6 ms·

How I Converted My Subscription Site from Paypal to Stripe in 2 Days

186 points by jv22222 15y ago

patio11 15y ago
I implemented Stripe for BCC, too, as an experiment. (I was going to milk a blog post out of it, but all my A/B tests so far have been pushes versus using Paypal, so it wasn't important enough to write before Christmas and I've been swamped since.) It is every bit as easy as Justin says. BCC's integration was in production in 3 hours, including the wholly-new purchasing flow that my site required to support it. No hitches since then at all. P.S. I am not unhappy in any way about Paypal, I just experiment with things all the time.
- troygoode 15y ago
  have you seen an conversion differences in your A/B tests?
  - weaksauce 15y ago
    That's the push part; implying that the tests have been about equal.
    - patio11 15y ago
      Yep. Technically speaking, I got three null results: not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis (that A was about equal to B). Specifically, I tested 1) Paypal + Google Checkout (my previous arrangement) vs. credit card (Stripe) signups alone 2) PP + GC + CC vs. CC 3) PP + GC + CC with in-application upgrade messages pushing insta-gratification CC-based upgrades vs. plain PP + GC + CC with in-application upgrade messages dumping them to the purchasing page like I have done for the last 3 years n.b. These are my results but they may not be your results. It is entirely possible my credit card form design (which I flagrantly stole from Twitter Bootstrap) is just bad, depressing CC signups, or the UX disimprovement crushed the favored-payment-method improvement, or something else entirely. Test test test.
      - carbocation 15y ago
        Are you measuring, for this specific AB test, the number of conversions? Revenue? Profit? (Admittedly they should all trend in the same direction with the exception of profit, which might depend on how well each company's imposed costs work for your situation.)
        patio11 15y ago
        Number of sales. BCC (almost) always sells for $29.95, and the difference between the three in processing costs is rounding error.
    - mdda 15y ago
      I didn't understand "a push" at first : It's a blackjack term : "In the case of a tied score, known as 'push' or 'standoff', bets are normally returned without adjustment; however, a blackjack beats any hand which is not a blackjack, even with value 21. Blackjack vs. blackjack is a push."
- JshWright 15y ago
  Are you A/B testing Paypal vs. Stripe, or Paypal & Stripe vs. Paypal alone? EDIT: Just noticed your post breaking down what you've looked at. Thanks again for all your transparency.
- iusable 15y ago
  How was your experience all-in-all?
chrislomax 15y ago
Anyone know when we can expect this in the UK? I've heard good things about Stripe so far but as much as I know it's only available in the USA at current
- taphangum 15y ago
  I hope they launch here soon. It's a really awesome service.
  - saikat 15y ago
    We're working on it! We want to make sure we get it right. But I do want to mention https://stripe.com/global https://stripe.com/global for anyone not in the US that wants to be notified when Stripe gets to their country.
- maushu 15y ago
  Also still waiting for them in Europe...
  - dedene 15y ago
    Me too... pleasepleaseplease @ Stripe, expand to EU!
dangrossman 15y ago
Has Stripe fixed their webhooks so that they re-POST when the endpoint is down? They can't be compared to IPN until they implement it reliably... without that you have to manually reconcile Stripe's data with your own database to be sure you haven't lost a post during brief downtime, network glitch, transient application or proxy error... > Setting up a merchant account usually takes weeks and requires hours of paperwork to be filled That's a bit of an exaggeration... I've worked with 3 different merchant service providers underwritten by 3 different banks, and none of them took more than 2 days to approve an application, and the applications were like two pages long... 10 minutes to fill out. Names and socials of the principals of the business, estimated ticket size and monthly volume, description of your business, signature, date, send. If you have the volume, that extra percentage point Stripe will shave off your gross sales is a lot to throw away. They're a neat company with a neat API, but they're firmly in the "backup plan" category for me.
- jv22222 15y ago
  Exaggeration corrected. Thanks for the feedback.
- saikat 15y ago
  > Has Stripe fixed their webhooks so that they re-POST when the endpoint is down? They can't be compared to IPN until they implement it reliably... without that you have to manually reconcile Stripe's data with your own database to be sure you haven't lost a post during brief downtime, network glitch, transient application or proxy error... We're working on this right now. It's part of a larger redesign of our webhook system that we started right before the break, and we should be able to launch it pretty soon. Our webhooks are the last somewhat legacy part of our product, so I'm pretty happy that it's getting reworked.
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    That's great. I don't mean to rag on Stripe, it's just one of the things that's held it back from being an easy PayPal replacement even in the US.
gozman 15y ago
Great post Justin! One of the reasons we formed a US LLC (we're Canadians) when building Appifier was to work with Stripe. They're simply the best way we've found to handle online payments without the headache. I can confirm that at the moment our experience (other than some foreign ownership headaches that were promptly resolved by their support staff) has been entirely positive. Integration was a breeze and the reporting is top notch. Best of luck!
