WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]
top | item 3493807

Ask HN: What is a good alternative to PayPal?

77 points| NadaAldahleh | 14 years ago | reply

Requirements: 1- has recurring payments 2- invisible to end user 3- accepts canadian companies 4- (nice to have) easy to set-up 5- (nice to have) does not require a merchant bank account.

46 comments

order
[+] thinkcomp|14 years ago|reply
I've said this before (for which I've been roundly criticized), and I'll say it again.

The reason there is no good alternative to PayPal, and especially an alternative that works internationally, is the regulatory environment around money transmission in the United States. If startups expect to solve this problem, there needs to be a coordinated effort to change that environment just as there was a coordinated effort to combat SOPA.

Exhibit A - http://www.thinkcomputer.com/corporate/whitepapers/heldhosta...

Exhibit B - http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/case.html?id=716056

Exhibit C - http://www.plainsite.org/issues/index.html?id=1

Exhibit D - http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=fin...

To head off the most common objections: PayPal is grandfathered in at this point. You can only get away with breaking the law and hoping no one will notice for so long. The penalties for violation are criminal (federal felony), not civil. And yes, I'm biased as the head of a payments company affected by the law, but I'm not the only one, and I'm not wrong.

[+] jbseek|14 years ago|reply
Hi Aaron I'm interested in this space too, especially around the latter. The issue with money transfers U.S & regulatory practices hindering any innovative development on the international front. What have your experiences been with facecash in that area?
[+] dholowiski|14 years ago|reply
What happened to the Visa Personal Payments reply to this? It seemed like a pretty big deal.
[+] cperciva|14 years ago|reply
I'm going with "wait for Stripe to arrive" personally.
[+] preinheimer|14 years ago|reply
Ditto. We're with PayPal now, but we'd like to change. The UI for tracking down payments is horrible, plus, it seems like they could just take our money at any point, and we'd need a million people on the Internet to cry out to get it back.
[+] tpurves|14 years ago|reply
Wait for V.me by Visa to arrive.
[+] dholowiski|14 years ago|reply
Yeah... I'm in Canada and am not-so-patiently waiting.
[+] konaaceo|14 years ago|reply
One of the best services out there is http://www.braintreepayments.com/ but you can also look at http://www.2checkout.com. Both of them have great solutions depending on what you need. We are migrating from PayPal to BrainTree this spring.
[+] mise|14 years ago|reply
2checkout does not have a great API (they do have an API), and their subscription reporting is lacking.
[+] kingnothing|14 years ago|reply
Why would you migrate to BrainTree instead of Stripe? The latter costs about the same and seems to have a much nicer API and use case.
[+] tagawa|14 years ago|reply
They don't seem to provide an all-in-one service for non-US customers.
[+] meow|14 years ago|reply
I like Saasy (http://saasy.com/). It's frictionless and supports international merchants but a little pricier than other options.
[+] dholowiski|14 years ago|reply
Using them right now - pretty easy to implement. Sadly, my product has not seen any purchases yet so I can't comment on the whole money part of it yet.
[+] NadaAldahleh|14 years ago|reply
looks like it has all the requirements. I'll dig in deeper and see. thanks.
[+] thurn|14 years ago|reply
Possibly one of the Amazon payments solutions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Payments

[+] Dysiode|14 years ago|reply
As a consumer I personally prefer Amazon Payments. They already have my information and their checkout is familiar.

I can't say if they support international payments though (but they're a good "for US customers" option!)

[+] cperciva|14 years ago|reply
Not available to non-US merchants.
[+] ScottBurson|14 years ago|reply
I think WePay deserves mention here, though AFAIK they don't yet support Canadian businesses. They don't require a merchant account, support recurring payments, and can be made fairly though perhaps not completely invisible. I've found their API quite easy to use.
[+] konaaceo|14 years ago|reply
WePay is good for selling tickets or selling items through their web store, not for general ecommerce. Its not useful for developers.
[+] jblesage|14 years ago|reply
Go with Beanstream as the payment gateway, and either Chargify or Recurly for the recurring payments. I've personally had no problem with this combination on many projects, and all of my clients are canadian companies.
[+] NadaAldahleh|14 years ago|reply
It's not my clients are canadian, it's my company is canadian and Beanstream does not work with non-US. I'll take a look at chargify though :)
[+] pbreynolds|14 years ago|reply
Since you mention recurring payments as a priority, I'd recommend Chargify. They give a list of gateway options here: http://chargify.com/payment-gateways/

One of my businesses is an online retailer. We use PayPal Standard (but don't require a PP account) simply because the UI for generating postage and tracking shipments is very easy. USPS has an open API, but I've yet to find a payment processor that integrates shipping.

[+] Nomlab|14 years ago|reply
I second this, http://chargify.com has many more features than Braintree, Spreedly, and Recurly. Also, they work with international merchant accounts/gateways.
[+] adamlindsay|14 years ago|reply
Stripe.com, although not sure about #3.
[+] chromedude|14 years ago|reply
Wait for Stripe. It should be there soon. Just wait for it. It is hands down the best option out there.
[+] jimbobimbo|14 years ago|reply
How "invisible" is critical? If not really, then Plimus looks nice, share*it also has subscriptions. Both are quite easy to integrate (web callbacks).
[+] tagawa|14 years ago|reply
I haven't used it, but BMT Micro seems to offer the same kind of service.
[+] pbreit|14 years ago|reply
You won't find anything quite like PayPal but some nice options include Payfirma, Versapay and Intuit GoPayment.
[+] iamandrus|14 years ago|reply
Stripe is the best right now. Great user interface, great API, and awesome staff. Give it a try.
[+] markshead|14 years ago|reply
Do you consider PayPal to be invisible to the end user?
[+] NadaAldahleh|14 years ago|reply
PayPal standard is not, but PayPal Pro is. With Pro, the user doesn't need a Paypal account, would never get redirected to paypal site, and their credit card doesn't show paypal.
[+] funkyboy|14 years ago|reply
6 (nice to have) handles invoicing automatically.