For anyone who has used PayPal to collect payments online, I have felt your pain. When it comes to trusting services to help you run your business, most web focused entrepreneurs have little desire to let PayPal keep their finances in order.
PayPal does have its advantages. It's accessible in most countries, does not require a credit card, and is straightforward to use for the consumer. However, as the one making a sale, its detractions far outweigh the benefits. The fees are significant enough to get your attention, the UI is a dog’s breakfast, and we’ve all heard stories of mysteriously locked down accounts and extremely poor customer support processes.
Because of this, I'd much rather use another option if possible. We ran Fusion Ads for three years on PayPal, but I was always looking for other options. Today, it's nice to see that new businesses can start collecting payments with much more friendly solutions.
Stripe is the one that gets a lot of attention. And for good reason. It’s well designed and was created with developers in mind. But as a non-developer, what I've been pleased to see is plenty of services that make getting set up with Stripe more friendly for those without coding skills.
I've been keeping my eyes open for alternatives in preparation for a new business of my own. Here’s a list of what has caught my attention so far.
Bitsy
Gumroad
Helium
Memberful
MoonClerk
Ribbon
Space Box
TransferWise
All of these options look good. Some require the customer to create accounts, others simply add an overlay to your web page for one step payments. Some add a transactional fee, others simply are a front end to Stripe and add no extra fees. Not all are purely payment gateways … they simply make it easy for creative people to sell products, services, or memberships.
And that's what is so great. Creative people can easily earn an income for their work and focus on doing what they love instead of mucking around with code.
