
Ask HN: What is a good alternative to PayPal? - NadaAldahleh
Requirements:
1- has recurring payments
2- invisible to end user
3- accepts canadian companies
4- (nice to have) easy to set-up
5- (nice to have) does not require a merchant bank account.
======
thinkcomp
I've said this before (for which I've been roundly criticized), and I'll say
it again.

The reason there is no good alternative to PayPal, and especially an
alternative that works internationally, is the regulatory environment around
money transmission in the United States. If startups expect to solve this
problem, there needs to be a coordinated effort to change that environment
just as there was a coordinated effort to combat SOPA.

Exhibit A -
[http://www.thinkcomputer.com/corporate/whitepapers/heldhosta...](http://www.thinkcomputer.com/corporate/whitepapers/heldhostage.pdf)

Exhibit B - <http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/case.html?id=716056>

Exhibit C - <http://www.plainsite.org/issues/index.html?id=1>

Exhibit D - [http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=fin...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=fin&group=01001-02000&file=2000-2003)

To head off the most common objections: PayPal is grandfathered in at this
point. You can only get away with breaking the law and hoping no one will
notice for so long. The penalties for violation are criminal (federal felony),
not civil. And yes, I'm biased as the head of a payments company affected by
the law, but I'm not the only one, and I'm not wrong.

~~~
jbseek
Hi Aaron I'm interested in this space too, especially around the latter. The
issue with money transfers U.S & regulatory practices hindering any innovative
development on the international front. What have your experiences been with
facecash in that area?

------
cperciva
I'm going with "wait for Stripe to arrive" personally.

~~~
abrudtkuhl
We're using Stripe - it's out already.

Also check out Dwolla - <http://dwolla.com>

~~~
NadaAldahleh
Stripe looks good, but its not available for canadian companies. Dwolla
doesn't seem to have a way to do invisible recurring payments.

------
konaaceo
One of the best services out there is <http://www.braintreepayments.com/> but
you can also look at <http://www.2checkout.com>. Both of them have great
solutions depending on what you need. We are migrating from PayPal to
BrainTree this spring.

~~~
tagawa
They don't seem to provide an all-in-one service for non-US customers.

~~~
konaaceo
Contact William Ready, he is the CEO of BrainTree and very accessible. There
are many Global companies using their service so it might be worth dropping
him a message just to clarify. <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-
ready/b/203/1b1>

------
meow
I like Saasy (<http://saasy.com/>). It's frictionless and supports
international merchants but a little pricier than other options.

~~~
dholowiski
Using them right now - pretty easy to implement. Sadly, my product has not
seen any purchases yet so I can't comment on the whole money part of it yet.

------
thurn
Possibly one of the Amazon payments solutions?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Payments>

~~~
Dysiode
As a consumer I personally prefer Amazon Payments. They already have my
information and their checkout is familiar.

I can't say if they support international payments though (but they're a good
"for US customers" option!)

~~~
bbrian
I'm in Ireland and pay through Amazon for JungleDisk.

------
ScottBurson
I think WePay deserves mention here, though AFAIK they don't yet support
Canadian businesses. They don't require a merchant account, support recurring
payments, and can be made fairly though perhaps not completely invisible. I've
found their API quite easy to use.

~~~
konaaceo
WePay is good for selling tickets or selling items through their web store,
not for general ecommerce. Its not useful for developers.

~~~
ScottBurson
Have you actually looked at their API? I'm using it for something quite
different from that. (My site isn't live yet or I'd show you.)

------
jblesage
Go with Beanstream as the payment gateway, and either Chargify or Recurly for
the recurring payments. I've personally had no problem with this combination
on many projects, and all of my clients are canadian companies.

~~~
NadaAldahleh
It's not my clients are canadian, it's my company is canadian and Beanstream
does not work with non-US. I'll take a look at chargify though :)

~~~
sjs
His clients are the ones accepting payments though, so they need Canadian
merchant accounts. Beanstream accepts Canadian merchants. We just started the
sign up process with them last week, from Victoria BC.

We're going with Beanstream + Chargify. You might want to take a look at this:
[http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-
online-p...](http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-online-
payments-service-wheres-the-catch/)

------
tamersalama
Samurai from FeeFighters <https://samurai.feefighters.com/>. They seem to be
beta-testing their service for Canadian companies.

~~~
NadaAldahleh
their site and APIs say nothing about recurring payments. I don't think they
support it.

------
gerasini
During my search, I have found that Stripe is the best solution out there.
There is even a post with cost comparison
([http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-
online-p...](http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-online-
payments-service-wheres-the-catch/)) that demosntrates that is also cheap.

Unfortunately, Stripe is for USA-only.

An alternative is, as some people already mentioned, <http://saasy.com/>,
which is a FastSpring service.

------
pbreynolds
Since you mention recurring payments as a priority, I'd recommend Chargify.
They give a list of gateway options here: <http://chargify.com/payment-
gateways/>

One of my businesses is an online retailer. We use PayPal Standard (but don't
require a PP account) simply because the UI for generating postage and
tracking shipments is very easy. USPS has an open API, but I've yet to find a
payment processor that integrates shipping.

~~~
Nomlab
I second this, <http://chargify.com> has many more features than Braintree,
Spreedly, and Recurly. Also, they work with international merchant
accounts/gateways.

------
adamlindsay
Stripe.com, although not sure about #3.

------
chromedude
Wait for Stripe. It should be there soon. Just wait for it. It is hands down
the best option out there.

------
jimbobimbo
How "invisible" is critical? If not really, then Plimus looks nice, share*it
also has subscriptions. Both are quite easy to integrate (web callbacks).

~~~
tagawa
I haven't used it, but BMT Micro seems to offer the same kind of service.

------
pbreit
You won't find anything quite like PayPal but some nice options include
Payfirma, Versapay and Intuit GoPayment.

------
iamandrus
Stripe is the best right now. Great user interface, great API, and awesome
staff. Give it a try.

------
markshead
Do you consider PayPal to be invisible to the end user?

~~~
NadaAldahleh
PayPal standard is not, but PayPal Pro is. With Pro, the user doesn't need a
Paypal account, would never get redirected to paypal site, and their credit
card doesn't show paypal.

------
funkyboy
6 (nice to have) handles invoicing automatically.

------
cdog46
Dwollar

check it out

~~~
konaaceo
its actually called Dwolla <https://www.dwolla.com/>

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DiabloD3
Consider Bitcoin yet?

------
melvinng
Bitcoin is the best!

