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2Checkout, DigitalRiver, FastSpring, Paddle and Payoneer used to be reasonably popular in "old-school" shareware circles. These aren't payment processors. They

2Checkout, DigitalRiver, FastSpring, Paddle and Payoneer used to be reasonably popular in "old-school" shareware circles. These aren't payment processors. They all come from pre-Stripe times and they are so-called "registration services". These are effectively resellers, providing "full service" that includes order processing, customer callbacks (fraud detection), distribution of activation codes, first line of support for licensing inquiries, etc. -- all the things that used to be complicated in the era when people ordered by phone, fax and email, paid with cheques and the software was licensed fully offline using either procedurally-generated codes or codes hardcoded into executables. They all are still stuck there - rigid, clunky, buggy and, above all, unnecessary expensive. These aren't Stripe alternatives. These are dinosaurs desperately clinging to life.

transitivebs 4y ago
Paddle has a pretty legit API from my experience. Agree on the other ones for sure.
dividuum 4y ago
Cannot speak for the others, but paddle also does handle all tax related issues for you. That can quickly get pretty complicated if you have international customers.
phphphphp 4y ago
I have no relationship to Paddle but they deserve defending, as they’re absolutely not a “dinosaur clinging to life” and are in fact a very valuable player given the changing regulatory and tax landscape across the world. The phrase to use to describe Paddle is “merchant of record” and it’s more valuable today than it was a few years ago, and it’s more valuable than Stripe in certain circumstances. There are many scenarios in which a business selling digital services would have a rational reason to choose Paddle over Stripe today. Paddle may have started out as you describe but that’s not what they are today. Personally, I’d argue they’ve done a better job innovating in their niche than Stripe has.
- j45 4y ago
  Second this about paddle. They seem to handle the international tax feature a lot earlier than most. Having a merchant of record is handy. The extra fee for international sales is less in the beginning than hiring accountants or having a keels presence in other countries and the overhead associated with that. Functionality like this more easily lets you sell globally from the start, and optimize later when beneficial. With a future likelier to include digital taxes, it’s reasonable to focus on product and customer.

transitivebs 4y ago

Paddle has a pretty legit API from my experience. Agree on the other ones for sure.

dividuum 4y ago

Cannot speak for the others, but paddle also does handle all tax related issues for you. That can quickly get pretty complicated if you have international customers.

phphphphp 4y ago

I have no relationship to Paddle but they deserve defending, as they’re absolutely not a “dinosaur clinging to life” and are in fact a very valuable player given the changing regulatory and tax landscape across the world. The phrase to use to describe Paddle is “merchant of record” and it’s more valuable today than it was a few years ago, and it’s more valuable than Stripe in certain circumstances. There are many scenarios in which a business selling digital services would have a rational reason to choose Paddle over Stripe today. Paddle may have started out as you describe but that’s not what they are today. Personally, I’d argue they’ve done a better job innovating in their niche than Stripe has.

j45 4y ago
Second this about paddle. They seem to handle the international tax feature a lot earlier than most. Having a merchant of record is handy. The extra fee for international sales is less in the beginning than hiring accountants or having a keels presence in other countries and the overhead associated with that. Functionality like this more easily lets you sell globally from the start, and optimize later when beneficial. With a future likelier to include digital taxes, it’s reasonable to focus on product and customer.