I've used both extensively and in our mobile apps, we've switched back and forth. Stripe is noticeably easier to implement on mobile (including Apple Pay). Maybe not an order of magnitude easier but close. Part of the reason is that Stripe's documentation is much better.
I'm not saying that's a deal-breaker–and I do think Braintree does have an advantage in some areas–but I'm just attempting to answer your question.
Braintree/PayPal really needs to hire a serious UX/frontend team to clean up their docs and dashboards (monospaced font srsly?).
I think Braintree's document are really nice looking. I really like the look of monospace font at larger font sizes. There is also a ton of designers that use monospace font for more developer related things.
Throwaway for obvious reasons. We do approx $5MM of annual business through Stripe.
#1 reason is lock-in and momentum. Stripe has, bar none, the WORST support of any company in existence. And they don't care to ever change that, having made noise about it for years, but expending precisely zero effort on that front. We would love to move.
But we stay, because we utilize Stripe's card tokenization in order to "store" repeat customers' payment information without having to deal with PCI-DSS compliance processes. If we moved, all existing customers "stored" payment information would, by necessity, go away.
I've moved a few businesses off of Stripe and never had any problem. They do it with PGP keys and go directly to the new provider so I never touch any info. Worked great.
You moved them from Stripe to where and why? I'm about to launch a product in a few months and trying to decide which company to go with. So far Stripe seems to be most favorable for the development team. But maybe there are some business things that make Stripe less desirable. Thanks for any insight.
Fascinating. I found a bug in Stripe's python client a while back. They acknowledged and fixed it in less than a week. From a technical perspective Stripe 'just works' in a way that all SaaS vendors could learn from.
Support has been a mixed bag in my experience. 95% of the time they can quickly resolve problems. The other 5% are 20+ email threads where support is accurate but not helpful, and it takes over two weeks to reach a resolution.
That said, #stripe on Freenode has been very helpful.
You’re right. Flexibility on your payment infra is key here and no merchant should be that dependent on a payment provider. I'm working on a possible solution at ProcessOut with a platform that allows merchants to easily connect any payment provider and optimize their payment flow. Would definitely be happy to have your feedback on the solution. Email is my in profile.
I have personally found stripe's support to be very responsive. Have only asked a few questions about limits and APIs, so maybe my qs were easy, but haven't had any issues with the support they've provided, and we dont do anywhere near the volume you cite.
I know you are replying to the Stripe vs BrainTree question but a question of my own for clarity/certainty. If you were to move your business where would you go? To BrainTree or some other provider and why?
Not sure about in USA. But in Canada to get a Braintree account is a giant process that takes several weeks and required submitting a ton of stuff, and you need too meet their minimum transaction volume in order to qualify.
Yeah, I'm confused as to why Braintree would ignore us. That's why I'm using Stripe.
One gripe about Stripe is the support emails are really slow, but I can't complain and Paypal is missing as well but I've situations where somebody paid for my software using stolen Paypal account and I had to reverse it.
I was a big fan of Braintree. It got acquired by Paypal. They cause their users pain quite often since they're a dominant company that doesn't have to care:
That puts Braintree into liability category as Paypal's influence on them increases. Leaves Stripe as safer bet for now if they don't pull stuff like that on customers regularly. If Stripe IPO's, they might turn into villains as well. However, there will be another startup or mid-sized company differentiating on quality of service by then. I'll recommend that one.
Note: If Stripe management is reading, I suggest that they continue to pull less crap than Paypal with better service as a continuing differentiator from this point on. It should always work. Braintree also succeeded that way when competing with payment processors.
Stripe in the UK is 1.4% + 20p which is less than half price. So I was surprised and intrigued to read these comments. Is this an intro offer I wonder?
(I work at Stripe.) No, those rates are not an intro offer. Interchange, the largest cost in processing credit card transactions, is much cheaper in the U.K. than it is in the U.S., thus we can price lower.
When I started using Stripe the thing for me was ease of use, it was quick and painless to add to an app, the APIs made sense and were incredibly well documented. They also had a reputation for great customer service (though I've heard this has waned as they grew). I honestly didn't consider Braintree at the time but it was clear from the moment I started researching Stripe that they understood the pain points of payments and were making a product to alleviate them.
This is interesting. I've been fed up with Braintree because you can only reach their technical support on the phone during American business hours, and if you want after-hours help you have to send an email
When I had to make the choice it was simple - with Braintree you needed your own card acquiring agreement (with the bank), with Stripe you didn't. I don't know if this still applies though.
