this is not accurate. Production is always different, except for the simplest cases.