4 ms·

No first-hand experience with these guys, but I've heard good things: http://chargify.com http://chargify.com. It's free until the 50 customer mark, although yo

by karzeem 16y ago

No first-hand experience with these guys, but I've heard good things: http://chargify.com http://chargify.com. It's free until the 50 customer mark, although you'll still have to mess with a merchant account.

g0atbutt 16y ago
About how long does it take to setup a merchant account at a reputable place? I assume they take a 3% cut or so? Would you have any recommendations for merchant accounts, or are they all pretty much the same?
- drm237 16y ago
  Start with website payments pro by paypal. It's the easiest to get setup and approved for and has reasonable rates. Later, once you have more paying customers, you can switch if you really think it will make a difference. And using something like Chargify or Spreedly allows you to change your merchant account without affecting the recurring billing. Paypal isn't always perfect and they certainly screw up, but for the handful of issues you hear about, there are millions of transactions that work out just fine.
  - damoncali 16y ago
    My experience with WPP is exactly the opposite. Total clusterfuck. And Chargify doesn't support Paypal, last I heard, because Paypal was so unreliable. YMMV.
    - drm237 16y ago
      I've been using it for over a year with Spreedly without any problems at all. What sort of issues were you having?
      - damoncali 16y ago
        Terrible customer support and a buggy sandbox.
- rubyrescue 16y ago
  We're using first data for the merchant account for http://inboxseo.com http://inboxseo.com. It generally takes about 30 days to set up an account with a merchant. you can negotiate with many merchant banks regarding the rate. there isn't one that i know of that's super 'startup friendly', but it's not really that important. We use http://spreedly.com http://spreedly.com for recurring billing which is very similar to chargify. The point of these type of 'middle men' is that they a) keep the CC data and keep you from having to deal with the risks and security concerns of doing so yourself, b) make dealing with recurring billing easier; ie we don't have any 'cron jobs' that run credit card batches every night; c) deal with all the subtleties of prorating the user for upgrading or downgrading a plan mid-month; offering free first month, etc.
- toast76 16y ago
  Chargify is dead easy to get going. Merchant accounts are HARD. Someone else mentioned using PayPal Pro with Chargify. Chargify no longer support PayPal with new accounts until PayPal sort out their long list of problems. We've been using Chargify for a couple of months now and it's great. Just a shame you have to have a Gateway and Merchant account as well!
- damoncali 16y ago
  A merchant account usually takes 7-10 days in my experience. Although merchant accounts are pretty much all the same, payment gateways are not. Charify is awesome and makes your payment gateway sort of irrelevant (at least as long as they keep supporting the one you have). As for gateways, Braintree is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to service and their API. 3% is about right, or a little high. For more info on the process and market prices check out Braintree's website. They are quite helpful, but a little on the pricey side.

by karzeem 16y ago

g0atbutt 16y ago

About how long does it take to setup a merchant account at a reputable place? I assume they take a 3% cut or so? Would you have any recommendations for merchant accounts, or are they all pretty much the same?

drm237 16y ago
Start with website payments pro by paypal. It's the easiest to get setup and approved for and has reasonable rates. Later, once you have more paying customers, you can switch if you really think it will make a difference. And using something like Chargify or Spreedly allows you to change your merchant account without affecting the recurring billing. Paypal isn't always perfect and they certainly screw up, but for the handful of issues you hear about, there are millions of transactions that work out just fine.
- damoncali 16y ago
  My experience with WPP is exactly the opposite. Total clusterfuck. And Chargify doesn't support Paypal, last I heard, because Paypal was so unreliable. YMMV.
  - drm237 16y ago
    I've been using it for over a year with Spreedly without any problems at all. What sort of issues were you having?
    - damoncali 16y ago
      Terrible customer support and a buggy sandbox.
rubyrescue 16y ago
We're using first data for the merchant account for http://inboxseo.com http://inboxseo.com. It generally takes about 30 days to set up an account with a merchant. you can negotiate with many merchant banks regarding the rate. there isn't one that i know of that's super 'startup friendly', but it's not really that important. We use http://spreedly.com http://spreedly.com for recurring billing which is very similar to chargify. The point of these type of 'middle men' is that they a) keep the CC data and keep you from having to deal with the risks and security concerns of doing so yourself, b) make dealing with recurring billing easier; ie we don't have any 'cron jobs' that run credit card batches every night; c) deal with all the subtleties of prorating the user for upgrading or downgrading a plan mid-month; offering free first month, etc.
toast76 16y ago
Chargify is dead easy to get going. Merchant accounts are HARD. Someone else mentioned using PayPal Pro with Chargify. Chargify no longer support PayPal with new accounts until PayPal sort out their long list of problems. We've been using Chargify for a couple of months now and it's great. Just a shame you have to have a Gateway and Merchant account as well!
damoncali 16y ago
A merchant account usually takes 7-10 days in my experience. Although merchant accounts are pretty much all the same, payment gateways are not. Charify is awesome and makes your payment gateway sort of irrelevant (at least as long as they keep supporting the one you have). As for gateways, Braintree is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to service and their API. 3% is about right, or a little high. For more info on the process and market prices check out Braintree's website. They are quite helpful, but a little on the pricey side.