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Show HN: Forge - an easy way to take payments powered by balancedpayments.com

21 points by jordanmessina 14y ago

switch33 14y ago
Is this just another wacky advertisement? Why would people use this over the more useful/well-known ones like stripe or braintree payments? Even if it's free, it's not really any better. Running the payment process of checking/validating cards and all that for your company individually that is primarily web-based may be more work and end up costing more.
- jareau 14y ago
  I think the point is that it's way easier to use this than something like braintree or stripe that require coding skills. Did you think helium or spacebox were just wacky adverts too?
  - switch33 14y ago
    Considering one of the payments system was literally a copycat originating from the US but then taken to China to develop the same product just in a different place to avoid patent lawsuits. Yes, I do consider some of these to be a bit "wacky." I think this one if I remember correctly may be spacebox or something with a similar name. Helium i haven't heard much about, so I can't say much about that. It's not exactly like this stuff hasn't been coded before in easy enough to use solutions. I'm just annoyed primarily that this site wants you to sign up before showing any of the code/example of how easy it is to use if it's free. Seems kind of like an extra step for no real reason. Also from what i've heard a lot of stripe/braintree really isn't that hard to set up. If you want to prove that the process is really easy you need to show that stuff on the front-page in pictures or snippets.
    - kevinholesh 14y ago
      Easy enough for programmers to use, but not people who barely understand HTML. That's the market Forge is serving.
      - switch33 14y ago
        If they can barely understand HTML they probably aren't going to fair very well with actually selling stuff online anyway. HTML is much more basic than programming it's basically english in brackets. Also if you can find me a "programmer" who doesn't know how to use HTML then you have found some very awkward person.
        kevinholesh 14y ago
        I didn't mean that programmers and "people who barely understand HTML" were the same person. Sorry for the confusion. We're aiming Forge at people who can't code their own website from scratch, not really you or me. These non-techies can manage a Wordpress install or a Squarespace site, and just want to sell something online. I think that selling online shouldn't be about the logistics of running a website and handling payments. It's more of a product and marketing problem. Forge takes away some (but not all) of the technical hurdles of selling things online.
    - jareau 14y ago
      They do offer an example demo checkout form on the homepage. Not sure if that's what you're looking for though.
      - switch33 14y ago
        That there wasn't much differentiation between the service and the more well known providers. But like I said the key is explaining the "easyness" of it on the front page rather than just an example.
        kevinholesh 14y ago
        We appreciate all the feedback and we'll try to clear things up based on your advice with the homepage. Thank you.
- kevinholesh 14y ago
  Designer of Forge here. We're aiming to solve the problems of the non-techie market. People who just want to sell something online shouldn't be worrying about payment gateways, payment processors or designing a checkout process. Forge handles that. With Stripe, it's fairly easy for a programmer to write their own payment processing backend and build a checkout process for it. We're not trying to serve the people that have the development skills to use Stripe. We're going after the people who use PayPal Buy Now buttons.
  - switch33 14y ago
    This sounds like a good enough idea, but the front page kind of just doesn't tell any of how it's done, instead it just sort of has an example. Not sure how that is going to convey the "easyness" of it. That is my main concern really.
    - kevinholesh 14y ago
      That's a great point. Perhaps a demo video explaining how it works would show the "easyness" of it.
      - switch33 14y ago
        That could be a better idea for sure.
niggler 14y ago
I'm not convinced that a standalone payments system is useful for anyone: the type of person who couldn't get stripe or balanced payments to work most likely will leverage a turnkey storefront solution. Forge needs to have connectors to storefronts (or build their own system and market the package). A payment system in absentia makes no sense.
- kevinholesh 14y ago
  I agree. It would be better if we had storefronts for these people, and product pages they can link to. That's on our todo list.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
minouye 14y ago
Congrats on launching! Really like the design and prominent example. One question: what's the advantage of this over Gumroad/Ribbon.co? Lower fees? Also, you mentioned that this is targeted at a non-technical market. I'd definitely think about revisiting the homepage copy/selling points. To me it still feels targeted toward a developer audience. Perhaps a couple of use cases would be helpful to show off the types of businesses that would find Forge useful? (http://goodsie.com http://goodsie.com and http://shopify.com http://shopify.com come to mind as decent examples of this). Good luck!
- jordanmessina 14y ago
  Thanks so much! As for the competitors in the space, we have some things in the pipeline that will differentiate us quite a bit. We needed to at least catch up, and we wanted to launch as soon as possible. Now that you point out the homepage, I agree completely. That will be the first thing we fix up first. Thanks for pointing these out. Adding examples is a great idea. I think we'll end up showcasing businesses built on top of Forge. Thanks again!