- earlyriser 15y ago
  I'm also based in Canada (Mtl) and I has been waiting for months for their international support. What were the other reasons (if you wan to share)? I'm interested in the experience of making US companies from Canada and what are the time and money expenses this generates.
  - gozman 15y ago
    We're also in Montreal! One big reason we went US was to avoid Bill 101 and all the language restrictions it entails. It was going to really slow us down. We also like the access to US capital that setting up in the States allows for. An LLC is an amazing thing that we don't have in Canada. It provides limited liability while freeing you from the governance requirements that a corporation has. As a bootstrapped startup, it really sucks to have to deal with endless paperwork to keep your corporate veil in order. Carl Mercier posted a really good blog entry from a local Quebec perspective, check it out: http://blog.carlmercier.com/2011/08/29/us-incorporation-for-canadian-startups/ http://blog.carlmercier.com/2011/08/29/us-incorporation-for-... If you need any more details about how we set it up, send us a shout!
    - run4yourlives 15y ago
      >If you need any more details about how we set it up, send us a shout! If you have the chance, could you do a blog/HN post about this? I'd love to understand how this is done as well.
    - gawker 15y ago
mark_l_watson 15y ago
I will also concur that Stripe is very easy to add to a site, test, and turn on billing. I just spent almost 8 hours building a stock photo site for my wife and I to use (http://sleepybird.us/sedonaredrocks http://sleepybird.us/sedonaredrocks - written in Clojure :-) and I don't think that the Stripe part of it took more than 90 minutes total, largely because I found a Clojure library for Stripe and everything just worked.
thesis 15y ago
Are people really choosing one or the other? Why not offer both? People DO like to shop with Paypal only.
- jv22222 15y ago
  I guess I should have made it clearer that I converted the site to use stripe as the main payment processor but people can still pay with paypal if they want.
Codhisattva 15y ago
Keep an eye on Dwolla.com if you want an alternative payment system without the 2.9% transaction fee.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  Why do I have this scummy feeling about Dwolla? Was it something I read? I have this feeling that they're going to evaporate as soon as sites start taking Dwolla payments and there's a reason for them to be targeted by criminals... will 25 cents per transaction really cover the fraud-prevention excellence they need to develop?
  - taf2 15y ago
    I really think this is the case of their website design not giving a feeling of quality... Their design is OK... but I bet if they could give the site a softer look and have it convey a feeling of assurance/reliability - they'ed have a much better product... I realize design is a small part of the equation, but it goes a long way in gaining trust in the brand... Right now their site gives me the feeling of "stodgy corporate", slightly sketch... they need to fix that... stripe in comparison gives me the feeling of "cool", "reliably", "smart"... i'm just one dude though... who has been regrettably using authorize.net - so take it with a grain of salt...
    - dangrossman 15y ago
      There's nothing wrong with Authorize.net. Well documented, easy to implement API, automatic billing or charge-by-reference, reliable service, not overpriced... Why would you regret it?
      - taf2 15y ago
        As my service has evolved and newer payment options have emerged braintree, stripe... I'm just probably jealous envious of the coolness of those services... but you're right - authorize.net has not yet failed - good point.
  - 15y ago
dennyferra 15y ago
Can you create subscriptions with Stripe on the fly? My wife runs a subscription business but pricing is based on the products the person chooses so my subscription rate is always variable. When I first looked at Stripe it seemed like I had to have subscription + prices created beforehand.
- jv22222 15y ago
  They have an API to create new subscriptions on the fly yes. It's very easy. I have a similar situation. I used the API to create about 150 subscription plans that cover all my alternatives.
- saikat 15y ago
  Yup, we have an API to create plans - https://stripe.com/docs/api#plans https://stripe.com/docs/api#plans
barmstrong 15y ago
To clarify, you added stripe as a new payment option and you're running both in parallel now right? I didn't think there was a way to get your old PayPal subscribers moved over.
- jv22222 15y ago
  Yes. I made stripe the main payment option and left paypal as a second option. There is no automated way (that I know of) to move customers from paypal to stripe.
dennisgorelik 15y ago
Stripe is easier to deal with and Stripe is also much faster than PayPal. Stripe gives way more flexibility in billing. However in order to use that flexibility I think it's better to dump the whole subscription model and don't even use IPN. I think all subscription management should be handled in-house. Yes, main subscription use-cases are handled ok in Stripe plan/subscription model. But there are so many edge cases that dealing with external subscription model is way too hard (too hard in Stripe and even harder in PayPal). For example, what if customer does not upgrade the plan, but downgrades? How would proration work in that case? Or what if Stripe cannot charge credit card for a day or two because it's over the credit limit? When do I cancel premium membership? How do I reinstate premium membership if card started to work? What if user managed to resubscribe again using different credit card, but user's previous subscription started working after that and I got IPN about successful payment? What if the card is permanently unchargable and how do I differentiate between permanent problems with credit card from temporary problems? My solution to that is to always initiate payment from my web site (or from my backend service for recurrent payments). Do not delegate charge initiation to Stripe subscription.
