Stripe vs Paypal?
Hi Folks,
Back again for Showwcase - a network built for coders.
We're introducing a paywall for content creators on the platform to start accepting payments from their Followers for premium and unique content over and above the general free content. We are internally considering either Stripe or Paypal to handle this for us.
If we take the pricing out of the debate, what's the go-to choice when choosing which to integrate? Our current standpoint is that Paypal has wider consumer adoption and since most creators are individuals, it makes sense to just use Paypal because they already have an account. However, our business uses Stripe, and so it makes it easier if both the platform (Showwcase) and creators to be on Stripe platform. That being said, if creators don't already have an account, they will need to sign up with Stripe on the spot which is a friction point.
Would like to hear the pros and cons in developer environments as well as any other things we might not know, aside from the pricing issues.
For context, this is our app: https://app.showwcase.com
I would say both, paypal for paypal users, stripe for credit card users. If you need to select only one, I would say paypal.
Picking both is a good idea, thanks @Tim12, like allowing people to choose whichever service they want to sign in (Github, Apple, Google etc). But why paypal if only one?
Because your targets are coders, so more likely they have paypal
Paypal for me because stripe doesn't work where I live now.
Where are you based @jallad? Strong point that it should be based where our creators are.
Jordan.
Same choice and argument here as @jallad, I'm from Brazil.
Have you considered Paddle? I am currently switching from Chargebee+Stripe+PayPal because Paddle handles taxes for me and will give me just one reverse invoice per month, making bookkeeping easier and cheaper; also, you don't have to deal with Stripe and PayPal yourself but just Paddle. Their % is a little higher but I am happy with it already because of the tax hassle I won't have to deal with.
e.g. In India, Stripe allows only domestic payments without incorporating the company where as PayPal allows international payments by default for individual(non-incorporated) business and domestic payments can be enabled after submitting documents.
Considering your target is likely individual creators who are likely not going to incorporate a company, currency acceptance plays a huge role.
Take a look at this bug report paypal SDK doesn't work with CSP, a critical security feature of web development in-spite of them claiming to support CSP; Is open for over a year!
You could of course skip their sdk and use their own portal; but then why would the creator use the paywall when they can themselves do it on their websites with little effort.
That's good insight thanks @Abishek_Muthian. Will take a look at previous examples too. I didnt know that about India too, will look into it.
About the paywall, the greatest issue facing creators is growing their user base. As such, they use a combination of platforms (YouTube, Dev.to, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) to grow their audience, and then redirect them to a paywall page (Gumroad, Buy me a coffee etc). At least that's what we've heard so far from a lot of creators we've spoken to.
As such, taking an integrated approach is really neat, because now then can with one click choose which of their followers get access to their paid content and which dont, which get their free content, which dont. Plus, we add a bunch of community features for them over and above. So hopefully we provide sufficient value. What do you think?
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I agree. That's why the debate between Stripe and Paypal.. Seems like we might need to go with both and then show them the pricing.