4 ms·

Software as a Service Rails Kit

13 points by pius 18y ago

jdg 18y ago
This is really great stuff. I've had a few interactions with Benjamin in the past and he's a real pro. While I haven't seen the actual code in the SaaS kit, I imagine it's top notch. Billing is one of the trickiest things to get right. It's also a big time suck. $249 is nothing compared to the number of hours you'll spend writing, testing and re-writing your billing code. Believe me, you don't want to mess up your billing infrastructure. (* Not a paid advertisement or a happy customer, just someone that has written billing systems over and over, and never been happy with the result.)
- webwright 18y ago
  Agreed. I've worked with Ben a bit as well (he actually did some tradeout work for RescueTime) and he's an absolute star. Great combination of talent and work ethic. And he's probably done dozens of rails e-commerce implementations, so I can't imagine someone more qualified to build this than he is.
dawie 18y ago
Is it a once off Payment of $249?
- stympy 18y ago
  Yup, it's a one-time payment for use for one application. If you want to build more than one application using the same codebase as a starting point, it's a one-time payment of $999.
callmeed 18y ago
I've worked with Ben as well (actually working with him currently on a project). This is going to be a great kit.
ericb 18y ago
I wish this site showed more of what is involved. 250 bucks might be reasonable, but I would want more reassurance that my time isn't going to be spent learning an interface whose limitations may haunt me or that is nearly as involved as writing the braintree code myself. I might buy something like this, but I would want to be convinced it would reward me for giving up flexibility, so I know the time savings would be real.
- matthewking 18y ago
  Perhaps a demonstration of some of the UI parts, such as account creation/management and some diagrams of how the billing procedure works, to throw more light on if the system is going to work for us. A demonstration of how we can customise/integrate the system would also be beneficial. Looks exciting though, but I've never heard of BrainTree - perhaps that's just me! Anyone care to share some thoughts on them?
  - jdg 18y ago
    Braintree is great to work with. A few weeks back I hadn't heard of them either. My client was going to use TrustCommerce originally, but they couldn't get their act together and decided to not return phone calls or be very responsive. Responsiveness is SO important, especially on the web. For example, I signed up for a demo (developers) account with TrustCommerce. 5 days later they have a sales lackie call me and ask me if I still needed an account. wtf? 5 days? No way. My client had started getting their application together etc before Christmas and was still waiting on various things from them. By the time TrustCommerce called back, I'd already found Braintree (it was on the list of supported ActiveMerchant gateways). Submitted some feedback via their Contact Us form on their site, received an email less than an hour later. Then after a few back and forths, the CEO (without ever mentioning that he actually was the CEO, I put that part together later after I found him on LinkedIn) calls me to hash through things on the phone rather than back-and-forth via email. They've been super great to work with so far. Their developer documentation is a work in progress, but anytime I've needed something (which hasn't been that often at all) I received a response within a few hours from someone on their side. They have a great recurring billing API, it's extremely flexible, and also a way to get that data back OUT using their query API. They have a 'vault' that you can literally check anything into (jpegs of drivers licenses, whatever) - not just credit card numbers. In short, their shit just works. The web interface they have isn't all web2.0ish, but it's concise and easy enough to navigate. I'd rate their site 10 out of 10 when compared with any other payment gateway out there. Plus, they blog. I mean, how many gateways do you know of have a blog? ;-)
dmix 18y ago
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be buying this for my site in a month or so.

13 points by pius 18y ago

jdg 18y ago

This is really great stuff. I've had a few interactions with Benjamin in the past and he's a real pro. While I haven't seen the actual code in the SaaS kit, I imagine it's top notch. Billing is one of the trickiest things to get right. It's also a big time suck. $249 is nothing compared to the number of hours you'll spend writing, testing and re-writing your billing code. Believe me, you don't want to mess up your billing infrastructure. (* Not a paid advertisement or a happy customer, just someone that has written billing systems over and over, and never been happy with the result.)

webwright 18y ago
Agreed. I've worked with Ben a bit as well (he actually did some tradeout work for RescueTime) and he's an absolute star. Great combination of talent and work ethic. And he's probably done dozens of rails e-commerce implementations, so I can't imagine someone more qualified to build this than he is.

dawie 18y ago

Is it a once off Payment of $249?

stympy 18y ago
Yup, it's a one-time payment for use for one application. If you want to build more than one application using the same codebase as a starting point, it's a one-time payment of $999.

callmeed 18y ago

I've worked with Ben as well (actually working with him currently on a project). This is going to be a great kit.

ericb 18y ago

I wish this site showed more of what is involved. 250 bucks might be reasonable, but I would want more reassurance that my time isn't going to be spent learning an interface whose limitations may haunt me or that is nearly as involved as writing the braintree code myself. I might buy something like this, but I would want to be convinced it would reward me for giving up flexibility, so I know the time savings would be real.

matthewking 18y ago
Perhaps a demonstration of some of the UI parts, such as account creation/management and some diagrams of how the billing procedure works, to throw more light on if the system is going to work for us. A demonstration of how we can customise/integrate the system would also be beneficial. Looks exciting though, but I've never heard of BrainTree - perhaps that's just me! Anyone care to share some thoughts on them?
- jdg 18y ago
  Braintree is great to work with. A few weeks back I hadn't heard of them either. My client was going to use TrustCommerce originally, but they couldn't get their act together and decided to not return phone calls or be very responsive. Responsiveness is SO important, especially on the web. For example, I signed up for a demo (developers) account with TrustCommerce. 5 days later they have a sales lackie call me and ask me if I still needed an account. wtf? 5 days? No way. My client had started getting their application together etc before Christmas and was still waiting on various things from them. By the time TrustCommerce called back, I'd already found Braintree (it was on the list of supported ActiveMerchant gateways). Submitted some feedback via their Contact Us form on their site, received an email less than an hour later. Then after a few back and forths, the CEO (without ever mentioning that he actually was the CEO, I put that part together later after I found him on LinkedIn) calls me to hash through things on the phone rather than back-and-forth via email. They've been super great to work with so far. Their developer documentation is a work in progress, but anytime I've needed something (which hasn't been that often at all) I received a response within a few hours from someone on their side. They have a great recurring billing API, it's extremely flexible, and also a way to get that data back OUT using their query API. They have a 'vault' that you can literally check anything into (jpegs of drivers licenses, whatever) - not just credit card numbers. In short, their shit just works. The web interface they have isn't all web2.0ish, but it's concise and easy enough to navigate. I'd rate their site 10 out of 10 when compared with any other payment gateway out there. Plus, they blog. I mean, how many gateways do you know of have a blog? ;-)

dmix 18y ago

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be buying this for my site in a month or so.