Poll: Paypal or Credit Card for payment processing on webapp
So I have been looking into launching a few web apps with cheap simple payments, either one time $10 signups, or $5-10/month recurring. I am trying to decide, from a user/UX standpoint, if paypal payments or a CC form is less signup friction. Does anyone have any experience? As a customer what are your views?
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 70.3 ms ] threadI thought that was kind of interesting; usually, once I start hearing things like that from my clients, it signals a sea change. I won't hold my breath, though.
In terms of legal rights, you (as a business owner) have many avenues of resolution should an issue arise with a CC processor.
Paypal, on the other hand, has been known to arbitrarily freeze accounts without warning and provide no immediate way to resolve the situation.
There have been many stories on HN about that exact situation.
If you can afford and are able to qualify for a reputable CC payment processor and merchant account, do it.
As a customer, I prefer a CC form. I don't trust Paypal, and if my bank accounts are linked to Paypal and my account is breached, I'm fucked. If I don't link them and use a credit card, I go through a lot of hoops to complete a transaction within the Paypal interface.
For paypal, it's a username and password that I can recall from memory.
For a CC, it's getting my wallet out, taking out my card, typing in the number (which I don't have memorized), the expiry date, the CCV and my full name.
It's an extra pain.
In my opinion, amazon/prime 1-click checkout is the best, followed by paypal, followed by CC#, followed by typing in a checking account and routing number.
A bigger pain is registering for PayPal and adding a backup funding method (takes days).
I'd also like to reap the benefits of Credit Card rewards.
In theory, PayPal makes life easier, but I think the common case actually can be a bigger pain.
The problem with PayPal Express is that it obfuscates the credit card option by making it a small link below a PayPal sign up form that says "or another payment option" or something equally confusing.
If Stripe is as successfully low-friction as it's been hailed to be, I'll be mighty pleased and use them as processor of choice.
$10 one-time payments are challenging to build a business around because you'll have essentially nothing that you can spend on customer acquisition. If you're not on a platform with built-in distribution up the wazoo, well, that's less than happy.
2) You don't have to expose the fact that you're using Paypal to users. See Paypal Website Payments Pro -- they're just an API endpoint then. (Quick plug: Spreedly means you won't have to program recurring billing logic. This was a major win for me.)
I've offered Paypal / GC to customers for years on BCC, and (somewhat surprisingly to me) it is almost exactly 50/50 in which one they pick.
As to doing a poll on HN for views on this sort of thing: keep in mind that HN users are not your customers.
We handle recurring billing ourselves where I work, and the recurring billing logic doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Surely one of your obvious skill and experience could whip out recurring billing logic in practically no time. How does letting someone else handle it turn into a major win?
I can see that if it lets you avoid storing credit cards that could cut out a lot of annoying stuff, but you (and others I've seen recommend Spreedly) specifically say "recurring billing logic" which I'm assuming means just keeping track of when people are due and billing them.
So I would say that if you are accepting average payments below $10, get micropayments processing from PayPal or Amazon.
If you're charging more than that (as you stated), why no offer both? Have a credit card entry form and off to the side have a PayPal button. I know I prefer PayPal since it's easy and I know how much I have available to spend.
Recurly or similar makes it easy, albeit a bit spendy.