- patio11 15y ago
  This post is exactly why I use Spreedly (for my subscription product), because writing code for all the edge cases would cost me a metric truckload more than the pittance I pay them every month.
  - mneu 15y ago
    Any chance you looked at Saasy or any of the others on the matrix? Tr http://saasy.com/matrix.php http://saasy.com/matrix.php Trying to choose a vendor now. I've heard good things about Spreedly also.
  - dennisgorelik 15y ago
    The problem with Spreedly is that I still have to do a lot of stuff on my side. Spreadly would just give me some hooks, but then I have to handle these hooks myself. For example, I need to put on hold premium benefits of temporary non-paying users. Spreedly (or Stripe for that matter) cannot do it for me. I don't know if Spreedly can send notification email to my users (Stripe cannot at that moment), but even if such notification can be sent, there could be issues with email deliverability or with mismatch between my website name and spreedly "from" email field. User expresses the intent to upgrade or downgrade on my web site. In order to communicate that intent to Spreedly/Stripe/PayPal I have to make a call that reflects that intent. If the change is as simple as switch to another plan - then it may make sense. But if it's an edge case (e.g. discount), then I have to use more complex version of API. If I go through all that complexity anyway - why not just communicate with my own database and drop third-party dependency whenever possible? Fortunately with Stripe it's quite possible: I just charge credit card whatever the right amount is at whatever the right time is. That's it. No researching Stripe/Spreedly/PayPal subscription model. No dealing with arbitrary restrictions of these models. Another problem with Spreedly is that it does not support Google Checkout (most of my existing customers are from Google Checkout - my first payment processor). So I need to maintain all my Google Checkout customers myself anyway without any Spreedly help. Bottom line: if you want to polish subscriptions UX for your customers - handling subscriptions in-house is the only viable long-term option. (Keep only subscriptions in-house. Payments processing should be outsourced). Yes, it takes time. That's the cost of doing subscription business.
j45 15y ago
I wish stripe was in Canada.
- joseacta 15y ago
  Fill out this form: https://stripe.com/global https://stripe.com/global
- fastspring 15y ago
  SaaSy.com works with vendors in most any country, supports 10+ global currencies, handles global taxes, order pages are translated into 20 languages, and basic integrations take 12-72 hours for the store to launch.
whileonebegin 15y ago
"To get going the only new stuff I needed to add was a credit card form .." One difference between PayPal and Stripe is that PayPal allows you to accept payments without hosting a credit card page. It would be great if Stripe could offer this kind of feature. One alternative to PayPal, with hosted payment pages and IPN, would be WePay.
lnanek 15y ago
Don't many users already have PayPal accounts, though? I'd happily spend twice the development time if it meant users were less likely to leave the checkout page because they already had an account and wouldn't have to type as much. A little more dev work upfront can improve your conversion rates from then on, basically. Heck, I pay with PayPal instead of direct debit/credit cards when both are offered just because typing the PayPal password is easier than filling out all the card and address info.
- dennisgorelik 15y ago
  > Don't many users already have PayPal accounts, though? Nope. I have 3 options: PayPal, Google Checkout, and Credit Card (Stripe, but my users don't know about Stripe). Approximate proportion in new subscription payments is: 15% PayPal, 10% Google Checkout, 75% credit card. Many existing users are switching from PayPal and Google Checkout to Credit Card (because now I have Stripe option).
cmillllllls 15y ago
At ClientBiller, we've set up an extremely easy way to use your merchant account whether it is paypal, authorize.net, google checkout, or moneybookers using our "Payment Pages" function. You just have to add your clients contact info, add the details of what your subscription you want to sell and add the button to your site and your client will get billed daily, weekly, monthly, or anytime you want to bill them! And best of all, our service is free. Try it out and let us know what you think: https://clientbiller.com/client_biller/pages/users/signup?beta=signup https://clientbiller.com/client_biller/pages/users/signup?be... Thanks HN!
spiredigital 15y ago
AnyFu looks like a GREAT site. I've wanted access to subject area experts in the past for specific issues, but didn't want the delay involved with finding a long-term freelancer on oDesk or eLance. Plus, the quality is often sub-par. Best of luck to you. I signed up, and am excited to hear more.....
jarsj 15y ago
Stripe is US only.

