What is Paddle and what are its top alternatives?
Paddle is a software platform that helps businesses sell digital products online. It offers features such as subscription management, licensing, payment processing, and analytics. However, one limitation of Paddle is that it can be costly for small businesses due to its pricing structure.
- FastSpring: FastSpring is a full-service e-commerce platform that specializes in selling digital products. It offers features like subscription management, global payment processing, and support for multiple currencies. Pros: User-friendly interface, robust analytics. Cons: Higher transaction fees compared to Paddle.
- Gumroad: Gumroad is a popular platform for creators to sell their digital products. It offers features like customizable storefronts, email marketing tools, and easy payment processing. Pros: Easy setup, no monthly fees. Cons: Limited customization options compared to Paddle.
- Sellfy: Sellfy is an e-commerce platform for creators to sell digital products. It offers features like customizable storefronts, automated product delivery, and marketing tools. Pros: Affordable pricing, integrated analytics. Cons: Limited scalability for large businesses.
- SendOwl: SendOwl is a platform for selling digital products and services. It offers features like secure digital product delivery, affiliate marketing tools, and customizable checkout options. Pros: Easy setup, built-in affiliate system. Cons: Limited customization options for storefronts.
- E-junkie: E-junkie is a platform for selling digital products and downloads. It offers features like secure product delivery, customizable checkout buttons, and integrated payment processing. Pros: Low transaction fees, easy integration with websites. Cons: Limited design customization options.
- Shopify: Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that supports selling digital products. It offers features like customizable storefronts, order management, and marketing tools. Pros: Robust e-commerce features, scalable for large businesses. Cons: Higher transaction fees compared to Paddle.
- Ecwid: Ecwid is an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to sell digital products online. It offers features like multi-channel selling, customizable storefronts, and integration with popular third-party apps. Pros: Easy setup, seamless integration with websites. Cons: Limited features for digital product management compared to Paddle.
- Selz: Selz is an e-commerce platform for selling digital products and services. It offers features like customizable storefronts, secure payment processing, and integrated marketing tools. Pros: User-friendly interface, affordable pricing. Cons: Limited customization options for checkout pages.
- SendOwl: SendOwl is a platform for selling digital products and services. It offers features like secure digital product delivery, affiliate marketing tools, and customizable checkout options. Pros: Easy setup, built-in affiliate system. Cons: Limited customization options for storefronts.
- Big Cartel: Big Cartel is an e-commerce platform that supports selling digital products. It offers features like customizable storefronts, inventory management, and order tracking. Pros: Easy to use, affordable pricing plans. Cons: Limited scalability for large businesses.
Top Alternatives to Paddle
- Stripe
Stripe makes it easy for developers to accept credit cards on the web.
- PayPal
PayPal is an online payments and money transfer service that allows you to send money via email, phone, text message or Skype. They offer products to both individuals and businesses alike, including online vendors, auction sites and corporate users. PayPal connects effortlessly to bank accounts and credit cards. PayPal Mobile is one of PayPal’s newest products. It allows you to send payments by text message or by using PayPal’s mobile browser. ...
- Braintree
Braintree replaces traditional payment gateways and merchant accounts. From one touch payments, to mobile SDKs and international sales, we provide everything you need to start accepting payments today. ...
- Blockchain
It is a bitcoin block explorer service, as well as a cryptocurrency wallet supporting bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. ...
- Stripe Billing
A set of billing and subscription tools for developers and business people. Developers can use out-of-the-box functionality to get started quickly or use the composable API building blocks to design fully customized subscription logic and pricing models. Business people can create and manage subscriptions and invoices—and view detailed financial reports. ...
- Adyen
A payments technology company that provides a single global platform to accept payments anywhere in the world. Businesses can process payments across online, mobile and in-store (POS) with over 250 payment methods and 187 currencies. ...
- Chargebee
Chargebee is a subscription billing platform that lets you bill, manage and understand your SaaS or subscription based eCommerce business easily. ...
- Coinbase
Coinbase provides a simple and powerful REST API to integrate bitcoin payments into your business or application. We allow all major operations in bitcoin through one API. ...
