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But.. Payments is more than about developers. It's the finance people that reconcile, the budget that pays for it's transaction fees, the customer support when

But.. Payments is more than about developers. It's the finance people that reconcile, the budget that pays for it's transaction fees, the customer support when a transaction goes wrong. My point is ease-of-integration is just one part and for large companies, an insignificant part. Sometimes this feels lost and it's all "wahey, JSON API".

andreasklinger 11y ago
i had horrible experiences with an "industry standard and cheaper provider" i once spend several hours in a cusomer care help center of my payment provider to figure out why and how they broke our checkout. this was in the middle of the night obviously because of timezones and the people on the other end where non-technical. not saying this couldnt happen w/ stripe or that my payment provider was the best alternative (it was before stripe existed and was a european provider) but still… i agree w/ you that payment providers are more than JSON API but from my perception stripe does a good job in those areas as well
nathancahill 11y ago
You've never integrated an old-school payments API have you? Integration is not insignificant. Having spent developer/weeks wrangling XML (I'm looking at you authorize.net), being able to do the same in an afternoon is life changing. Now, I'm a loyal customer and recommend them to everyone. Sure, they cost more, but it's worth it.
- ilikerashers 11y ago
  Yeap, done a ton of them. Alot get it right, some wrong. Many of them have caught up. The biggest problems you can run into are usually support orientated which I rarely see anything about here.
  - nathancahill 11y ago
    That's absolutely true and I think support is an area that they are going to invest in soon. I had a client that wanted to process $250k/year with them, but didn't sign up because they couldn't get someone on the phone. Not even sales, let alone support!
    - ilikerashers 11y ago
      ...and thats when it becomes a normal payment provider. I worked for one that invested far more in its call centers than its APIs. It actually worked very well for them!
  - clintonb 11y ago
    I completely agree that support matters. What I like about both Stripe and Braintree is that both have great documentation that make integration super-simple. (I liked their docs so much that I blogged about them: http://dev.clintonblackburn.com/2015/07/24/good-documentation-makes-me-happy/! http://dev.clintonblackburn.com/2015/07/24/good-documentatio...) I have integrated with CyberSource and PayPal. CyberSource took a week. PayPal took a couple days. Braintree and Stripe? A few hours! Besides this, their reporting (via API) is simple to use and integrate with our analytics pipeline. By contrast my analytics team spent days on the phone with both CyberSource and PayPal. Finally, the rates aren't that bad. If you have significant transaction volume, you can negotiate a rate comparable to the "legacy" payment processors. Both the sales and support teams have been quite helpful.

andreasklinger 11y ago

i had horrible experiences with an "industry standard and cheaper provider" i once spend several hours in a cusomer care help center of my payment provider to figure out why and how they broke our checkout. this was in the middle of the night obviously because of timezones and the people on the other end where non-technical. not saying this couldnt happen w/ stripe or that my payment provider was the best alternative (it was before stripe existed and was a european provider) but still… i agree w/ you that payment providers are more than JSON API but from my perception stripe does a good job in those areas as well

nathancahill 11y ago

You've never integrated an old-school payments API have you? Integration is not insignificant. Having spent developer/weeks wrangling XML (I'm looking at you authorize.net), being able to do the same in an afternoon is life changing. Now, I'm a loyal customer and recommend them to everyone. Sure, they cost more, but it's worth it.

ilikerashers 11y ago
Yeap, done a ton of them. Alot get it right, some wrong. Many of them have caught up. The biggest problems you can run into are usually support orientated which I rarely see anything about here.
- nathancahill 11y ago
  That's absolutely true and I think support is an area that they are going to invest in soon. I had a client that wanted to process $250k/year with them, but didn't sign up because they couldn't get someone on the phone. Not even sales, let alone support!
  - ilikerashers 11y ago
    ...and thats when it becomes a normal payment provider. I worked for one that invested far more in its call centers than its APIs. It actually worked very well for them!
- clintonb 11y ago
  I completely agree that support matters. What I like about both Stripe and Braintree is that both have great documentation that make integration super-simple. (I liked their docs so much that I blogged about them: http://dev.clintonblackburn.com/2015/07/24/good-documentation-makes-me-happy/! http://dev.clintonblackburn.com/2015/07/24/good-documentatio...) I have integrated with CyberSource and PayPal. CyberSource took a week. PayPal took a couple days. Braintree and Stripe? A few hours! Besides this, their reporting (via API) is simple to use and integrate with our analytics pipeline. By contrast my analytics team spent days on the phone with both CyberSource and PayPal. Finally, the rates aren't that bad. If you have significant transaction volume, you can negotiate a rate comparable to the "legacy" payment processors. Both the sales and support teams have been quite helpful.