186 points by jv22222 15y ago

I implemented Stripe for BCC, too, as an experiment. (I was going to milk a blog post out of it, but all my A/B tests so far have been pushes versus using Paypal, so it wasn't important enough to write before Christmas and I've been swamped since.) It is every bit as easy as Justin says. BCC's integration was in production in 3 hours, including the wholly-new purchasing flow that my site required to support it. No hitches since then at all. P.S. I am not unhappy in any way about Paypal, I just experiment with things all the time.

troygoode 15y ago
have you seen an conversion differences in your A/B tests?
- weaksauce 15y ago
  That's the push part; implying that the tests have been about equal.
  - patio11 15y ago
    Yep. Technically speaking, I got three null results: not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis (that A was about equal to B). Specifically, I tested 1) Paypal + Google Checkout (my previous arrangement) vs. credit card (Stripe) signups alone 2) PP + GC + CC vs. CC 3) PP + GC + CC with in-application upgrade messages pushing insta-gratification CC-based upgrades vs. plain PP + GC + CC with in-application upgrade messages dumping them to the purchasing page like I have done for the last 3 years n.b. These are my results but they may not be your results. It is entirely possible my credit card form design (which I flagrantly stole from Twitter Bootstrap) is just bad, depressing CC signups, or the UX disimprovement crushed the favored-payment-method improvement, or something else entirely. Test test test.
    - carbocation 15y ago
      Are you measuring, for this specific AB test, the number of conversions? Revenue? Profit? (Admittedly they should all trend in the same direction with the exception of profit, which might depend on how well each company's imposed costs work for your situation.)
      - patio11 15y ago
        Number of sales. BCC (almost) always sells for $29.95, and the difference between the three in processing costs is rounding error.
  - mdda 15y ago
    I didn't understand "a push" at first : It's a blackjack term : "In the case of a tied score, known as 'push' or 'standoff', bets are normally returned without adjustment; however, a blackjack beats any hand which is not a blackjack, even with value 21. Blackjack vs. blackjack is a push."
JshWright 15y ago
Are you A/B testing Paypal vs. Stripe, or Paypal & Stripe vs. Paypal alone? EDIT: Just noticed your post breaking down what you've looked at. Thanks again for all your transparency.
iusable 15y ago
How was your experience all-in-all?

