I am using nodejs to write an image upload service. Paying clients will be able to send an image file to my endpoint that I have set up on my server. However, when every request comes in, I need to confirm that it is actually a paying client making the request. I thought about having the client give me their domain name and I would just check the referer header. However, someone could easily spoof the referer header and use my service without paying. How do SaaS developers face this technical problem? Is it possible to fix this without requiring my clients to have some server side code?
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You cannot authenticate a browser with a referrer header.
If you want to authenticate an individual, then you will likely need a login system that they provide credentials to (username/pwd) and you check those against your allowed user base. If they pass, then you set a certain type of cookie in the browser that indicates they are a legit user. Subsequent requests from this user will contain that cookie which you can check on every request.
The cookie needs to be something that you create that you can verify that cannot easily be guessed or forged (like a session or an encrypted token from your server). You would typically set an expiration on the cookie after some time period of time so that the user has to login again.