Why Use Stripe?
One of the first questions developers face when setting up eCommerce solutions for clients is deciding on the best way to incorporate credit card payments. And while there are several services out there that can make it possible, at Spark Logix we find Stripe very impressive.
What is Stripe?
Stripe began after its owners noticed that most online credit card services had unnecessarily long setup processes, cumbersome interface, and generally made checkout processes way more difficult than they needed to be (a definite hurdle for online businesses struggling for success). So, to solve the problem they invented their own service, which instead of redirecting users or requiring credit card data to travel from your server to theirs, uses a streamlined platform that, thanks to some handy javascript, avoids PCI requirements and doesn’t use any redirects — keeping users totally on the business’ branded page.
Stripe’s Benefits
As mentioned, the biggest advantage stripe has over similar services is it’s incredibly easy to use and everything is built-in, including card storage, subscriptions, and bank payouts.
Other benefits of Stripe are:
- No merchant account or gateway needed.
- With Stripe.js you can make your own payment forms and still avoid PCI requirements.
- Has an interface that stays in the background and doesn’t interfere with the brand or product. (wrappers with Ruby, Python, PHP, and others).
- Reasonable rates — 2.9% + 30 cents per charge.
- No extra fees (setup, monthly, storage, etc.)
- Awesome customer service, complete with a chatroom full of Stripe team members.
- Can increase conversions — Some customers get confused when PayPal-esque pages pop up asking for credit card info.
- Quick setup — Sellers don’t have to call anyone, contact their bank, fill out seemingly endless forms, and money can be deposited into any bank.
- Allows subscriptions, card storage, and more.
- Easy testing — If you want to test your application before making it live, you simply hit the “test” button. In comparison, PayPal makes you set up a sandbox account and log in and out of different vendor and seller accounts.
- Clean dashboard — Developers and merchants can use the dashboard to track payments, coupons, and more.
Disadvantages?
The only apparent disadvantage is Stripe’s rate, which is a little more expensive than some other services. That said, usually their service still ends up costing less overall (even for large volume sellers) when you take into account they don’t charge extra for refunds or declined transactions.
Also, currently, stripe isn’t available to developers outside the U.S.; although sellers can accept cards from outside the U.S.
Bottom line
Essentially, Stripe offers you a credit card service that behaves like you always wanted. No longer do you have to waste time setting up a merchant account and using a customer-confusing “payment gateway,” but instead can have everything up and running in five minutes or less. Not to mention, you won’t have to worry about monthly fees, setup fees, annual fees, transaction fees, etc, etc. It’s simple, intuitive, and comes with a super-friendly staff to boot.
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