chrislomax 15y ago

Anyone know when we can expect this in the UK? I've heard good things about Stripe so far but as much as I know it's only available in the USA at current

taphangum 15y ago
I hope they launch here soon. It's a really awesome service.
- saikat 15y ago
  We're working on it! We want to make sure we get it right. But I do want to mention https://stripe.com/global https://stripe.com/global for anyone not in the US that wants to be notified when Stripe gets to their country.
maushu 15y ago
Also still waiting for them in Europe...
- dedene 15y ago
  Me too... pleasepleaseplease @ Stripe, expand to EU!

dangrossman 15y ago

Has Stripe fixed their webhooks so that they re-POST when the endpoint is down? They can't be compared to IPN until they implement it reliably... without that you have to manually reconcile Stripe's data with your own database to be sure you haven't lost a post during brief downtime, network glitch, transient application or proxy error... > Setting up a merchant account usually takes weeks and requires hours of paperwork to be filled That's a bit of an exaggeration... I've worked with 3 different merchant service providers underwritten by 3 different banks, and none of them took more than 2 days to approve an application, and the applications were like two pages long... 10 minutes to fill out. Names and socials of the principals of the business, estimated ticket size and monthly volume, description of your business, signature, date, send. If you have the volume, that extra percentage point Stripe will shave off your gross sales is a lot to throw away. They're a neat company with a neat API, but they're firmly in the "backup plan" category for me.

jv22222 15y ago
Exaggeration corrected. Thanks for the feedback.
saikat 15y ago
> Has Stripe fixed their webhooks so that they re-POST when the endpoint is down? They can't be compared to IPN until they implement it reliably... without that you have to manually reconcile Stripe's data with your own database to be sure you haven't lost a post during brief downtime, network glitch, transient application or proxy error... We're working on this right now. It's part of a larger redesign of our webhook system that we started right before the break, and we should be able to launch it pretty soon. Our webhooks are the last somewhat legacy part of our product, so I'm pretty happy that it's getting reworked.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  That's great. I don't mean to rag on Stripe, it's just one of the things that's held it back from being an easy PayPal replacement even in the US.

gozman 15y ago

Great post Justin! One of the reasons we formed a US LLC (we're Canadians) when building Appifier was to work with Stripe. They're simply the best way we've found to handle online payments without the headache. I can confirm that at the moment our experience (other than some foreign ownership headaches that were promptly resolved by their support staff) has been entirely positive. Integration was a breeze and the reporting is top notch. Best of luck!

earlyriser 15y ago
I'm also based in Canada (Mtl) and I has been waiting for months for their international support. What were the other reasons (if you wan to share)? I'm interested in the experience of making US companies from Canada and what are the time and money expenses this generates.
- gozman 15y ago
  We're also in Montreal! One big reason we went US was to avoid Bill 101 and all the language restrictions it entails. It was going to really slow us down. We also like the access to US capital that setting up in the States allows for. An LLC is an amazing thing that we don't have in Canada. It provides limited liability while freeing you from the governance requirements that a corporation has. As a bootstrapped startup, it really sucks to have to deal with endless paperwork to keep your corporate veil in order. Carl Mercier posted a really good blog entry from a local Quebec perspective, check it out: http://blog.carlmercier.com/2011/08/29/us-incorporation-for-canadian-startups/ http://blog.carlmercier.com/2011/08/29/us-incorporation-for-... If you need any more details about how we set it up, send us a shout!
  - run4yourlives 15y ago
    >If you need any more details about how we set it up, send us a shout! If you have the chance, could you do a blog/HN post about this? I'd love to understand how this is done as well.
  - gawker 15y ago

mark_l_watson 15y ago

I will also concur that Stripe is very easy to add to a site, test, and turn on billing. I just spent almost 8 hours building a stock photo site for my wife and I to use (http://sleepybird.us/sedonaredrocks http://sleepybird.us/sedonaredrocks - written in Clojure :-) and I don't think that the Stripe part of it took more than 90 minutes total, largely because I found a Clojure library for Stripe and everything just worked.

