Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#31

Post by ANH » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 1:46 AM UTC

I'm going to be launching soon with PayPal's Digital Goods Express Checkout dealio. In theory, integration is simple, but I've found the documentation to be lengthy, incomplete, and just plain wrong in some cases. I've had speedy support responses, though. The Sandbox is handy, if clunky.

If Braintree had a micropayments option I would almost certainly have tried to go with them.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#32

Post by pyre » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 1:50 AM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #23

MichaelGG wrote: post #11

Are any of the solutions out there comparable to BrainTree? It's easy to process CC's, even recurring, but it's a pain to do PCI compliance. If the CC info hits your server, you're in PCI scope. BrainTree has the browser send the info direct to them, then redirects with a token you can use to check information and perform charges. Anything else out there like that? That is, all the flexibility of being able to run ch…

I am no expert on this, but from what I gathered of previous discussions of this topic, is that if you are serving the form HTML, you need some form of PCI compliance, even though the CC never hits your server. This makes sense as any XSS attack would allow an attacker to lift the CC straight from the page.

Some processors ofter an option that allows you to redirect to a page that they host for the cc information, and then back to your page for checkout.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#33

Post by rgrieselhuber » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 1:51 AM UTC

Stripe

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#34

Post by rgrieselhuber » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 1:53 AM UTC

sahillavingia wrote: post #12

I use Stripe for Gumroad and it's amazing. Unfortunately, it's still private for now.

Just said the same thing elsewhere but I'm very happy with Stripe and strongly recommend it.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#35

Post by wmboy » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:08 AM UTC

One option is Clickbank.

No need for a merchant account and they easily handle affiliate commissions (if that's something you want).

Downside is that people will see Clickbank.com on their credit card statement, not your merchant name (but that's the same with a basic PayPal account as well).

Upside is they have a very good track record at processing recurring payments successfully (much better than PayPal) and they don't freeze your account like PayPal or Google Checkout does.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#36

Post by teuobk » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:12 AM UTC

I know you mentioned not liking Amazon for the sign-up step, but in practice I haven't noticed much of a fall-off because of it. I use Amazon's Flexible Payments Service for taking small payments (About 10% of the people who click the "buy it" button on my product get to the Amazon sign-in/registration page and then bail. Abandoned funnels always sting, especially so close to completion, but is a 10% abandonment rate worse than it would be for a more direct credit card payment system? I doubt it, though I admit that I don't have any solid data to support that assertion. Might be worth trying.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#37

Post by dmazin » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:21 AM UTC

sahillavingia wrote: post #12

I use Stripe for Gumroad and it's amazing. Unfortunately, it's still private for now.

I'd give my left arm to get to use Stripe. I'm in the situation of the OP and I'm neither ready nor capable of dealing with PayPal and merchant accounts.

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#38

Post by ScotterC » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:21 AM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #20

ScotterC wrote: post #9

I'm using Braintree combo-ed with Recurly. Makes it simple to start accepting subscriptions. I'm a big fan of recurly and if I ever feel like coding my own, I can use Braintrees. I built my own subscription payments for Paypal before and to be honest I'd never want to use that code again. Subscriptions have a lot more headaches then appear at first glance.

Braintree has their own system for recurring payments too; what made you decide to use Recurly instead?

Knew the guys and realized how easy their product is to drop in with no setup. Full interface for any non coder to use easily. Braintree's setup and site aren't that easy or simple. If I want to put in the work, I'll fully switch to Braintree

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#39

Post by bradleyjoyce » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:21 AM UTC

sahillavingia wrote: post #12

I use Stripe for Gumroad and it's amazing. Unfortunately, it's still private for now.

such an awesome domain name! (stripe.com)

can anyone get me an invite :-)

Re: Ask HN: How are lean startups easily accepting CC payments?

#40

Post by bradleyjoyce » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 2:23 AM UTC

MichaelGG wrote: post #11

Are any of the solutions out there comparable to BrainTree? It's easy to process CC's, even recurring, but it's a pain to do PCI compliance. If the CC info hits your server, you're in PCI scope. BrainTree has the browser send the info direct to them, then redirects with a token you can use to check information and perform charges. Anything else out there like that? That is, all the flexibility of being able to run ch…

I believe Spreedly's new http://spreedlycore.com is supposed to do this.