
Ask HN: Alternative to Authorize.net? - ScottWhigham
As of today, authorize.net has been down for more than 6 hours (why is no one reporting on this?). Any good alternatives?
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merrick33
We switched to braintree from paypal at the beginning of the year - they are
the most responsive payment provider I have ever dealt with. Our customer
service that answers non technical questions also helped me troubleshoot some
api issues I was having.

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lrm242
Braintree has been good to work with so far. Haven't launched yet, but during
the research & dev process they've been great.

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enjo
I'll throw more support in for Braintree. We use them, and they are great.
Their customer vault API is simple, straightforward, and very effective.
They've been quick, and their whole system just makes slightly more sense than
the others.

It's still credit cards, and it's still magic... just slightly less painful
than other providers that I've used.

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aristus
I like TrustCommerce; simple, solid API and no bullshit. Also their "vault" is
great for storing CC info. It's a holiday weekend in the US so don't expect
miracles, though. Setting up a new payment gateway takes time. For a quick fix
it's better to use PayPal until you get something better set up.

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lisper
I second that recommendation. I've worked with all the major payment
processors at one time or another and TC is the only one that really seemed to
Get It.

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jonknee
I know there are a lot of haters, but I've had no problem integrating with
PayPal's PayFlow Pro. It's not PayPal, it's a regular payment gateway. They
bought the business from Verisign a while back.

I'm not involved on the business end so I'm not sure what the rates are, but
the API is easy to integrate with and it's stable. Though I guess all gateways
can have trouble like a datacenter fire.

Your best bet is probably to have a backup gateway and a non-gateway backup
like PayPal or Google Checkout. Cover all your bases.

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ScottWhigham
Thanks. We actually do have PayPal along with their Payflow Pro. However, not
all of our customers accounts can use PayPal hence the need for another
provider.

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andrewf
Payflow Pro just processes credit card numbers you throw at it. No need for
your customers to have a Paypal account.

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vaksel
panicking because of random events doesn't do anyone any good. it's not like
any alternative will guarantee that it doesn't happen to them either

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ScottWhigham
Why is this upvoted? I don't get it. This adds nothing. No one panicked. No
one suggested anyone was panicking. Having alternatives that you can switch on
in the event one goes down is just good practice.

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emilam
authorize.net was bought a few years back and there has been few changes to
it. Some of the original developers on the authorize.net team have started
mtrex. It is a similar service, but things seem to fit together better. I
guess the second time around they know what they are doing.

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pmikal
Auth is nothing more than a gateway, ie, hosted software. There are numerous
gateway software available which you can run yourself and connect directly to
your merchant acquirer.

Many might want to consider Chase Paymentech, the largest acquirer, whom you
can directly connect with. Paypal runs their credit and partner transactions
over the Paymentech network if that gives you any confidence.

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lee
I'm setting up PayPal for payment processing next month. Is it really as awful
as everyone on HN make it out to be?

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systemtrigger
I am considering amazon fps for a project mostly because I'm using several
other aws services and am comfortable hacking with those. I haven't had a
merchant account before so I wonder with fps what advantages I'd be missing
over authorize.net, braintree or paypal.

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jonah
I have experience with Auth.net and generally have been happy with them.

That being said, I also like VeriFone's offerings - very powerful and their
rates are really good.

I've also used PayPal's Website Payments Pro and Payflow Pro - good
experiences there as well.

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thesubjective
imeem.com used cybersource (authorize.net) for micro-transactions awhile back
and the API was pretty straight forward. Support was very responsive.
International payments is a whole other game.

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jacquesm
vxsbill.com jettis.com epoch.com

there must be lots more...

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ScottWhigham
Do you have any experience with any of those? I can google "authorize.net
alternative" and find lots of "unbiased" reviews but if people here have
experience with a good choice, I'd like to hear about it.

~~~
jacquesm
I'm currently using vxsbill, they're pretty good at what they do, segregated
merchant accounts, vbv and so on. They do have a lengthy signup process though
for that reason.

Epoch has been in business many years, jettis a bit less long.

I chose for vxsbill for a number of reasons, one of them is I am based in the
Netherlands so it was relatively easy to get my own merchant account (but it
still took more time than I liked).

If you're on the other side of the atlantic then I'd look at epoch first, then
jettis, ccbill or some other reputable company.

If you can get a merchant account of your own, this will greatly reduce your
exposure to trouble, as well as a significant reduction in fees.

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lsc
I use paypal, personally.