thesis 15y ago

Are people really choosing one or the other? Why not offer both? People DO like to shop with Paypal only.

jv22222 15y ago
I guess I should have made it clearer that I converted the site to use stripe as the main payment processor but people can still pay with paypal if they want.

Codhisattva 15y ago

Keep an eye on Dwolla.com if you want an alternative payment system without the 2.9% transaction fee.

dangrossman 15y ago
Why do I have this scummy feeling about Dwolla? Was it something I read? I have this feeling that they're going to evaporate as soon as sites start taking Dwolla payments and there's a reason for them to be targeted by criminals... will 25 cents per transaction really cover the fraud-prevention excellence they need to develop?
- taf2 15y ago
  I really think this is the case of their website design not giving a feeling of quality... Their design is OK... but I bet if they could give the site a softer look and have it convey a feeling of assurance/reliability - they'ed have a much better product... I realize design is a small part of the equation, but it goes a long way in gaining trust in the brand... Right now their site gives me the feeling of "stodgy corporate", slightly sketch... they need to fix that... stripe in comparison gives me the feeling of "cool", "reliably", "smart"... i'm just one dude though... who has been regrettably using authorize.net - so take it with a grain of salt...
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    There's nothing wrong with Authorize.net. Well documented, easy to implement API, automatic billing or charge-by-reference, reliable service, not overpriced... Why would you regret it?
    - taf2 15y ago
      As my service has evolved and newer payment options have emerged braintree, stripe... I'm just probably jealous envious of the coolness of those services... but you're right - authorize.net has not yet failed - good point.
- 15y ago

dennyferra 15y ago

Can you create subscriptions with Stripe on the fly? My wife runs a subscription business but pricing is based on the products the person chooses so my subscription rate is always variable. When I first looked at Stripe it seemed like I had to have subscription + prices created beforehand.

jv22222 15y ago
They have an API to create new subscriptions on the fly yes. It's very easy. I have a similar situation. I used the API to create about 150 subscription plans that cover all my alternatives.
saikat 15y ago
Yup, we have an API to create plans - https://stripe.com/docs/api#plans https://stripe.com/docs/api#plans

barmstrong 15y ago

To clarify, you added stripe as a new payment option and you're running both in parallel now right? I didn't think there was a way to get your old PayPal subscribers moved over.

jv22222 15y ago
Yes. I made stripe the main payment option and left paypal as a second option. There is no automated way (that I know of) to move customers from paypal to stripe.

dennisgorelik 15y ago

Stripe is easier to deal with and Stripe is also much faster than PayPal. Stripe gives way more flexibility in billing. However in order to use that flexibility I think it's better to dump the whole subscription model and don't even use IPN. I think all subscription management should be handled in-house. Yes, main subscription use-cases are handled ok in Stripe plan/subscription model. But there are so many edge cases that dealing with external subscription model is way too hard (too hard in Stripe and even harder in PayPal). For example, what if customer does not upgrade the plan, but downgrades? How would proration work in that case? Or what if Stripe cannot charge credit card for a day or two because it's over the credit limit? When do I cancel premium membership? How do I reinstate premium membership if card started to work? What if user managed to resubscribe again using different credit card, but user's previous subscription started working after that and I got IPN about successful payment? What if the card is permanently unchargable and how do I differentiate between permanent problems with credit card from temporary problems? My solution to that is to always initiate payment from my web site (or from my backend service for recurrent payments). Do not delegate charge initiation to Stripe subscription.