Paddle alternatives & related posts
- Easy setup302
- Developer friendly292
- Well-designed api248
- Great documentation191
- Clear pricing169
- Secure75
- Reliable74
- Full integration with webhooks63
- Amazing api43
- Great customer support38
- Easy11
- Credit cards never hit your server - no pci worries6
- Recurring billing5
- No merchant account/gateway required4
- BitCoin3
- Easy to integrate3
- Support for SCA (Strong Customer Authentication)2
- Fast UI2
- Great app2
- Beautiful1
- Payments without own backend (using Stripe Products)1
- Connect1
- Checkout.js1
- Great UI1
- So easy to use1
- Connect4
- CANNOT withdraw USD to a Canadian Bank Account2
- Does NOT have a currency conversion option like Paypal2
- They keep 25% of the income for 60 days2
related Stripe posts
To accept payments on updown.io, we first added support for Stripe which is by far the most popular payment gateway for startups and for a good reason. Their service is of awesome quality: the UI is gorgeous, the integration is easy, the documentation is great, the API is super stable and well thought. I can't recommend it enough.
We then added support for PayPal which is pretty popular for people who have money on it and don't know where to spend it (it can make it feel like you're spending less when it comes from PayPal wallet), or for people who prefer not to enter a credit card on a new website. This was pretty well received and we're currently receiving about 25% of our purchases from PayPal. The documentation and integration is much more painful than with Stripe IMO, I can't recommend them for that, but not having it is basically dodging potential sales.
Finally we more recently added support of BitPay for #Bitcoin and BitcoinCash payments, which was a pretty easy process but not worth the time in the end due to the low usage and the always changing conditions of the network: the transaction fees got huge after price raise and bitcoin because unusable for small payments, they then introduced support for BCH and a newer Bitcoin protocol for lower fees, but then you need a special wallet to pay and in the end it's too cumbersome, even for bitcoin users, to pay with it. I think unless you expect a bit number of payments using cryptocurrencies it's not worth implementing this solution, and better to accept them manually.
Google Analytics is a great tool to analyze your traffic. To debug our software and ask questions, we love to use Postman and Stack Overflow. Google Drive helps our team to share documents. We're able to build our great products through the APIs by Google Maps, CloudFlare, Stripe, PayPal, Twilio, Let's Encrypt, and TensorFlow.
- Most known service196
- Consumers know it135
- It's available for many countries113
- Easy70
- Best way to get paid outside US54
- Most widely used payment processor35
- Express Checkout25
- Consumers trust it16
- Flexible and secure15
- Digital Goods for Express Checkout6
- Not well written recurring payment api1
- Less countries supported1
- Harder to get started with1
related PayPal posts
To accept payments on updown.io, we first added support for Stripe which is by far the most popular payment gateway for startups and for a good reason. Their service is of awesome quality: the UI is gorgeous, the integration is easy, the documentation is great, the API is super stable and well thought. I can't recommend it enough.
We then added support for PayPal which is pretty popular for people who have money on it and don't know where to spend it (it can make it feel like you're spending less when it comes from PayPal wallet), or for people who prefer not to enter a credit card on a new website. This was pretty well received and we're currently receiving about 25% of our purchases from PayPal. The documentation and integration is much more painful than with Stripe IMO, I can't recommend them for that, but not having it is basically dodging potential sales.
Finally we more recently added support of BitPay for #Bitcoin and BitcoinCash payments, which was a pretty easy process but not worth the time in the end due to the low usage and the always changing conditions of the network: the transaction fees got huge after price raise and bitcoin because unusable for small payments, they then introduced support for BCH and a newer Bitcoin protocol for lower fees, but then you need a special wallet to pay and in the end it's too cumbersome, even for bitcoin users, to pay with it. I think unless you expect a bit number of payments using cryptocurrencies it's not worth implementing this solution, and better to accept them manually.
