Online payment processing is hard.
I personally have been developing online properties since the mid 90’s, and have seen the various forms of payment systems come and go.
One colleague said it best when he described he way online payment systems were cobbled together as “A house of cards built on a spiderweb.”
Why was that? Well, as time went on, there were new protocols.
In 1998, Paypal entered the scene and made it “easy” for anyone to take money online. They were the king of small business payments for a long time.
But what if you wanted to be “legitimate”?
You would need to go with someone like CyberSource, or later Adyen, or one of the many other traditional (and expensive” payment processing services.
And to do that, you had to go through mounds of paperwork, compliance checks, weeks – if not months – of waiting for approval before they finally turned you on. Their support was minimal, and the error codes were many.
Then, in quick succession came ITunes payments, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments. all of these required new integrations – new APIs that didn’t necessarily play well with each other, and new agreements that could be changed at any time.
In 2011, though, Stripe came on the scene. It offered:
- 1 plain-English agreement.
- An easy to install set of APIs designed for native, mobile and desktop applications.
- Documentation – beautiful documentation.
- Developer support.
This was a tool made for developers by developers.
Did it keep you from having to use other payment methods of you wanted to take them still? No.
Did it get you up and running quickly? Absolutely.
Before Stripe, it could be at least two weeks (usually more) before I was able to be fully compliant and ready to accept payments for a new business site.
After Stripe, it can be done in under 48 hours. That’s a major improvement.
Others are definitely moving into the space, but when setting up a new business for eCommerce, no one compares to Stripe.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-developers-seem-to-love-Stripe-How-does-Stripe-compare-to-its-alternatives
Originally Posted On: 2016-02-15