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

justinvincent.com

11–20 of 62 posts

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

#13
post #8

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 pape…

> 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 webhoo…

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.

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

#15
post #11

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

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.

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

#16
post #6

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 rep…

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.

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-...

If you need any more details about how we set it up, send us a shout!

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

#17

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

I hope they launch here soon. It's a really awesome service.

We're working on it! We want to make sure we get it right. But I do want to mention https://stripe.com/global for anyone not in the US that wants to be notified when Stripe gets to their country.

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

#18

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

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?

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

#19
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.

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

#20

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.

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.
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