Google Analytics is a great tool to analyze your traffic. To debug our software and ask questions, we love to use Postman and Stack Overflow. Google Drive helps our team to share documents. We're able to build our great products through the APIs by Google Maps, CloudFlare, Stripe, PayPal, Twilio, Let's Encrypt, and TensorFlow.
- Well-designed api25
- Developer friendly18
- Easy setup17
- Reliable14
- Excellent documentation6
- Great support4
- Can use paypal and debit card3
- Test it without obligation, great SDK/API and prices2
- Great API, awesome docs1
- Lacking documentation for mobile integrations1
related Braintree posts
Dear StackShare Community,
I am seeking inspiration on creating a billing & subscription stack and came across this wonderful website and community.
From what I understood so far, I need something like Stripe or Braintree to collect payments without dealing with PCI compliance or setting up merchant accounts, etc... Additionally, services like Chargebee, Recurly, Chargify, etc. are said to make life easier when dealing with recurring billing.
Stated below, I've tried to give you some context on what I want to achieve. I am very curious about your ideas and how you'd configure an optimal stack.
Project context (very high level):
Loyalty program for local merchants (stores, restaurants,...).
Customers support their community and merchants by shopping local.
Merchants grant points to customers based on a customer's value spent in a store, restaurant, etc.
Customers can redeem their points at any participating merchant.
Billing / Subscription scenarios to be considered:
(affecting merchants only)
One-time setup fee
What: Merchant pays a setup fee by signing up for the service
Where: Order placed on the website
Monthly retainer fee
What: Merchant pays a monthly recurring retainer for the service.
Where: Order placed on the website
Manually initiated payment
What: Merchant initiates a payment to top up his virtual points wallet. E.g. pays 100 USD to top up 100000 points which then can be used by the merchant for granting points to customers.
Why: Points issued to members need to be paid for by the merchant. We first considered billing the merchants post-ante, e.g. monthly based on the points they've granted to their customers in the last 30 days, but this seems too risky: If they can't / won't pay we'd still have to pay out points to the customers (technically to the merchants where the customers redeem their points). Thus, the pragmatic idea to reduce risk by having the merchants to pre-pay for their points by topping up their balance.
Where: Web application (with the merchant logged in)
Nice to have: Opt-in for automatically initiated top-ups if a merchant's balance falls below a certain amount.
Invoicing
What: After every transaction (setup, retainer, top-up,...), we need to automatically issue and send (E-Mail) an invoice to the merchant.
Nice to have: Customer portal with all their invoices.
Other potentially relevant parameters
Currency: Only Euro
Country: Only Germany (so far)
Tax: Only one tax rate
Payment for setup & retainer: Credit Card; ideally SEPA Direct Debit (but that still causes headache due to the SEPA regulatory and risk of chargebacks still after weeks), PayPal?
Payment for top-up: Same as above plus any other that makes sense (Klarna, Sofort, PayPal...)
Again, thank you very much for sharing your ideas and thoughts! I'd highly appreciate any input :-)
Hi there, I am trying to figure out if it's worth creating a Braintree account to do subscription billing in my Shopify store. The goal is to have as little custom code as possible for the store but be able to do subscription billing services, we already have a PayPal business account, but from the looks of it, we can't use PayWhirl directly with Paypal.
Blockchain
related Blockchain posts
I'm planning to build a cryptocurrency wallet app, in the end, I'd like to also add NFT's to the app and be able to access their details (smart contract, token id, blockchain) but I haven't figured out the process on how to do this so far.
Would it be possible to do these using SDKs like Blockchain /Coinbase or should I start from scratch? If so, which kind of architecture should I use? I am hesitant to use ETH as the starting point as the transaction fees are too high for testing.
related Stripe Billing posts
Stripe Stripe Billing Vue.js
When I started building a SaaS from scratch, I adopted the Stripe Billing product for managing plans and subscriptions. At that moment (roughly a year ago) I did not fully realise that this was a new addition to the Stripe product line.
One year down the road, I can write this decision and support it with technical details on how I implemented Stripe Billing and integrated it with the Checkly backend.
Key takeaways are:
Keep coupling minimal. I hardcode our pricing and plans into the pricing page.