patio11 15y ago
This post is exactly why I use Spreedly (for my subscription product), because writing code for all the edge cases would cost me a metric truckload more than the pittance I pay them every month.
- mneu 15y ago
  Any chance you looked at Saasy or any of the others on the matrix? Tr http://saasy.com/matrix.php http://saasy.com/matrix.php Trying to choose a vendor now. I've heard good things about Spreedly also.
- dennisgorelik 15y ago
  The problem with Spreedly is that I still have to do a lot of stuff on my side. Spreadly would just give me some hooks, but then I have to handle these hooks myself. For example, I need to put on hold premium benefits of temporary non-paying users. Spreedly (or Stripe for that matter) cannot do it for me. I don't know if Spreedly can send notification email to my users (Stripe cannot at that moment), but even if such notification can be sent, there could be issues with email deliverability or with mismatch between my website name and spreedly "from" email field. User expresses the intent to upgrade or downgrade on my web site. In order to communicate that intent to Spreedly/Stripe/PayPal I have to make a call that reflects that intent. If the change is as simple as switch to another plan - then it may make sense. But if it's an edge case (e.g. discount), then I have to use more complex version of API. If I go through all that complexity anyway - why not just communicate with my own database and drop third-party dependency whenever possible? Fortunately with Stripe it's quite possible: I just charge credit card whatever the right amount is at whatever the right time is. That's it. No researching Stripe/Spreedly/PayPal subscription model. No dealing with arbitrary restrictions of these models. Another problem with Spreedly is that it does not support Google Checkout (most of my existing customers are from Google Checkout - my first payment processor). So I need to maintain all my Google Checkout customers myself anyway without any Spreedly help. Bottom line: if you want to polish subscriptions UX for your customers - handling subscriptions in-house is the only viable long-term option. (Keep only subscriptions in-house. Payments processing should be outsourced). Yes, it takes time. That's the cost of doing subscription business.

j45 15y ago

I wish stripe was in Canada.

joseacta 15y ago
Fill out this form: https://stripe.com/global https://stripe.com/global
fastspring 15y ago
SaaSy.com works with vendors in most any country, supports 10+ global currencies, handles global taxes, order pages are translated into 20 languages, and basic integrations take 12-72 hours for the store to launch.

whileonebegin 15y ago

"To get going the only new stuff I needed to add was a credit card form .." One difference between PayPal and Stripe is that PayPal allows you to accept payments without hosting a credit card page. It would be great if Stripe could offer this kind of feature. One alternative to PayPal, with hosted payment pages and IPN, would be WePay.

lnanek 15y ago

Don't many users already have PayPal accounts, though? I'd happily spend twice the development time if it meant users were less likely to leave the checkout page because they already had an account and wouldn't have to type as much. A little more dev work upfront can improve your conversion rates from then on, basically. Heck, I pay with PayPal instead of direct debit/credit cards when both are offered just because typing the PayPal password is easier than filling out all the card and address info.

dennisgorelik 15y ago
> Don't many users already have PayPal accounts, though? Nope. I have 3 options: PayPal, Google Checkout, and Credit Card (Stripe, but my users don't know about Stripe). Approximate proportion in new subscription payments is: 15% PayPal, 10% Google Checkout, 75% credit card. Many existing users are switching from PayPal and Google Checkout to Credit Card (because now I have Stripe option).

cmillllllls 15y ago

At ClientBiller, we've set up an extremely easy way to use your merchant account whether it is paypal, authorize.net, google checkout, or moneybookers using our "Payment Pages" function. You just have to add your clients contact info, add the details of what your subscription you want to sell and add the button to your site and your client will get billed daily, weekly, monthly, or anytime you want to bill them! And best of all, our service is free. Try it out and let us know what you think: https://clientbiller.com/client_biller/pages/users/signup?beta=signup https://clientbiller.com/client_biller/pages/users/signup?be... Thanks HN!

spiredigital 15y ago

AnyFu looks like a GREAT site. I've wanted access to subject area experts in the past for specific issues, but didn't want the delay involved with finding a long-term freelancer on oDesk or eLance. Plus, the quality is often sub-par. Best of luck to you. I signed up, and am excited to hear more.....

jarsj 15y ago

Stripe is US only.