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This is a beautiful user interface, but in my business, ~40% of our payments are through PayPal. To integrate Stripe Checkout, we would have to ask the customer

This is a beautiful user interface, but in my business, ~40% of our payments are through PayPal. To integrate Stripe Checkout, we would have to ask the customer whether they're paying with a card or using PayPal prior to displaying the Stripe UI. While that is not the worst option, our current UX is similar to Shopify, where there is an accordion component with multiple options: PayPal, Credit Card, Apple Pay, etc.. Stripe wants to fetch a premium with this feature. As such, they should bite the bullet and allow merchants to integrate PayPal as a secondary option (similar to how Apple Pay is displayed). I will say that this is a pretty nice improvement from the modal Stripe Checkout that has been around for several years.

danpalmer 8y ago
> Stripe wants to fetch a premium with this feature. As such, they should bite the bullet and allow merchants to integrate PayPal as a secondary option (similar to how Apple Pay is displayed). I expect this is not Stripe's decision. PayPal own Braintree, a Stripe competitor, whos unique selling point is that they also support PayPal through one API. I suspect PayPal want to keep this distinction. Without support from PayPal, I'd expect the most that Stripe could do is implement a way for you to provide extra non-Stripe payment option buttons, which would just redirect to some URL provided up front. Not a great developer experience, and not much of a UX improvement.
- stickfigure 8y ago
  Before PayPal bought Braintree, they were a separate company that provided the same service (cards & paypal as an option). Presumably they did this using PayPal's APIs - I'm familiar enough with them to think it should be possible for anyone. However, those APIs are horrible and PayPal's technology platform is a trainwreck, so I can understand why they might not be rushing it out.
  - manuelhuez 8y ago
    You're 100% right, what Braintree does can be done using PayPal's API directly, even what Braintree calls their "in-context" PayPal payments. This is pretty much exactly what we've done at https://processout.com https://processout.com (shameless plug!)
  - danpalmer 8y ago
    The APIs may be available, but I'd expect the terms of use of those APIs will say something about not using them for competing businesses or some language that could be used to exclude Stripe from being able to offer it as an integration. There are rumours that Stripe _are_ working on PayPal integration, but I expect this would only launch with PayPal's blessing through some business deal, not just from Stripe's work.
quotha 8y ago
I think it's just a matter of time before people switch from using PayPal.
- solarkraft 8y ago
  PayPal might be neither very cheap nor very trustworthy, but it sure is easy and quick.
  - tracker1 8y ago
    I wind up using about once or twice a year when I pay for a foreign hosted server... My CC usually declines the charge and makes it a mess.. paypal to the same CC just works.
- foobarbazetc 8y ago
  We thought this and killed our PayPal integration (went Stripe only) and lost double digits in sales (and received constant emails asking for PayPal). Unfortunately people want PayPal for whatever reason. Everything about PayPal from the merchant side sucks (bad API, bad recurring billing features, slow, no refund of fees for refunds from May, 6 months for someone to do a chargeback!, etc etc)
  - TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
    Losing a lot of sales is not surprising if you're forcing existing customers to change payment method. It's enough hassle many will just leave if your service isn't special enough to them. Beyond that, a big reason to use PayPal is that simply, a lot of people don't have a (internationally accepted) card they can use. PayPal is a useful middleman for those people if they support a payment method they do have.
  - cstejerean 8y ago
    I use PayPal for random sites that I don’t know because I don’t like handing my credit card info to random websites. Now I would personally trust Stripe Checkout (especially on a stripe.con domain rather than in a modal) but that’s because I know Stripe. The dislike of PayPal among techies is not common the population at large in my experience. Another thing I use PayPal for is any kind of subscription, because I know I can cancel it from the PayPal side without having to worry about jumping through hoops.
rbobby 8y ago
> ~40% of our payments are through PayPal There are far to many horror stories about PayPal for me to trust them as a business partner.
- askafriend 8y ago
  Removing the option that 40% of your site's customers are trusting to complete the transaction sounds like a terrible business move. Even with the horror stories.
jjevanoorschot 8y ago
Recently PayPal stopped allowing Adyen, one of the biggest payment service providers, to integrate with their platform. I'm not quite sure that integrating with PayPal is an option for Stripe, and even if it technically were an option, I'm sure it wouldn't be an economically viable one.