Both Stripe and Braintree are priced at 2.9% + $0.30/transaction. If you're doing any notable amount of volume, you can do much better...closer to 2%.
PaypalPro used to automatically give you lower rates, down to 2.2% + $0.30, at volumes well below what Stripe requires to "contact sales" and get a discount. Last year, they eliminated that, and went to the 2.9% + $0.30.
It seems you have to get your own merchant account, and use something like authorize.net now to get decent pricing.
You seem to have a strong user experience when it comes to payment. I am currently working in this space and it would be great to share some insights. Happy to discuss if you want, email is my in profile.
Authorize.net (unlike Stripe or Braintree) will also allow to obtain your own merchant account, at whatever rate it charges you, and use their payment gateway. In that case, they do not charge the 2.9%.
Seamless Paypal integration. Paypal is very popular across Europe (and the world), and many prefer to use it over credit and/or debit cards (these payment methods aren't universally popular).
Some people don't WANT PayPal. I had a bad experience with an eBay /PayPal charge back scam 5 years ago. I.e. freezing of my entire account and no human to find to unfreeze it.
I will never accept PayPal for the rest of my life.
yeah, braintree only has a potential benefit over stripe once you're forced to start caring about conversions & breakages (countries that expect to use PayPal, old people who trust the brand, etc)
One reason could be that Braintree is less known than Stripe?
In my case: I've never heard of Braintree before this discussion and I was going to implement Stripe for my SaaS without even looking at the existing competitors.
Braintree seem to be advertising aggressively. I've been surprised to see a lot of phone boxes in Melbourne, Australia that are covered with Braintree ads promising better payments integrations.
Yup, World War II was a ball. Everyone loved that, thought it was a highlight of human history (I'll concede the following fifty years have been pretty good if you live in the right part of the world with the right descendants).
They have been good for every part of the world. And wars are a fact for the entirety of human civilization.
I'll take doubling the life expectancy of people China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, other Asian counties, as well as most of Africa as a "concession". Thank you very much!
Introduction/Elements of Statistical Learning by Jerome Friedman. I recommend reading the Introduction and using the bigger book as a reference material when tackling a problem.
Bayesian Data Analysis, 3rd edition by Gelman.
You need calc 1 & 2 and matrix algebra somewhere along the way.
Lots of papers, googling and doing. That's when you got the basics covered. You start being "operational" after Data Analysis Using Regression.
When you start working on a problem, you need to go through the relevant literature first. Nobody ix expert or even half-good in more than 2 or 3 (small) areas of statistics. Read the literature, take notes and create a plan first.
>Think about it; why are your keys always in the last place you look? Because once you find them you stop looking. If you want to keep people on your site you hide their keys.
That is actually very interesting analogy! And when I think about my facebook browsing habits, it only makes sense. Of course it has a flow an rhythm. Something interesting I engage with, a bunch of filler I scroll through, another interesting post. If all that is interesting to me is crammed into the top of the page, that would drop the metrics. Less vertical space used, less ads, less time on site (biggie with investors, I'm sure). Probably get fatigued much faster too. Consume even less interesting stuff than the "long format". I wonder if it is really beneficial (at least to them) in the long term or it is one of those things not worth maximizing (metrics vs. reasons [1]).
Do you have any interesting reading/watching/listening material from your old jobs? What are you up to these days?
Thanks. I post stories about it secretly on HN through anonomous accounts. I mostly get downvoted as it's usually controversial and counterintuitive. It is to be expected.
I don't teach 'defence against the dark arts' as the techniques are more likely to be exploited if more widely known and I'd rather not help it spread. Thankfully we're already seeing a cultural pushback with people logging off. I expect to see much more of that in the future as society gets better at understanding addiction and individuals get better at optimizing for their own happiness.
As for me; I have my own software product company now and I am free to optimise for the user. I don't need the money but I do like making the world a better place.
Hey, I'm very interested in remote sensing. Forestry applications are dire to my heart, but at the moment AG has a lockdown on my attention. I have stats/ML knowledge an have done initial research about remote sensing and I've got questions. Is it OK to shoot you an email or two even though I probably won't fit in the 3 groups you mentioned?
PS: I'm at the other way of the world, if that makes a difference.
We are interested in talking with you. Please contact us at kozikow@tensorflight.com and zbigniew@tensorflight.com. Agriculture also have a higher priority than forestry for us.
Let me guess, are you in Australia? Even if we are in California, we see the most demand for our services in Australia, followed by Canada and Midwest.