Choose good ID's and a good structure to segment product and pricing. This enables grandfathering customers and adding ad hoc new products.
Use one or two webhooks to keep things in sync. We use just one webhook.
See all details with code examples in the linked blog post.
Adyen
- Great customer support10
- Truly international solution9
- Great documentation8
- Well-designed API6
- Easy setup5
- Omni-channel solution4
- Secure4
- PCI Compliance3
related Adyen posts
We're looking for a payment gateway with a robust and dependable API. We will be accepting recurring payments for premium plans on our website, preferably in as many regions as possible.
While looking for Stripe alternatives, we found Adyen, which seemed like a viable option - we would love to hear your thoughts!
I appreciate your time reading this message and hope to hear back from you about your experiences with payment gateways!
I am developing an MVP; our app will accept money transfers for cross-border payment. Any advice on using Adyen for cross-border payments over Stripe? Please advise
Chargebee
related Chargebee posts
Dear StackShare Community,
I am seeking inspiration on creating a billing & subscription stack and came across this wonderful website and community.
From what I understood so far, I need something like Stripe or Braintree to collect payments without dealing with PCI compliance or setting up merchant accounts, etc... Additionally, services like Chargebee, Recurly, Chargify, etc. are said to make life easier when dealing with recurring billing.
Stated below, I've tried to give you some context on what I want to achieve. I am very curious about your ideas and how you'd configure an optimal stack.
Project context (very high level):
Loyalty program for local merchants (stores, restaurants,...).
Customers support their community and merchants by shopping local.
Merchants grant points to customers based on a customer's value spent in a store, restaurant, etc.
Customers can redeem their points at any participating merchant.
Billing / Subscription scenarios to be considered:
(affecting merchants only)
One-time setup fee
What: Merchant pays a setup fee by signing up for the service
Where: Order placed on the website
Monthly retainer fee
What: Merchant pays a monthly recurring retainer for the service.
Where: Order placed on the website
Manually initiated payment
What: Merchant initiates a payment to top up his virtual points wallet. E.g. pays 100 USD to top up 100000 points which then can be used by the merchant for granting points to customers.
Why: Points issued to members need to be paid for by the merchant. We first considered billing the merchants post-ante, e.g. monthly based on the points they've granted to their customers in the last 30 days, but this seems too risky: If they can't / won't pay we'd still have to pay out points to the customers (technically to the merchants where the customers redeem their points). Thus, the pragmatic idea to reduce risk by having the merchants to pre-pay for their points by topping up their balance.
Where: Web application (with the merchant logged in)
Nice to have: Opt-in for automatically initiated top-ups if a merchant's balance falls below a certain amount.
Invoicing
What: After every transaction (setup, retainer, top-up,...), we need to automatically issue and send (E-Mail) an invoice to the merchant.
Nice to have: Customer portal with all their invoices.
Other potentially relevant parameters
Currency: Only Euro
Country: Only Germany (so far)
Tax: Only one tax rate
Payment for setup & retainer: Credit Card; ideally SEPA Direct Debit (but that still causes headache due to the SEPA regulatory and risk of chargebacks still after weeks), PayPal?
Payment for top-up: Same as above plus any other that makes sense (Klarna, Sofort, PayPal...)
Again, thank you very much for sharing your ideas and thoughts! I'd highly appreciate any input :-)
Stripe or Paddle for payment processing for SaaS?
we used Stripe + Chargebee once and will NEVER use them again (they charge too much (300usd/month while offering way fewer integrations than Stripe)
Furthermore, Chargebee doesn't support managing disputes. We still need to go to stripe for that.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts
- Great payments API9
related Coinbase posts
I'm planning to build a cryptocurrency wallet app, in the end, I'd like to also add NFT's to the app and be able to access their details (smart contract, token id, blockchain) but I haven't figured out the process on how to do this so far.
Would it be possible to do these using SDKs like Blockchain /Coinbase or should I start from scratch? If so, which kind of architecture should I use? I am hesitant to use ETH as the starting point as the transaction fees are too high for testing.