danpalmer 8y ago

> Stripe wants to fetch a premium with this feature. As such, they should bite the bullet and allow merchants to integrate PayPal as a secondary option (similar to how Apple Pay is displayed). I expect this is not Stripe's decision. PayPal own Braintree, a Stripe competitor, whos unique selling point is that they also support PayPal through one API. I suspect PayPal want to keep this distinction. Without support from PayPal, I'd expect the most that Stripe could do is implement a way for you to provide extra non-Stripe payment option buttons, which would just redirect to some URL provided up front. Not a great developer experience, and not much of a UX improvement.

stickfigure 8y ago
Before PayPal bought Braintree, they were a separate company that provided the same service (cards & paypal as an option). Presumably they did this using PayPal's APIs - I'm familiar enough with them to think it should be possible for anyone. However, those APIs are horrible and PayPal's technology platform is a trainwreck, so I can understand why they might not be rushing it out.
- manuelhuez 8y ago
  You're 100% right, what Braintree does can be done using PayPal's API directly, even what Braintree calls their "in-context" PayPal payments. This is pretty much exactly what we've done at https://processout.com https://processout.com (shameless plug!)
- danpalmer 8y ago
  The APIs may be available, but I'd expect the terms of use of those APIs will say something about not using them for competing businesses or some language that could be used to exclude Stripe from being able to offer it as an integration. There are rumours that Stripe _are_ working on PayPal integration, but I expect this would only launch with PayPal's blessing through some business deal, not just from Stripe's work.

quotha 8y ago

I think it's just a matter of time before people switch from using PayPal.

solarkraft 8y ago
PayPal might be neither very cheap nor very trustworthy, but it sure is easy and quick.
- tracker1 8y ago
  I wind up using about once or twice a year when I pay for a foreign hosted server... My CC usually declines the charge and makes it a mess.. paypal to the same CC just works.
foobarbazetc 8y ago
We thought this and killed our PayPal integration (went Stripe only) and lost double digits in sales (and received constant emails asking for PayPal). Unfortunately people want PayPal for whatever reason. Everything about PayPal from the merchant side sucks (bad API, bad recurring billing features, slow, no refund of fees for refunds from May, 6 months for someone to do a chargeback!, etc etc)
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
  Losing a lot of sales is not surprising if you're forcing existing customers to change payment method. It's enough hassle many will just leave if your service isn't special enough to them. Beyond that, a big reason to use PayPal is that simply, a lot of people don't have a (internationally accepted) card they can use. PayPal is a useful middleman for those people if they support a payment method they do have.
- cstejerean 8y ago
  I use PayPal for random sites that I don’t know because I don’t like handing my credit card info to random websites. Now I would personally trust Stripe Checkout (especially on a stripe.con domain rather than in a modal) but that’s because I know Stripe. The dislike of PayPal among techies is not common the population at large in my experience. Another thing I use PayPal for is any kind of subscription, because I know I can cancel it from the PayPal side without having to worry about jumping through hoops.

rbobby 8y ago

> ~40% of our payments are through PayPal There are far to many horror stories about PayPal for me to trust them as a business partner.

askafriend 8y ago
Removing the option that 40% of your site's customers are trusting to complete the transaction sounds like a terrible business move. Even with the horror stories.

jjevanoorschot 8y ago

Recently PayPal stopped allowing Adyen, one of the biggest payment service providers, to integrate with their platform. I'm not quite sure that integrating with PayPal is an option for Stripe, and even if it technically were an option, I'm sure it wouldn't be an economically viable one.