5 ms·

If I were you I would skip paypal all together and use someone else. Paypal's IPN (a sort of API that you can use with free business accounts) is beyond terribl

If I were you I would skip paypal all together and use someone else. Paypal's IPN (a sort of API that you can use with free business accounts) is beyond terrible, and their real API is only available with paid accounts. If you live in the USA there's no excuse for using Paypal. If you live outside of the USA, you just have to look harder for alternatives (I found fastspring, for Canada). To answer your question - if you're using the real API (not IPN) then you can handle the full transaction on your site, without ever sending the user to paypal. I think you get this with paypal 'website payments pro'.

MattBearman 15y ago
Preaching to the choir :) I'm in the UK so I don't have a great deal of choice, but I am looking to change from PayPal. I've got my eye on http://saasy.com http://saasy.com but I'm waiting to see if Stripe will come to the UK any time soon before investing time in switching to Saasy. In the mean time, the BugMuncher MVP was built around PayPal subscriptions, so it makes sense to build upon that for now.
- dholowiski 15y ago
  That's what I am using (saasy.com). It's pretty good, although it's a bit dumbed down from what paypal is (that's both good and bad). I'm basically holding out for stripe in Canada too. I continue to bug them!
  - MattBearman 15y ago
    I know what you mean, Stripe just seems like the perfect solution. Unfortunately international money transfer law is minefield, which is why they're taking their time to get non-US availability sorted. They recently tweeted that they haven't even got a timeline for international availability. So I'm not holding my breath...
dangrossman 15y ago
> Paypal's IPN is beyond terrible Why? It does its job, and it does it reliably. Compare to the new hotness "Stripe" which attempts to offer an IPN lookalike, but theirs doesn't actually work since it doesn't re-notify if your endpoint is down/broken. PayPal's does. > If you live in the USA there's no excuse for using Paypal I'll give you a few excuses: * 232 million registered accounts * Brand recognition and trust your site doesn't have yet * The only way for most US small businesses to accept the preferred payment method of many countries where credit cards are not the norm * Lower transaction fees than almost any merchant account and 3rd party payment provider, with no required monthly fees * Sophisticated fraud detection for free * 100% immunity from fraudulent payments for shipped goods for registered buyers If you're going to suggest someone else not use PayPal, at least give them a truthful reason. > I found fastspring Which charges 5.9%-8.9% instead of 1.9%-2.9% and pays you twice a month instead of daily (PayPal Auto Sweep) or whenever you want... among all the possible alternatives to PayPal, that's one of the worst I've seen. Even if this company assigns you a personal account manager who sits at a desk all day just waiting to take your calls, it's irrational to give up 6% of your profit margin to use them. Some businesses don't even have a 6% profit margin, handing 5.9% of every payment to the processor (that's only giving 1-2% to the card network) would simply put them out of business.
- dholowiski 15y ago
  Why is Paypal's IPN Terrible? becuase it's terribly complicated and poorly documented. The documentation is scattered and dis-organized and there are dozens of different events that can happen, and you have to be prepared to handle them all. Take a look at the IPN Variables: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_admin_IPNReference https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&c... There is so much room for error, or for the programmer mis-interpreting what a field means, compared to the other, simple solutions. I'll give you a good reason for not using paypal... paypal freezes accounts all the time, for reasons as simple as 'you made too much money too fast'. Google it, or just watch the front page of HN for a month. I'm not risking my whole business just to use paypal. I understand that you think the rates are high on fastspring, and there are many alternatives if you live in the USA. Try living in another country, we don't have the same alternatives that people in the USA do. As far as I know this is the _only_ alternative in Canada that doesn't require a monthly fee, credit check, merchant account, and that does have an API to sell a SAAS product.

MattBearman 15y ago

Preaching to the choir :) I'm in the UK so I don't have a great deal of choice, but I am looking to change from PayPal. I've got my eye on http://saasy.com http://saasy.com but I'm waiting to see if Stripe will come to the UK any time soon before investing time in switching to Saasy. In the mean time, the BugMuncher MVP was built around PayPal subscriptions, so it makes sense to build upon that for now.

dholowiski 15y ago
That's what I am using (saasy.com). It's pretty good, although it's a bit dumbed down from what paypal is (that's both good and bad). I'm basically holding out for stripe in Canada too. I continue to bug them!
- MattBearman 15y ago
  I know what you mean, Stripe just seems like the perfect solution. Unfortunately international money transfer law is minefield, which is why they're taking their time to get non-US availability sorted. They recently tweeted that they haven't even got a timeline for international availability. So I'm not holding my breath...

dangrossman 15y ago

> Paypal's IPN is beyond terrible Why? It does its job, and it does it reliably. Compare to the new hotness "Stripe" which attempts to offer an IPN lookalike, but theirs doesn't actually work since it doesn't re-notify if your endpoint is down/broken. PayPal's does. > If you live in the USA there's no excuse for using Paypal I'll give you a few excuses: * 232 million registered accounts * Brand recognition and trust your site doesn't have yet * The only way for most US small businesses to accept the preferred payment method of many countries where credit cards are not the norm * Lower transaction fees than almost any merchant account and 3rd party payment provider, with no required monthly fees * Sophisticated fraud detection for free * 100% immunity from fraudulent payments for shipped goods for registered buyers If you're going to suggest someone else not use PayPal, at least give them a truthful reason. > I found fastspring Which charges 5.9%-8.9% instead of 1.9%-2.9% and pays you twice a month instead of daily (PayPal Auto Sweep) or whenever you want... among all the possible alternatives to PayPal, that's one of the worst I've seen. Even if this company assigns you a personal account manager who sits at a desk all day just waiting to take your calls, it's irrational to give up 6% of your profit margin to use them. Some businesses don't even have a 6% profit margin, handing 5.9% of every payment to the processor (that's only giving 1-2% to the card network) would simply put them out of business.

dholowiski 15y ago
Why is Paypal's IPN Terrible? becuase it's terribly complicated and poorly documented. The documentation is scattered and dis-organized and there are dozens of different events that can happen, and you have to be prepared to handle them all. Take a look at the IPN Variables: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_admin_IPNReference https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&c... There is so much room for error, or for the programmer mis-interpreting what a field means, compared to the other, simple solutions. I'll give you a good reason for not using paypal... paypal freezes accounts all the time, for reasons as simple as 'you made too much money too fast'. Google it, or just watch the front page of HN for a month. I'm not risking my whole business just to use paypal. I understand that you think the rates are high on fastspring, and there are many alternatives if you live in the USA. Try living in another country, we don't have the same alternatives that people in the USA do. As far as I know this is the _only_ alternative in Canada that doesn't require a monthly fee, credit check, merchant account, and that does have an API to sell a SAAS product.