21 points by jordanmessina 14y ago

Is this just another wacky advertisement? Why would people use this over the more useful/well-known ones like stripe or braintree payments? Even if it's free, it's not really any better. Running the payment process of checking/validating cards and all that for your company individually that is primarily web-based may be more work and end up costing more.

jareau 14y ago
I think the point is that it's way easier to use this than something like braintree or stripe that require coding skills. Did you think helium or spacebox were just wacky adverts too?
- switch33 14y ago
  Considering one of the payments system was literally a copycat originating from the US but then taken to China to develop the same product just in a different place to avoid patent lawsuits. Yes, I do consider some of these to be a bit "wacky." I think this one if I remember correctly may be spacebox or something with a similar name. Helium i haven't heard much about, so I can't say much about that. It's not exactly like this stuff hasn't been coded before in easy enough to use solutions. I'm just annoyed primarily that this site wants you to sign up before showing any of the code/example of how easy it is to use if it's free. Seems kind of like an extra step for no real reason. Also from what i've heard a lot of stripe/braintree really isn't that hard to set up. If you want to prove that the process is really easy you need to show that stuff on the front-page in pictures or snippets.
  - kevinholesh 14y ago
    Easy enough for programmers to use, but not people who barely understand HTML. That's the market Forge is serving.
    - switch33 14y ago
      If they can barely understand HTML they probably aren't going to fair very well with actually selling stuff online anyway. HTML is much more basic than programming it's basically english in brackets. Also if you can find me a "programmer" who doesn't know how to use HTML then you have found some very awkward person.
      - kevinholesh 14y ago
        I didn't mean that programmers and "people who barely understand HTML" were the same person. Sorry for the confusion. We're aiming Forge at people who can't code their own website from scratch, not really you or me. These non-techies can manage a Wordpress install or a Squarespace site, and just want to sell something online. I think that selling online shouldn't be about the logistics of running a website and handling payments. It's more of a product and marketing problem. Forge takes away some (but not all) of the technical hurdles of selling things online.
  - jareau 14y ago
    They do offer an example demo checkout form on the homepage. Not sure if that's what you're looking for though.
    - switch33 14y ago
      That there wasn't much differentiation between the service and the more well known providers. But like I said the key is explaining the "easyness" of it on the front page rather than just an example.
      - kevinholesh 14y ago
        We appreciate all the feedback and we'll try to clear things up based on your advice with the homepage. Thank you.
kevinholesh 14y ago
Designer of Forge here. We're aiming to solve the problems of the non-techie market. People who just want to sell something online shouldn't be worrying about payment gateways, payment processors or designing a checkout process. Forge handles that. With Stripe, it's fairly easy for a programmer to write their own payment processing backend and build a checkout process for it. We're not trying to serve the people that have the development skills to use Stripe. We're going after the people who use PayPal Buy Now buttons.
- switch33 14y ago
  This sounds like a good enough idea, but the front page kind of just doesn't tell any of how it's done, instead it just sort of has an example. Not sure how that is going to convey the "easyness" of it. That is my main concern really.
  - kevinholesh 14y ago
    That's a great point. Perhaps a demo video explaining how it works would show the "easyness" of it.
    - switch33 14y ago
      That could be a better idea for sure.

niggler 14y ago

I'm not convinced that a standalone payments system is useful for anyone: the type of person who couldn't get stripe or balanced payments to work most likely will leverage a turnkey storefront solution. Forge needs to have connectors to storefronts (or build their own system and market the package). A payment system in absentia makes no sense.

kevinholesh 14y ago
I agree. It would be better if we had storefronts for these people, and product pages they can link to. That's on our todo list.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

minouye 14y ago

Congrats on launching! Really like the design and prominent example. One question: what's the advantage of this over Gumroad/Ribbon.co? Lower fees? Also, you mentioned that this is targeted at a non-technical market. I'd definitely think about revisiting the homepage copy/selling points. To me it still feels targeted toward a developer audience. Perhaps a couple of use cases would be helpful to show off the types of businesses that would find Forge useful? (http://goodsie.com http://goodsie.com and http://shopify.com http://shopify.com come to mind as decent examples of this). Good luck!

jordanmessina 14y ago
Thanks so much! As for the competitors in the space, we have some things in the pipeline that will differentiate us quite a bit. We needed to at least catch up, and we wanted to launch as soon as possible. Now that you point out the homepage, I agree completely. That will be the first thing we fix up first. Thanks for pointing these out. Adding examples is a great idea. I think we'll end up showcasing businesses built on top of Forge. Thanks again!