What is the cheapest way to process credit cards online? I've used Paypal & Stripe. At the lowest level, Stripe is a better deal (no redirect). Paypal forces you to redirect the user to Paypal, process the payment, then redirect back to your site. In 2012, this is just crazy - which is why Stripe is doing so well. For the same fee, your users stay on your site (2.9% + 30¢)<p>However this clearly isn't the cheapest option.<p>In the top post on HN, another user mentioned: "get a merchant account through a bank and authorize.net ." However I am wondering if this is still the best option.<p>HN - what is the absolute cheapest way to process credit cards online?
Keep in mind, a merchant account is going to cost you monthly fees for the account + payment gateway (like, $50-60/mo, atleast). Plus a deposit. Plus a credit check. Plus several day wait. Plus nasty APIs.<p>In the end, you might save a little bit, but likely not much since you're still processing without the card being present. If you're doing enough sales for .007% to be big difference, it's worth it. Otherwise- how much is your time and frustration worth? Even on a million dollars in revenue, .007% is only $7000.<p>IMO, Stripe is the holy grail for most startups.
Not trying to be smart here but the term "cheapest" cannot just be evaluated in terms of short term money. You also need to look at factors such as ease of setup, long term overhead costs, customer service headache etc. Considering all these together, Stripe seems to be doing pretty well compared to their customers.
I often stick to things like PayPal or strype - they're pretty cheap, considering you don't need to deposit $5k safety deposits on account openings, etc. They also take care of the security, etc for you.